Why doesn't the DACA affect I-129F's like it does I-130's?

[r060106 109]

Yes, I agree with you about DACA. Completely. So basically, because they stopped the transferring of the case files to local offices the NBC has become so bogged down that the normal processing time is now inflated? Do you foresee any end in sight to this? Or will the queue just keep getting bigger and bigger? I honestly feel like it's just going to keep getting worse and worse, but also think that something has to give. It's just so frustrating how they treat us and how terrible the spousal visa process is here compared to other countries. It's almost a joke.

[Darnell 8,478]

In truth, I dunno.

I have some hope that the Overland Park office has a great opening, and the staff there are trained properly, and 'the bulge' of petitions go through quickly.

That's it. That's all I hope, at the moment. Things change, as moments move.

[r060106 109]

True. Ugh, so depressing.

[A&K_2013 16]

Oh, it was corrected, for a bit of time. Since the change-over on 15 Aug 2012, I-130s actually went fast for about 4 months, as the routing was

lockbox-> MSC-> local office

and most of the local offices (exceptions - Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and several others)

just sucked up the casefiles and processed them in FIFO,

and were exceptionally fast in the adjudication process.

After those 4 first months though, things slowed down, as the queues got bigger. Bigger queue? More time for Adjudication, as you wait your place in the larger queue. Actual adjudication takes about 15 minutes, for what it's worth.

Then some bright boy at USCIS declared, recently, that the local offices MUST BE FINISHED with the adjudication of casefiles held locally by 31 October 2013 - seems there's a shift to the new Overland Park office after that.

So, if'n you seem stuck somewhere, past the 6 month mark of the NOA-1 date, you might want to touch base with an Immigration Liason Staffer Human at yer Congressman's office and see what's what.

Now, DACA skewed almost everything. Really p|ssed me (and others) off. I've tried not to spew too much about it, but my basic concept is 'F**K DACA'.

Where did you hear that local offices have to finish the adjucation of the I-130s they have by october 31st? Just curious

Edited October 20, 2013 by Atrain01

[Darnell 8,478]

about 10 various reports here, from folk hitting a local office this month via infopass, and writing about it, here at VJ.

[i'm a reader, and gister, so bear that in mind]

Edited October 20, 2013 by Darnell

[loladolly 51]

Whoa there, OP, back at post #1.

In fact, DACA at CSC DID effect I-129Fs at CSC, and many of the I-129Fs were re-routed to TSC.

TSC takes some time, each season that it's activated for I-129Fs, before they get really efficient.

So, apologies, I suggest you dig back a bit, learn more about the I-129F lag at CSC when the DACA switch was turned on.

Completely agree.... It too me 8 months for my NOA2 at CSC last year... Was an august 2012 filer and got my NOA2 at end of april 2013. Got back to the US at the beginning of july so almost a year after the beginning of the process...

[r060106 109]

Completely agree.... It too me 8 months for my NOA2 at CSC last year... Was an august 2012 filer and got my NOA2 at end of april 2013. Got back to the US at the beginning of july so almost a year after the beginning of the process...

I wish I was in your situation. It looks like people filing now and a few months back will be waiting a year just to get the NOA2.

Edited October 21, 2013 by r060106

[loladolly 51]

I wish I was in your situation. It looks like people filing now and a few months back will be waiting a year just to get the NOA2.

I understand that the situation for I130 at this moment is worse than what it was for I129F at CSC last year. I feel so bad for you all, i know what you are feeling. At the same time a year ago i was hoping that i had filed for a CR1 instead....

But as usual things may change, nothing is ever set in stone with USCIS, the issue for I129f at CSC was fixed really fast once they decided to fix it. I hope it will be the same for I130...

[r060106 109]

I understand that the situation for I130 at this moment is worse than what it was for I129F at CSC last year. I feel so bad for you all, i know what you are feeling. At the same time a year ago i was hoping that i had filed for a CR1 instead....

But as usual things may change, nothing is ever set in stone with USCIS, the issue for I129f at CSC was fixed really fast once they decided to fix it. I hope it will be the same for I130...

Yes, right now I'm wishing I would have not gotten married in Europe. I doubt they'll change and I doubt they'll fix anything. They just don't care. It just doesn't seem to be in the cards and USCIS seems to have a bias for fiances right now and doesn't appear to care about spouses of U.S. citizens, in my honest opinion.

[ryna 132]

I agree. And I mean no disrespect, but my husband and I have been married for 7 1/2 years. It makes no sense to me that I am now at the 7 month mark and no word about when we're going to be able to move to the next step, and yet, we're seeing fiance visas go through in 19 days. Someone explained to me that's because our IR is an immigrant visa, and the fiance is a non-immigrant visa. But that doesn't make sense to me, because if you're not intending to stay in the US, then you don't need to bother to get the fiance visa in order to get married in the US. (I know, because that's exactly how my husband and I did it.)

It's very irritating and upsetting that my marriage years is put at a lower priority than a fiance visa.

Actually, the immigrant/non-immigrant thing makes some sense. USCIS is investigating spousal visa recipients for permanent residency before they are forwarded to the DoS and consulates for visa interviews. The K-1s will get that level of scrutiny during AOS and, I imagine, that part of the process for them is being affected by DACA as well. My wife and I went the K-1 route and it was frustrating for us to watch some other I-129Fs who filed 2, 3 or even 4 months after us fly through in as little as 8 days while we waited 6 months to get to her visa interview. Even a lot of people who filed later and received RFEs got their approvals before we did (and we had no RFEs.) Every case is different and every adjudicator/office works at their own pace. I gave up trying to second guess what they do at USCIS.

That said, it's not quite as simple to come to the U.S. to get married as you say it is, even if you have no intention of staying and living in the U.S. VWP countries are the exception not the rule and most people from the rest of the world would most certainly need a fiance(e) visa even if they had no intention of living in the U.S. after marriage. Even with a valid (and usually difficult to obtain) tourist visa in hand, the risk of planning a U.S. wedding is too great because if the border patrol officer suspects that you might have the intent to adjust status from a tourist visa, you have a very good chance of being turned back at the border. Having the K-1 takes "immigrant intent" off the table as a reason to deny U.S. entry.

Anyhow, I know the waiting isn't easy and I hope you get your approval soon... Best of luck!

[savagechair 38]

Of course my viewpoint is very biased, but it seems to me triaging could be implemented for this process.

Long marriage (3+ years) goes into an efficiency queue, unless in high fraud country.

Low fraud country gets put into a second tier queue.

High fraud, fiances, third tier.

Red flaggers in general, at bottom tier.

It seems a file could be analyzed fairly quickly to determine where it gets triaged, and people with easy, clear cut cases get adjudicated faster.

While it's certainly not in the spirit of first come, first served, it works (in reverse) for emergency rooms, so it could be a better process for immigration.

[r060106 109]

Actually, the immigrant/non-immigrant thing makes some sense. USCIS is investigating spousal visa recipients for permanent residency before they are forwarded to the DoS and consulates for visa interviews. The K-1s will get that level of scrutiny during AOS and, I imagine, that part of the process for them is being affected by DACA as well. My wife and I went the K-1 route and it was frustrating for us to watch some other I-129Fs who filed 2, 3 or even 4 months after us fly through in as little as 8 days while we waited 6 months to get to her visa interview. Even a lot of people who filed later and received RFEs got their approvals before we did (and we had no RFEs.) Every case is different and every adjudicator/office works at their own pace. I gave up trying to second guess what they do at USCIS.

That said, it's not quite as simple to come to the U.S. to get married as you say it is, even if you have no intention of staying and living in the U.S. VWP countries are the exception not the rule and most people from the rest of the world would most certainly need a fiance(e) visa even if they had no intention of living in the U.S. after marriage. Even with a valid (and usually difficult to obtain) tourist visa in hand, the risk of planning a U.S. wedding is too great because if the border patrol officer suspects that you might have the intent to adjust status from a tourist visa, you have a very good chance of being turned back at the border. Having the K-1 takes "immigrant intent" off the table as a reason to deny U.S. entry.

Anyhow, I know the waiting isn't easy and I hope you get your approval soon... Best of luck!

Yeah, the K-1 route is looking like a really good option in hindsight. Are you saying that waiting is better than the whole AOS process etc.? Cause honestly, right now I'd much rather be with my wife (and child, which makes it harder) and go through AOS, than be without them. Just saying.

Of course my viewpoint is very biased, but it seems to me triaging could be implemented for this process.

Long marriage (3+ years) goes into an efficiency queue, unless in high fraud country.

Low fraud country gets put into a second tier queue.

High fraud, fiances, third tier.

Red flaggers in general, at bottom tier.

It seems a file could be analyzed fairly quickly to determine where it gets triaged, and people with easy, clear cut cases get adjudicated faster.

While it's certainly not in the spirit of first come, first served, it works (in reverse) for emergency rooms, so it could be a better process for immigration.

Yeah see, you're using logic, which isn't used by government in general. That will never happen. Or at least, pigs will fly first. Although I'd love if it happened because it makes total sense and would be awesome. No offense or anything.

[loladolly 51]

Yes, right now I'm wishing I would have not gotten married in Europe. I doubt they'll change and I doubt they'll fix anything. They just don't care. It just doesn't seem to be in the cards and USCIS seems to have a bias for fiances right now and doesn't appear to care about spouses of U.S. citizens, in my honest opinion.

It will change... keep faith in it.

I don't know there must be something you can do, directly or not.

I remember us july2012/october2012 I129f filers folks going into a huge emailing campaign at the beginning of the year when we saw how bad CSC was getting (while VSC was averaging at 5 months). It involved contacting both senators, congressman and CIS ombudsman. Also some people directly emailed the service center director. I don't know if it is related or not but a few weeks later, they started to transfer DACA cases from CSC to TSC and I129f at csc began to be approved really fast and now it barely takes 3 months to get NOA2 at csc (even if now it looks like the backlog is at NVC).

[loladolly 51]

It is true that it is better to wait for AOS to be approved while with your loved ones in the US. But think about it, people like me who had a long K1 process also have a long AOS process in front of them (especially interview waiver cases like mine) which delays filing for ROC and citizenship later. We never get used to waiting and i find it crazy that K1 waiting time for AOS to be approved is nearing 9 months right now. With the spouse visa, you become a LPR right away and are done with uscis for a little bit.

[r060106 109]

It will change... keep faith in it.

I don't know there must be something you can do, directly or not.

I remember us july2012/october2012 I129f filers folks going into a huge emailing campaign at the beginning of the year when we saw how bad CSC was getting (while VSC was averaging at 5 months). It involved contacting both senators, congressman and CIS ombudsman. Also some people directly emailed the service center director. I don't know if it is related or not but a few weeks later, they started to transfer DACA cases from CSC to TSC and I129f at csc began to be approved really fast and now it barely takes 3 months to get NOA2 at csc (even if now it looks like the backlog is at NVC).

It's very hard for me to keep faith in anything having to do with this whole process. It's just terrible. You'd think they'd send some of the I-130s over to the service centers given how fast they're processing things right now. But no, they can't do that. They offload everything onto the NBC and then backlog everyone. It makes no sense and drives me crazy. Sorry I'm being so pessamistic, but I honestly don't see any end in sight to this backlog. Call me the VJ pessamist, or realist, but that's how I see things and I'm not ashamed to say it.