January 2017 I-129F Filers

[GazLisa 1,168]

I'm starting to freak out 😱 😱 😱 😱 no movement regarding approvals again this week as a March filer it'll be September before we hear anything 😔 

[disobedientavocad 6]

Hey guys! I've been lurking in here for the past months, I am a January filer (NOA1:Jan 24) and as many others, haven't heard anything yet. My fiancee is actually active military and just got back from deployment but since we are not in a rush, we didn't want to expedite it.
That is until now
Seeing how nothing has been happening past 2 weeks, we want to send in an expedite request next week. Does anyone know how we can do that?

Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Edited May 10, 2017 by disobedientavocad

[MrMizo 144]

120 days since received date now and 117 days since NOA 1, did they make cuts at USCIS? This is sad for everyone. When the current pattern is like this, it makes you feel like it will be a repeat of last week.

[RJandHamid 1,133]

1 hour ago, disobedientavocad said:

Hey guys! I've been lurking in here for the past months, I am a January filer (NOA1:Jan 24) and as many others, haven't heard anything yet. My fiancee is actually active military and just got back from deployment but since we are not in a rush, we didn't want to expedite it.
That is until now
Seeing how nothing has been happening past 2 weeks, we want to send in an expedite request next week. Does anyone know how we can do that?

Thanks and good luck to everyone!

You will need to call USCIS customer service number, I believe it is  1-800-375-5283 and follow the prompts. I've heard they generally only expedite for military if they are going to be deployed in the near future, but it's still worth trying to get the expedite if you can. Good luck!

Edited May 10, 2017 by RJandHamid

[Estibaliz 3,037]

2 hours ago, XavierFR said:

Oh jeez, it's going to destroy the planning for all the next months filers too

Amen to that. As an April filer I was planing on moving on October, but now I don't even know if it's going to work for November or even December. And yes, so many RFE's seems something to worry about, because it just doubles the work when they are already being kind of slow. So really, I don't know what to think...

 

We were saving my fiance's vacation days so he could come when I had my visa in hand and travel back together. With that plan, that could mean a really long time not seeing each other due to work and stuff  

 

Still my wish is for you all, filers than send your petition before us, to get your approvals. It would be wonderful if USCIS worked in an orderly manner. It could take longer for the last of us, but still you'd know when it was going to be your turn.

[SkruDe 311]

According to the statuses mined by dbmathis, since the turn of the month (May 1st) there has been 18 Approvals and 325 RFE's.

 

There are some assumptions that can be concluded from that stat alone.  Has there been a temporary shift in focus of the USCIS?  Or, was there a problem with original USCIS filing where they had documents compromised that they are now trying to sort out and fix?  Or are they working on harder petitions first?  Or has some sort of policy change as of May 1st causing  an increase of RFE's?  I don't know but it is obviously something is up, and it is a shame it is being kept a secret from all of us.

 

Regardless, 2 days into this week and the pattern appears to be continuing so something is not running as "Normal" over in USCIS offices.  To get approval, if it works, I'd encourage all to get congressional support and have your representative inquire on your petitions and try to bypass this extra, unnecessary waiting.

[notantifun 196]

It's been;

161 days since I last saw my fiance

124 days since i129f received

26 days since RFE mailed

14 days since RFE response received

 

 

My VJ timeline estimates that my petition could be adjudicated between today and the 17th. All I can do is wait, good thing work keeps me busy. But honestly it seems like I've been waiting forever. 

 

 

[MrMizo 144]

After work today, i certainly plan to visit my local congressman's office for support,  he's helped me with past issues and i am hoping he can help with this issue at CSC..i have to do something and just can't hope for the best especially in these circumstances, and at that how the conflict between Taiwan and China are getting worse day by day. 

[XavierFR 38]

1 hour ago, Estibaliz said:

Amen to that. As an April filer I was planing on moving on October, but now I don't even know if it's going to work for November or even December. And yes, so many RFE's seems something to worry about, because it just doubles the work when they are already being kind of slow. So really, I don't know what to think...

 

We were saving my fiance's vacation days so he could come when I had my visa in hand and travel back together. With that plan, that could mean a really long time not seeing each other due to work and stuff  

 

Still my wish is for you all, filers than send your petition before us, to get your approvals. It would be wonderful if USCIS worked in an orderly manner. It could take longer for the last of us, but still you'd know when it was going to be your turn.

Ah :/

 

Me too I wanted to join my fiancée just after getting my Bachelor's Degree (in July) but now it looks complicated with these problems.

I wanted to sign up for a Master's Degree in the USA in September (with a job the week), like that my fiancée and I go to college together, but it looks like our plans are messed up  

 

Edited May 10, 2017 by XavierFR

[NatO23 235]

22 minutes ago, SkruDe said:

According to the statuses mined by dbmathis, since the turn of the month (May 1st) there has been 18 Approvals and 325 RFE's.

 

There are some assumptions that can be concluded from that stat alone.  Has there been a temporary shift in focus of the USCIS?  Or, was there a problem with original USCIS filing where they had documents compromised that they are now trying to sort out and fix?  Or are they working on harder petitions first?  Or has some sort of policy change as of May 1st causing  an increase of RFE's?  I don't know but it is obviously something is up, and it is a shame it is being kept a secret from all of us.

 

Regardless, 2 days into this week and the pattern appears to be continuing so something is not running as "Normal" over in USCIS offices.  To get approval, if it works, I'd encourage all to get congressional support and have your representative inquire on your petitions and try to bypass this extra, unnecessary waiting.

I don't know what is going on there, and I've decided to stop speculating and trying to figure it out - it's making me crazy. But i agree that it's concerning. I posted earlier about the fact that there are a bunch of RFEs being sent out... true, those cases are being touched and that is a good thing. But if none of the responses are being turned into approvals, then is it really considered progress?? It's just adding more cases back into the pile that need approval/attention.

 

We contacted our senator this morning, and I will keep the forum updated on any news we hear. We didn't address the issue from the perspective of "we want our case approved right now", because I don't believe that will get us anywhere and there are plenty of people who have already had a much longer wait than us. Instead, we asked for support in determining the following:

 

- Why the processing rate (specifically approvals) has pretty much stopped for this month

- Why we are essentially being lied to by USCIS when they tell us that they're not processing January cases at all yet

- Where our fees are being spent, if it is taking some people up to (and over) 7 months to hear anything

 

I backed all of this up by providing a spreadsheet of case numbers for January filers, and included their current status, and also pointed out that this data is public domain and fairly obtained. Anyone can get their hands on it without any kind of scan or coding, if you have the time and patience to do manual searches on the app and website, and it contradicts everything we're being told by USCIS online and on the phone.

 

Like I said, I don't imagine this enquiry resulting in an approval for us, and I'm not even overly optimistic about getting any of the information we asked for either. But I cannot take the daily disappointment anymore without at least doing *something* to try and get answers. 

 

I will post again if/when I hear anything.

[jrhernandez 18]

20 minutes ago, Chris&RunnyRun said:

After work today, i certainly plan to visit my local congressman's office for support,  he's helped me with past issues and i am hoping he can help with this issue at CSC..i have to do something and just can't hope for the best especially in these circumstances, and at that how the conflict between Taiwan and China are getting worse day by day. 

Hi Chris! February filer here (02/07). My fiancée is also in Taiwan. Please let me know if mentioning the Taiwan/China conflict helps in speeding up your approval. If it does, I'll definitely think of doing the same if my case gets excessively delayed.

[Charlesvb12 61]

stupid question of the day..I have NOA1 January 17th.. just scrolling and seeing almost everyone sent their packet to the California Service Center and I sent mine to the Texas Service Center, does that matter?

[FindHerKeepHer 244]

11 minutes ago, NatO23 said:

I don't know what is going on there, and I've decided to stop speculating and trying to figure it out - it's making me crazy. But i agree that it's concerning. I posted earlier about the fact that there are a bunch of RFEs being sent out... true, those cases are being touched and that is a good thing. But if none of the responses are being turned into approvals, then is it really considered progress?? It's just adding more cases back into the pile that need approval/attention.

 

We contacted our senator this morning, and I will keep the forum updated on any news we hear. We didn't address the issue from the perspective of "we want our case approved right now", because I don't believe that will get us anywhere and there are plenty of people who have already had a much longer wait than us. Instead, we asked for support in determining the following:

 

- Why the processing rate (specifically approvals) has pretty much stopped for this month

- Why we are essentially being lied to by USCIS when they tell us that they're not processing January cases at all yet

- Where our fees are being spent, if it is taking some people up to (and over) 7 months to hear anything

 

I backed all of this up by providing a spreadsheet of case numbers for January filers, and included their current status, and also pointed out that this data is public domain and fairly obtained. Anyone can get their hands on it without any kind of scan or coding, if you have the time and patience to do manual searches on the app and website, and it contradicts everything we're being told by USCIS online and on the phone.

 

Like I said, I don't imagine this enquiry resulting in an approval for us, and I'm not even overly optimistic about getting any of the information we asked for either. But I cannot take the daily disappointment anymore without at least doing *something* to try and get answers. 

 

I will post again if/when I hear anything.

Appreciate you!!! But do u guys think that highlighting the fact that we have the data is a good thing? They can easily restrict access to the information if they wanted or feel like it is causing a stir. Idk just my thoughts

[SkruDe 311]

5 minutes ago, Charlesvb12 said:

stupid question of the day..I have NOA1 January 17th.. just scrolling and seeing almost everyone sent their packet to the California Service Center and I sent mine to the Texas Service Center, does that matter?

Service Center and Lock Box are two different places.

 

You probably sent to the Texas Lockbox which will filter it and send it out to the California Service Center.

 

You're NOA1 should tell you this info.

[NatO23 235]

1 minute ago, Williamsnelson said:

Appreciate you!!! But do u guys think that highlighting the fact that we have the data is a good thing? They can easily restrict access to the information if they wanted or feel like it is causing a stir. Idk just my thoughts

Nope, it's not obtained through any kind of illegal way. You can literally put your case number into the app, scan 500 numbers after it at a time, filter the I-129F cases, and add them all to 'My cases' list. Do that enough times, and you end up with the 3,600+ January case numbers. I did it over several days due to IP banning, but it's all fair and public information that they make available on their own app. Having the data isn't a crime or anything to be frowned upon. If it was, they wouldn't have an online tracker at all. 

 

Either way, I've made it clear that this was information we found on our own, and I'm positive that there won't be a negative response to that. But thanks for highlighting it, as I'm sure other people will have the same worry and it's good to address it now :-)