NAO2 Arrival

[collegeboard 0]

For all who are waiting for USCIS to approve a 129 petition, what is so difficult to deal with is the uncertainty. The timeline says they are looking at petitions filed 6 months ago. So does that mean a 6 month wait for this step? And, my God, SIX months!

But then it is clear that no one seems to be waiting 6 months. Every Friday a number of people report getting approval (a few every Tuesday) and none seem to have waited 6 months. (Oh, well there still are a few from the pre-IMBRA days who got so royally screwed that it makes my blood boil even to think about it. They are the crowd who paid the price for the dishonest few trying to scam the system and for government foolishness in applying the law. Why oh why did they not FIRST hire sufficent personel and then implement the law? Why not grandfather those who already had approval? If a business ran like, that bankruptcy would follow so fast . . . .) But for most, the 6 months is a time that USCIS seems to put out there just to make applicants feel sick.

[Hey, these are people's lives we are talking about! People whose whole life is put on hold, their love attacked by this unnatural separation, their world turned upside down. People who want to obey the law, who only want their rights as citizens, people whose spouse will soon, if the relationship can stand the strain, be productive US residents, maybe someday citizens, contributing to the great immigrant nation of the US. Don't treat these people like supplicants coming for scraps of nourishment that the government can hand out! Treat them like citizens with international perspectives enriching the nation!]

Still, the uncertainty. How long will it take? If one only knew what was happening, only knew when some faceless person in California would look at one's carefully, oh so carefully, assembled petition? Waiting 2 months and longer is hard, but it is the not knowing that is so difficult. When advised to be patient, how can one be patient when all is so UNCERTAIN! Give me a date and I can wait; let me dangle scrounging each day for any indication of WHEN, and I suffer.

The facts are, however, that no one really knows when any petition will be examined. No one knows if Christmas will slow things down at all and if so how much.

All that can be said is that the probability is high that petitions will be examined after 70-90 at California and that the trend is for the time to be getting shorter.

After 70 days, begin to hope.

And always remember that it is not IF your petition will be approved but WHEN!