Transfer to Vermont (VSC) ?

[Fly_Guy 2]

Hello Folks,

I am a petitioner for a beneficiary from the Philippines and I received my NOA-1 on March 17 of this year. I am from California and when I started looking into the K1 Visa process here on VJ back in February of this year the NOA-1 to NOA-2 processing time averaged about 40 days at the California Service Center (CSC).

Now it looks like the USCIS can't add more staff to handle the backlog at the Texas Service Center but they want to decrease the backlog there, so it looks like they transferred a lot of the Texas workload to the other Service Centers which has resulted in the processing time at the other Service Centers increasing greatly. In April of 2015 the average processing time at CSC was about 26 Days so the spike in processing times to 59 days does not appear to be related to the time of the year.

The Vermont Service Center (VSC) has a average processing time of about 39 days which is 20 days (2/3 of a month!) shorter than the current 59 days at CSC. Is there any way to request that my case be transferred to VSC so that I could hopefully get my NOA-2 sooner?

Also, does VJ intend to include statistics and graphs of the processing time for Nebraska and Missouri in the future?

I really want my Fiancé to come to the U.S.A. sooner than later I have done everything I can to expedite the process on my end like hire a service that has a very good track record (but quite expensive) to make sure that I am doing everything correctly for maximum speed thru the process. My Fiancé and my case should be so simple because neither of us have been married and there are no children and I have a stable, high-paying job. Now, it seems like the U.S.A. government is throwing up a lot of road blocks which is really slowing our case down and making my Fiancé and I very sad.

Is there anything that anyone has done who has been successful in getting their case at the USCIS processed quicker?

[Transborderwife 4,666]

You cannot request to have your case change service centres otherwise everyone would be doing it. Be patient and good luck

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Welcome to the world of immigration. FIrst lesson: things often don't go as planned.

Try to be patient. Its only been just over one month. You can do this!

[Georgia16 2,858]

If you could transfer like you wanted then I think most people would pick the fastest one!!

Be patient like everyone else you have to wait everyone wants to be with their partner.

All I-129F are with Cali since March 27th 2015 do to backlog in Texas it took 9 months between NOA1 and NOA2 so be grateful you weren't there like so many else were!...

[AMZJ 61]

I waited 2 months to hear something and then it was an RFE, we then had to wait another month for our second notice. CSC has had cases from VSC transferred to them and so have been slowed down. Unless you are military and have deployment orders or have a serious medical condition you won't get an expedite. Everyone wants to be with their loved ones too, we are all sad we have to be apart. We all still have to wait. The only service center now processing K-1 is California.

[Georgia16 2,858]

And for your info they haven't started on March filers as of yet.

[arken 4,197]

My Fiancé and my case should be so simple because neither of us have been married and there are no children and I have a stable, high-paying job. Now, it seems like the U.S.A. government is throwing up a lot of road blocks which is really slowing our case down and making my Fiancé and I very sad.

So you want USA government prioritize your case over others who have applied several months before you just to make you happy over other thousands!!!!

[Anitafeliz 1,133]

So you want USA government prioritize your case over others who have applied several months before you just to make you happy over other thousands!!!!

Thats right

[Tahoma 2,292]

You won't be able to speed things up right now. However, once the USCIS approves your petition, there is a way to speed up the process a lot. I'll bet your service doesn't even know about the short cut. This short cut applies to the U.S. Embassy Manila (USEM), but no other embassies that I know of.

The short cut: About two weeks or so after the USCIS approves your I-129F petition, start calling the National Visa Center (NVC) every day until they give you your MNL case number. Once you have your MNL case number, you can pay the visa application fee, schedule the interview, and complete the medical.

The slow-poke service way: Have you wait until the USEM notifies your fiancée that she is eligible to schedule an interview. This will take a lot longer. To make matters worse, sometimes the embassy's notification slips through the cracks and your fiancée won't get notified.

Once your petition is approved and you have your MNL case number, you are going to need this: http://photos.state.gov/libraries/manila/1178798/Instructions%20Packets/K1%20and%20K2%20Interview%20Preparation%20Instructions%20-%20English%20_February%202016_.pdf

Edited April 25, 2016 by Tahoma

[cristina16 81]

Install the APP and see how many hundreds of receipt numbers before you waiting to be adjudicated. They process the cases in order when it was received. Some February 2016 filers received their NOA 2 this month but some still waiting for their NOA2.

[A'n'L 735]

Honestly, you should be very very happy that the only service center handling K1's is CSC. This has been the case for over a year now. All cases are sent to CSC and you have no influence on that.

Before that, half the applications (based on the residence state of the petitioner) was sent to TSC. TSC processing time could be up to a year (or even more in extreme cases). Compared to CSC times, this became extremely unfair and led to the current situation where only CSC handles K1's.

Now, are you really gonna cry over 20 small extra days?

Enjoy the journey - we're all in it and equally entitled to the same processing time.

[Caykay1 71]

So you want USA government prioritize your case over others who have applied several months before you just to make you happy over other thousands!!!!

I was thinking the same. Patience Patience Patience. I know people who go through all this waiting and gets denied and have to start from somewhere. USCIS is unpredictable and all you can do is wait and hope for the best. Your case isn't special than all of the million people dealing with USCIS

[TabeaK 517]

You can't request a transfer. Apart from that, Vermont isn't even processing I-129Fs and hasn't for years.

Be happy that right now only CSC is taking the I-129F petitions. They have been consistently fast over the last 2 years. And yes, 2 months is fast.

Count your lucky stars you were not stuck in the TSC purgatory like my cohort was last year. We waited more than 5 months for NOA-1, and we were the lucky ones. I know many cases that waited 8 months or even more than a year.

Chillax, put the petition out of your mind and prepare for your fiances arrival.

[Fly_Guy 2]

I am not looking for any "special prioritization". I do not expect my case to be processed before people that filed before me. I was just saying that once my case is started, it should be relatively easy to process and therefore hopefully be processed rather quickly.

I really appreciate the replies that give me (and the rest VJ Community) greater insight into how the process works and special thanks to members like "Tahoma" who offer great suggestions on how to make the process go faster. For instance, I did not know that all K1s are being run through CSC.

I realize that we need to be patient but that should not stop us from trying to do what we can to make things go faster if we can ;-).

Thank You Visa Journey!!!!!

[Pennycat 880]

You can't request a transfer. Apart from that, Vermont isn't even processing I-129Fs and hasn't for years.

Be happy that right now only CSC is taking the I-129F petitions. They have been consistently fast over the last 2 years. And yes, 2 months is fast.

Count your lucky stars you were not stuck in the TSC purgatory like my cohort was last year. We waited more than 5 months for NOA-1, and we were the lucky ones. I know many cases that waited 8 months or even more than a year.

Chillax, put the petition out of your mind and prepare for your fiances arrival.

Strangely, every now and again you see a real one at VSC. They have all been transfered from their original service center though, and I really think that it has something to do with special cases or criminal history waivers or something. As in, it seems that they wait in line for a bit at CSC (or back in the day TSC), and once someone sees their case, and it has a certain flag in it, it gets transferred to VSC.

And OP: I get it, you're wanting your fiance here. We've all been there or are there right with you. But the average at CSC is still at/under 2 months which is less than half the time they tell you it will take (UCSIS official timeline is 5 months, anything else is gravy). The problem with TSC is that the average was 7 months (so a 2 month backlog) while CSC was getting things out in 21 days. The fact that they closed TSC and all cases are handled by CSC now, and have been for over a year and CSC has still managed to process in less than half the allotted time is nothing short of a miracle and if I were in your shoes, I'd be thanking every god in heaven, rather than fretting over a few weeks. It could just as easily have been 6 more months.