May 2013 I-130 Filers

[Snuffalopagus 0]

Check out the September filers thread.

I wish you hadn't said to check the September filers thread...that made me feel ill (someone was approved in 2 weeks). I still don't understand why that file was sent to CSC though.

[r060106 109]

I wish you hadn't said to check the September filers thread...that made me feel ill (someone was approved in 2 weeks). I still don't understand why that file was sent to CSC though.

Sorry. I can't imagine how you feel. It hurts me too with a baby on the way because I'm 99% sure that won't happen to my wife or I. Not saying your situation is not upsetting. I don't understand it either.

[Simeon 25]

Simeon, I have heard no such thing, until reading your post!

Initial thought was, 'NBC hasn't even begun functioning how could there be a 'shutdown?' It's already 'shutdown!'

I don't know how true that is, however, I have googled and come across a recent article posted 5 days ago. Here's the link for inquiring minds.

http://www.laborimmigration.com/2013/09/government-shutdown-and-immigration-how-will-it-affect-me-september-2013-edition/

I know, I can barely stomach it myself. In the last government shutdown, all non-essential functions of government (including visa processing) was shutdown for 3 weeks. So, I'm not really holding my breath.

[AtlantaD 3]

I just saw this thread. So..."Hello" to all you May 2013 Filers. I filed the I-130 on 24 May and received the NOA1 a week later from the NSC with a date of 30 May. It has been almost 4 months and nothing more has happened. Whenever I check the status of the petition on the USCIS website I see that it is still in "Initial Review". Oh well, I have a feeling that I need to have a lot more patience before this whole process is over.

Edited September 25, 2013 by AtlantaD

[deleteme 34]

I think the conflicting opinions about the Overland Park NBC facility can be explained.... if we learn to speak government-speak. When they say that the Overland Park facility "has been open" or "is operating", that might SEEM like they are adjudicating I-130 petitions, but for them, it means simply that the government has taken over the space, has been hiring, has been stacking I-130s, etc. - for them, this busy-ness qualifies as 'being open' and 'operating'.

The KC newspaper article - which we've seen before - indicates that it will be 'open' in December 2012, but that they expect to hire for the next 8-10 months, and they expect to do other busy things. It doesn't say that they will immediately begin adjudicating I-130 petitions, which for us, is where the rubber hits the road.

So, this is why, perhaps, some USCIS phone representatives can seem confusing and confused themselves when we ask them when it is going to be open (i.e., start adjudicating I-130 petitions), because for them, it's been open a long while, since the gov't got the lease on the real estate.

Next time someone has the moxy to call USCIS, we might put them on the spot a little more, to ask them, "When will Overland Park begin ADJUDICATING I-130 petitions." If they say, "but it's already open," we can answer - because we know governmentspeak, "yes, we know that it is open, but we are wondering when they will begin adjudicating petitions."

And if we really want to pry info out of them: "Where can we find out the I-130 adjudication rate of the Overland Park facility?"

We're onto them - and they must know it by now. They must be aware of these boards.

[En-oh-eh-to now 147]

I think the conflicting opinions about the Overland Park NBC facility can be explained.... if we learn to speak government-speak. When they say that the Overland Park facility "has been open" or "is operating", that might SEEM like they are adjudicating I-130 petitions, but for them, it means simply that the government has taken over the space, has been hiring, has been stacking I-130s, etc. - for them, this busy-ness qualifies as 'being open' and 'operating'.

Right from the horse's mouth at the NBC-AILA's semiannual meeting:

NBC opened its new office in Overland Park, Kansas, where Adjudications Division 7 will process Form I-90 applications. A new division, Adjudications Division 8, also will be located at the Overland Park, Kansas facility. NBC anticipates that Division 8 will begin to adjudicate stand-alone immediate relative Form I-130 petitions by the end of Fiscal Year 2013.

The next meeting will likely be in November. I hope that they follow through on this, but if they do not, I hope the AILA takes them to task on it. Monday, September 30 is the final day of the fiscal new year. Will they begin adjudicating I-130 petition as anticipated? I am cautiously optimistic. After all, they cannot simply let the backlog turn into a tsunami of I-130 petitions, can they?

[deleteme 34]

Right from the horse's mouth at the NBC-AILA's semiannual meeting:

NBC opened its new office in Overland Park, Kansas, where Adjudications Division 7 will process Form I-90 applications. A new division, Adjudications Division 8, also will be located at the Overland Park, Kansas facility. NBC anticipates that Division 8 will begin to adjudicate stand-alone immediate relative Form I-130 petitions by the end of Fiscal Year 2013.

The next meeting will likely be in November. I hope that they follow through on this, but if they do not, I hope the AILA takes them to task on it. Monday, September 30 is the final day of the fiscal new year. Will they begin adjudicating I-130 petition as anticipated? I am cautiously optimistic. After all, they cannot simply let the backlog turn into a tsunami of I-130 petitions, can they?

Right, this does not conflict with what I wrote.

Above, I am responding to some folks' posts, expressing shock that USCIS personnel on the telephone claim that the Overland Park facility 'has been open' or 'operating' for a year or two years. This makes sense, I try to explain, if 'open' or 'operating' means hiring new employees, occupying the Overland Park space or stacking un-adjudicated I-130's, which we believe, has been going on since 2012.

Our timelines and anecdotal reports here on VJ suggest that adjudications have stopped for at least four months now, maybe more (April filers are at +5 months, and look at their adjudication stats, not much better than July filers - my cohort). And the AILA memo, which you reference, supports the suspicion that adjudications have stopped.

We are all waiting with baited breath, to see when adjudications will recommence, hopefully in the next few days of September, which is the last few days, I presume, of their fiscal year.

On the contrary, they can let the backlog of I-130s turn into a tsunami.... it probably already is a tsunami. Think about what might change the situation in our favor. Will our phone calls have an effect? Our appeals to our Congressional representation? Will our problem sway votes in the 2014 elections? The answer is No to all of these questions.

We can just wait and hope that the massive backlog will be met by a massive, trained workforce that will cut through these I-130 petitions rapidly, when that workforce is deployed. I hope they are ready, trained and numerous. We will see. Maybe Uncle Sam will come through for us, after all. Maybe not. If the new workforce is as massive as the backlog, maybe the net amount of waiting time will be not much different than it was for 2012 filers. But maybe the workforce will catch up slowly, and our cases are harbingers of another era of very long I-130 waiting periods.

I agree with you, that if they delay deploying the full force of the expected number of employees on these I-130 adjudications, that the AILA should be ready in November to call attention to this problem, and pressure them. I don't know of any other watchdog group or institution - public or private - that can do this.

I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic, because we don't have any further information to warrant optimism or pessimism. Like many of us, I'm just sitting tight and trying to pay attention to every detail that might indicate some greater trend, for us or against us.

[En-oh-eh-to now 147]

I agree with you, that if they delay deploying the full force of the expected number of employees on these I-130 adjudications, that the AILA should be ready in November to call attention to this problem, and pressure them. I don't know of any other watchdog group or institution - public or private - that can do this.

Perhaps this is where we should direct our complaints. It seems they are the only ones that the NBC answers to. Sure they don't serve us, since most of us aren't their clients, but surely they have clients with pending I-103s that they're looking out for. If, by the time this November meeting rolls around, and Division 8 is still not moving petitions, we VJers should contact the AILA en masse.

If things aren't moving by then, I'll start a thread with the intention rallying the I-130 VJers to flood the AILA with calls and e-mails informing them that USCIS is screwing us, which means their clients are also being screwed.

[deleteme 34]

Perhaps this is where we should direct our complaints. It seems they are the only ones that the NBC answers to. Sure they don't serve us, since most of us aren't their clients, but surely they have clients with pending I-103s that they're looking out for. If, by the time this November meeting rolls around, and Division 8 is still not moving petitions, we VJers should contact the AILA en masse.

If things aren't moving by then, I'll start a thread with the intention rallying the I-130 VJers to flood the AILA with calls and e-mails informing them that USCIS is screwing us, which means their clients are also being screwed.

Yes, this seems like the smart thing to do. I emailed AILA about a month and a half ago when many of us were growing wise about NBC-Overland Park. I thought what I wrote explained the evidentiary basis for our concerns, and probable consequences (long extensions of wait times). Didn't hear anything back. But, if nothing changes and more people are upset, we might have a good chance of rallying VJers, and targeting pressure on them. They then might make our issue their marquee issue to raise with USCIS.

The only change to your plan that I would suggest is that we begin rallying VJers very soon. If we wait too long, their agenda will already be set, and we will be late to the party. Right now, there's enough upset people on VJ, and enough data to back up our complaint (I-130 processing times changed about 4x, from 5 months to 16 months since their last meeting with USCIS) to grab their attention. Regardless of how well NBC-Overland Park performs over the next month, I highly doubt that their performance will erase our concerns or obviate the need to put these questions to them in November.

All we are asking is that they put our problem on the USCIS agenda. We could write a brief preamble that states our problem, and what we believe to be the cause. We could suggest that they ask questions like these:

- What is their revised projection for when NBC-Overland Park will be adjudicating petitions again?

- Why has the processing time for standalone I-130s extended from 5 to 16 months?

- Has NBC, as they promised earlier in the year, been sending out I-130 petitions to field offices for adjudication? In what numbers?

- What is the current backlog of I-130s at NBC-Overland Park?

- How many FTEs (full time equivalents) per month will be dedicated to adjudicating standalone I-130s at NBC-Overland Park.

- What is the current monthly rate of standalone I-130s accepted by NBC-Overland Park?

Maybe we could post a form letter and the right email address contact at AILA, and ask our members to copy and paste the form letter in an email and jet it off to them. Maybe we can post the phone number, too, if folks want to call them. I presume that numbers will get their attention, like Congressional offices whom are less influential, it seems (!).

Help us Obi-wan/AILA, you're my last hope.

[deleteme 34]

And by the way, I'll just add that we might want to crowd-source the questions and somebody edits them, so that we pool our brains and come up with a powerful, concise form letter.

[Nodir 10]

Let's do it guys!

[NoelAnne 62]

Supporting this 100%!

[anuspras 65]

Check March thread " PD 12 th.March. NOA-2 approved 26 th. September 2013.

[Smitten 5]

Hi, I'm another May 2013 I-130 petitioner (NOA1 received May 17).

I talked with a USCIS tier-2 officer yesterday to update my address.

I asked him to estimate how much longer I need to wait for a decision on the petition: "Two to four more months."

It looks like my wife and baby boy won't make it in time for the holidays.

[DearJohn 28]

Hi, I'm another May 2013 I-130 petitioner (NOA1 received May 17).

I talked with a USCIS tier-2 officer yesterday to update my address.

I asked him to estimate how much longer I need to wait for a decision on the petition: "Two to four more months."

It looks like my wife and baby boy won't make it in time for the holidays.

I know the feeling My NOA1 date is May 6, I check my status online at least three times a day. I don't want to wait two to four more months!! I miss my husband so much that it hurts.

We applied for the K3 visa too. I wish they could give me at least that one to be close to my love, but the same, no updates

I hope all the people here are right and we can start getting some approvals next week. Let's keep our faith strong, we're not alone.