July 2014 Non-Filipino TSC Filers

[Chuksteddylove 22]

Great. Happy for you.

Thank You AddisAbeba

Congratulations! Did you do anything special to push through a quicker approval i.e. contact senator or expedite request?

Thanks Jay&M, I did not do anything on my own. I had already set my mind to wait until after christmas. This is the handwork of God, He's ever amazing.

Fantastic! Congrats. Just curious if you were set up to receive automated updates from USCIS. Enjoy the profound feeling of relief. Best wishes for the rest of your journey.

Thanks you too Lorvin, I thought I did set to receive updates but on a second thought, I think I like the surprise

Thank you all for your kind wishes. I pray that you celebrate your NOA2 soon. God bless!

[Unidentified 2,930]

Conratulations Chuksteddylove! Hopefully this means more July people will get approved very soon

[Chuksteddylove 22]

Conratulations Chuksteddylove! Hopefully this means more July people will get approved very soon

You are so right. TSC is working on our cases. Just hang in there.

[Abbumimapa 30]

Congrats!!! Truly happy for you chucksteddylove!! Well deserved approval!!

[renatesol 13]

Congrats Chuksteddylove! A very nice Christmas present for you, and some Christmas hope for us other July filers.

Edited December 12, 2014 by renatesol

[Chuksteddylove 22]

Congrats!!! Truly happy for you chucksteddylove!! Well deserved approval!!

I appreciate your comment Abbumimapa, thank you.

My prayers are with you guys. The approvals are coming soon.

[Chuksteddylove 22]

Congrats Chuksteddylove! A very nice Christmas present for you, and some Christmas hope for us other July filers.

Yeah, it is an early christmas present. I refreshed the page countless time to make sure my eyes were not playing me. Thank you

[blabrada05 7]

Congratulations this gives all of us some hope.

Thank You AddisAbeba

Thanks Jay&M, I did not do anything on my own. I had already set my mind to wait until after christmas. This is the handwork of God, He's ever amazing.

Thanks you too Lorvin, I thought I did set to receive updates but on a second thought, I think I like the surprise

Thank you all for your kind wishes. I pray that you celebrate your NOA2 soon. God bless!

[samlog 25]

You are so right. TSC is working on our cases. Just hang in there.

Wow! That's really good news! Congrats!

I hope that means they finally started work on July

[Vicky&Fritz 33]

Congrats on the approvals! And fingers crossed for the rest of us! This week was really difficult for me, so I hope its soon!

[asdfmkay 4]

Congratulations! Kind of random.. there was also another July Texas approval about 3 weeks ago. I've been following the June thread closely and they are processing around mid June still. I think we have a few weeks to go (January?) until we start seeing real July processing.

[Abbumimapa 30]

I am also waiting to see a stream of July approvals. Unless we see at least one approval per day, this seems a random pick. But sooooooo happy for chucksteddylove. Anyone waiting over 4 months deserves an approval.

[Patriots 3]

Congrats. I just saw some on igors list who filed in early march and just got approval with no rfe...why would that happen to them? There is no order to this at all it seems.

Edited December 13, 2014 by spartanenf

[alicia98981 128]

Alright July filers, it's almost your turn! I got approved on NOV 21 and my case is now on it's way to the embassy. A bit of advice, I was driving when I got several texts and emails at about 730 pm CST. I missed the first rotation of approval sent off so I had to latch on to the next group sent NVC about 2 weeks later. I checked out several timelines to get and estimate as to when I should call NVC and figured it took an average of 7-8 days before it arrived. On day 8, my package arrived and on day 9 I called them to confirm this and I played dumb so that I could get the rest of the information out of them. They are super helpful unlike the USCIS call center, so be nice, even if you have to wait 45 minutes to an hour for an answer. I flew into the country at 6 am and started calling at 630 am before I went through customs and the line was still busy! I called several times all day until toward the end of the night I finally sat down in front of the tv with dinner and just hit redial . . . 40 TIMES before I finally was able to connect! I then sat on hold for another 45 minutes. I got my case number, ID number and BIN.

Once again, I looked at TSC timelines to get an estimate of how much time it would be before they assigned these numbers and sent my case to the embassy. And those numbers were right on track for the most part so keep those timelines filled for ALL parts of your visa journey and make sure others do the same! Even though the agent told me it would be several days before my case was shipped off, since I was leaving the country again for a few weeks, I just called again two later and voila! My case was complete and sent onward to the embassy! I think my case was at NVC a total to 3-4 days!

Do not use the NVC guides on here as a resource. I was prepared to follow all of those steps even though I knew it was related to I130s simply because the guide said "NVC". I honestly think God was truly on our side since we missed our flight from Morocco to Casablanca where we had planned on getting married at and later applying for the CR-1 which I now have come to believe is a whole lot more complicated, time consuming, and expensive. When I was preparing our packet to be shipped off, I was actually in Morocco at the time and I read through the entire process so I left my fiance a copy of all the documents and a few extra such as the AOS documents with my signature on them just in case. If you visit your loved one before you get approved, I would highly suggest you do the same as if you're like me, I could only visit Morocco every couple of months when work was slow and money wasn't as tight. I personally don't trust anyone to hand my case better than me and that includes FEDEX, DHL, and the collective mail system which definitely slows the process down. Even though I'm not there, I will use Hangouts to walk Imad through the process of filing out the documents he's probably going to need for the embassy. You maybe able to find the list on your country's embassy website or you may have to simply just wait. You can beat the power curve by already finding out what you need before you go to the embassy, having the documents filled out, and sending them off the day after they arrive back to the embassy. If you really want to be gung-ho, find out the approved medical locations if you can, look at the timelines for interview date estimates. And make an appointment now so that you won't have to wait months for an appointment and an interview date, even if you don't have the medical documents just yet.

Since we have a rough estimate as to when Imad will be approved - because we know he will! - we are now looking at flights. Now granted, I should have saved the money for the flights and AOS and all the other immigration related fees and expenses that come after the interview - and I did but life smacked me around a few times and I'm finding myself starting over with saving the funds again. Take this wait as a blessing, a chance to get your money together so when things start happening for real for real, you'll be prepared to meet the cost. I work in the aviation industry and I can tell you that if you live in the US, DO NOT FLY ON AN AMERICAN CARRIER!!! That includes US Airways (especially!), Delta (will lose your bags 85% of the time, and United (there is no free alcohol on these, the service is terrible, and you only get one not very good meal! BOOOOO!) If you have to fly on an American carrier, I say American Airlines is the one I've had the best experience flying internationally on a regular basis. I'm out of country now as I write this and fly a lot of different airlines. If you can, I'd say look into airlines like Turkish Airlines (not the best service, but the foods great, lounge in Istanbul is outstanding, and the alcohol and internet come free on their long haul flights to the US. Just wait until everyone is sleeping when you use the internet, it works better then. The guest amenities are pretty sweet as well and the flights are relatively cheap), any long haul Middle Eastern company is great such as Qatar ($1000 for two people one way! 2 business tickets for 3000! Wow! HINT 1 : The one we're taking back to the States because they have the best prices an! ) Emirates (love flying them, one of the best ever, even in economy) and Eithad (probably the best of the 3 even thought the other two certainly aren't any light weights), and for Asian airlines Cathay Pacific (you CANNOT go wrong with them), Asiana (Don't let that whole SanFran debacle full you, these folks are professionals. Seriously), ANA (don't sleep on them either). I haven't flown any of the Chinese airlines so I'm not certain of those, but Thai, Singapore, and Vietnam also have excellent reputations as I missed both of my flights with them and haven't been fortunate enough to have an encounter with them again as I spend most of my time in South East Asia in Japan and Korea. As far as European carriers, they are American carriers 2.0 with way better service and fewer restrictions. Some people have a love/hate with British Airways, Lufthansa, and TAP Portugal. I particularly love all 3. Air France is SO MEAN so I'm biased toward them and I love KLM but I do not love those knee hating seats. If you're tall like me, (I'm 5'10), it might be an uncomfortable experience if you don't get one of their premium economy seats. I've also had good experiences on Iberia and EasyJet coming out of Morocco to connect in Paris. SAS was a hugh disappointment and Iceland Air is surprisingly affordable, great 2 or 3 day stopover which the will hook you up with for no extra charge (HINT 2: pre honeymoon minivacation that they encourage (read: beg) people to partake in on their website to boost tourism and Reykjavik is surprisingly a well kept secret) for anyone on the East or West Coast. Ok I've totally gotten way off topic and you're probably annoyed by now, but if there is an airline out of your country, I've probably have flow on it 2 1/2 out of 3 times several times and tell you about the experience you may have flying home for good with you loved one with a great experience if you're curious.

Now be mindful this does not apply to CSC. I believe that because CSC is knocking them out so quickly - an insultingly 4 day minimum - that they're having a backlog going on as far as petitions getting sent out in a timely manner. So instead of a quick turn around like us, CSC is waiting MONTHS for their cases to ship to NVC. On the other hand, some of the case that are sent off some how keep managing to go to the National Record Center or NRC. This is not the case for TSC although a very small minority have reported some unusual circumstances with their cases such as not being sent off after so many weeks, stuck at NVC, or the their case being completely lost. Do not worry. There is a very small, almost non existent chance of this happening to you as TSC seem to be very efficient with the NVC process. Eventually when the cases from CSC do make it out and to the NVC, I also believe there is and NVC backlog for CSC since there are so many in a short period of time. Once again, CSC is waiting (based on timeline data) months for their cases to process out of NVC. Again as I said before, this does not apply to you! If you do post on NVC forums, be prepared for some CSC filers to feel a bit hostile for our quick NVC turn around, much in the same way we felt about them and their fast approvals. I guess the process balances itself out for both service centers, who knows? If I have any updates about my case that could help you guys as you prepare for your approval, I'll post them here. Good luck and may the odds ever be in your favor!

[Lorvin 45]

Thanks alicia98981 for thinking of us! Can't wait to be feeling the approval love like your fellow June filers. Wishing you all the best on the rest of your journey!