January 2017 I-129F Filers

[TriloByte 1,818]

33 minutes ago, XavierFR said:

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  

 

Whatever you do, do not say you intend to work or school at the interview. That's one of the trick questions that they ask. Say that you have no current intent to work or go to school. Your moving to get married.

 

It's a lie, but they could fail you for telling the truth.

Edited May 10, 2017 by dbmathis

[doggieandsam 765]

6 minutes ago, NatO23 said:

...it's all fair and public information that they make available on their own app.

But the apps I think are developed by third parties and are not by USCIS at all?

[NatO23 235]

5 minutes ago, iamdegie said:

But the apps I think are developed by third parties and are not by USCIS at all?

Apologies if I got that part wrong. However, you can also use the USCIS website case tracker to do the same thing. It will take much longer, going one at a time, but the point is - the data is out there and available for public access.

[Estibaliz 3,037]

36 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.

Good luck with that. It would be very nice to have any idea of what's really happening there. With so many RFE's, and barely nothing else, one wonders if they had any problem with the files that it's resulting in them having to ask for documents again. Yet, if that would have happened, the least they could do is issue some kind of public notice so people could send things back without having to wait to hear from them. But I guess that would be too much work for USCIS 

[TriloByte 1,818]

47 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.

The data does show a drop in the processing rate for a few days, however on 5/8 it came right back up to over 100 touched. 100 touched is not a slow day. 

 

Having the data can be good or bad depending on a persons outlook and how they interpret it.

 

We can only speculate why there are less approvals. Some guesses are that they have temporarily shifted focus, policy change and approval happen at a different time, etc. I don't have data for the other months, so maybe the focus has been there. 

 

My suggestion, again, is to focus mainly on touched and untouched. As long as untouched continues to shrink, we are ok. If everything is touched and no approvals happen, then worry, else your just interpreting what a trend means and creating worse case scenarios.

 

One last thing. I run the scan based on the assumption that all processing for the day stops at 11pm eastern. As I pointed out last night, there seems to either be a lag in them updating the online status or they are working later. I know this because I ran the scan Monday night and there were 80 something cases touched on 5/8 and then ran it last night and there were 100 something touched for 5/8. Should I start running the scan in the morning instead? This might be why the touched cases yesterday appears low.

Edited May 10, 2017 by dbmathis

[doggieandsam 765]

8 minutes ago, NatO23 said:

Apologies if I got that part wrong. However, you can also use the USCIS website case tracker to do the same thing. It will take much longer, going one at a time, but the point is - the data is out there and available for public access.

No worries. And yeah I do agree with everything else you said. I do hope you get some info back from your senator as it would be great to know what is going on at USCIS. The thing that gets to me the most is the fact that we paid almost double the cost compared to the Nov 2016 (and earlier) filers and yet we seem to be getting much worse service. I personally know somebody from September 2016 who must hold the record for a non-expedited approval at 17 days!

[Estibaliz 3,037]

4 minutes ago, iamdegie said:

I personally know somebody from September 2016 who must hold the record for a non-expedited approval at 17 days!

I know someone from October 2016 that got approved in 15 days!!  Better not to add to it by comparing to past cases, though I agree is somehow aggravating with the raise in the fees.

 

Comparison is the thief of joy  And no one is very joyful around here right now.

[David&Femke 91]

8 hours ago, dbmathis said:

Thanks. I've been trying to refine it over the past few days to keep it simple but detailed enough to see what's going on. I just removed the last 7 days tab, figured "Touched" with all days covers it. 

 

If they continue at the pace they are going, looks like a week into June, most everyone will have their case touch or approved (unless they slip into the dreaded "skipped case" land).

I canhelp you with the beeing helt for 180 dys case, that one is ours
it means they could not deliver the mail to hour adress and the postoffice snt it back. and we already dit 3 incurries sinds februarie like they ask, but the status just has not canged. so the 180 days is not a thing anymorethey assured us.

[NatO23 235]

3 minutes ago, dbmathis said:

The data does show a drop in the processing rate, but on 5/8 it came right back up to over 100 touched. 100 touched is not a slow day. 

 

Having the data can be good or bad depending on a persons outlook and how they interpret it.

 

We can only speculate why there are less approvals. Some guesses are that they have temporarily shifted focus, policy change and approval happen at a different time, etc. I don't have data for the other months, so maybe the focus has been there. 

 

My suggestion, again, is to focus mainly on touched and untouched. As long as untouched continues to shrink, we are ok. If everything is touched and no approvals happen, then worry, else your just interpreting what a trend means and creating worse case scenarios.

 

One last thing. I run the scan based on the assumption that all processing for the day stops at 11pm eastern. As I pointed out last night, there seems to either be a lag in them updating the online status or they are working later. I know this because I ran the scan Monday night and there were 80 something cases touched on 5/8 and then ran it last night and there were 100 something touched for 5/8. Should I start running the scan in the morning instead?

I completely appreciate that 100 touched cases is not a slow day, but only 17 of them were approvals. Previous weeks had a much higher ratio of approved:RFE, and even though it's great to see 'touched' cases increase and 'untouched' decrease, if the majority of the touched cases result in an RFE (which is the case), they're essentially just getting put back into the pile of cases waiting for approval. My concern is that they're spitting out some RFEs to placate people and hit numbers, but then the responses are just sitting there and not being touched. It's especially concerning when some people are getting and RFE for things that they DEFINITELY submitted, such as passport photos - I saw someone comment with that as their reason. Personally, and this is just my own opinion, I think it's more important to focus on the approval rate rather than just the touched rate. But everyone has their own take on things, so I'm not disputing your line of thought by any means at all.

 

I would definitely recommend running the scan in the morning, just so you can be absolutely sure that everything has been updated and processed. With everything being pretty wonky over there lately, I wouldn't be surprised if it's taking longer than usual for the system to update. But of course - if that interferes with your job, then don't worry! Everyone appreciates what you do, regardless of what time of day you do it.

[doggieandsam 765]

2 minutes ago, dbmathis said:

One last thing. I run the scan based on the assumption that all processing for the day stops at 11pm eastern. As I pointed out last night, there seems to either be a lag in them updating the online status or they are working later. I know this because I ran the scan Monday night and there were 80 something cases touched on 5/8 and then ran it last night and there were 100 something touched for 5/8. Should I start running the scan in the morning instead?

I saw the same thing on my May 3 scan. One case showed as touched on 2-May but this did not show up on the previous day's scan. I also thought that either I scanned to early or it was just updated late on the tracker. I did the scan between 1am-3am EST, so most likely it was updated late.

[doggieandsam 765]

5 minutes ago, Estibaliz said:

I know someone from October 2016 that got approved in 15 days!!  Better not to add to it by comparing to past cases, though I agree is somehow aggravating with the raise in the fees.

 

Comparison is the thief of joy  And no one is very joyful around here right now.

OMG 15 days?!

[David&Femke 91]

i still thik they are aproving cases there just not updating for some reason.
my case status has been stuck sinds 24 februarie on non deliverable. wile they asureed us that is not the status anymore and it should just be recieved now.
i really think in the next comming weeks people will get there nao2 in the mail or they start updating the online stutus. and there will be a bulk of aprovals
 

[XavierFR 38]

33 minutes ago, dbmathis said:

Whatever you do, do not say you intend to work or school at the interview. That's one of the trick questions that they ask. Say that you have no current intent to work or go to school. Your moving to get married.

 

It's a lie, but they could fail you for telling the truth.

 

Ah thank you ! Of course I want to marry my girlfriend to be with her but you're right I didn't think of this.  

[TriloByte 1,818]

3 minutes ago, David&Femke said:

i still thik they are aproving cases there just not updating for some reason.
my case status has been stuck sinds 24 februarie on non deliverable. wile they asureed us that is not the status anymore and it should just be recieved now.
i really think in the next comming weeks people will get there nao2 in the mail or they start updating the online stutus. and there will be a bulk of aprovals
 

 

Could be, but not hearing many people here saying they were approved does not support that theory.  Let's hope for a flood of approvals soon anyway, because snail mail takes time.

[David&Femke 91]

Just now, dbmathis said:

Could be, but not hearing many people here saying they were approved does not support that theory.  Let's hope for a flood of approvals soon anyway, because snail mail takes time.

yeh the mailing takes them about 7-10 days so it still fals with in that i think, and there mailing out all the lottery losers this week with are millions.