Recent Super fast NOA2s (in 30 days or less)

[CarlosAndSveta 808]

BINGO!!!!!! They get what they are given by the supervisor, who receives instructions from the USCIS Service Center Director, who receives instructions from the USCIS Regional Director who receives directions from the policy makers in Washington DC. SH%$ usually flows downhill. I was a plumber once. Nothing happens until a policy maker starts the ball rolling. They submit reports to congress. Congress is either pleased with the results or not. Usually, displeasure results in a big pile of SH%$ rolling down. Eventually, the director decides to creatively manage the outcomes by "Cooking the Books". The end result is a small but defined trend of improvement in the length of time it takes to process petitions overall. Nothing difficult. We all know they (USCIS) are way under-staffed. I also think that the funds for USCIS get co-mingled into the US Treasury general fund as in any tax (fee we pay). I think that is just the way it is folks. It is an extremely labor intensive undertaking the way it is set up now. Do you really think they want you to receive good service? Remember, that they cashed about 300,000 checks over the last 6 months. It takes how long to adjudicate a petition? 20 minutes. You mailed a check for $340 to receive 20 minutes of service. That equates to $17 per minute. Lets say that each adjudicator is getting paid $30 per hour. That comes out to 50 cents a minute. Am I missing something? $17 coming in for every 50 cents going out. I would definitely put all my investment funds into this stock. Do you think it looks like they could afford to increase the adjudicator staffing by 10 times minimum? Remember that they operate on a zero sum balance sheet. No profit allowed. I would challenge anybody here to contradict my math calculations. Are you confused? How can this be? We all try to justify the hard work USCIS provides. I would never down play the arduous task that the USCIS staffers perform. I am only looking at simple arithmetic. Can someone explain the math I come up with in less than 5000 words? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your math is easy to contradict. You are assuming that the adjudicators salary is the only cost involved. What about all these other costs:

Adjudicators employment taxes

Adjudicators health insurance

Non-adjudicator costs (Salaries and benefits for secretaries, managers, clerks, etc.)

Cost of Property, Plant and Equipment.

[florinaRO 5]

Lets think in another way: There are anyway too many immigrants so nobody will rush to offer excellent service for some people they don't want. It is understandable ... The problem is: a K1 case involves a US citizen who is obstructed of getting a good service . I don't know about you guys but us it wasn't just me in this hell, my fiance got hurt too. So I understand is a good idea to discourage immigration but don't "kill" the citizen , where is the balance ?

[TeddyHoney 42]

Yes, that happens. It is not the design or the plan, but it happens for various reasons. At times of heavy processing USCIS uses contracted adjudicators. They process petitions at home. When they get behind they will call in the auxillary processors and assign them cases. They are not going to go pull cases already in someone's cubicle.

Think of waiting in line at the grocery. You have waited and waited through 10 people ahead of you. You are the next to go! Yee haa! Finally. Just as the guy in front of you finishes they open register 8 and the guy that JUST stepped into line 10 people back jumps over there and he gets checked out in 1 minute flat. Fair? No. Planned by the store? No. Is it the store's policy? No. Happens? Yes. How much you bet...if you asked the store manager he will say "We check people out in the order they are received"

You also cannot assume that someone waited 6 months with "no hold ups" because they did not get an RFE. I will give you an example. One of the adjudicators I know is a Russian woman, friend of Alla's. She came here on a K-1 also. Sometimes people send documents for RUSSIAN or Ukrainian fiancees and they have not been translated. Now, the adjudicator could send an RFE (which can take weeks just to leave the office and be mailed to you) but instead they bring it over to our friend and ask "What is this? What does it say?" She says "Leave it here and I will check" Maybe a day later, maybe a week later. She is busy with YOUR petition (for example) assigned to HER, should she stop work on YOUR petition and do someone else's? No. So it sits there for a while, then she looks at it and finds it is a birth certificate for the Russian woman NOT Translated but NOT EVEN NEEDED for the petition. This case was now "held up" with no RFE. If it was held up for 2 days, that means about 50 petitions behind that one in line got processed before that one. Another acquaitance is a manager in the department that "checks stuff" among other things. They investigate stuff. What DOES that dodcument say? The copy is not clear. Is it a REAL birth certificate or something from the church his parents belonged to? There is no RFE sent, it is investigated internally. Adjudicators are like machines, they process clean petitions. If something is missing, anything, it is kicked out and goes into the alternative universe, which MAY be an RFE or MAY be an internal check or MAY be taking it over to another adjusicator that speaks Russian.

Here is the boittom line. Their are no guarantees. You knew that and you chose to be engaged to a foreign woman. The government has NO interest in making it all sensible to you. Why? You will go elsewhere? Get your petitioned approved at Lowes.Com? Maybe you will order one delivered to your door from Amazon.com?

It is the government. It has been my pleasure to work with them since I was a young man, here and in Ukraine (here is MUCH better in theory, in Ukraine you could get a visa while you wait with a $100 bribe though)Heck, I wait sometimes TWO years to get a wastewater permit from one department of the state to build a school for another department of the state! They don;t even do their OWN stuff fast. Heck, I make a really good living working part time (semi retired)as a construction consualtant and this is basically what I do, sort out government BS, navigate the obstacles and keep everyone in compliance. It really, no joke, takes far longer to get all the necessary government hurdles out of the way than it takes to BUILD a school, bridge, or even a freakin' salt storage shed!

This is only the beginning, you will be dealing with them for the next 4 years, minimum. Settle in, it is a long ride. Our petition went fast, our interview took longer to schedule than it took to get the petition approval and now the RoC is taking forever. The guy that got ahead of you in the petition line may be waiting many months for an interview. Or a year for her green card. It all "comes out in the wash" as they say.

FWIW we just got our SECOND notice to have biometrics done for Alla and Pasha for the Removal of Conditions. They probably lost the first ones they did in November. Oh well. Today is payday and we are going grocery shopping and buying the backer board for the next ceramic tile project. Alla finally has collected all her "stuff" for the bathroom remodel.

I am going on with life. I am sure she will get her 10 year green card. there is no one on earth more legitmately married than we are.

I'm assuming this response was to everyone and not just me. I knew exactly what I was getting into as I have done this before. I'm not squawking about the process or how long it takes nor did I make any assumptions, just stating its clearly not a first in first out system. I don't like it, just like I don't like paying taxes but it is what it is And I wish we could order from Amazon.com or Wal-Mart!

[TBoneTX 45,273]

Friend Al & others, your pain is felt. It truly is. In my petition's day (see timeline), the CSC was slothful while the VSC was whipping approvals out verrrry fast. I was going just about as bananas as you, and it was only through the graces of a kindly IO with whom I was lucky enough to connect ("Tier 2," if you will) that my petition was removed from a transit station where it had been sitting for who knows how long and was sent to the next place along. When I reached that IO by phone, I remember blurting out, "You're an actual immigration officer, and not one of those screeners? Oh, I'm so happy to be talking with you -- I KNOW that YOU can help me!" I explained that I had filed 6 months ago to the day, and that other petitions filed after mine were already being approved, and "can you please send an e-mail to the processing floor and ask someone dependable to carry my file to the next stop?" After a few days' further delay while my petition was going through "secondary checks" (either for cause or for routine auditing quota), my NOA2 came --after just longer than 6 months.

During that time of waiting -- in fact, starting at the two-month mark -- I cursed USCIS, as loudly as you do now... and I posted my thoughts in strong language on VJ. To this day, whenever any other organization or business has the same "on-hold" music as does USCIS, I still feel my heart and breathing rates increase in the "freeze, fight, or flee" response. To THIS day.

Little did I know that the petition phase would be the easy part to that point. I and my contemporaries were blindsided by unspeakable treatment from the accursed, immoral, #######, Devil-designed and Lucifer-operated Guayaquil consulate. For just a smidgen of that (the full truth would have been completely censored from VJ), read the pre-2010 pages of the "US Consulate in Guayaquil, Ecuador" thread in the Embassy/Consulate forum, and make a point of reading the embassy review by PDXBicycleBoy, who got hosed even worse than the rest of us were. Several of us remain so off-pissed, to this day years later, that we still can't bring ourselves to write our embassy reviews of that ####### hellhole, or to file the "after-visa complaints" with the Department of State, as two immigration attorneys with consular experience recommended separately.

My petition-phase and consular experiences are why I leave my detailed "signature" below my posts for all to read.

My wife's AOS process went so swimmingly that I found it a distinct, blessed pleasure to deal with USCIS again. Imagine that! I still find that realization hard to accept.

Very shortly before applying for ROC, we sent the AR-11 and I-865 forms for change of address. The USCIS offices that processed those papers did so very efficiently, and sent prompt acknowledgments.

People in my state now send stuff to the VSC (previously, it was to the CSC) to be dealt with. I've been very pleased with the initial efficiency of our ROC process. The VSC even sent us a surprise reminder letter (to our new address) that it would soon be time to apply for ROC. My understanding was that the Centers didn't send such letters and that it was completely up to us to remember the importance and timing of ROC. I was neither displeased nor unimpressed to realize otherwise. The biometrics letter came within days of the NOA1, which came within a week of our ROC submission, and the biometrics appointment was quick and professional.

During my dark days in I-129F petition limbo, my congressman's aide freely told me, "USCIS is our very worst (Federal agency)." He added that so many petitions come in that the CSC & VSC warehouses operate with forklifts to move the pallets of boxes. With the benefit of hindsight, I'm amazed that my one petition (or anyone else's) could be located or tracked, let alone be processed on any kind of general timeframe at all. Yes, things most certainly have to change; but no, I'm not convinced that USCIS is out to get us or hurt us or hose us or blithely dismiss & disregard us. Each citizen in the petition phase is but one bite of an extremely enormous elephant.

Friend Al, the point of this is to suggest that you may not know what's coming next. Regardless, it appears (from firsthand reports over time, and current trends) that you will be dealing with a very reasonable embassy. (Caveat: your experience could differ if embassy personnel turn over or internal policies change, as they can without warning, and as they apparently did in Guayaquil.) Although I loathed and cursed USCIS at first, I was reacting out of the other side of my mouth later. We never know what's going to happen. I hope that this petition limbo is the hardest part of your journey, but realistically one can never say.

[Dahlia 1]

I went ahead and checked the January/February filers from CSC who got approved, they are from:

Colombia

Mexico

Egypt

Russia

4x Philippines

China

2x Haiti

South Korea

Canada

We all got approved because all the paperwork were in order and followed instructions one at a time. We all have our REF but not that of a major problem send it back with no question ask. Very simple to follow the application process. Frustration sometimes makes it hard for us to do it. Patience and not be stress out of what is coming next. Never in my mind I will get approved that quick. NVC was nice when i called them about our case number....We are not lucky we just did what they ask for us.....

[Ash&Ham 0]

It is what it is!

[rush713 0]

I have noticed that most of these ridiculously fast approvals are silent on the beneficiary's country of origin. Could it be that they are from Obamination's poster country (Haiti) and petitioners are hiding that fact for fear of bad publicity here at VJ?

I think what Obamination is doing is an absolute outrage. I wish Congress would impeach him and throw him in jail where he belongs for doing this to us.

I couldn't have said it better myself. No foreign citizen should take priority EVER over an american citizen. PERIOD. While I would stop short of saying no access to the US for some people from some countries, anyone who wants to marry anyone else should be allowed to do so I also say we really need to look in the mirror and decide if we really need to be importing people from places like Haiti and Somalia for example.

After all, Chile had an earthquake recently, anyone here of their citizens being allowed in on rush cases?

[florinaRO 5]

We all got approved because all the paperwork were in order and followed instructions one at a time. We all have our REF but not that of a major problem send it back with no question ask. Very simple to follow the application process. Frustration sometimes makes it hard for us to do it. Patience and not be stress out of what is coming next. Never in my mind I will get approved that quick. NVC was nice when i called them about our case number....We are not lucky we just did what they ask for us.....

Look ... We did everything by the book. We even paid lots of money on lawyer just to make sure we are doing everything right . So pls don't suggest we didn't do what they required and that is why we didn't get approved !

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

We all got approved because all the paperwork were in order and followed instructions one at a time. We all have our REF but not that of a major problem send it back with no question ask. Very simple to follow the application process. Frustration sometimes makes it hard for us to do it. Patience and not be stress out of what is coming next. Never in my mind I will get approved that quick. NVC was nice when i called them about our case number....We are not lucky we just did what they ask for us.....

You haven't been reading VJ if you think you were rewarded for following directions. As has been said, usually petitions, even those filed perfectly, sit in a box for 5 months. THEN someone looks at them, and the perfect ones get approved in about 10 minutes, with NO RFEs. The 5-month wait is because of the backlog, not because someone did a bad job in their paperwork. People are trying to figure out why some petitions avoided the backlog, and the best answer it seems is that the file got randomly pulled out for a training exercise. You got lucky, which is great for you, but it's not nice to tell other people that they are suffering the consequences of failing to follow the "very simple" process, because it's categorically incorrect.

Good luck to everyone.

[MikelanNida 28]

I couldn't have said it better myself. No foreign citizen should take priority EVER over an american citizen. PERIOD. While I would stop short of saying no access to the US for some people from some countries, anyone who wants to marry anyone else should be allowed to do so I also say we really need to look in the mirror and decide if we really need to be importing people from places like Haiti and Somalia for example.

After all, Chile had an earthquake recently, anyone here of their citizens being allowed in on rush cases?

The U.S. refugee and asylum policies tend to reflect the interests of the U.S. government and are based on various political factors. These include maintaining U.S. control within certain regions, highlighting rights violations within enemy nations, and providing humanitarian assistance in order to meet domestic and international political demands. For example, U.S. refugee policy has often favored refugees from nations the United States considered adversaries. From the beginning of Castro's regime until 1994, the United States had an open-door policy to Cuban refugees. In contrast, the United States maintained strict restrictions on the numbers of refugees accepted from Haiti, in part because it supported the Haitian government.^{<A href="http://www.publiceye.org/ark/immigrants/AsylumSeekers.html#n2">2} In addition, U.S. foreign policy has played a role in the political and economic upheavals that have led to the creation of refugees in many nations, including Haiti, Nicaragua and Afghanistan.