Applied in August - should we have heard NOA2 yet?

[OnionsJester 1]

Hi guys. Me again.

Short story: Applied for visa in August and received our NOA1 at the end of August. Nothing since. Should we have heard anything yet?

Long story:

Got approved for a K1 visa last year, flew over to the USA in May, got cancer in August, couldn't apply for permission to leave (as we hadn't applied for AOS yet) so we applied for a fresh IR1 (or CR1 or whatever) visa just before we flew back to the UK.

Got treated for cancer, etc, that's all fine. Want to go back now, wife went back on Monday, found the NOA1 letter dated 31st August, but no other mail. Nothing on the NOA (apparently, I haven't seen it myself yet). Checked the case status online, still in initial review. Last touched in September. Checked the USCIS timetables, and it says Timeframe: 4th June. Does that mean ones sent to them on 4th June are being processed now? That's like.. 8 months. If that's the case, so be it, but that seems really late so I wanted to make sure.

Thanks all .

[dimples 9]

Hi guys. Me again.

Short story: Applied for visa in August and received our NOA1 at the end of August. Nothing since. Should we have heard anything yet?

Long story:

Got approved for a K1 visa last year, flew over to the USA in May, got cancer in August, couldn't apply for permission to leave (as we hadn't applied for AOS yet) so we applied for a fresh IR1 (or CR1 or whatever) visa just before we flew back to the UK.

Got treated for cancer, etc, that's all fine. Want to go back now, wife went back on Monday, found the NOA1 letter dated 31st August, but no other mail. Nothing on the NOA (apparently, I haven't seen it myself yet). Checked the case status online, still in initial review. Last touched in September. Checked the USCIS timetables, and it says Timeframe: 4th June. Does that mean ones sent to them on 4th June are being processed now? That's like.. 8 months. If that's the case, so be it, but that seems really late so I wanted to make sure.

Thanks all .

Good to know you are doing OK. August 19th filer here as well. Currently they are processing August 2nd. Once you are not below August they consider your case still witnin their processing time. There have been a good amount of late July and early August filers approved so we should hear something in the next 2-3 weeks or so.

[VisaJourney2011 14]

me too !

Today is 182 days or almost 6 months for me and still waiting for NOA2

Edited February 22, 2012 by VisaJourney2011

[l.iber.tatis 7]

6 months today! and no NOA2 in sight...

glad you are ok again and good luck with your journey!

[OnionsJester 1]

Good to know you are doing OK. August 19th filer here as well. Currently they are processing August 2nd. Once you are not below August they consider your case still witnin their processing time. There have been a good amount of late July and early August filers approved so we should hear something in the next 2-3 weeks or so.

Where does it say they are processing Aug 2nd? On the page I found, it still said they were processing June 4th !

Good to hear we aren't alone though, let's hope we hear soon!

Edit: Ooh, you're CSC.. damn, I'm TSC - why are we so far behind?

Edited February 22, 2012 by OnionsJester

[dimples 9]

Where does it say they are processing Aug 2nd? On the page I found, it still said they were processing June 4th !

Good to hear we aren't alone though, let's hope we hear soon!

Edit: Ooh, you're CSC.. damn, I'm TSC - why are we so far behind?

I am not sure why TSC is so far behind. I pulled up the stats for the I130 and it says 7 months.

[jaycali 415]

damn, I'm TSC - why are we so far behind?

I didn't even know TSC still did I-130s..!

But yes, the service centers are severely backlogged. Vermont seems to be processing at somewhat normal rates, but California (and Texas apparently) are lagging. None of us really know why

I have a hunch they could have moved people from handling I-130s in the fall to other petitions - and gotten backlogged.

I know the CSC was processing really fast in the summer months, May - July, then in the fall their completion rate almost halved.

Glad to hear you're ok though!

Edited February 22, 2012 by jhsm85

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from Process & Procedures to Progress Reports.

Short story: Applied for visa in August and received our NOA1 at the end of August.

To get the semantics out of the way, a visa was not applied for, a petition was filed by the US Citizen. The foreign spouse will apply for a visa after the petition has been approved.

Edit: Ooh, you're CSC.. damn, I'm TSC - why are we so far behind?

Does your NOA1 actually say your file was sent to TSC? Only CSC and VSC adjudicate I-130 petitions.

[Divs 35]

All those who are at six months now, I'd suggest you to get in touch with your congressman now. The day we hit six months, my husband got in touch with the gentleman and we got our approval today.

[OnionsJester 1]

Moved from Process & Procedures to Progress Reports.

My bad, I'm used to subforums being at the top, I didn't even see it.

To get the semantics out of the way, a visa was not applied for, a petition was filed by the US Citizen. The foreign spouse will apply for a visa after the petition has been approved.

My bad, I'm used to talking to people who don't know about these things, where "visa" is the right thing to say .

Does your NOA1 actually say your file was sent to TSC? Only CSC and VSC adjudicate I-130 petitions.

And wow, I didn't realise they route them. Why don't we just send them to C/V by default? Turns out the NOA1 is from the CSC, so maybe not such a long wait after all! Good news.

[jaycali 415]

And wow, I didn't realise they route them. Why don't we just send them to C/V by default? Turns out the NOA1 is from the CSC, so maybe not such a long wait after all! Good news.

Yep, depending on where in the country the USC lives, you mail the I-130 package to either the Chicago or Phoenix Lockbox.

The Lockbox then routes your petition to the appropriate service center. You have no choice in whether you get California or Vermont. In the grand scheme of things, CSC and VSC do the same exact job, in pretty much the same exact time. But different service centers inevitably tend to get backlogged at various points in time. Had you asked last year, CSC would have been the "best one to get." Currently, and unfortunately, CSC is severly backlogged, affecting summer and fall filers, perhaps even winter filers. That's why July and August filers are waiting 6 - 7 months.

If you have an August priority date though, I would expect you'll have your NOA2 within 2 weeks. Keep us up to date!

[OnionsJester 1]

If you have an August priority date though, I would expect you'll have your NOA2 within 2 weeks. Keep us up to date!

Yeah, will do. Considering we've been keeping busy for the last 6 months, only having another 1 or so to wait is a big bonus. Neat.

Will let the forum know when ours comes in .

[Divs 35]

Yeah, will do. Considering we've been keeping busy for the last 6 months, only having another 1 or so to wait is a big bonus. Neat.

Will let the forum know when ours comes in .

Aug filer here. Got our petition approved coupla days back, so perhaps you're next in line. God bless!