October 2014 Filers - Texas Service Center

[SantyAndAllie 155]

Hi everyone!

Really great that there are so many supportive people on here sharing their stories. It's a long, frustrating, and at times confusing process so it's very helpful that there is such a strong community online to turn to!

Me and my fiancée received our NOA1 on 8th of October 2014. We're fortunate enough that we have been able to live together in the UK for the past 18 months, however she will have to leave the UK at the end of January, so we will be returning to a long-distance relationship while the visa is approved.

Over Christmas we both went to the US and checked out wedding venues. We have our hearts (and wallets) set on a particular venue. However, we are anxious about setting a date and securing the venue in the event that the visa isn't ready in time! Have any other October filers set a date or booked a venue yet? The date we are looking at is the 27th of August 2015. Would be interested to hear you opinions and experiences!

Thanks,

Paul

Hi Paul! Congrats & welcome ! I think I wrote a message a few pages back on this... You can have your civil ceremony separate. It saves you time, money, and stress. We're having a civil ceremony and a religious ceremony & reception later on (in Sept- we planned it before visa was an afterthought LOL) Don't worry- it's not cheating! hahah. In our eyes, it's a piece of paper for the government. It's too stressful trying to plan for a wedding in 3 months (which you definitely can't really figure out when you'll get the visa, to be honest. it's just like a roulette. NOA2 may come in april, then it has to get there, you have to interview, etc. it's just too unpredictable). This way youll be able to work after your civil ceremony and save up for a nice wedding. The celebration with fam & friends is really what's important.. I honestly like it better having the time to plan and have things picked out. Not much you can do without having a date!

[SantyAndAllie 155]

Also, I just read someone from one of the other monthly threads say that uscis told him that TSC was now taking 8 months for noa2! Dunno if that's true, but that's what the guy said.

I'm almost positive this might have been in reference to how long it's been taking right now due to holiday delays. I highly, highly doubt it'll take 8 months. And like I said, a lot of people predict the opposite- that the time will decrease a bit. I don't think it'll get that bad. I think it'll probably stay around 6 months and maybe get to 5.5 if we're lucky! TSC is bad, but at this point they're still finishing June and starting July, so they're still on holiday delay which could push it closer to 7 months. That's probably why they think it'll get there. But they've started a few July petitions it looks like, so I think they're somewhat on track. A few said they should be speeding up now since the holidays are over!

[Wooderz 314]

But if it gets to 8 then they'll have a hole to dig out of to get it back to 5 and from the history of the past year, TSC has not been able to dig itself out of a hole yet. From igors list, it looks like June is still only about 60% complete. I'm mentally preparing for 7-8 months.

Anyway, this is getting to me. I need a break from the forums I think. My pms and this thread might be the only things I look at for a little while.

I'm gonna focus on work, getting back into a workout routine (which I dropped right around when I sent the petition), my family and count down the days til March 20th when Daniel flies in again for another visit.

[Pablomanga 7]

We booked a venue for the end of August. Originally I added everything up for the maximum estimates on the VJ guide and added a couple of months...so my fingers are crossed that things go smoothly otherwise I don't know what the heck we're going to do!

[SantyAndAllie 155]

But if it gets to 8 then they'll have a hole to dig out of to get it back to 5 and from the history of the past year, TSC has not been able to dig itself out of a hole yet. From igors list, it looks like June is still only about 60% complete. I'm mentally preparing for 7-8 months.

Anyway, this is getting to me. I need a break from the forums I think. My pms and this thread might be the only things I look at for a little while.

I'm gonna focus on work, getting back into a workout routine (which I dropped right around when I sent the petition), my family and count down the days til March 20th when Daniel flies in again for another visit.

They did dig into a few of July's. I'm sure that they're working in both months, and some files may be out of order. I can't completely count on the site to show every approval, lol! But who knows? Not something to totally count on , but they may just catch up faster than we think. I'm at peace with it now, so long as he won't have problems getting here in February.

But yes, good idea! I've been on here less. Santy is making a trip in February & staying through til the wedding! Everyone said the experience at JFK was great, so I'm hopeful for no problems!

Good luck with everything, April!! The time will go by faster than we realize. It does for me! I can't believe it's already been 3 months!

[Mena28 35]

We just passed three months since NOA 1 as well :-)

Looking back it hasnt been too bad, but when I was in them they seemed really long!

I booked a flight for Easter (I am the beneficiary) and am hoping for an easy entry :-)

Just said to my fiance, that its "only" 10 more weeks, but he thinks there is nothing "only" about it...

I love your optimism, lovecometruex! (what was your name again? was it Allie? or something else?) I am more of a realist, but reading some optimistic posts makes me feel better too :-), so thank you!

[wbeem 568]

But if it gets to 8 then they'll have a hole to dig out of to get it back to 5 and from the history of the past year, TSC has not been able to dig itself out of a hole yet. From igors list, it looks like June is still only about 60% complete. I'm mentally preparing for 7-8 months.

Shortly after we filed, they transferred April and May petitions to CSC. At the time of filing the average time was around 5 months. In spite of that, TSC have steadily slowed down even more. We were all hoping they would close the gap of processing time differences between the two service centers. CSC is now processing December applicatons. Go figure! We are approaching the 6 month mark and any attempts to glean information of any description from USCIS have been futile. I don't think it will get to the 10 month stage, but the average time TSC filers being processed now, have waited is 195 days so yes, we are looking at near to 7 months unless they pull finger.

I actually think that June is, for the most part, complete. There are a few not yet approved but many of those had RFE's (not all filled out into their timelines yet). There is also a trend where about a fifth of VJ members do not return to update timelines, so it is safe to disregard a portion of the unprocessed petitions you see on Igor's list. If you look back at January to May 2014, you will see that none of those months hit much above the 80% mark. This is good news, not bad. I think we are going to see them rolling out into July more fully now, while mopping up the last June stragglers at the same time. The same thing happened while they were working on May.

I booked a flight for Easter (I am the beneficiary) and am hoping for an easy entry :-)

Just said to my fiance, that its "only" 10 more weeks, but he thinks there is nothing "only" about it...

I was able to spend time with my fiance in December. It was the best 10 days I've had in the last 6 months. When I had to leave, I hit rock bottom and it has taken about 2 weeks to pick myself up again. I can relate to your fiance. The one nice thing about having a trip planned is that you have a specific date and timeline to work towards. That is the single biggest issue with this wait: the complete absence of any information. The amount of time it takes bothers me less than the fact that we cant plan anything. You can't book a wedding venue, can't let people know when it will be, don't know if it's going to be winter or summer, can't tell your employer (mine thinks I'm being elusive about the whole thing!) more or less when you are leaving, you're limited to how much you can pack up in a house you still have to live in, indefinitely ....... If we knew we had x number of months, we could have made plans for visits and thingsthat need to be done. There is no reason why they can't give us an accurate estimate. It is simply that they won't.

Hang onto this 10 week countdown. We had 8 when we booked, but from the time we had the flights, that period of the wait was the least painful of the process so far.

[Wooderz 314]

I actually think that June is, for the most part, complete. There are a few not yet approved but many of those had RFE's (not all filled out into their timelines yet). There is also a trend where about a fifth of VJ members do not return to update timelines, so it is safe to disregard a portion of the unprocessed petitions you see on Igor's list. If you look back at January to May 2014, you will see that none of those months hit much above the 80% mark. This is good news, not bad. I think we are going to see them rolling out into July more fully now, while mopping up the last June stragglers at the same time. The same thing happened while they were working on May.

Good insights about what happened earlier in the year. I've also noticed that only 70-80% of TSC timelines are ever completed. But seems to be much closer to 90% for CSC filers. I'm speculating that bc TSC takes so long, maybe people just give up on VJ or move on while waiting and never come back? At CSC it happens so quickly that maybe people aren't as disenfranchised with the whole process that they in turn hang around VJ longer?

[SantyAndAllie 155]

I was able to spend time with my fiance in December. It was the best 10 days I've had in the last 6 months. When I had to leave, I hit rock bottom and it has taken about 2 weeks to pick myself up again. I can relate to your fiance. The one nice thing about having a trip planned is that you have a specific date and timeline to work towards. That is the single biggest issue with this wait: the complete absence of any information. The amount of time it takes bothers me less than the fact that we cant plan anything. You can't book a wedding venue, can't let people know when it will be, don't know if it's going to be winter or summer, can't tell your employer (mine thinks I'm being elusive about the whole thing!) more or less when you are leaving, you're limited to how much you can pack up in a house you still have to live in, indefinitely ....... If we knew we had x number of months, we could have made plans for visits and thingsthat need to be done. There is no reason why they can't give us an accurate estimate. It is simply that they won't.

Hang onto this 10 week countdown. We had 8 when we booked, but from the time we had the flights, that period of the wait was the least painful of the process so far.

That's only if you're going the route where you allow USCIS to give you a wedding date! lol. You don't HAVE to do that! You don't have to make your civil ceremony your actual wedding celebration. I know it may seem silly to get legally married then have a wedding later, but it is the easiest (and best money-saving!) way if you want a big celebration and a big deal wedding! Trying to plan a wedding in 3 months or less is really not easy. Possible- but stressful!

We've had ours booked for September since before we even knew about the fiance visa (and I mean everything! venue, photographer, videographer, etc.), but it's not likely that we'll be waiting longer than June for the visa to be in Santy's hands (unless USCIS does something absolutely crazy). So you can look at what's going on right now and hopefully expect that the NOA2 will be here before June. Then it takes at the most another month for the NVC then consulate, which depends completely on your consulate. You can give yourself some kind of estimate based on history and what's going on right now and then give it another month or two just in case. I'd say, for me & Santy, it'll be NOA2 by May, interview in May, hopefully visa by June... hopefully Even still, that gives us enough time for September

If all else fails, you can technically have a wedding celebration (non-legally, I think, lol) on the VWP, then the beneficiary goes back and waits again for the visa!

Also- to mena28, yes, I'm Allie! and I think I'm feeling more optimistic these days because of the fact that I've been blessed enough to have Santy be able to come here until the NOA2 (we hope!). After he goes back to Ecuador, it'll be a really short wait before he's back again! Although I'm still pretty annoyed that we all have to wait at least 6 months, at this point I'm not as upset as before because I got to visit him in December and then he'll get to be here with me for a few months before (hopefully) the visa!

I do feel terrible for those who can't see their loved ones either on the VWP or they just work and can't take off. Santy & I are blessed with flexible jobs that allow us to leave and come back when we need to. That has made the process much easier, though we wish we could just get married already and not have to worry about all this ####### anymore.

[Mena28 35]

Hang onto this 10 week countdown. We had 8 when we booked, but from the time we had the flights, that period of the wait was the least painful of the process so far.

Oh, I am :-) I do consider myself lucky, because I have only been back in Austria since early October and by fiance has already been here twice (once over Christmas). Now that I have had a permanent job and an apartment for a few months I decided to try to visit too :-) I am Austrian, so I get way more vacation than he does.

What was actually the trickiest thing was that I could not talk about my plans when I came back - I needed a job, and an apartment, but noone was going to hire me for an unknown number of months, or take me on as a tenant. Luckily they are also not allowed to ask questions about personal life and stuff, so I decided to keep it quiet until we get NOA 2. I am such an honest person, it felt like lying to to me :-(

Also- to mena28, yes, I'm Allie! and I think I'm feeling more optimistic these days because of the fact that I've been blessed enough to have Santy be able to come here until the NOA2 (we hope!). After he goes back to Ecuador, it'll be a really short wait before he's back again! Although I'm still pretty annoyed that we all have to wait at least 6 months, at this point I'm not as upset as before because I got to visit him in December and then he'll get to be here with me for a few months before (hopefully) the visa!

Oh jay, so remembered your name right. I think you said at some point you were thinking about changing your profil name to Allie&Santy? Thats what stuck in my head (I have to memorize people, names, faces and stories for a living, I have practice)!

I also hope that having a 10 week count down will make it more bearable, and by the time I am back it is early April and hoooopefully we`ll get NOA 2 sometime soon after that, right? And once things start moving again it will be fine, because there will at least be a few things to do other than wait around...

I am crossing my fingers for you, that your fiance will have an easy time at POE :-)

Friday will be 100 days since NOA 1 for us, so time is actually passing by!

[wbeem 568]

That's only if you're going the route where you allow USCIS to give you a wedding date! lol. You don't HAVE to do that! You don't have to make your civil ceremony your actual wedding celebration. I know it may seem silly to get legally married then have a wedding later, but it is the easiest (and best money-saving!) way if you want a big celebration and a big deal wedding! Trying to plan a wedding in 3 months or less is really not easy. Possible- but stressful!

It's not about us allowing them to dictate when we get married. It's about how we want to do it, and that is important to us. While I appreciate that many are happy with having a legal ceremony, followed by a wedding at a later date, by choice, that is not what we want. So I don't think it's silly at all, but we opted not to go that route.

[SantyAndAllie 155]

It's not about us allowing them to dictate when we get married. It's about how we want to do it, and that is important to us. While I appreciate that many are happy with having a legal ceremony, followed by a wedding at a later date, by choice, that is not what we want. So I don't think it's silly at all, but we opted not to go that route.

We considered doing it that way and switching things (and actually cried when we found out it was better for us to do civil then wedding later), but as you mentioned in the last post, it's incredibly difficult to plan a wedding already, but to try to do it in 3 months- oh man, I can't even imagine that for us. Unless it was a small gathering, but even then! There's just too much involved, lol. I love being engaged and wedding planning, so I love taking all of this time to do this stuff!

I just want other people to know that it's honestly not that bad, though. I mean both ways make total sense, and it's up to the bride & groom , but I just don't want anyone to be discouraged from doing the civil ceremony first because they think it's like cheating or something, hehe I mean we were really upset about it at first, but we realized that the celebration with friends and family is what matters more to us, and the government stuff is just that- government stuff! And we wanted the time to plan that (and save the money- oh man!). We are also having 2 weddings, so I would be nuts to try to plan 2 in 3 months hahaha

[Wooderz 314]

Were going to do a non-traditional, traditional wedding. As in, a real wedding right after he moves. But non-traditional in that I won't be doing a bouquet toss or a first dance or any of those sorts of things. I'm just not into that stuff, doesn't really have anything to do with the visa process. I just wanna be with him. We have our guest list ironed down to 45 people max, likely less depending on who actually comes from the UK. It will be more like a party than a wedding reception, but traditional vows will be exchanged.

It's a tough decision to make when you can't do it the normal american way so there's a good chance something will be sacrificed. Either the date, the size of the wedding, the guest list, etc..

I've been spending my time pre-planning the wedding. Once he has the medical, I'll know when he has to enter the country by and will probably commit the cardinal sin of starting to book a venue and vendors. We're planning on getting married asap, a couple weeks after he arrives. By that time, we will have been at this for 7 years so Daniel waiting around for a couple extra months in the UK while I get the wedding planned is a drop in the pan for us. I'm so much more focused on minimizing the amount of time until we file aos, ead and ap so he can start working asap. He's going to be so bored at home and gaining his independence back is going to be so important for the success of the first year of our marriage. I'm trying to remember the big picture- the marriage!! The true end goal!

We spend so much time talking about the wedding, what is everyone planning for a honeymoon? Somewhere in the US after the wedding or wait until AP comes in and go to beneficiaries country? We're gonna head out to hawaii for a couple weeks. I'm way more excited about that than the wedding.

[Mena28 35]

We want as small a wedding as possible - even though my hostmother is going crazy playing "house" and wanting to take me dress shopping and suggesting venues and everything else she can think of! I just want a pretty dress that doesnt even have to be white, spent time with friends and family and get to stay with my fiance. Oh, and good cake, I really want good cake :-D

Once I can travel we want to do a church wedding in my country - my family wont be able to come to the US, but they are very excited about doing the music for the wedding (my parents are musicians and for them it feels like their gift to us).

I'm so much more focused on minimizing the amount of time until we file aos, ead and ap so he can start working asap. He's going to be so bored at home and gaining his independence back is going to be so important for the success of the first year of our marriage.

April - what does he do and are there jobs for his kind of field around where you live?

I am so curious how that will go - just getting out of the house and being able to do stuff will be important I think. Do any of you know how the driving works? Like on the VWP in Massachusetts I was legally allowed to drive for a year on my national licence. But is that also true if I have immigrant intent? Has anyone researched that for their state yet?

Hawaii sounds awesome! Long flight though... But he can travel there without the AP, right?

We have so many ideas for places to go - the tricky part is picking one of them :-) I have been to a LOT of places in the US my fiance has never been to but wants to go to, but it depends a lot on how much time off he can still get after taking time off again and again... Americans unfortunatelly tend to not get as much vacation as most Europeans :-(

[Wooderz 314]

We want as small a wedding as possible - even though my hostmother is going crazy playing "house" and wanting to take me dress shopping and suggesting venues and everything else she can think of! I just want a pretty dress that doesnt even have to be white, spent time with friends and family and get to stay with my fiance. Oh, and good cake, I really want good cake :-D

Once I can travel we want to do a church wedding in my country - my family wont be able to come to the US, but they are very excited about doing the music for the wedding (my parents are musicians and for them it feels like their gift to us).

My mom has all these ideas of things I need for the wedding and I'm just like "slow your roll lady, that's too much." Luckily or unluckily, I don't have a very big family so I can't get away with cutting any of them from the guest list. That's horrible, I know. I hope as many of Daniel's friends and family can come as possible. It's important to him, but I'm not sure how many actually will be able to.

I want good cake too. I'm thinking of just getting a small two-tiered cake just to say we had a wedding cake and then doing a little dessert bar with other stuff. Daniel doesn't like cake so we also want an ice cream sundae bar (DIY pinterest style).

April - what does he do and are there jobs for his kind of field around where you live? He supervises a warehouse now, but he would like to change careers when he moves. It may take a while to settle but he can work while he figures it out. He's not the type that can sit around the house without feeling like he's contributing for months on end.

I am so curious how that will go - just getting out of the house and being able to do stuff will be important I think. Do any of you know how the driving works? Like on the VWP in Massachusetts I was legally allowed to drive for a year on my national licence. But is that also true if I have immigrant intent? Has anyone researched that for their state yet? I've looked into it a little and what I've determined for Texas (and maybe a lot of other states) is that yes you can use a foreign license for a while, not sure how long bc it doesn't apply to us. Once EAD comes in, you can get a new drivers license for your state. That's the way it works in TX at least, to the best of my knowledge. Daniel lives in central London. He doesn't have a drivers license there bc public transportation is easier and cheaper so he won't be able to drive until EAD comes.

Hawaii sounds awesome! Long flight though... But he can travel there without the AP, right? Yup, it's the US so it's fair game.

We have so many ideas for places to go - the tricky part is picking one of them :-) I have been to a LOT of places in the US my fiance has never been to but wants to go to, but it depends a lot on how much time off he can still get after taking time off again and again... Americans unfortunatelly tend to not get as much vacation as most Europeans :-( Truth. The US is woefully behind on mandated vacation and maternity leave. It makes me sick. Luckily, I work for a large, "evil" corporation with incredible benefits. I'm 27 and I get 5 weeks of paid vacation a year. Without that I don't know how our relationship would have survived for the past 4 years since I finished school and started working. That's probably also a big part of why we didn't rush to do this process sooner. We have always been able to see eachother every 3-4 months. Made the distance much more bearable. Gave us time to get ourselves together and grow up enough to feel ready to be married.

We settled on hawaii because it's such a typical honeymoon. I think in the back on my mind I wanted something "normal and traditional" to make me feel like a regular couple and forget about all the stress and work we had to do just to be able to get married. There are so many amazing places you could go in the US, but if you wait until AP, the entire world opens up! Just depends what's important for you both.

Edited January 20, 2015 by April+Daniel