January 2017 I-129F Filers

[djhead 14]

Hi guys, hope you are all well.

 

We received our NOA1 on January 12th, so awaiting (hopefully the NOA2).

 

We have booked our wedding for August 25th, and are quitter nervous that it gets done in time!

 

has anyone that posted in January received their NOA2 yet? if so do you think it is realistic it can be done by August?

 

Many thanks

[glmg21 330]

41 minutes ago, djhead said:

Hi guys, hope you are all well.

 

We received our NOA1 on January 12th, so awaiting (hopefully the NOA2).

 

We have booked our wedding for August 25th, and are quitter nervous that it gets done in time!

 

has anyone that posted in January received their NOA2 yet? if so do you think it is realistic it can be done by August?

 

Many thanks

Welcome to the gang. As far as I know, nobody's received a January approval yet. They're currently making their way through November and have also started on early December, with one or two cases approved up to the 8th of December. It will probably be another 4-6 weeks before January starts seeing some movement. Current projections for NOA-1 approvals seem to indicate mid-to-late April for January filers, but of course it could be before or after this point.

 

If it is late April for an I-129F approval, you *could* be able to get the NOA-2, NVC transfer, and visa interview completed by August 25th..but it might be tight. I'm hoping to have my visa by the end of July but in all likelihood it could be closer to August as I filed later in the month!

[djhead 14]

Thanks for the response

 

we did think it would be close but the venue we wanted only had that date and it is my fiancés dream destination but of course we are nervous that it may not be done in time. Looking at other peoples time lines (albeit everyone is different) they seem to have the whole process take around 150-160 days (some are shorter, and of course some are longer). 

We have seen some peoples journey where they only logged the petition in January so it is a bit confusing as to how they work the cases there! 

 

fingers crossed!

[MaxG 18]

43 minutes ago, djhead said:

Hi guys, hope you are all well.

 

We received our NOA1 on January 12th, so awaiting (hopefully the NOA2).

 

We have booked our wedding for August 25th, and are quitter nervous that it gets done in time!

 

has anyone that posted in January received their NOA2 yet? if so do you think it is realistic it can be done by August?

 

Many thanks

I think that's hasty. I have a pregnant fiancé who is due around the same time frame and my immigration attorney flat out told me that my fiancé will be in America in 2017, but probably not by August. I went to an immigration attorney to see if there was any way to accelerate the process due to my situation. 

 

My advice would be to sign the marriage papers at a courthouse, or wherever, and then plan your big wedding party separately. Otherwise you are likely in for a disappointment and wasted money on event planning.

 

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. 

 

 

[glmg21 330]

54 minutes ago, LolaaBrett said:

That's not right lol.. I wonder if they label them.. I would love to see how they actually work.. but isn't it a certain amount of cases they should be working on a day.. and if behind someone else comes down on them? Sorry but I'm losing hope 

 

59 minutes ago, Miina said:

If I understood correctly from previous threads, the case workers get a box of applications and go through them in their own pace. Some are faster than others. Some require RFEs easier than others.
However, if there is a difficult case (previous K1 applications, matching name on one of the registeres, etc.) it is given to a supervisor who deals with the case. I think that explains why there are some lingering cases that haven't been RFEd or approved.

 

As Miina explained, the cases are put into boxes based on the date received. An adjudicator will take one box at a time, and make their way through it before taking another box. However, the order they go through that box does not necessarily correspond with the date on the petitions, for a number of reasons:

 

1) Ease of completion: adjudicators have KPIs and performance targets for the number of petitions they should be approving each week; like in any job. The more that require a supervisor's approval, or have to be sent for an RFE, the fewer petitions that adjudicator completes for the week. I'd read somewhere on here before that it's not uncommon for the easiest looking cases to be cherry-picked from a box; those with legible handwriting, good evidence, fully-completed forms, uncomplicated circumstances etc. Those ones will be pulled first and approved quickly as to get the adjudicator's numbers up, before moving onto the more complex cases later in the week - hence the higher number of RFEs you often see on Fridays.

 

2) Speed: some adjudicators work faster than others, some might be newbies, others vets. Many probably also get unlucky with boxes that are stacked full of complicated petitions; unclear meeting circumstances, lack of evidence, childrens' petitions to file, etc. Unfortunately your case is often at the mercy of everyone else's in your box, and I'd imagine November and December is tough because so many people rushed to file before the fees went up and made mistakes as a result.

 

3) Luck: how the cases go in the box just isn't always how they come out. Sometimes people just get unlucky, partially due to the factors above, and sometimes just by which order they're picked out. It's why there are November 8th filers still waiting while there are December 8th filers who already have a NOA-2. Unfortunately it's just the way the cookie crumbles!

 

It's important to remember that everybody's case is safe, secure, and will get seen to in due course though..and we're lucky that there is a system in place to get everyone's spouses and fiancees into the country eventually! We're all in this wait together, so don't fear - we'll get there!

[djhead 14]

Thanks guys for the response. I think we based our wedding date off the averages on this website (and we appreciate that it is only an average), but worked out based on the average of NOA-1 to Interview stage being around 150-165 days that we would have about 2 months to spare. Therefore even if ours was above the average it would still be fine. Fingers crossed still

[Miina 28]

5 minutes ago, djhead said:

Thanks guys for the response. I think we based our wedding date off the averages on this website (and we appreciate that it is only an average), but worked out based on the average of NOA-1 to Interview stage being around 150-165 days that we would have about 2 months to spare. Therefore even if ours was above the average it would still be fine. Fingers crossed still

Im with you on this. Unless we get stuck on a holidaying case workers desk, or NVC loses our petition, i think we will have visa in hand by late June. 

Again, no one can say for sure.

 

i strongly agree with @glmg21 that we are lucky to have a system that goes through each application and assesses it against the same rules and regulations for everyone. We will get our visas, no need to despare. 

[sbane12 63]

Not sure why people are worried so much about August. 
So far even if you just go by the timelines of people almost at interview stage in the November filers thread, I am looking at a June interview+visa in hand (and my NOA1 is 1/24) . Probably even May interviews (and visa) for quite a few of the Jan 1-10th filers

[glmg21 330]

21 minutes ago, sbane12 said:

Not sure why people are worried so much about August. 
So far even if you just go by the timelines of people almost at interview stage in the November filers thread, I am looking at a June interview+visa in hand (and my NOA1 is 1/24) . Probably even May interviews (and visa) for quite a few of the Jan 1-10th filers

Here's hoping! Everyone is different but it's best to lean on the side of caution if you're planning a big or expensive event like a wedding, as some on here seem to be!

 

Edit: I do also think people can only base their perception of the situation based on current conditions. November and December have been uncharacteristically busy..historically speaking the process won't take as long, but as it has recently, I guess it's natural for people to overshoot how long things might take.

Edited March 3, 2017 by glmg21

[tevans2 27]

9 hours ago, Miina said:

Ah I see! Yeah, a lot of rejections in January.... poor couples, I feel bad that they have to re-file!
 

Still, *waiving the positivity flag*, less cases than at the end of last year!!  

One of those was me! Lol 

I have to laugh about it because it was such a careless mistake... I forgot to sign the application! I made 4 copies of the I-129F form and somehow I managed to send in the only copy without a signature. So, I went from 1/31 to 2/14 for my new Noa1. I'm very optimistic about the processing time compared to Nov/Dec so I'm hoping it won't take as long to get those approvals  

 

[LolaaBrett 88]

3 hours ago, glmg21 said:

 

As Miina explained, the cases are put into boxes based on the date received. An adjudicator will take one box at a time, and make their way through it before taking another box. However, the order they go through that box does not necessarily correspond with the date on the petitions, for a number of reasons:

 

1) Ease of completion: adjudicators have KPIs and performance targets for the number of petitions they should be approving each week; like in any job. The more that require a supervisor's approval, or have to be sent for an RFE, the fewer petitions that adjudicator completes for the week. I'd read somewhere on here before that it's not uncommon for the easiest looking cases to be cherry-picked from a box; those with legible handwriting, good evidence, fully-completed forms, uncomplicated circumstances etc. Those ones will be pulled first and approved quickly as to get the adjudicator's numbers up, before moving onto the more complex cases later in the week - hence the higher number of RFEs you often see on Fridays.

 

2) Speed: some adjudicators work faster than others, some might be newbies, others vets. Many probably also get unlucky with boxes that are stacked full of complicated petitions; unclear meeting circumstances, lack of evidence, childrens' petitions to file, etc. Unfortunately your case is often at the mercy of everyone else's in your box, and I'd imagine November and December is tough because so many people rushed to file before the fees went up and made mistakes as a result.

 

3) Luck: how the cases go in the box just isn't always how they come out. Sometimes people just get unlucky, partially due to the factors above, and sometimes just by which order they're picked out. It's why there are November 8th filers still waiting while there are December 8th filers who already have a NOA-2. Unfortunately it's just the way the cookie crumbles!

 

It's important to remember that everybody's case is safe, secure, and will get seen to in due course though..and we're lucky that there is a system in place to get everyone's spouses and fiancees into the country eventually! We're all in this wait together, so don't fear - we'll get there!

Thank you so much for taking the time out to explain this to me I appreciate it!

[kasu06 36]

13 hours ago, sbane12 said:

I think it might be fixed now. let me know if you see any more missing. Thank you everyone. Even got some early Feb filing in there but its still under 5k so ill just leave it in.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XCMaubqubh8N1ZCQsZlTDFscMWRdYJAmJ3Uey783cfc/pubhtml

 

I see some of the same problems and missing case numbers:

 

1. The earliest numbers are in the xxxx165xxx range, e.g. ,:

1790165642        1/12/2017        Your Current Status: Case Was Rejected Because It Was Improperly Filed                

1790165741        1/9/2017        Your Current Status: Case Was Received                     
no low-number cases, including mine, in the xxxx161xxx range

 

2. If you sort by date, there are earlier dates, starting with 1/3/2017, but the case numbers seem out of range, e.g. ,:

1790170293        1/3/2017        Your Current Status: Case Was Received

1790179918        1/3/2017        Your Current Status: Case Was Received

 

3. This is true (numbers out of range) for the few December cases, e.g. ,:

1790174766        12/23/2016        Your Current Status: Case Was Received

1790174767        12/23/2016        Your Current Status: Case Was Received

 

4. And finally there are some clearly wrong dates, e.g.,:

1790197902        3/30/2017        Your Current Status: Document Was Mailed

1790199498        3/30/2017        Your Current Status: Document Was Mailed

 

 

 

 

[MatEna 12]

3 hours ago, glmg21 said:

...and we're lucky that there is a system in place to get everyone's spouses and fiancees into the country eventually! We're all in this wait together, so don't fear - we'll get there!

Excellent observation!!!

 

Thank you.

[ilovehowyouloveme 47]

12 hours ago, LolaaBrett said:

I'm giving up now there are a lot more January filers than I expected it..took me like 15 minutes to find my receipt number?

Hey everyone!

I'm assuming a lot of you know this, but for some of you that might not - when you look at the January filers document you can press command + f (or if you don't have a mac, control + f) and type in your WAC number. This way you can locate your case number right away! 

[LolaaBrett 88]

1 minute ago, ilovehowyouloveme said:

Hey everyone!

I'm assuming a lot of you know this, but for some of you that might not - when you look at the January filers document you can press command + f (or if you don't have a mac, control + f) and type in your WAC number. This way you can locate your case number right away! 

Hey thanks for telling me.. but I'm using my iPhone