I129f September 2017 filers

[Naes 12,205]

3 minutes ago, madelineshea said:

When I am king of the universe (har har stupid joke), I swear I’m going to give everyone a house and a pony and I won’t interfere with people’s lives in such a dramatic fashion like this.

 

i genuinely hope that my story can help someone. I hope that people may one day look at my posts and say “wow, let’s not do what she did.” I have a friend who is currently in the beginning stages of looking into this process, and I warned her of every mistake I’ve made.

 

this was honestly my “hail Mary” card. I can look back and realize my mistakes now, and realize when and where I messed up. But even if this doesn’t work for me, maybe I can help save someone else. I’m thinking of starting a blog or something to compile all the knowledge I’ve gained. I wish I would have known what I know now in the very beginning. I wish I would have had the resources and known where to look for information. 

It's ok I'm a goddess (  ) if only my powers would work for speeding things up for anyone heheh

 

good luck really! But please write if it fails or not.. it really would be a disaster if everyone saw this  and suddenly they have 200 expedite requests form September 17 filers 😂😂

[Madeline & Matt 252]

Just now, Naes said:

It's ok I'm a goddess (  ) if only my powers would work for speeding things up for anyone heheh

 

good luck really! But please write if it fails or not.. it really would be a disaster if everyone saw this  and suddenly they have 200 expedite requests form September 17 filers 😂😂

As soon as I know anything, you all will know, too! (I think I even clicked submit on my post here before I told my fiancé about the call. Oops. )

I was told by the woman on the phone today that it will take 5-7 business days to hear from the officer in charge of my case, then another 5-7 business days after proof is submitted.

 

I still think this whole cluster-you-know-what could've been avoided if it weren't for the toxic political/anti-immigration environment in the US this year. It's just been the perfect screw-everyone-over storm. Hopefully everyone will be in enough of a food coma over the holidays to allow at least a few days' relaxation.  

[Naes 12,205]

3 hours ago, Kyle Brant said:

@Naes

 

I've been lurking here ever since my fiance and I filed our petition back on 9/21.  I've often seen your posts and comments and I really appreciate everything you have to offer in this discussion!

 

I wonder if you can help shed some light on a few things I'm wondering about?  The first is, I seem to remember reading somewhere about how USCIS will begin to send petitions to the other service centers if they get back-logged to a certain extent?  Is that true?  It's crazy to think that this process was 3 months only about a year ago or so.  The reason I ask is because while my fiance and I have basically hit the 3-month mark waiting for our NOA2, I see a lot of bold claims from people saying that instead of the wait being 6 months, it's climbing every day, so now I see people saying the wait between NOA1 - NOA2 is 8 - 10 months?!  Is that even accurate?  Is there a point when something is done by USCIS, or will it eventually climb to 12 - 14 months or higher?

 

Also -- I have been reading in this thread a lot about expedition.  I sympathize with anyone who is suffering from the enormous wait times, we're all in that same boat.  Although, my fiance lives in Ukraine, quite close to Crimea!  I'm constantly worried because the conflict between Russia and Ukraine still rages on, and I always worry about her safety.  Is that a valid reason to request an expedite?  Sure, there aren't bombs being dropped in her neighborhood, but Russia has invaded her city, only a couple years ago!  I would not want to clog the system with any expedite requests that are not valid, so I'm just kind of probing here.

 

Sorry for the wall of text!  Jeez, I felt like I had a lot to ask.  You just seem to have a pretty good understanding of this process.

 

Thank you

I'll do my best;

 

yes it it seems like the transfer happened in the past, however the problem for this backlog is not only about a casual backlog but a bunch of new administration related changes. Such as stricter screening process and more rfes (they are sending more rfes than previous years- this is official now with the data) So a transfer may not happen. I believe when those transfers happened the waiting times were 200+ 

 

no i do not want to think this can get longer than 10 months for average (the key here is average, every case is different.. there is always that one case stuck in the process even in vj. So I would think there are more cases around that are stuck)

 

my belief is that it will come come back to 6 month average the best for us. 

 

For the expedite; humanitarian reasons can be a valid reason. However the main question would be that are there people living there normal lives or not? There are other active war zones that cannot be helped as far as I know. Humanitarian in most cases cover disasters such as floods, earthquakes. You can ask for an expedite you won't lose anything (I think) but gather as much evidence about the reasons. 

 

For what's worth:

My most realistic timeline is to get noa2 by the end of March the worst and get my visa by May. 

 

Now I have lots of job descriptions and one of them is to analyze data and forecast, not just quantitative but also qualitatively. Quantitatively it looked like they could save it all, and still does. However the administration requests and all the articles and news I've read, which makes the qualitative part of this shows that there's more to this whole business at this moment.

 

I'm not going to say that there never been a time like this in uscis before, however most of this times delays are caused by the politics from what I see.

 

[Swissmiss82 1,620]

hey my septembAMBAMBAM's

I know we'll be all busy these days so I already wish everyone happy holidays and hopefully you can spend the holidays with your loved ones <3

let's stay strong and remember how lucky we are to be loved by our SO.

 

 

[Mayi & MiMi 172]

Star light, star bright, 

First star I see tonight, 

I wish I may, I wish I might, 

Have this wish I wish tonight. (for uscis to approve that app tonight) 

 

LOL, not going to happen, right

 

Star light, star bright, 

First star I see tonight, 

I wish I may, I wish I might, 

Have this wish I wish tonight. 

[Daniel P 2,022]

This is an update of a graph I posted around one month ago when I compared April and May regarding the length of time from Received to Approved. Now I'm including June under the same conditions.

 

As a reminder, in the graphs below I try to compare what happened within the next 173 days after that last day of April, May and June received cases. In order to see it clearer I put them together in pairs.

 

In that time, with a total of 1394, 1507 and 641 approved cases (after removing some outliers) respectively:

 

• April had a global mean of 153.08 days from Received to Approval date, with a standard deviation of 15.04 days.
• May had a global mean of 169.95 days from Received to Approval date, with a standard deviation of 9.45 days.
• June had a global mean of 181.61 days from Received to Approval date, with a standard deviation of 7.64 days.

 

After what we've seen over the last weeks it's not surprising to see that the times have worsened significantly in the last month and, what's worse, they have approved much less cases in the same period of time. The explanation for this might just be that it's Christmas and less adjudicators are working on cases... let's say with a less urgent attitude 

 

Hopefully everything will slowly start looking better from January on and we'll all have a happier beginning of the new year to come!

 

 

 

[BK&MC 103]

Guys, I need some suggestions.

 

Boyfriend will be spending the holidays all alone in CT.

 

He didn't plan to go home back to TN cos tickets were so expensive and he thought he'll just stay back to cover for his colleagues and work overtime.

Come to find out, he can't work OT anymore cos he reached his limit and his manager is still in the process of lifting the OT.

 

I was thinking to surprise him and get him the tickets home (that was gonna burn a hole in my pocket. Especially since I'm heading over myself in 2 weeks, but hey anything to cheer him up and not have him spend the holidays alone), but since he offered to cover for his colleagues, he still has to work. So no go.

 

All his close buddies and colleagues are going home for holidays.

 

So, any suggestion on how I can cheer him up or what can I do to make his holidays better, I would appreciate it.

 

 

Thanks!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

[Madeline & Matt 252]

In my attempt to be as helpful as possible to others who are curious about the expedite process, my case was assigned to an officer for response yesterday, 21st of December. As minute a detail as it is, I'm assuming it takes one full business day to assign cases to an officer. I anticipate hearing something about needing to provide evidence between 26th of December and 3rd of January. They say 5 to 7 business days for initial contact, but I'm throwing in an extra day because of the holidays.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, and am trying to come to terms with the fact that this may not work in my favor. Even if this doesn't work out, at least I tried, which to me, is better than sitting around doing nothing but worrying and chewing my fingernails, wondering "What if I had just gone for it?"

All in all, whether it takes twelve weeks or twelve months, eventually, I'll have my happily ever after. We all will. We are all so lucky to have found the ones that make our soul happy. 

[Naes 12,205]

On 12/21/2017 at 9:04 PM, Kyle2017 said:

 

I think this attitude is the perfect one to have. Overall understanding what we can do and what we can't and dealing with whatever happens when the time comes, but to always be ready and know what you can and can't do.

 

I do believe what's happening with NVC is not a regular thing, and hoping it will be back to normal less than a month waits by January.

 

---------------------oops they merged

 

Happy holidays 

 

I just came to US yesterday and wanted to repost what I posted on yes you can visit topic just in case anybody needs it.

 

----

 

Hi everyone 

 

just putting my experience for anyone who's worried.

 

I'm at the stage of waiting for noa2 (day 100 today) and from Turkey (but traveling from Japan). I have a B1/B2 visa that I got around 6 years ago.

 

And this is my 3rd time this year, 

1)  before petition in May for 12 days - they asked me lots of questions at this time nothing out of ordinary though but it was my first travel to US in 5 years so I thought it was normal.

 2) right after the petition filed (we got noa1 when I was in US that week) they asked how long and for what- I told them to visit my fiancé who's in the hospital- nothing else.

 

3) (yesterday) Ive entered from LAX yesterday together my fiancé, we had two cats with us so we asked to line up together and I entered through the US citizens line. They asked if we were married and My fiancé said "soon", I said hopefully- the lady just said why hopefully- I said uscis is taking their time this year- and that's it, nothing else no tickets no how longs. 

 

all 3 times they gave me 6 months (and I can't believe I have to go back and can't stay for that long....) 

Edited December 23, 2017 by Naes

[Naes 12,205]

On 12/22/2017 at 7:54 AM, madelineshea said:

In my attempt to be as helpful as possible to others who are curious about the expedite process, my case was assigned to an officer for response yesterday, 21st of December. As minute a detail as it is, I'm assuming it takes one full business day to assign cases to an officer. I anticipate hearing something about needing to provide evidence between 26th of December and 3rd of January. They say 5 to 7 business days for initial contact, but I'm throwing in an extra day because of the holidays.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, and am trying to come to terms with the fact that this may not work in my favor. Even if this doesn't work out, at least I tried, which to me, is better than sitting around doing nothing but worrying and chewing my fingernails, wondering "What if I had just gone for it?"

All in all, whether it takes twelve weeks or twelve months, eventually, I'll have my happily ever after. We all will. We are all so lucky to have found the ones that make our soul happy. 

 

7 hours ago, HarmonySalama said:

Quick update* I received an email from USCIS regarding my expedite request. They just advised who to fax documents too and that it was on a case by case basis. I'm pretty much putting all my medical documents in order along with financial loss. I'm not sure if this is the same in other countries but, it's illegal for morrocan currency to leave the country. Even if you're picking up a different currency on your end so I'm hoping they see all my surgeries, time off work, no pto left, and the fact that my fiancé can't even help me when I'm home for another week. It's worth a shot so we will see. I'll let you know when I fax all the documents and when I hear something back. Probably will be Tuesday after the holidays!

Good luck to both of you 😊

[geowrian 22,338]

2 hours ago, Kyle2017 said:

This is what I have so far:

 

Form I-129F - $535

Form DS-160 - $160 (?)   DS-160 has no charge, but the MRV fee ("visa application fee") for a K-1 is $265

Embassy Medical Exam - ~$200 (I understand this varies by country.  Ukraine's seems to be about this much unless I'm mistaken) Varies from embassy to embassy...more are closer to $300 now IIRC, and some near $400. Some charge more for vaccinations

Cost of Visa from Embassy - ~$200 or so? No such charge (covered in MRV fee)

Cost of translations and obtaining other documents

Travel costs

 

AOS:

Form I-485 AOS - $1,140 + $85 biometrics = $1225

See updates in red above.

 

Quote

Is the cost of the work permit and advanced parole included in the AOS fee?  Or are they separate?

There is no additional fee for the I-131 and I-765 when field alongside or due to a pending AOS application.

 

Quote

However, it leads me to wonder...  Why did we all do the K-1?  It seems to be vastly more expensive than the CR-1 and is taking quite a long time.  Speaking personally, the reason I did it was because we wanted to close the gap between us as soon as possible and the K-1 was billed as the quickest route, whereas the CR-1 was expected to be a 12 - 14 month wait.

The ONLY advantage of a K-1 over a CR-1 is that it takes less time. It is more expensive, can't work or travel abroad right away, has to go through AOS, etc. Back when the K-1 was taking <= 6 months, it was a much more viable option. At this moment, it's only slightly faster so I suggest a CR-1 more often.

Edited December 25, 2017 by geowrian

[geowrian 22,338]

25 minutes ago, Kyle2017 said:

Hey thanks for the info!  That's still about as expensive as I thought it would be...  Jesus.

 

Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me.  We've already filed for the K-1 so there's no sense in abandoning and going back to the beginning, at least for us, but the CR-1 would have been smarter if we could have had more patience.

 

Our thought process was that we needed to close the distance as soon as possible, so we went for the K-1 immediately.  Yes, I could have gone back to Ukraine and married her, come back and started the CR-1 but that would have tacked on even more time and the expense of going there and back, which is at least $1.2k with just airfare alone, not to mention room and board since her family has no space to host me.

 

What's done is done and we're committed to this K-1 visa.  The expenses worry me, but I think they're manageable since they're staggered and I'm not going to have to pay $2k - $3k in one lump sum or anything.

 

Now, the things that worry me are boredom, homesickness and culture shock for my fiance.  We've talked at depth about this, and we're going to try everything we can to alleviate those pressures while we wait for her work permit and travel documents.  We've even thought about joining some American-Ukrainian or American-Russian VK or Facebook groups.

Yup, our process took about 7 months when it was estimated to take only ~3 months at the time of filing. About 3/4s of a month of that time was transferring to a different embassy due to the delay (her work contract was finishing). You just gotta take it as it goes one day at a time.

Even with the delays, it would have taken several months to even start filing as it's not easy for me to get that time off work for a while (I already visited twice that year for 2 weeks each time). So the CR-1 really would have been closer to 16-18 months once we decided to do it anyway.

Edited December 25, 2017 by geowrian

[geowrian 22,338]

4 minutes ago, Kyle2017 said:

Did you both file for the K-1 on your own or with a lawyer or a company like Rapid Visa?  We just did it on our own.  I figured that the expenses were already going to be high without yet another agency involved, but I understand that a lot of people like to do it for extra reassurance.

 

Jeez!  16 - 18 months?!  Yikes.  Yeah, that's a long time.  That's 10 months more!  I mean, even with the current backlog for K-1's, it's not even approaching that kind of wait time.  It sounds like you guys made the right decision.

 

I'm in the same boat.  Even if the K-1 is taking considerably longer, I know for a fact that it would take even longer to come back to the U.S., get my ducks in a row and my job figured out, then take the time off to go back to Ukraine, get married, pay for all of that, then start the 12 - 14 month (or maybe more, who knows?) CR-1 process.

 

So yeah, the expenses are daunting, but it's worth it to us to know that we will, without a doubt, be together sooner this way. 

We did it ourselves as well. Most cases don't need professional assistance (and many times it can actually slow down the process).

[ahmedahmadyar 41]

I’m a bit late to the party but I’m glad to have found this forum!

 

Our K1 application was received on 21st September and we are on day 95 of waiting for NOA2. No previous marriages, visa attempts, children or criminal records. We did everything ourselves and sent the form to Lewisville. Will keep you guys updated when we hear back from USCIS.

 

Its a bit of a shame because I had heard from a friend that it took him 3 months between filing and having the visa in hand, so I expected ours to take about the same. Disheartening to know processing times are increasing but at least we have 3 months behind us now.

 

My fiancé is staying with me in London now until the process is complete and we are flying back together. 

[Kush_Omaded 29]

5 hours ago, Kyle2017 said:

Thank you!  Oh yeah, I was puzzled by that for a long time.  I follow r/LongDistance on Reddit and it seems like more than half of those people are always together!  I'm like "How?!  What do you people do for money?!"

 

My fiance is like 7,000 miles away from me and it's not like I can just go hop on a plane to spend a month with her any time I feel like it, and it's been a real test of our relationship over the last 3 months to be so far apart.  Looking forward to another 3 - 5 more months of being apart is not a happy thought, but I think it's been making us stronger in the long run.

 

I was unemployed for quite a while, which gave me the time to go see her, but I ended up burning through my savings and I had no other choice than to go get a job, an apartment and make sure I have everything set up for her to come here.  If I was still unemployed like I was before, what was I going to do?  I have a co-sponsor, but that doesn't solve the problem of where we would live and how I would support the two of us.  Now I've got that figured out and I'm relieved, but I wish I had a way to go visit her while this visa process is still ongoing. 

I'm with you there, it's a frustrating process. My fiancé can't leave Tajikistan to visit me (currently residing there on a refugee visa, so he can only leave for permanent resettlement or to return to Afghanistan), and I'm undergoing my security clearance for work with a government contractor, so I can't leave the U.S. to visit him. So we're kinda stuck until the K-1 pulls through and brings him here. It's hard, and while it is making us stronger as a couple, I wish we had a way to see each other. But, I do consider us lucky to live in the age of technology. I don't know what I'd do without WhatsApp; daily video calls really do help us feel closer. We'll all be reunited with our sweethearts eventually, though, that's for sure. Optimism is the best approach!