I-751 September 2016 Filers

[Dinosaur2013 26]

18 minutes ago, johndoe82 said:

Negative. Wife filed 9/14/16 approved on 8/18/17, we live in Manhattan 

Thanks for sharing. I guess I will just have to keep waiting

[A&L2017 0]

34 minutes ago, Dinosaur2013 said:

Are you a New York City resident? I live in Manhattan. I filed my petition on Sep 19, 2016 and have not heard of USCIS decision on my case. It's been almost a year. I wonder if it takes this long for those who live in New York City.

Yes, NYC residents. Maybe it is a New York City thing?

[jptl85 25]

8 minutes ago, Dinosaur2013 said:

Thanks for sharing. I guess I will just have to keep waiting

One thing I will say to keep your hopes up. I was approved about 4-5 days before I recieved the letter. So your letter could be in the mail now!

Edited September 9, 2017 by jptl85

[lesly87 27]

@Dinosaur2013 @johndoe82 @ahillelt May I run a quick experiment? Since you are all three from NYC and filed within days of each other, perhaps the delay is caused by some differences in your applications. Do you mind me asking if any of you meet any of the red flags below per USCIS? Also, did you file with a lawyer or without? Did the petitioner (whoever came to the US) come on a fiance visa, or school (F-1) or work (H1-B), i.e. what was the person's initial immigration status. What I am getting at is trying to gauge how USCIS is assigning "risk" to each application (high, medium, low),  which can explain the delay in some applications and their more "thorough" review. 

• Large disparity in age among the couple;

• Inability of the petitioner and beneficiary to speak each other’s language;

• Vast difference in cultural and ethnic background;

• Family and/or friends unaware of the marriage;

• Marriage arranged by a third party;

• Marriage contracted immediately following the beneficiary’s apprehension or receipt of notification to depart the United States;

• Discrepancies in statements on questions for which a husband and wife should share common knowledge;

• No cohabitation since marriage;

• Beneficiary is a friend of the family; and

• Petitioner has filed previous petitions on behalf of aliens, especially prior alien spouses. 

[Dinosaur2013 26]

6 hours ago, lesly87 said:

@Dinosaur2013 @johndoe82 @ahillelt May I run a quick experiment? Since you are all three from NYC and filed within days of each other, perhaps the delay is caused by some differences in your applications. Do you mind me asking if any of you meet any of the red flags below per USCIS? Also, did you file with a lawyer or without? Did the petitioner (whoever came to the US) come on a fiance visa, or school (F-1) or work (H1-B), i.e. what was the person's initial immigration status. What I am getting at is trying to gauge how USCIS is assigning "risk" to each application (high, medium, low),  which can explain the delay in some applications and their more "thorough" review. 

• Large disparity in age among the couple;

• Inability of the petitioner and beneficiary to speak each other’s language;

• Vast difference in cultural and ethnic background;

• Family and/or friends unaware of the marriage;

• Marriage arranged by a third party;

• Marriage contracted immediately following the beneficiary’s apprehension or receipt of notification to depart the United States;

• Discrepancies in statements on questions for which a husband and wife should share common knowledge;

• No cohabitation since marriage;

• Beneficiary is a friend of the family; and

• Petitioner has filed previous petitions on behalf of aliens, especially prior alien spouses. 

Hi, I came to the US with my CR-1 visa meaning I got married before I arrived on the US soil. We never hired a lawyer or asked assistance from anyone to help with any of my petitions. I answer "No" to all the "red flag" questions . Not sure if this'd make my case a low risk one.

[dudeinTriBeCa 38]

I really don't think that hypothesis holds any weight. If anything I'm suggesting maybe people who applied with a divorce waiver as opposed to being currently married to their sponsoring spouse are subjected to extra scrutiny which in turn extends their processing times. We just gotta figure out if there's a common link/factor amongst the few of us remaining. I filed with a divorce waiver but what's unique is, my divorce was granted the same day I submitted the ROC app. Judge ruled in the morning, by noon I was issued the divorce decree then I express mailed it together with the ROC packet. The next day or so my GC expired...

[Dinosaur2013 26]

5 hours ago, dudeinTriBeCa said:

I really don't think that hypothesis holds any weight. If anything I'm suggesting maybe people who applied with a divorce waiver as opposed to being currently married to their sponsoring spouse are subjected to extra scrutiny which in turn extends their processing times. We just gotta figure out if there's a common link/factor amongst the few of us remaining. I filed with a divorce waiver but what's unique is, my divorce was granted the same day I submitted the ROC app. Judge ruled in the morning, by noon I was issued the divorce decree then I express mailed it together with the ROC packet. The next day or so my GC expired...

I really agree with you.

 

On another note, I went ahead and submitted my N-400 application. Now I've been scheduled for biometrics appointment at the field office in Manhattan. I really hope my I-751 will be adjudicated soon.

[johndoe82 0]

12 hours ago, lesly87 said:

@Dinosaur2013 @johndoe82 @ahillelt May I run a quick experiment? Since you are all three from NYC and filed within days of each other, perhaps the delay is caused by some differences in your applications. Do you mind me asking if any of you meet any of the red flags below per USCIS? Also, did you file with a lawyer or without? Did the petitioner (whoever came to the US) come on a fiance visa, or school (F-1) or work (H1-B), i.e. what was the person's initial immigration status. What I am getting at is trying to gauge how USCIS is assigning "risk" to each application (high, medium, low),  which can explain the delay in some applications and their more "thorough" review. 

• Large disparity in age among the couple;

• Inability of the petitioner and beneficiary to speak each other’s language;

• Vast difference in cultural and ethnic background;

• Family and/or friends unaware of the marriage;

• Marriage arranged by a third party;

• Marriage contracted immediately following the beneficiary’s apprehension or receipt of notification to depart the United States;

• Discrepancies in statements on questions for which a husband and wife should share common knowledge;

• No cohabitation since marriage;

• Beneficiary is a friend of the family; and

• Petitioner has filed previous petitions on behalf of aliens, especially prior alien spouses. 

Sure. I guess we fit one of the red flags: we eloped and didn't tell anyone about it and got married in Vegas. But in the original interview that was ironed out, plus we had a ton of wedding pictures because my parents threw us a reception type party a few months after the fact.  Her original visa was a J-1 visa as an au pair.  We did not use a lawyer, and frankly I was fed up with all the proving our marriage was legit that on this past application I didn't put too much effort into "proof" because I figured if they wanted to interview us, so be it.  However, her first green card was approved at CSC because we recently moved cross country from San Diego.  As for me, I'm no Boy Scout either, I had a few "youthful indiscretions" in my college days that still show up on my background check. So that makes me think they might look at other circumstances or the larger picture, like maybe if someone has a lot of debt or something random like that. Not sure. Hope this info helps 

[A&L2017 0]

13 hours ago, lesly87 said:

@Dinosaur2013 @johndoe82 @ahillelt May I run a quick experiment? Since you are all three from NYC and filed within days of each other, perhaps the delay is caused by some differences in your applications. Do you mind me asking if any of you meet any of the red flags below per USCIS? Also, did you file with a lawyer or without? Did the petitioner (whoever came to the US) come on a fiance visa, or school (F-1) or work (H1-B), i.e. what was the person's initial immigration status. What I am getting at is trying to gauge how USCIS is assigning "risk" to each application (high, medium, low),  which can explain the delay in some applications and their more "thorough" review. 

• Large disparity in age among the couple;

• Inability of the petitioner and beneficiary to speak each other’s language;

• Vast difference in cultural and ethnic background;

• Family and/or friends unaware of the marriage;

• Marriage arranged by a third party;

• Marriage contracted immediately following the beneficiary’s apprehension or receipt of notification to depart the United States;

• Discrepancies in statements on questions for which a husband and wife should share common knowledge;

• No cohabitation since marriage;

• Beneficiary is a friend of the family; and

• Petitioner has filed previous petitions on behalf of aliens, especially prior alien spouses. 

 

Sure, happy to answer

 

• Large disparity in age among the couple; nope, one month apart

• Inability of the petitioner and beneficiary to speak each other’s language; no, not even close. We both were educated in the US 14 years ago. My wife even has her PhD and works in a hospital.  She publishes papers in academic journals in English. I suspect her language skills may be better than my own. 

• Vast difference in cultural and ethnic background; We are not the same ethnicity, this shouldn't matter. If that was a flag, they would be in a lot or trouble. 

• Family and/or friends unaware of the marriage; No

• Marriage arranged by a third party; No

• Marriage contracted immediately following the beneficiary’s apprehension or receipt of notification to depart the United States; No

• Discrepancies in statements on questions for which a husband and wife should share common knowledge; No, and we have signed affidavits from people who have known us for over 14 years, including those who are Armed Forces veterans.

• No cohabitation since marriage; We've been living together for years before getting married, already had joint accounts prior to marriage. 

• Beneficiary is a friend of the family; and No

• Petitioner has filed previous petitions on behalf of aliens, especially prior alien spouses. No

There are absolutely no red-flags we can think of. We are both employed, I am a US Citizen, and my spouse is not. She is very highly educated, and gainfully employed in an in-demand profession. 

 

The only thing I noticed, is that most people with early approvals seem to be from Western European countries, versus Central America, South America, and South East Asia, I didn't see too many Eastern European applicants. That would be more interesting to analyze and see if there is a correlation. USCIS may be more applying more scrutiny depending on nationality of applicant. 

[johndoe82 0]

To add on to the previous comment, my wife is Russian, but prior to her arrival to the United States had been living in Germany. At the time of all of the applications, her Russian passport had expired so we were filling out Germany for current citizenship, and Russia for place of birth.

[jptl85 25]

to chime in on the conversation... I really do not think there is rhyme or reason why people are approved in a certain way. I assume if the adjudicating officer feels they cannot approve easily / quickly based on what they see, they probably throw it into 'come back to that' pile!

 

I really do think that all Sept VSC filers will hear soon! Best of luck to those waiting.

 

If you live in an area where Informed Delivery from USPS is available, I highly recommend you sign up. You will know the mail is coming before it hits your mailbox; that is how I found out. Also, you can then track your green card delivery without having to call USCIS, because as soon as USPS receive priority mail piece for your address it is synced with your USPS account and you know it is on the way; way before USCIS update the site I imagine!

[A&L2017 0]

3 hours ago, jptl85 said:

to chime in on the conversation... I really do not think there is rhyme or reason why people are approved in a certain way. I assume if the adjudicating officer feels they cannot approve easily / quickly based on what they see, they probably throw it into 'come back to that' pile!

 

I really do think that all Sept VSC filers will hear soon! Best of luck to those waiting.

 

If you live in an area where Informed Delivery from USPS is available, I highly recommend you sign up. You will know the mail is coming before it hits your mailbox; that is how I found out. Also, you can then track your green card delivery without having to call USCIS, because as soon as USPS receive priority mail piece for your address it is synced with your USPS account and you know it is on the way; way before USCIS update the site I imagine!

Who knows, but I cannot imagine how we would not be in the approve easily pile... We have had co-mingling of fund (joint account) for over 5 years, we actually printed all 5 years of accounts, with the bank issuing a verified statement, shared utility bills for more than 7 (printed out), even our home-owners insurance. We've been together for 14 years. We are both gainfully employed, graduate school degrees, letters of endorsements from new people, as well as those that wrote letters during the original application. We have photos spanning all 14 years, including her family visiting us in the States, families co-mingling, and vacations with friends and family, us traveling abroad and to her home country, our wedding, and numerous wedding parties we did afterwards, we even have 7-8 years worth of holiday cards, wedding invites, baby showers, etc. letters addressed to both of us since 2010 (we only got married in 2015). No criminal records at all. We are beneficiaries on each others benefits, and I co-signed on her student loans from over a decade ago.  My wife would've received a green card sponsorship through her work, since she is highly skilled labor, and already was on a visa. 

Look everyone on this message board are clearly good actors in loving relationships, so we wish everyone best of luck with the process. I suspect it has to do with country of origin and/or nationality of sponsored spouse. I can't think of what else it can be. Maybe some of us just got unlucky and have a slower agent processing us, one with a grudge, or simply a less experienced person...

 

[darnit 2]

4 hours ago, jptl85 said:

to chime in on the conversation... I really do not think there is rhyme or reason why people are approved in a certain way. I assume if the adjudicating officer feels they cannot approve easily / quickly based on what they see, they probably throw it into 'come back to that' pile!

 

I really do think that all Sept VSC filers will hear soon! Best of luck to those waiting.

 

If you live in an area where Informed Delivery from USPS is available, I highly recommend you sign up. You will know the mail is coming before it hits your mailbox; that is how I found out. Also, you can then track your green card delivery without having to call USCIS, because as soon as USPS receive priority mail piece for your address it is synced with your USPS account and you know it is on the way; way before USCIS update the site I imagine!

Just tried to sign up for Informed Delivery but it says: this service is currently unavailable..  =/

Edited September 9, 2017 by darnit

[jptl85 25]

13 minutes ago, darnit said:

Just tried to sign up for Informed Delivery but it says: this service is currently unavailable..  =/

Shoot. Not sure how widely it is available. Certainly for meteopolitan areas and surrounding. I live in Charlottesville, VA which is in the back and beyond and it is available here....

 

 

[kettlefish 10]

CSC Filer. 9/13/16 here. Still waiting. Received I-551 in March - was approved for 9 months, so can travel until 12/8/2017.

 

This waiting is driving me nuts.