October 2013 I-130 Filers

[dee&vee 79]

This is what I have come up with according to new numbers till Jan'14. Service centers are listed in the order of only i130 forms completion rate. Doesn't mean slowest center is incapable, they might be just busy working on other forms.

CSC: in January, approved about twice the i130s than they have pending. Being the fastest center at working on i130s.

TSC: Finished 53.68% of their backlog in January. Huge improvement from 22.90% of i130s done in December.

NSC: Finished about 15.02% of backlog from January. Up from 11.16% in December.

VSC: In January approved about 7.15% of i130s from their backlog. In December they completed 4.81% of their backlog. So they are improving at least, Very Slowly!!

[Cupcake23 90]

I GOT NOA2!!!!!! 17th March. California.

SO excited to read this! I was transferred 3/7 also to California! Hopefully I too will be in your shoes! CONGRATS!

[Ketsuban 1,034]

That would be great if they didn't send you anything. I hope! Maybe someone can confirm. The last time that I applied for my husband for I-130 10 years ago (his card is lapsed, which is why we're applying again), we applied through the Cairo Embassy- there was no NVC stage, so I am unfamiliar wit it.

That sounds like Direct Consular Filing (DCF) where the petitioner has resided in the beneficiary's country for at least 6 months. Everything is done via the consulate. Very few countries participate in DCF.

The kind of visa we are going for very definitely involves processing at NVC.

To avoid having to receive snail mail, call NVC and give them your email addresses. You will no longer receive snail mail and will receive everything via email. Remember to check your junk folder

Edited March 18, 2014 by Ketsuban

[AmberG 23]

That sounds like Direct Consular Filing (DCF) where the petitioner has resided in the beneficiary's country for at least 6 months. Everything is done via the consulate. Very few countries participate in DCF.

The kind of visa we are going for very definitely involves processing at NVC.

To avoid having to receive snail mail, call NVC and give them your email addresses. You will no longer receive snail mail and will receive everything via email. Remember to check your junk folder

Yes, I'm sure DCF is the term for it. Again, it was 10 years ago and I was living in Egypt then (don't remember the 6 month condition though). Too bad they don't still allow it. I think it took us all of 4 months max to have the visa in hand.

Thank you for letting me know to call NVC to get the emails instead of snail mail- good tip- I did not know about that!

[Cjax 6]

Well NSC is supposedly at 5 months! Please someone else double check I am seeing it right. I can only hope the stats will translate into reality!!

[AustinCanada 681]

I think that NSC is going for the low hanging fruit.

Love it! NSC, please pick the low hanging fruit as fast as you can!

Please transfer the high hanging fruit to CSC since they are more efficient and smarter.

[AustinCanada 681]

Well NSC is supposedly at 5 months! Please someone else double check I am seeing it right. I can only hope the stats will translate into reality!!

You can check "Monthly Transfer Spreadsheets" http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/470656-monthly-transfer-spreadsheets-in-order/ and click May, June, July, and Sept transfer sheets to see how many people have been still waiting at NSC.

There is a good chance that some of the old transfer sheets are no longer updated so it's probably not as bad as it looks.

[bomzy4ever 11]

Bomzy4ever,

USCIS is referring to the beneficiary's ARN. I noticed you are also at NSC, so this is good news for all of us at NSC. If you read my latest post, september had an approval today which occurred 10 days after the change of ARN notice. Of course, it may also imply that you may be getting and RFE, however I think that NSC is going for the low hanging fruit.

Hey there, thanks for your response...I did some research on this type of update and found out some people who got approved very quickly than they expected..I'm hoping that's the case for me too but when you mentioned about RFE I was like, I don't want any RFE letters I'd rather get approval straight up LOL...keeping my eyes on the status....I have a feeling that NSC is going to shock all of us with good news very soon!

[Ketsuban 1,034]

NSC is at 5 months? So is that inclusive of the 5 months we've already waited, or is there now an additional 5 months to wait?

[jsumner86 403]

NSC is at 5 months? So is that inclusive of the 5 months we've already waited, or is there now an additional 5 months to wait?

So they say. I would say California's was the most accurate out of all the service center time-scales.

We were May 16 PD at Texas Service Center and didn't get approved until last Thursday.. that was only due to us bugging USCIS so much for the last two weeks!

Edited March 18, 2014 by jsumner86

[AustinCanada 681]

NSC is at 5 months? So is that inclusive of the 5 months we've already waited, or is there now an additional 5 months to wait?

Somethings smells fishy here. Did someone manipulate the number? Is that why USCIS transferred more Sept and Oct applications to NSC because NSC is supposedly at "5 months" and is "faster" than other service centers?

Maybe NVC requested that USCIS transfer applications to Nebraska since NVC is currently backlogged and wants the slowest service center to process applications until they reduce the current backlog?

[Ketsuban 1,034]

Somethings smells fishy here. Did someone manipulate the number? Is that why USCIS transferred more Sept and Oct applications to NSC because NSC is supposedly at "5 months" and is "faster" than other service centers?

Maybe NVC requested that USCIS transfer applications to Nebraska since NVC is currently backlogged and wants the slowest service center to process applications until they reduce the current backlog?

But surely if they post Nov 21st as their date, us lot are going to all be suddenly bombarding them with angry phonecalls. A lot of the time they seem to fudge the figures the other way to avoid this.

[nightingalejules 678]

NSC is at 5 months? So is that inclusive of the 5 months we've already waited, or is there now an additional 5 months to wait?

Unfortunately (or fortunately, I suppose) I don't think those numbers really apply as much to us as we'd like to think. Basically, they're saying that if you were a new filer whose petition arrived from the Chicago lockbox to NSC today (or I guess on January 31), that you could expect to wait 5 months for an approval. For us, it's going to fall somewhere in the middle... I wish there was more transparency and that we could trust that what they're saying is true at any stage of the game. I'd expect that what it really means is that NSC, through (perhaps) having gotten fewer transfers over the last couple of months, is basically at the stage where the backlog is at "normal" levels - ie the levels it was at before the whole DACA debacle, when the average wait time was presumably at or near the 5 month goal.

Or at least that was the case at the end of January, before they got inundated with transfers again. Who knows?

[Ketsuban 1,034]

Do you guys plan on filing service requests?

[Cjax 6]

I don't really think we will get notices in 5 months but hopefully it means the wait is not that much longer. I think while our VJ spreadsheets to give indications and insight on what's happening, it doesn't necessarily accurately represent the hundreds of thousands of applications out there. But it is definitely odd that NSC goes from 9 months to 5 months in the space of a month lol.