I-130 May 2016 Filers

[melphelan 8]

On 2/1/2017 at 3:10 PM, Spencerburgess said:

Today we hit our six weeks mark for electronic processing at the NVC (We sent out our packet the night of December 20th, our  Ds260 was completed prior to that) . I spoke with a representative and they told us that they are putting it in for Supervisor review which can take up to six weeks from today. He also informed me that if we get a checklist that can take an additional six weeks, then after we are good and we will be put in the line for an interview. (Which he said can take anywhere from 1 week to three months) 

 

We have a baby on the way the first week of July and we have lost all hope of the visa arriving before that, or if it will ever actually happen. We are considering giving up the whole process and just living here in Brazil permanently. This whole process is an absolute joke and we are completely exhausted.

 

I am very grateful for all of the support, help, and information that you all post. It honestly made a HUGE impact on us. Thank you!

Yes this process is definitely a joke. My husband and I are just having to deal with living apart for awhile. He is in Canada while I am back here in the US...it's been like this since June 2016. I am not sure if being apart is something you'll consider but whoever is the US citizen could go back to the US and get a job and start to set up a life for you both there while the other stays. I know you have a baby on the way which complicates thing but is there family that could help support while you guys are apart? We just paid our NVC fees and are waiting for them to be processed. Our lawyer said from this point it could be as short as 2 months before it's all over or as long as 5 months. There's just no telling, which is dumb. I am sorry!

[N&DSanow 6]

FINALLY!

Our I-130 NOA1 was may 31 2016 and our case was just approved on feb 7th 2016. ours was one of the cases that was moved from nebraska to texas. We submitted an inquiry a few weeks ago and they told us we'd have to wait up to two more months for them to sort out our case. i'm glad we didnt have to wait that long.

 

Honestly though, this took eight months and a bit, and our case is pretty much as easy to rubber stamp as a case could be. It sounds like the next steps go by much quicker, but with a two month old, my husband and i are pretty anxious to put this behind us! as i'm sure everyone else here is...

anyways, wish us luck in the next steps and i hope everyone still waiting hears back soon!

 

 

[phillamb168 19]

Just now, N&DSanow said:

FINALLY!

Our I-130 NOA1 was may 31 2016 and our case was just approved on feb 7th 2016. ours was one of the cases that was moved from nebraska to texas. We submitted an inquiry a few weeks ago and they told us we'd have to wait up to two more months for them to sort out our case. i'm glad we didnt have to wait that long.

 

Honestly though, this took eight months and a bit, and our case is pretty much as easy to rubber stamp as a case could be. It sounds like the next steps go by much quicker, but with a two month old, my husband and i are pretty anxious to put this behind us! as i'm sure everyone else here is...

anyways, wish us luck in the next steps and i hope everyone still waiting hears back soon!

 

 

Better to hear the bad news sooner than later: NVC processing (after receiving the required documents you send in) is currently clocking in at around 10-12 weeks, assuming you don't get a checklist for missing or 'wrong' paperwork. Unless you can do electronic filing, which appears to significantly speed up the process? I'm not sure.

[N&DSanow 6]

3 minutes ago, phillamb168 said:

Better to hear the bad news sooner than later: NVC processing (after receiving the required documents you send in) is currently clocking in at around 10-12 weeks, assuming you don't get a checklist for missing or 'wrong' paperwork. Unless you can do electronic filing, which appears to significantly speed up the process? I'm not sure.

Yeah the gov't website said 1-3 months. Assuming we don't botch our paperwork, that'll still be much much faster than processing the i-130! i don't think you can file electronically from Canada

Edited February 9, 2017 by N&DSanow

[Mr&MrsKhiladi 9]

1 hour ago, N&DSanow said:

Yeah the gov't website said 1-3 months. Assuming we don't botch our paperwork, that'll still be much much faster than processing the i-130! i don't think you can file electronically from Canada

@phillamb168 is right... NVC is really really backlogged at the moment... They usually said 6 weeks, but today (or yesterday) their website was updated to state 8 weeks now... So brace yourself for some delays.

 

However, you might still be able to do electronic processing depending on your case's embassy/consulate. I know of some other fellow VJ'ers that were in Canada & did file electronically. You can check the list here: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/Submit_documents.html... Processing times for them are much shorter, from as little as 3 days to max 2 - 3 weeks, even if.... So you might want to check, you'd might get lucky! Good luck! 

[AstroCanada 206]

2 hours ago, N&DSanow said:

FINALLY!

Our I-130 NOA1 was may 31 2016 and our case was just approved on feb 7th 2016. ours was one of the cases that was moved from nebraska to texas. We submitted an inquiry a few weeks ago and they told us we'd have to wait up to two more months for them to sort out our case. i'm glad we didnt have to wait that long.

 

Honestly though, this took eight months and a bit, and our case is pretty much as easy to rubber stamp as a case could be. It sounds like the next steps go by much quicker, but with a two month old, my husband and i are pretty anxious to put this behind us! as i'm sure everyone else here is...

anyways, wish us luck in the next steps and i hope everyone still waiting hears back soon!

 

 

So sorry to hear about your crazy long wait with USCIS.  That really is an unacceptable length of time.

 

Do file electronically with the NVC.  Our case got approved in 1 day with the electronic processing.  Several other people on here from Canada had under 1 week times with electronic processing.  You might be done in 3 months from now even.

[harpmi02 7]

Is anyone in May still waiting to be approved?  Our priority date is May 13th and I am pretty much giving up hope... I tried to get my local legislator involved and they were able to get us a bit more information as to why it is taking so long... "extensive background checks"... But come on... We both have clean records and my husband is coming from Sweden... What could there possibly be to check?

[DanaKha 0]

5 hours ago, harpmi02 said:

Is anyone in May still waiting to be approved?  Our priority date is May 13th and I am pretty much giving up hope... I tried to get my local legislator involved and they were able to get us a bit more information as to why it is taking so long... "extensive background checks"... But come on... We both have clean records and my husband is coming from Sweden... What could there possibly be to check?

Our PD is May 11, we are still waiting and USCIS officer told my husband exactly the same thing "additional background check". According to the officer, they are doing a background check on me in Saudi, which is funny because I moved out from Saudi since 2007 and most of these years I was in the US !! I have clean records in Saudi, UAE ,where I was before moving to the US, and the US. 

[DanaKha 0]

Hello everyone, 
My husband has been asked to go to a local USCIS office for an interview while our I-130 is still pending. My husband is the petitioner and I am the beneficiary. He is an US citizen born in Iran while I am a Saudi citizen. Did this happen to any of you ?

Edited February 24, 2017 by DanaKha

[harpmi02 7]

I have heard of people doing personal interviews at their local office, but have not experienced this.

 

I did receive word on Wednesday, 22nd that there was activity with our case... Well sorta... Our K3 application was closed and it states on the website, "On February 22, 2017, we closed your Form I-129F, Petition for Fiance(E), Receipt Number LIN**********, because the applicant or petitioner received a status or benefit through other means." However, when I called about this, it still states that our I130 is still being processed.  The customer service reps have told me that if my K3 has been closed, that it must indicate that our I130 was approved or denied, but it just may not be updated in the system.  Then when you ask to speak to a supervisor, they always say that are not accepting calls because of of the high volume of calls.... 

[DanaKha 0]

14 minutes ago, harpmi02 said:

I have heard of people doing personal interviews at their local office, but have not experienced this.

 

I did receive word on Wednesday, 22nd that there was activity with our case... Well sorta... Our K3 application was closed and it states on the website, "On February 22, 2017, we closed your Form I-129F, Petition for Fiance(E), Receipt Number LIN**********, because the applicant or petitioner received a status or benefit through other means." However, when I called about this, it still states that our I130 is still being processed.  The customer service reps have told me that if my K3 has been closed, that it must indicate that our I130 was approved or denied, but it just may not be updated in the system.  Then when you ask to speak to a supervisor, they always say that are not accepting calls because of of the high volume of calls.... 

 I wish you the very best of luck and I hope you will hear good news soon, I know how frustrating waiting and unknowing are. Hoping for the best to all May petitioners who haven't heard a thing yet.

[ezmiller 0]

On 2/10/2017 at 3:22 AM, harpmi02 said:

Is anyone in May still waiting to be approved?  Our priority date is May 13th and I am pretty much giving up hope... I tried to get my local legislator involved and they were able to get us a bit more information as to why it is taking so long... "extensive background checks"... But come on... We both have clean records and my husband is coming from Sweden... What could there possibly be to check?

My wife and I are also still waiting to be approved. We have a priority date of May 23, 2016. The NVC received our application in October, and we filed a bunch of documents then through a lawyer. Unfortunately, when we heard back from the NVC in early December they incorrectly stated that we hadn't provided a Birth Certificate. What we'd done is provide an affidavit of birth since my wife doesn't have a birth certificate. So our lawyer responded with an explanation, stating that we believe the application to be complete. And since then we've just been waiting for them to correct what seems to be their mistake. That wait has been now three months. I called the NVC once and the person I spoke with said that couldn't see what was going on, but would elevate it to "supervisory status," and said it could take up to another 6 weeks. So a lot of waiting for us as well! 

[Spencerburgess 1]

6 hours ago, ezmiller said:

My wife and I are also still waiting to be approved. We have a priority date of May 23, 2016. The NVC received our application in October, and we filed a bunch of documents then through a lawyer. Unfortunately, when we heard back from the NVC in early December they incorrectly stated that we hadn't provided a Birth Certificate. What we'd done is provide an affidavit of birth since my wife doesn't have a birth certificate. So our lawyer responded with an explanation, stating that we believe the application to be complete. And since then we've just been waiting for them to correct what seems to be their mistake. That wait has been now three months. I called the NVC once and the person I spoke with said that couldn't see what was going on, but would elevate it to "supervisory status," and said it could take up to another 6 weeks. So a lot of waiting for us as well! 

Have you spoken with a supervisor?

 

We are doing electronic processinf, we submitted our documentsto the NVC in December, a few days after submitting we received what we were told is a false checklist. 9 weeks later and after waiting for the next review and also a super visor review I decided to reach a supervisor. I had to call 8 times in two days to reach one, but we discovered that the NVC had put our documents basically on a shelf waiting for us to respond to the "fake checklist", apparently they had never received all of our documents in the email we had first sent (Not too sure how an email gets lost, especially when we had sent everything twice...). Everytime we called  representatives told us to keep waiting a few more weeks for a response and we will get a checklist or an approval, but now we know if we kelt waiting we were never going to get a response... The supervisor had us resend the email and he personally watched for it while on the phone with us to confirm he got it, he checked off all he could on the checklist and then told us it that the rest has to go through the review department, but he will make sure it gets done quickly for us. 

 

If you are filing through mail, it is obviously is slightly a different case, but I am certain that if you can speak with the right supervisor you can have things move forward very soon.

 

Best of luck! This process is a huge headache, but I feel like we are all almost through it!

[ezmiller 0]

On 2/27/2017 at 4:33 PM, Spencerburgess said:

Have you spoken with a supervisor?

 

Do you have any suggestions for a non-confrontational way of asking to speak with a supervisor?

[Spencerburgess 1]

4 hours ago, ezmiller said:

Do you have any suggestions for a non-confrontational way of asking to speak with a supervisor?

In my situation I just called and upon getting an answer when they asked what they could do for me I just said, "I am calling to see if you can connect me with a supervisor". With the reason being: "To discuss the validity of a checklist that was issued". Each rep has kindly asked me to hold after that as they went to find out if one was available. If one is not available, ask them to take down your phone number to get a call back (It can take them 1-3 days to get back to you). They can be bad about calling back, so I just continued to call until I could connect with one myself.

 

After you reach a supervisor just tell them what is going on from start to finish and explain how long you have waited without response. I really think that you can get some good answers by connecting with a supervisor! It made a HUGE difference on our case.