January I-129F filers

[P+J 47]

Maybe we should all stand outside vermont and have a protest, holding signs:

haha..yes. maybe it would get their attention. I just hope this week is a return to normal form for VSC. If not, then I don't understand what the heck is going on. CSC has approved more December petitions than VSC. and are only 2 short of equaling VSC's approvals for January.

[alexpdx 0]

Well we went on the attack yesterday.

Filed a congressional enquiry

Launched an enquiry with the ombudsman

Contacted the USCIS to raise a service request (They said no, but we at least have a reference for it)

Emailed VSC on their DOHS followup email address

Hopefully this will make SOME motions at least

Would you tell me how to do that? I'm sure there's some instruction on this forum, but I couldn't find it.

Thank you.

[P+J 47]

Looks like we had a petition with an NOA1 date of January 10th approved on Friday. Hopefully, this week the flood gates finally open. Maybe they were clearing some of the petitions that got left behind last week. Should be our time now.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Paul86

[L+T 71]

Looks like we had a petition with an NOA1 date of January 10th approved on Friday. Hopefully, this week the flood gates finally open. Maybe they were clearing some of the petitions that got left behind last week. Should be our time now.

Yes, this is about where they left off... many have been approved 10th and prior, basically nothing 11th and beyond. (trust me, i know, i'm 12th)... Though i'm pretty happy with overall VJ rate Wed, Thur, Fri combined was Nine for Vermont... 3/day average for last 3 days... would like to see 4 or 5 per day average (VJ) all next week and beyond!! They can do it, we just have to wait and see.

[L+T 71]

Actually, looking at approvals on Igors list, the middle of the month has been most neglected.

from 1st to 10th, there are 12 VJ approvals.

from 11th to 20th there is only 1 VJ approval. (on 19th)

from 21st to 30th there is 11 VJ approvals.

[P+J 47]

Actually, looking at approvals on Igors list, the middle of the month has been most neglected.

from 1st to 10th, there are 12 VJ approvals.

from 11th to 20th there is only 1 VJ approval. (on 19th)

from 21st to 30th there is 11 VJ approvals.

Yup I noticed that too. I think we're overdue for some attention in the middle of the month. My VJ timeline is in the approval window now. Would be pretty awesome if it came through this week.

[L+T 71]

Perhaps pinging the database is taboo? For thow who has not pinged a number other than their own, may throw the first stone...

[Stu4Lee 66]

Perhaps pinging the database is taboo? For thow who has not pinged a number other than their own, may throw the first stone...

....and get a fast approval

[Nana & Dodo 1]

Looks like we had a petition with an NOA1 date of January 10th approved on Friday. Hopefully, this week the flood gates finally open. Maybe they were clearing some of the petitions that got left behind last week. Should be our time now.

I believe that applicants who had RFE are consuming VSC time to go over these RFEs to give a decision on such applications. It makes them a little behind, that's why some days you see many approvals, while other days, such as last Friday, had no approvals. I wish If they increased the fees for faster and better services.

[P+J 47]

I believe that applicants who had RFE are consuming VSC time to go over these RFEs to give a decision on such applications. It makes them a little behind, that's why some days you see many approvals, while other days, such as last Friday, had no approvals. I wish If they increased the fees for faster and better services.

Definitely. The number of RFE'd petitions is staggering. I would imagine if a petitioner paid the extra fee her or she might even put the extra time in to insure the petition is completed properly. They probably receive many incomplete or incorrectly compiled petitions...I know by playing with the receipt numbers that there were many more RFEs than approvals.

[Neetz 7]

I believe that applicants who had RFE are consuming VSC time to go over these RFEs to give a decision on such applications. It makes them a little behind, that's why some days you see many approvals, while other days, such as last Friday, had no approvals. I wish If they increased the fees for faster and better services.

....i hope it was not us!!! that would be just awful and it was not even our fault....

[photomile 101]

As I've said time and time again, the number of RFE's I've seen while going through these numbers is utterly astounding. Now granted the USCIS loose stuff and everyone makes minor mistakes some of which I'm sure the adjudicators are just being pedantic over, but if you think about it, an RFE takes twice or even three times as long to get off someones desk. It has to be reviewed, flagged, the response reviewed, then the entire petition gets reviewed again as a whole...

I would say that near enough a third of petitions that get sent require further action and evidence based on the numbers I've gone through. Couple that with the fact that there will be a random number of petitions that are re-reviewed for quality control and it's easy to see why a few petitions take much longer.

I'm also sure petitions are 'scored' in terms of eligibility. If a petition hits a certain threshold I'd imagine it's also pulled to be re-reviewed. Not all petitions are alike and I'm sure some will fall very close to the passing mark which will further increase the workflow.

I only briefly glanced at the I-129F instruction sheet. All of my guidance was from this website. What's surprising is just how much of it is covered in the USCIS I-129F instruction sheet. It says about pretty much everything and now that I've sent it off, the I-129F is a fairly simple form if you think about it. There are four government forms to fill out. The I-129F, two Biographic infos, and an electronic notification form which is optional. The "evidence of having met" in theory should be nothing more than a couple of photographs and plane tickets. Passport photos and a birth certificate? That folder should be thin. No thicker than your standard sales brochure.

Then there's me. I front loaded the petition. Mine is a nice, 150 page long folder because I did everything in a rush and forgot that I didn't need to include evidence of an ongoing relationship. Oops! From what I understand, it's not going to hurt anything, but it could be the reason that mine is going through so slowly. Still, better safe than sorry. There is such a thing as giving too much evidence, but there's nothing in there that I need to worry about.

I'm slightly OCD in the way I process things. I have an electronic copy of everything. I mean everything!

The entire I-129F petition is on my hard drive. Scanned, in PDF format and with multiple scans from commercial OCR software I can scan every single letter in that file. Including a lot of the handwritten ones! Every other form I've ever received, my police checks... everything. So I can at least be confident in the forms I've sent! Plus, thanks to dropbox, if the other half gets an RFE for anything like my passport, it's there in colour and can be printed within 30 seconds. I even has passport photos set up in such a way that either one of us can go to any photo store with an SD card or USB stick and print a 4x6 with all the passport photos on. UK and US size too. So I can at least be confident that if we get an RFE we are in a position to respond same day unless we need originals which are currently in the UK. It'll cost me £50 but those can be sent to the US and be with her within three days.

I wonder how many people who get an RFE take weeks, months even to get a response in? Some things, sure you have to request them. I'm still seeing RFE's that were sent in November that haven't been responded to!

[Neetz 7]

As I've said time and time again, the number of RFE's I've seen while going through these numbers is utterly astounding. Now granted the USCIS loose stuff and everyone makes minor mistakes some of which I'm sure the adjudicators are just being pedantic over, but if you think about it, an RFE takes twice or even three times as long to get off someones desk. It has to be reviewed, flagged, the response reviewed, then the entire petition gets reviewed again as a whole...

I would say that near enough a third of petitions that get sent require further action and evidence based on the numbers I've gone through. Couple that with the fact that there will be a random number of petitions that are re-reviewed for quality control and it's easy to see why a few petitions take much longer.

I'm also sure petitions are 'scored' in terms of eligibility. If a petition hits a certain threshold I'd imagine it's also pulled to be re-reviewed. Not all petitions are alike and I'm sure some will fall very close to the passing mark which will further increase the workflow.

I only briefly glanced at the I-129F instruction sheet. All of my guidance was from this website. What's surprising is just how much of it is covered in the USCIS I-129F instruction sheet. It says about pretty much everything and now that I've sent it off, the I-129F is a fairly simple form if you think about it. There are four government forms to fill out. The I-129F, two Biographic infos, and an electronic notification form which is optional. The "evidence of having met" in theory should be nothing more than a couple of photographs and plane tickets. Passport photos and a birth certificate? That folder should be thin. No thicker than your standard sales brochure.

Then there's me. I front loaded the petition. Mine is a nice, 150 page long folder because I did everything in a rush and forgot that I didn't need to include evidence of an ongoing relationship. Oops! From what I understand, it's not going to hurt anything, but it could be the reason that mine is going through so slowly. Still, better safe than sorry. There is such a thing as giving too much evidence, but there's nothing in there that I need to worry about.

I'm slightly OCD in the way I process things. I have an electronic copy of everything. I mean everything!

The entire I-129F petition is on my hard drive. Scanned, in PDF format and with multiple scans from commercial OCR software I can scan every single letter in that file. Including a lot of the handwritten ones! Every other form I've ever received, my police checks... everything. So I can at least be confident in the forms I've sent! Plus, thanks to dropbox, if the other half gets an RFE for anything like my passport, it's there in colour and can be printed within 30 seconds. I even has passport photos set up in such a way that either one of us can go to any photo store with an SD card or USB stick and print a 4x6 with all the passport photos on. UK and US size too. So I can at least be confident that if we get an RFE we are in a position to respond same day unless we need originals which are currently in the UK. It'll cost me £50 but those can be sent to the US and be with her within three days.

I wonder how many people who get an RFE take weeks, months even to get a response in? Some things, sure you have to request them. I'm still seeing RFE's that were sent in November that haven't been responded to!

[/q

On the RFE letter it gives a date that the response must reach USCIS on or before, on ours it was August 2nd, We sent it back within 3 days, by express mail and it was signed for on the 12th but our emai response from VSCl says they received it on the 15th, go figure! In the RFE letter it states the minimum time for it to be dealt with is 14 days and the maximum is 60days, i will be happy just to fall somewhere in between at this point which would bring us up to 2nd week in July. Ours was easy to respond to as it was not a mistake on our part, they just thought we only sent the translated docs. We also got a 2nd email (more personal) saying it was being matched to our file and given to the person who requested the RFE, this email was signed by an actual person and only sent to my fiance.

It is so hard to figure out how or what way they work regarding any of our petitions, nothing makes any sense! It is ironic that they put so much emphasis on us proving we have a relationship and then they spend so long allowing us to be together, and having us continue to prove the relationship, this process is definitely not for the faint hearted or for those who are not truly in LOVE, many relationships have broken down under less stress. Come on VSC, we know you can do it, cut us some slack here and make us Jan filers happy campers!!

[Knope2012 10]

I really hope this is our week! If I get an RFE, I can see it being for better passport pictures of me as I thought they looked slightly washed out. If so, Walgreens is taking my next picture for free! I'm wondering if they're supposed to send out lots of RFE's because of too many future fraud cases getting through in the past.

[sweetcakes 0]

Anybody from January filers got NOA2 yet? Waiting here still, wishing to fast track time *sigh