2017 Mexico I-601a waiver processing time

[Jane88 41]

3 hours ago, Mansini77 said:

Jane88,

 

So sorry to hear about your mother's health during this time.  Sadly, it appears on average the wait time for the I-130 takes the longest.  Ours took nearly 8 months before an approval.  However, our case was processed at the Nebraska center, not the Potomac Service Center like yours.

 

Could you please clarify whether if the waiver is for a I-601, or a I-601A.  The current processing times for I-601 and I-601A differ.  If you are applying for a waiver of unlawful presence in the United States, it will be an I-601A.  The case will be reviewed by the National Benefits Center in Missouri and takes around 3-4 months.  Before you can even start on the I-601 or I-601A, the I-130 needs to be approved first by the USCIS before they send your case to the NVC where you would then have to pay for the AOS and DS-260.  To put it in a nutshell, you are stuck in limbo for now until the I-130 is approved, as it is the first initial step of obtaining a visa.  Do you have an immigration attorney assisting you? 

 

 

😞😔😔 my heart breaks every time I think about it...i hoped our I 130 would be approved  by now so we can just file I 601A , I can do the biometrics here and just leave the USA with I 601A still pending, so I can be on time there to spend some time with my mom....😔😔😞😞😞😭😭😭 I need the waiver only for unlawful presence here....almost 8 longs years ...I pray to God every day that I can make it there on time...we have a lawyer working with us on our case, I will call here today and see if she could call uscis to expedite my case..😔😔😔 Thank you so much for all the feedback and support....

[Jane88 41]

1 minute ago, Jane88 said:

😞😔😔 my heart breaks every time I think about it...i hoped our I 130 would be approved  by now so we can just file I 601A , I can do the biometrics here and just leave the USA with I 601A still pending, so I can be on time there to spend some time with my mom....😔😔😞😞😞😭😭😭 I need the waiver only for unlawful presence here....almost 8 longs years ...I pray to God every day that I can make it there on time...we have a lawyer working with us on our case, I will call here today and see if she could call uscis to expedite my case..😔😔😔 Thank you so much for all the feedback and support....

I was wondering if I would leave now and then just start the process of I 601 from Ukraine instead of filing for I 601A here....how long on average it would take for I 601 to get approved and if the chances of it getting approved are the same as in I 601 A case.... my lawyer told me I 601 usually takes from 6 mons to a year thats if everything goes smooth...but I read of forums ppl wait longer than that...

[AheartA 6]

9 minutes ago, Jane88 said:

I was wondering if I would leave now and then just start the process of I 601 from Ukraine instead of filing for I 601A here....how long on average it would take for I 601 to get approved and if the chances of it getting approved are the same as in I 601 A case.... my lawyer told me I 601 usually takes from 6 mons to a year thats if everything goes smooth...but I read of forums ppl wait longer than that...

Most regular I601s have been taking longer than a year. There are great 601 and 601A groups on Facebook. It is a front-hand of actual people (in real time) who are going through it now.

[Jane88 41]

15 minutes ago, AheartA said:

Most regular I601s have been taking longer than a year. There are great 601 and 601A groups on Facebook. It is a front-hand of actual people (in real time) who are going through it now.

Thank you, I will look into it

[coco84 14]

Hi, I would like to share my timeline. Still waiting for news, checking USCIS website everyday!!! :-(

We sent our waiver on August 22

Received August 24

Fingerprints App Sep 20

 

 

[HisForeverWife 43]

2 minutes ago, coco84 said:

Hi, I would like to share my timeline. Still waiting for news, checking USCIS website everyday!!! :-(

We sent our waiver on August 22

Received August 24

Fingerprints App Sep 20

 

 

Did you use a lawyer?

[coco84 14]

Yes, I used a lawyer. One of the best ones. Mr. Carl Shusterman! And is been process at NBC too. I see a lot of people approved already that sent their waivers in August. 

 

 

[HisForeverWife 43]

5 minutes ago, coco84 said:

Yes, I used a lawyer. One of the best ones. Mr. Carl Shusterman! And is been process at NBC too. I see a lot of people approved already that sent their waivers in August. 

 

 

I should be sending mines off in a few weeks 

[coco84 14]

who is your qualifying relative?

[HisForeverWife 43]

54 minutes ago, coco84 said:

who is your qualifying relative?

The waiver will be for me. My husband is the petitioner 

[maryLu 58]

8 hours ago, coco84 said:

Yes, I used a lawyer. One of the best ones. Mr. Carl Shusterman! And is been process at NBC too. I see a lot of people approved already that sent their waivers in August. 

 

 

He's one of the best in the country. If you don't mind me asking how much does he charge for a waiver. I used a good lawyer as well, payed 8500. Unfortunately the lawyers have no influence on the processing time , except if they request an expedite . Best wishes, you should hear back soon. 

[coco84 14]

15 hours ago, maryLu said:

He's one of the best in the country. If you don't mind me asking how much does he charge for a waiver. I used a good lawyer as well, payed 8500. Unfortunately the lawyers have no influence on the processing time , except if they request an expedite . Best wishes, you should hear back soon. 

I paid $10,000 for the entire process. Waiver and NVC process. Actually my case is a very special case, many lawyers said it wasn't prossible. It has never been done. He was the only one who said yes. 

After Obama's waiver expansion, people who had worked visas and were applying for greencards through the employer were now allowed to apply for a waiver. I have no work visa but my husband do and I as a derivate spouse qualified. I was able to use my mother as a qualifying relative (LPR). But my husband is from India, and I am from Honduras. Because he is from India the wait time for a greencard through an employer is more than 10 years. So he was able to make my husband apply as a honduran. As you can see, is a very complex case. And he was able to make it work. I am very impress with him.

[Mansini77 100]

$8500-$10,000 for an immigration attorney.  Wow.  Throughout our journey, there have been plenty of times I've said the words "If I knew it would be this much of a pain in the ###, I would have had our lawyer do all this".  Not so much now.  We have an immigration attorney, whom we've paid for a consultation, but not to do the paperwork for us.  Mostly just to outline the steps of the process and to answer our questions.  I'll say most of the steps like the I-130, the DS-260 and the AOS are pretty self explanatory, it's the I-601a waiver that gave me the most stress.  Writing an essay proving "extreme hardship" while providing evidence took a lot of careful planning.  I must have proofread our I-601a five times before I was fully satisfied with it. We also supplied a psychological examination of our family and she wrote her own essay which I supplied with the I-601a.  No matter how much evidence, professional opinions, and hard work you put into the I-601a, there were no guarantees of approval.  After all, how does one prove "extreme hardship"?

 

Anyways, just out of curiosity, how many people here visited a psychologist for a psychological examination?  Before I started work on our I-601a, I was a bit reluctant to visit a psychologist for help.  However, our immigration attorney highly recommended it and said "The extra time and money spent could mean the difference of having the I-601a approved".  Sure enough, ours was approved and I'm positive our psychological examination made quite a bit of difference in our case.  

[maryLu 58]

1 hour ago, Mansini77 said:

$8500-$10,000 for an immigration attorney.  Wow.  Throughout our journey, there have been plenty of times I've said the words "If I knew it would be this much of a pain in the ###, I would have had our lawyer do all this".  Not so much now.  We have an immigration attorney, whom we've paid for a consultation, but not to do the paperwork for us.  Mostly just to outline the steps of the process and to answer our questions.  I'll say most of the steps like the I-130, the DS-260 and the AOS are pretty self explanatory, it's the I-601a waiver that gave me the most stress.  Writing an essay proving "extreme hardship" while providing evidence took a lot of careful planning.  I must have proofread our I-601a five times before I was fully satisfied with it. We also supplied a psychological examination of our family and she wrote her own essay which I supplied with the I-601a.  No matter how much evidence, professional opinions, and hard work you put into the I-601a, there were no guarantees of approval.  After all, how does one prove "extreme hardship"?

 

Anyways, just out of curiosity, how many people here visited a psychologist for a psychological examination?  Before I started work on our I-601a, I was a bit reluctant to visit a psychologist for help.  However, our immigration attorney highly recommended it and said "The extra time and money spent could mean the difference of having the I-601a approved".  Sure enough, ours was approved and I'm positive our psychological examination made quite a bit of difference in our case.  

I was willing to pay whatever it took to stop living like this, and to eventually get peace in my soul, so I decided to go with one of the best attorneys in my area. 8500 were just the attorney fees, with  everything else we are around 12k so far.  ( Getting passports was another ordeal on its own, that ended up costing us  over 2 k. The trip will also be super expensive since all 6 of us are going. Yes we did the psychological evaluation as well. It was quite intense, and so very emotional... Our lawyer said we had a very strong medical case and that we could most likely get an approval without a psychological evaluation, but I wanted to built the best waiver packet we could. 

[maryLu 58]

On 12/15/2017 at 9:46 AM, coco84 said:

I paid $10,000 for the entire process. Waiver and NVC process. Actually my case is a very special case, many lawyers said it wasn't prossible. It has never been done. He was the only one who said yes. 

After Obama's waiver expansion, people who had worked visas and were applying for greencards through the employer were now allowed to apply for a waiver. I have no work visa but my husband do and I as a derivate spouse qualified. I was able to use my mother as a qualifying relative (LPR). But my husband is from India, and I am from Honduras. Because he is from India the wait time for a greencard through an employer is more than 10 years. So he was able to make my husband apply as a honduran. As you can see, is a very complex case. And he was able to make it work. I am very impress with him.

Believe it or not I am also a derivate on my husband's employment visa, and I have applied for a waiver with my dad (USC) as a qualifying relative. I couldn't find one employment - based case with a waiver. Our lawyer said that our case is very unique, but that we have a very good chance in getting processed via consular processing.  I hope he's right! I'm so stressed over this whole process.