February 2015 filers - Texas Service Center

[Paul_Shannon 5]

My NOA1 date is February 3rd too. Based on my receipt number (ending in 45) there are 6 people ahead of me waiting to be approved for the I129F.

[Pennycat 880]

My NOA1 date is February 3rd too. Based on my receipt number (ending in 45) there are 6 people ahead of me waiting to be approved for the I129F.

While I do hope that's true for your sake--just be careful with getting expectations too high. They really don't go in strict numerical order--close, but not exact. I think they must pick up piles of folders or something, and some workers are faster than others.

[falcon26 4]

Feb 4. It is draining. Hope to see something positive soon.

[loganschonauer 0]

My noa1 date is February 3rd and I haven't hear yet either! It's making me so anxious as it's almost been 6 months! Is there anyone else who has dates near the beginning of Feb who haven't hear back yet?

Ours is the 2nd of February. And nothing so far. I think we will hear something end of August. Fingers crossed. ?? Edited July 23, 2015 by loganschonauer

[NPM 3]

I keep telling myself to only start hoping for the approval (or RFE, geesh, I hope not!) after mid-August. It feels more realistic and I don't have to get close to a stroke everyday expecting to hear from Texas.

I'm visiting my fiance in the U.S. on August 7th and all my anxiety is directed towards wether I will be let in again or not.

I really appreciate the updates in here from those who got the Immifairy membership. Hey, at least a few feb approvals have happened already, that's better than nothing.

[redstripe54 42]

Hi everyone, I'm also a Feb 2015 filer stuck in Texas, I'm in the middle of a argument yesterday, because I read on the main forum a Californian Centre member gloating that they were approved in a month! My argument was that there is no need to gloat over fast approvals, how is that supposed to make us stuck at Texas feel. It should have been put onto a sub forum for Californian filers. Of course my response didn't go down to well with them saying I shouldn't be bitter. Well I am if I want to read about Californian approvals in less than a month, I can check the timelines and statistics on VJ, I don't need it shoving down my neck, they have no sympathy for us, saying we are all going through the same system, No we are not, those at Texas pay the same money and have to wait 7-8 months, whilst many at California are approved in a few weeks, I assure you that is not the same journey at all, it's a disgrace. Good luck to all those stuck in the Texas quagmire!

[Pennycat 880]

Hi everyone, I'm also a Feb 2015 filer stuck in Texas, I'm in the middle of a argument yesterday, because I read on the main forum a Californian Centre member gloating that they were approved in a month! My argument was that there is no need to gloat over fast approvals, how is that supposed to make us stuck at Texas feel. It should have been put onto a sub forum for Californian filers. Of course my response didn't go down to well with them saying I shouldn't be bitter. Well I am if I want to read about Californian approvals in less than a month, I can check the timelines and statistics on VJ, I don't need it shoving down my neck, they have no sympathy for us, saying we are all going through the same system, No we are not, those at Texas pay the same money and have to wait 7-8 months, whilst many at California are approved in a few weeks, I assure you that is not the same journey at all, it's a disgrace. Good luck to all those stuck in the Texas quagmire!

You are 100% not alone. This sort of thing has been happening on VJ ever since I started reading here in Oct 2014, and probably longer. That's why there's a locked thread at the top of the "Service Centers" forum page about how this site is for support, not judgement. Because the mods are on the CSC filers's side of this argument. They don't consider them gloating. But they do consider requests to knock off the gloating to be out of line.

But don't worry. I had the same reaction. I have just stopped typing about it to them because (a) the mods don't like it and thread-ban people, and make it look like you're the problem (b) doing so has gotten me personally harassed in PM by people here (I wish I saved it. She's a real witch, and the harassing message was HILARIOUS but it disappeared as soon as I blocked her) © those people are basically all completely blind to the reality of this process from our side of things. Part of me doesn't blame them--they don't know what they don't know (although if someone says, hey, so I know you didn't mean it but that's pretty insensitive can you knock it off they should FREAKING STOP rather than act all injured that you're not happy for them). I AM really upset that everyone who filed after March 27 who went to CSC basically as US to thank for it (all of our really hard work pushing for a change), and they're some of the gloaters, meanwhile I still have MONTHS to go. I am part of the reason they're done in a month. But again. They don't know what they don't know.

Mostly, a good chunk of me just hopes that they (not all CSC filers, not even all gloaters, just the gloaters who can't say "sorry, my bad" and move on) get stuck in AP for a year, or wind up with some jerk who takes them to the cleaners, or have fallen for "puppy love" and get to experience the nastiest divorce to end all nasty divorces, or choke on their wedding cake. Sorry, not sorry.

[DaveRad 2]

now that would be funny

[pepper44 18]

Catherine- That was funny...

So according to my VJ timeline and calculations I will hit the 6 month mark August 9th. Is that when we can possibly start calling to get an update on our case? I know they are just now starting to get to our files but I really don't want any delays. It is bad enough that most Cuban I-129F go into AP for 2-6 months after the interview so I'd really like to get at least the initial YES with no RFE (please). ;-)

If I do call who would I even call? I sometimes feel I have no clue what I am doing. Actually I feel like that when I think of what the next step will be.

I can tell you all- who are stuck here in the black hole- It does help if you can visit your other half. I just got back and it made the time feel like it has only been a month since I submitted the application.

[dmaven 7]

While I do hope that's true for your sake--just be careful with getting expectations too high. They really don't go in strict numerical order--close, but not exact. I think they must pick up piles of folders or something, and some workers are faster than others.

Yes, exactly. This gets people's hopes up when they really don't work in order. Only in batches.

[Wors 19]

It gets to me when I see people at CSC complaining that they have been waiting 4 weeks and still no NOA2 and stuff like that. Everytime I see it I feel like saying you really have nothing to complain about but I bite my tongue...

[Pennycat 880]

Catherine- That was funny...

So according to my VJ timeline and calculations I will hit the 6 month mark August 9th. Is that when we can possibly start calling to get an update on our case? I know they are just now starting to get to our files but I really don't want any delays. It is bad enough that most Cuban I-129F go into AP for 2-6 months after the interview so I'd really like to get at least the initial YES with no RFE (please). ;-)

If I do call who would I even call? I sometimes feel I have no clue what I am doing. Actually I feel like that when I think of what the next step will be.

I can tell you all- who are stuck here in the black hole- It does help if you can visit your other half. I just got back and it made the time feel like it has only been a month since I submitted the application.

So, unfortunately you're not "allowed" to call until you're outside their posted "normal processing time" (we'll get around to who to call in a second). You can find those here: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processingTimesDisplay.do;jsessionid=abc-9Biqd2ziB6--EEa7u

You'll notice two things. Right now, the only people who can call are people who filed before November 10. Also, this is "as of May 31". And yes, they just released this information on July 17. This is one of the ways they make themselves look like their backlog isn't as bad as it is and prevent applicants from being entitled to anything but their cra*py service. What that basically says is "by May 31, we'd finished through November 10. Anyone who applied before November 10, give us a call and see what's wrong". We know that November 10 by May 31 is a lie, we can see from both VJ and Immifairy data. But, that's how they play.

They'll update again in early/mid August with "as of June 30" numbers. And it may move only move 3 weeks (it seems to move 3 weeks at a time).

ALL THAT SAID. No harm in trying. You can call the main USCIS hotline and they will tell you exactly what I just did. That you're within normal processing time and don't know when anyone will work on your file. You can ask to speak to Tier 2 (or a supervisor) and at least get a real USCIS employee (the hotline folks are contractors and don't have any more information than we have, and don't understand it as well as we do)...that USCIS employee will tell you the same thing.

You can open an inquiry with your Senators/Congressman (pick all or any of the 3) and they will call a different, private number that directly links them to a real USCIS employee, on your behalf. They *might* be able to get something done for you. That is 100% dependant on how much the politicician allows his staff to help immigration cases (some, mostly the anti-immigrant ones, seem to direct their staff to just do the bare minimum to help), and how good his staff members are at their jobs. Good ones will understand this backlog problem, not "listen" to the official timelines (technically they're not supposed to open an inquiry until you're outside the official timelines, either) and really "go to bat" for you. You may get lucky. Look up their state or local office number (not the DC numbers--those are their political offices), give a call and ask how to get the process started. Most require a privacy release to be signed first, so you may want to get all that out of the way soon.

[dmaven 7]

ImmiFairy at least shows a few Feb approvals today

[falcon26 4]

Got an email that I got an RFE. But at least they have touched my application. I am sure others will get some approvals!!

[NPM 3]

Got an email that I got an RFE. But at least they have touched my application. I am sure others will get some approvals!!

I'm sorry about that.. Can you share what the RFE was about?