January I-129F filers

[L+T 71]

Oh I agree, and I very much doubt calling our congressman pushed us to the top. If anything, we're at the bottom of a pile that the officer will get to when he feels like it. Since VSC advised that we were still in normal processing times, I wish I had the chance to go back to May 18th so I wouldn't have put the inquiry in, but at the time I didn't know an inquiry was the same thing as a service request. So yes, I completely agree with the Lawyer and what Paul said. Don't do it unless you really are that far out of processing times. If you complete a whole 6 months of waiting and nothing has happened, that's when it would be in the best interest to contact your congressman so they can assist.

I think it goes without saying, we all hope you are not at the bottom of a pile, and wishing everyone speedy approval after the looooooong wait.

[photomile 101]

Thank you!

Contrary to what my fiancée has said, I'm actually really glad we did start off the service request when we did. It is highly unlikely that it has slowed us down any or caused any form of delay else we would be one of a select few petitions that were not approved.

As it stands, we're part of a majority. There are a large number of January petitions that haven't even been actioned, including a number of petitions that were in the same "sequence" as us. We're hardly in the minority so I highly doubt that it has slowed us down at all. In fact, it hasn't made a difference. If we had not have launched it, I doubt anything would be different.

But to me, launching that service request has turned into a very good thing. If we had launched the SR now, we would have another sixty days to wait, whereas right now because we launched it nearly a month ago, we now only have another 30 or so days to wait. Knowing that, plus the fact that it hasn't slowed us down due to the fact that a load of other petitions haven't even been touched either? Well, it's a great comfort to me knowing that we won't have to wait to long.

January is an oddball. An anomaly. Nothing is working as it normally should. I would absolutely say for the future, yeah, wait a bit because it really could cause delays. But right here, right now? It's very clear that for us, it has not made a difference to the situation, nor has it slowed us down because of the fact that January is completely messed up for so many people. But for the future, yes it very likely will slow you down.

[sabi 148]

what's really frustrating is the unfairness of the whole process... Don't get me wrong, I don't mind waiting if they had clear instructions: we process and approve petitions in order they came in and within let's say 6 or 7 months time.. But seeing other people being approved in 2-3-4 months, some from the end of the month, some from February, it is just driving me crazy! It is a bit selfish, I know. But aren't we all selfish in a way? We just want to be with the ones we love!and I already feel let down by my future government. My fiance is blaming himself now that he didn't ask me to marry him in November when he was visiting me and I feel so bad that he thinks this way... We have to hang in there but it's just so hard feeling that we have been left out in a way...

[photomile 101]

Actually something is sticking in my mind about this whole escalation process.

Given that we know cases go into a 'sealed box', and we know they are given an electronic tracking number as well as being scanned in, why the heck would a service request or congressional inquiry slow you down?

The notion seems to be here that if a service request is made the file is physically pulled and given to a supervisor who supposedly looks at the case then says it's within processing times only to be sent back to roughly where it came from in the pile?? That's utterly ridiculous! That would mean someone has physically picked up the file, hauled it to a supervisor who then has to break the case seal, remove the file, then try and get it re-sealed?

I think more likely what happens is this -

• A service request or congressional gets flagged up
  
• If the case is being worked on, or is allocated to someone, a bar is placed on it so that the officer cannot work on the file since they wont know why it's been flagged up (makes sense right?)
  
• If the case is not being worked on, then nothing happens, unless someone picks it up to work on it in which case they see it has a flag on it, which stops them doing anything
  

This supports what everyone has said about it being a bad idea to do it right at the end because a case might have been assigned to a case worked and they might be blocked from working on it.

The case number gets flagged up with a supervisor and they check it off on their sheet. If the case is within processing times, the flag gets released and the supervisor communicates that accordingly. If the case is outside of processing times, the case is manually pulled and then assigned to a supervisor or case worker.

In the case of January there are so many petitions which haven't even picked up, the likelihood in our case is that we were on the shelf. No-one came to pick up our file because hey, it's January, and no-one else will have been adjudicated anyway, the SR went off, found we were within normal processing times and got removed. Nothing happened and nothing would have happened.

Our congressional call was just a happy coincidence when they said we were assigned to an officer.

[sabi 148]

Actually something is sticking in my mind about this whole escalation process

To be honest I still don't understand how in XXI century there are any physical files! I would assume that a country so well technologically advanced as the USA would scan everything and avoid physical files being sent (and lost) between the departments...

[photomile 101]

To be honest I still don't understand how in XXI century there are any physical files! I would assume that a country so well technologically advanced as the USA would scan everything and avoid physical files being sent (and lost) between the departments...

It's scanned, we know this. But they will also keep a physical file to compare it with presumably for their legal requirements. We deal with applications where I work and it's the same thing. The physical one is always kept to compare to the electronic, but because they need physical proof of signatures and that the documents are real.

Edited June 13, 2012 by photomile

[sabi 148]

It is scanned, we know this. But they will also keep a physical file to compare it with presumably for their legal requirements. We deal with applications where I work and it's the same thing. The physical one is always kept to compare to the electronic, but because they need physical proof of signatures and that the documents are real.

it is scanned yet they lose the files and send RFEs... ok nevermind. The main thing is, I hope you'll hear sth from them soon! I think once you are approved, that will give some more hope to the rest of us!

[photomile 101]

it is scanned yet they lose the files and send RFEs... ok nevermind. The main thing is, I hope you'll hear sth from them soon! I think once you are approved, that will give some more hope to the rest of us!

It would make sense if they scan it, but still require the original files for verification! That would explain it, but it could also be that it's only scanned when it hits the adjudicators desk

thanks, we need answers.

we all need answers

[redskins47chaos 6]

I'm getting more and more depressed by the day I need good news! As if 5 months wasn't long enough...

[sabi 148]

I think we all do... It gets harder and harder each day but we will be approved , our day will come just hang in there we're already at the finish line !!!

[sabi 148]

Btw I'm still wondering how is the Igor's list calculating the processing times... There's no way they are approving January 27th ?!

[redskins47chaos 6]

Thanks Sabi! Oh and yeah it had me wondering too. Although this whole thing doesn't even make sense as it's obvious they're not processing just one particular day at a time. And my timeline switched from June 15/18 to June 16/19 for no particular reason either. Go figure lol

[sabi 148]

Mine changed from 5/11 to 3/10 which either way doesn't make me feel any better... Its too hard to cope with that unknown but on the other hand good to know that you're not alone in all this madness....

[Texas22 50]

And looks like we have some more life back at VSC. 2 more approvals have yet to be updated on the timelines. Bringing today's total so far to 5. One was 1/13 the other a late January of 1/31 (based on NOA1s)

Paul, how do you know about the approvals if they haven't updated their timeline on VJ? When you said 1/31.. my heart jumped for a sec... but alas... it is not ours..

[sabi 148]

Paul, how do you know about the approvals if they haven't updated their timeline on VJ? When you said 1/31.. my heart jumped for a sec... but alas... it is not ours..

I think people posted about getting NOA2 in other threads but didn't update their timelines but that's my guess I've seen one or two yesterday...

Edited June 13, 2012 by sabi