February 2013 I-130 Filers

[AshleyLCBaker 7]

To those who have received their approvals already -- a massive congratulations to you

Even though this is going to sound like a rants(because it is) please do not take any offence those of you who have received or will probably get an auto expedite because of living abroad with your spouse. I know it's not your choice and really, getting your NOA2 quickly is a joy anyone should be happy about but I'm starting to get really pissed off at this system. Why on earth should those people abroad applying for an I-130 get processed quicker than the rest of us because their spouse is living with them outside the US? It is so totally unfair!! All the rest of us are separated from the ones we love for months and months waiting for the NOA2 to arrive and those people lucky enough to still be living with their loved ones get their approved quicker?! It is just so unfair! Ours should be processed quicker, not theirs, they are not the ones desperate to see their brand new husband after months of separation because they cannot afford the airfare for a quick trip, they get to see each other every day! Why do they get auto expedited?!

Sorry, I know it's not you all personally so please do not take this as a personal attack and attack me for it, I'm just so fed up with reading comments here and on the January and December filers boards (who I stalk) of all these bloody auto-expedite cases when the USC and the beneficiary are still living with one another!!!! It's so unfair!! :'(

Good luck to you all to get speedy NOA2's sorry for the rant!!!!

So, this is an argument that gets started on here quite often and it never turns out very well. I'm one of those people who will probably be auto-expedited, and while I'm not really offended or anything by what you've said, I thought I would explain a couple things that might help:

1) From what I've read, cases where both spouses live overseas make up a very small proportion of spousal immigration cases. Like, very small. So it's not like the fact that these cases are getting processed faster is really stopping your or any other cases from being processed, because there just really aren't that many to stand in the way.

2) I think the fact that the couple lives together probably cuts down on the investigation for the 'bona fide' aspect of the relationship. If two people are married and share a home abroad, it's probably less likely it's a green card marriage. Also, my husband and I have been married for more than four years and we have a little boy. You've been married for less time than that. Not that you should be punished or that your marriage is any less real, because of course it's not, but it's just probably easier to process cases like mine just on the basis of time married/sharing a home, etc.

3) Just because I've been fortunate enough to live with my husband in Australia the past five years doesn't mean my life has been all flowers and sunshine and doesn't make my desire to live in my home country any less important. I've been separated from my friends and family, I've missed weddings and funerals and births. My mother died very suddenly a couple of years ago and I hadn't seen her for the better part of a year before she passed away, which is something I'll have to carry around for the rest of my life. I'm sure there are numerous stories like this on here from people who have moved overseas to be with their significant others.

Basically what I'm saying is, as frustrating and heartbreaking as I'm sure it is to be away from your husband, everyone has a heartbreak. Everyone has a story. That's the risk you take when you decide to pursue a relationship with someone from another country. It just doesn't really help to create an 'us vs. them' mentality. Everyone has a goal they want to reach and I think it's best if we support each other in their process, no matter how long our individual process takes.

[Nimz 0]

To those who have received their approvals already -- a massive congratulations to you

Even though this is going to sound like a rants(because it is) please do not take any offence those of you who have received or will probably get an auto expedite because of living abroad with your spouse. I know it's not your choice and really, getting your NOA2 quickly is a joy anyone should be happy about but I'm starting to get really pissed off at this system. Why on earth should those people abroad applying for an I-130 get processed quicker than the rest of us because their spouse is living with them outside the US? It is so totally unfair!! All the rest of us are separated from the ones we love for months and months waiting for the NOA2 to arrive and those people lucky enough to still be living with their loved ones get their approved quicker?! It is just so unfair! Ours should be processed quicker, not theirs, they are not the ones desperate to see their brand new husband after months of separation because they cannot afford the airfare for a quick trip, they get to see each other every day! Why do they get auto expedited?!

Sorry, I know it's not you all personally so please do not take this as a personal attack and attack me for it, I'm just so fed up with reading comments here and on the January and December filers boards (who I stalk) of all these bloody auto-expedite cases when the USC and the beneficiary are still living with one another!!!! It's so unfair!! :'(

Good luck to you all to get speedy NOA2's sorry for the rant!!!!

Totally Agree ! I've had this same rant many times in the last month

[LucidSofia 59]

So, this is an argument that gets started on here quite often and it never turns out very well. I'm one of those people who will probably be auto-expedited, and while I'm not really offended or anything by what you've said, I thought I would explain a couple things that might help:

1) From what I've read, cases where both spouses live overseas make up a very small proportion of spousal immigration cases. Like, very small. So it's not like the fact that these cases are getting processed faster is really stopping your or any other cases from being processed, because there just really aren't that many to stand in the way.

2) I think the fact that the couple lives together probably cuts down on the investigation for the 'bona fide' aspect of the relationship. If two people are married and share a home abroad, it's probably less likely it's a green card marriage. Also, my husband and I have been married for more than four years and we have a little boy. You've been married for less time than that. Not that you should be punished or that your marriage is any less real, because of course it's not, but it's just probably easier to process cases like mine just on the basis of time married/sharing a home, etc.

3) Just because I've been fortunate enough to live with my husband in Australia the past five years doesn't mean my life has been all flowers and sunshine and doesn't make my desire to live in my home country any less important. I've been separated from my friends and family, I've missed weddings and funerals and births. My mother died very suddenly a couple of years ago and I hadn't seen her for the better part of a year before she passed away, which is something I'll have to carry around for the rest of my life. I'm sure there are numerous stories like this on here from people who have moved overseas to be with their significant others.

Basically what I'm saying is, as frustrating and heartbreaking as I'm sure it is to be away from your husband, everyone has a heartbreak. Everyone has a story. That's the risk you take when you decide to pursue a relationship with someone from another country. It just doesn't really help to create an 'us vs. them' mentality. Everyone has a goal they want to reach and I think it's best if we support each other in their process, no matter how long our individual process takes.

I agree very strongly with point nr 2. I believe having evidence of living together just makes the case much easier to process.

I understand your point though Jenny, and I feel very lucky to be living with my husband AND to likely get a quicker approval. I wish everyone would get approved in two months.. 5 months and more is just a ridiculous amount of waiting time. I used to think that being married to someone meant you could move to their country and be with them easily.. when I found out about the process I couldn't believe it actually takes as long as it does!!

[Pw3t 6]

I agree very strongly with point nr 2. I believe having evidence of living together just makes the case much easier to process.

I also agree with that. I think that's the whole point about auto-expedite. We already knew about the long timelines and how hard it can be to prove a real bonafide marriage to the US government when you never lived together ; this is why when we got married with my husband, we decided that he will move to France first in order to make things easier for the CR1 process that we'll do later. It is actually really easy to get a french spouse visa, it didn't even take a month.

Then I know that not everybody can plan everything as we did and it makes me really sad for all of you, especially all the people who had to wait more than a year to get their NOA2. I just think it's scandalous

[JennyWhiteley 2]

Thanks for your comments everyone,many also for not taking my head off, I do appreciate it!

AshleyLCBaker, whilst I do agree with your number2 point, my husband and I have been together for four years and have proof(bank accounts, leases etc) of a bonafide relationship up until the month before we got married, even though our marriage hasn't been very long. And having a child doesn't seem to sway the auto-expedite as many of the other who have received an auto-expedite on here have not yet had children. My husband was a university student in the UK which is where we met and have been living together ever since, until they told him he couldn't return from our honeymoon because the visa laws had changed suddenly (despite our research on the contrary) to the tune that I had to have almost $90,000 in the bank to be able to "prove" I could support him, even though a couple of months earlier when we had done the research this was not the case. Unfortunately this change was not publicised until after it was in effect, or we would have done just what you did Pw3T, to try to make the application easier. The fact remains that I could not return home from my honeymoon with my husband, all my belongings have been shipped to the US and I am now living with my sister and her husband till I can finally live with my own husband.

I provided more than enough proof of a bonafide relationship, but the fact remains that those living together abroad get put into a separate queue from the rest of us, and that is what I object to. Having read on this website a detailed rundown of how these visa's get issued by someone who used to work in one of the USCIS offices, I know it only takes around 15 minutes to process a normal case, which I believe you and I both have. The waiting time is simply where we are in the queue. Point is, that those living abroad with their spouse get put into a different and much shorter queue than the rest of us from the offset and that is what upsets me, this should not be the case at all, even if it is only a small percentage as it is still a percentage that has been "bumped up the queue" so to speak.

I am so terribly sorry to hear about your mothers passing, and please accept my sincerest condolences for you and your family. My parents currently live in Zambia and whilst they are not ill thankfully it is also very hard to have them so very far away.

[N-o-l-a 7,168]

I provided more than enough proof of a bonafide relationship, but the fact remains that those living together abroad get put into a separate queue from the rest of us, and that is what I object to. Having read on this website a detailed rundown of how these visa's get issued by someone who used to work in one of the USCIS offices, I know it only takes around 15 minutes to process a normal case, which I believe you and I both have. The waiting time is simply where we are in the queue. Point is, that those living abroad with their spouse get put into a different and much shorter queue than the rest of us from the offset and that is what upsets me, this should not be the case at all, even if it is only a small percentage as it is still a percentage that has been "bumped up the queue" so to speak.

Well, the auto-expedite queue only exists because of the lack of DCF in many countries. The UK has DCF, so that is what it is.

We ended up not being auto-expedited, which is what another poster was referring to. That created huge issues for us because the local field office had no idea how to handle an I-130 in which the USC was not residing in America. Needless to say, we went through quite a bit trying to right that wrong. Our total time from NOA1 of the first I-130 to NOA2 of the second I-130 was 110 days which was more than many people who live in two separate countries. Our second I-130 was approved without evidence as London doesn't want it and our CR1 was also approved without evidence. It might have helped that I was in the embassy with my husband though and they knew we lived together in Denmark.

For our case, we weren't expecting super fast processing, but an issue arose in which we needed an expedite to return to the US. The expedite was completely ignored and had we not found a way to submit a new I-130, we'd still be sitting in limbo in some field office because they were both unfamiliar with file from abroads and unconcerned with them. For the moment, especially with the transfers to field offices, it is probably best that NBC handle the cases.

Plus, I've always been of the mindset that if a married couple is living abroad together they don't tend to file to immigrate to America unless there is a pressing concern or need to be there. Moving countries is a very expensive and tedious process not done on a whim and had we not had such issues living in Denmark, we would have never done it. Trust me, we lived apart during the first part of the K1 and before and it was not desirable, but if I had to put that into comparison to the issues that drove us to file an I-130 and need to go back to America, well for us it just doesn't compare. If I had to pick between waiting out the I-129F/K1 or what my daughter and I went through here, I'd pick waiting any day.

I'm not saying any of this to get on your case, but it is a situation of walking in someone else's shoes...

Edited March 22, 2013 by Nola123

[JennyWhiteley 2]

Hey Nola123

Firstly, I have followed your story since joining Visa Journey and I am really sorry about the massive screw up that happened with your application. I can't even begin to imagine how terrible that must have been for you and your family.

Whilst I agree with you that walking in someone else's shoes really does give you a different perspective about the process, my point remains the same. DCF was eradicated and whilst that is a shame for those who could have used that process to get a quicker approval, the situation now is that we all get to go to the same place. And because of that, we should all be in the same queue. I'm sure everyone on VisaJourney can join in with their own personal horror story that is applying for a green card and the reasons behind it, and I'm sure they will all be as sad as the next, so that actually shouldn't come into the equation. Whilst clearly displayed from your case that visas that are sent from abroad should stay at the NBC, I do not see a reason that they should be pushed to the front of the queue simply because DCF was removed. That process no longer exists and so everyone should be sitting in the same line, with their stories of how they got there, and we should all be processed in an orderly and fair fashion, without the USCIS making allowances for people loving abroad simply because they are, and because DCF was removed.

We all want our visas to be approved quickly, I don't think you will find one person who doesn't mind waiting for ages, and having others pushed to the front of the queue because they live together abroad and because DCF no longer exists is incredibly frustrating. My visa was sent in at the same time as the two on here who have been approved already, and mine has not even been touched yet. I'm really not angry at each individual case, everyone deserved happiness, I'm just so angry at the flawed system as a whole.

Good luck everyone

[N-o-l-a 7,168]

The problem is that DCF still does exist in several countries.

UK, Germany, Italy, Philippines, Austria, Dominican Republic, China, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand.

[LucidSofia 59]

The problem is that DCF still does exist in several countries.

UK, Germany, Italy, Philippines, Austria, Dominican Republic, China, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and Thailand.

hmm.... maybe us that live abroad should start complaining that some countries still have DCF (which is still much faster than the "auto-expedite") while ours don´t!! hehe

Edited March 22, 2013 by LucidSofia

[DFrancis 0]

Approved!!

Just randomly checked the USCIS website yesterday and we have been approved.

So thankful right now! I trust that this positive movement also happens for the rest of the February Filers in short order!

[Clemjam 8]

Approved!!

Just randomly checked the USCIS website yesterday and we have been approved.

So thankful right now! I trust that this positive movement also happens for the rest of the February Filers in short order!

Congrats DFrancis!

Doesthe USC live abroad?

[DFrancis 0]

Congrats DFrancis!

Doesthe USC live abroad?

Yes.

[Pw3t 6]

Approved!!

Just randomly checked the USCIS website yesterday and we have been approved.

So thankful right now! I trust that this positive movement also happens for the rest of the February Filers in short order!

Congrats

[Yankee Doodle 0]

Approved!!

Just randomly checked the USCIS website yesterday and we have been approved.

So thankful right now! I trust that this positive movement also happens for the rest of the February Filers in short order!

Congrats!!

[AshleyLCBaker 7]

Hooray, y'all, I just checked the website and we're approved! I've been checking it daily for weeks and our case never even showed up until today. So I guess the auto-expedite is happening for overseas folks and happening fairly quickly. Good luck to everyone else!