Electronic Processing

[ValerieA 350]

Ah, Darnell, remember that my 3230 was submitted with my I-130, so my payment fees were available to pay soon after I gave my email addresses to the nice friendly operator at NVC. The payment step is not connected to being approved for electronic processing. I have no idea why they would deny me, but technically, I have not yet been approved for that, even though everything is paid. We did double-check that we could opt in for ep after paying the fees, and it was OK.

Oh, and not only have I had to walk the lawyer through EP, but also the different requirements for Canada (due to a criminal record from when I was young and stupid) AND the fact that there was no K3s anymore! I told her that on Feb 20th, the day I got approved at the USCIS.

[kaya541 1]

I sent my I-864 on 3/18 and they still haven't found it or logged it or whatever. We talked to an operator this a.m. and they said send it again, so I did today. We also sent in the completed DS-230 today as well. But no auto-response email to either of them (sent to both email addresses this time). Hopefully it all goes thru this time!

[ValerieA 350]

Yikes, Kaya, I have my fingers crossed for you! Them losing your I-864 is aggravating. Just one more delay to an already overly-long process...

[Darnell 8,478]

Ah, Darnell, remember that my 3230 was submitted with my I-130, so my payment fees were available to pay soon after I gave my email addresses to the nice friendly operator at NVC. The payment step is not connected to being approved for electronic processing. I have no idea why they would deny me, but technically, I have not yet been approved for that, even though everything is paid. We did double-check that we could opt in for ep after paying the fees, and it was OK.

Oh, and not only have I had to walk the lawyer through EP, but also the different requirements for Canada (due to a criminal record from when I was young and stupid) AND the fact that there was no K3s anymore! I told her that on Feb 20th, the day I got approved at the USCIS.

Words bolded above - ye gods - that's so absolutely true, but rarely self-evident. I wish more ppl would twig to that concept, seriously.

I've noted massive lag at NVC for March, and it seems to be bleeding in to April. I swear to God, though - that there were special Serco Contractors assigned at NVC that did NOTHING ELSE but handle EP cases.. Grrrrr.

Edited April 13, 2010 by Darnell

[FireRay 1]

So i sent my DS-230 in today, so now the wait game.

[ValerieA 350]

Good luck, Fireray!

Just an FYI...this may be self-evident to everyone, or already reported somewhere, but I really did get a very friendly, helpful operator a week ago, who went over things with a supervisor (I was wondering if I should just give up on EP since it is taking so freaking long to get an approval) and she told me that EP goes into a separate 'line' from those that are mailed in. Since the EP line is so much shorter than those that get mailed in (obviously) they go through processing much much quicker. I have to assume they don't have as many people manning the EP line, but I do think this makes intuitive sense that the actual document processing would be much faster, even though we have to wait up to 2 weeks (hopefully no more) for an email approving us for EP processing.

What ticks me off is it took me a month to get the final documents for NVC, and we could have gotten our EP approval in that time. Instead, the lawyer cost me another 2 weeks, in addition to the 3 months at the beginning of the process. She does seem to be a good lawyer, they had personnel issues at the beginning and I think she is way overworked now. However, that should not be MY problem, darnit.

[FireRay 1]

Good luck, Fireray!

Just an FYI...this may be self-evident to everyone, or already reported somewhere, but I really did get a very friendly, helpful operator a week ago, who went over things with a supervisor (I was wondering if I should just give up on EP since it is taking so freaking long to get an approval) and she told me that EP goes into a separate 'line' from those that are mailed in. Since the EP line is so much shorter than those that get mailed in (obviously) they go through processing much much quicker. I have to assume they don't have as many people manning the EP line, but I do think this makes intuitive sense that the actual document processing would be much faster, even though we have to wait up to 2 weeks (hopefully no more) for an email approving us for EP processing.

What ticks me off is it took me a month to get the final documents for NVC, and we could have gotten our EP approval in that time. Instead, the lawyer cost me another 2 weeks, in addition to the 3 months at the beginning of the process. She does seem to be a good lawyer, they had personnel issues at the beginning and I think she is way overworked now. However, that should not be MY problem, darnit.

Thanks!

I am not sure which is faster TBH. If you compare Peoples EP timeline to Non-EP folks, is there that much of a difference? I dont know...to me they look very similar. I guess in the event of an RFE it might be quicker... The only thing I dont like from EP so far...is the lack of NVC communication. Im going off of what folks on VJ have been telling me. Perhaps an e-mail from the nvc saying something like...hey we got your I864/ds230 we are processing them not...or we processed them and going to continue with your case. /shrug perhaps its just me who thinks like that.

Well in anycase, good luck!

[Married2009 32]

One thing I have noticed - hubby emailed the DS-230 to NVC on 04/06, now the AVR shows it received on 04/07. Others who have mailed it in say it has been taking a week or more for NVC to show it received (from the actual delivery date).

Edited April 14, 2010 by Married2009

[bwoo 1]

Thanks!

I am not sure which is faster TBH. If you compare Peoples EP timeline to Non-EP folks, is there that much of a difference? I dont know...to me they look very similar. I guess in the event of an RFE it might be quicker... The only thing I dont like from EP so far...is the lack of NVC communication. Im going off of what folks on VJ have been telling me. Perhaps an e-mail from the nvc saying something like...hey we got your I864/ds230 we are processing them not...or we processed them and going to continue with your case. /shrug perhaps its just me who thinks like that.

Well in anycase, good luck!

I agree with you FireRay, don't think it's much faster especially since you have to wait 2 weeks to get the EP approval email which holds things up. RFE might be faster like you said. They also didn't email me the first packet but sent it by snail mail so I was delayed about a week just because of that. Though luckily, I sent off the OPTIN email before and at least wasn't held up for both of those things..

Definitely agree about lack of communication.. It's frustrating, just have to send things in and hope that they don't lose it. I also sent my DS-230 packet by email on Monday. Hopefully case will be complete here in about a week or so. That's about a couple days over a month after NOA2. Not too bad.. But it's not over until it's sent to Montreal! At least as far as NVC is concerned.

[FireRay 1]

One thing I have noticed - hubby emailed the DS-230 to NVC on 04/06, now the AVR shows it received on 04/07. Others who have mailed it in say it has been taking a week or more for NVC to show it received (from the actual delivery date).

My AVR has never been updated to say they have recieved the different things(Just that they recieved the payments.) Perhaps I should call.

[ValerieA 350]

I finally got the EP approval email early this morning - not sure if it is because I pitched a bit of a fit y-day at how they couldn't even tell me if my email had been received. I had to explain that there is no auto responder, and that the email address is Electronic now, not Montreal . So, they put an info request in for me with that department. Now I wonder if I should resend my DS-230 and I-864. Sigh.

[Darnell 8,478]

Yay ! you are trying to train brain-dead workers at NVC. I noticed this trend, and wrote up about it, in my smallish wiki page, under 'SpeedBumps'. Feel free to add to that , if you are so inclined.

[bwoo 1]

My AVR has never been updated to say they have recieved the different things(Just that they recieved the payments.) Perhaps I should call.

Mine has only been updated when they receive payments as well. Maybe they don't update unless RFE or Case Complete now after bills have been paid and documents sent.. Grr.

Edited April 15, 2010 by bwoo

[kaya541 1]

My AVR yesterday said that they had received documents as of 4-13 but not what those documents were. I talked to an operator and she said she couldn't tell me if that included the I-864 and/or the DS-230, just that documents had been received. She said to wait 2-4 weeks and check back, which of course I will not do! Checking again every other day to see if the AVR message changes.....

[ValerieA 350]

Yay ! you are trying to train brain-dead workers at NVC. I noticed this trend, and wrote up about it, in my smallish wiki page, under 'SpeedBumps'. Feel free to add to that , if you are so inclined.

This woman was really nice, if very misinformed. However, I have had operators that I wanted to "train" with a really solid baseball bat.

I have just come to accept that, like 90% of companies in this world, NVC does not provide adequate training for their employees. I am just happy that this woman will not be making this mistake again, and that they are also checking that the EP department knows that there is no auto-reply anymore. Or at least, they SAY they are going to check it out.