November 2017 Filers K1 VISA I-129F (merged)

[Sandy05 24]

Hey everyone! Im fairly new here, was silently creeping on the thread but thought it was time to say hello lol   I sent our paperwork in November as well and received our NOA1 for November 16. My fiance is in Jordan and I'm in Chicago. Hoping that the time passes quickly as it's impossible to plan a wedding like this, not knowing when he will be able to come here. Do you guys know if the timeline estimate that we have on our profiles, is it when we should receive an NOA2 by or is it when he should have finished his interview and received the k1-visa? As I'm sure everyone agrees, waiting really sucks. Also, I'm really anxious given the recent 'political climate' you know what I mean... Jordan is not on the current ban list but do you guys think that my timeline will be longer than most? We have been together for 8 years now, finally started the process of applying after I finished my first 2 years of medical school, he is a doctor there as well. My schedule for school is already really stressful and I will only have a small window to attempt to plan a wedding. If I don't get any RFE's, what is the earliest I can expect him to be here? It's killing me not being able to start planning anything, I have no idea how I will be able to manage everything so last minute if he is approved during my rotations. Any advice to help me freak out less would be appreciated. -Sandra

[K1visaHopeful 2,817]

1 hour ago, Sandy05 said:

Hey everyone! Im fairly new here, was silently creeping on the thread but thought it was time to say hello lol   I sent our paperwork in November as well and received our NOA1 for November 16. My fiance is in Jordan and I'm in Chicago. Hoping that the time passes quickly as it's impossible to plan a wedding like this, not knowing when he will be able to come here. Do you guys know if the timeline estimate that we have on our profiles, is it when we should receive an NOA2 by or is it when he should have finished his interview and received the k1-visa? As I'm sure everyone agrees, waiting really sucks. Also, I'm really anxious given the recent 'political climate' you know what I mean... Jordan is not on the current ban list but do you guys think that my timeline will be longer than most? We have been together for 8 years now, finally started the process of applying after I finished my first 2 years of medical school, he is a doctor there as well. My schedule for school is already really stressful and I will only have a small window to attempt to plan a wedding. If I don't get any RFE's, what is the earliest I can expect him to be here? It's killing me not being able to start planning anything, I have no idea how I will be able to manage everything so last minute if he is approved during my rotations. Any advice to help me freak out less would be appreciated. -Sandra

Welcome Darling!

I have no advice on timelines and I’m sure the only true answer is that the projections are merely guesstimates based on previous data, not much else.

As for our wedding plans, we plan to do a simple elopement and then plan a reception for family and friends at a later date to celebrate.

[Murph4865 597]

11 hours ago, Sandy05 said:

Hey everyone! Im fairly new here, was silently creeping on the thread but thought it was time to say hello lol   I sent our paperwork in November as well and received our NOA1 for November 16. My fiance is in Jordan and I'm in Chicago. Hoping that the time passes quickly as it's impossible to plan a wedding like this, not knowing when he will be able to come here. Do you guys know if the timeline estimate that we have on our profiles, is it when we should receive an NOA2 by or is it when he should have finished his interview and received the k1-visa? As I'm sure everyone agrees, waiting really sucks. Also, I'm really anxious given the recent 'political climate' you know what I mean... Jordan is not on the current ban list but do you guys think that my timeline will be longer than most? We have been together for 8 years now, finally started the process of applying after I finished my first 2 years of medical school, he is a doctor there as well. My schedule for school is already really stressful and I will only have a small window to attempt to plan a wedding. If I don't get any RFE's, what is the earliest I can expect him to be here? It's killing me not being able to start planning anything, I have no idea how I will be able to manage everything so last minute if he is approved during my rotations. Any advice to help me freak out less would be appreciated. -Sandra

The timeline on here is only a estimate not really truthful but it also depends on everyone that uses these forums to fill in their timelines accurately so the algorithms can calculate on a more real basis better no matter how u look at it, it will never be 100% correct.

Unless thing picks up rather quickly you are looking at around July to October 2018 for NOA 2 alone add another 6 to 8 weeks for NVC case number them it all depends on embassy.

[Sandy05 24]

19 hours ago, K1visaHopeful said:

Welcome Darling!

I have no advice on timelines and I’m sure the only true answer is that the projections are merely guesstimates based on previous data, not much else.

As for our wedding plans, we plan to do a simple elopement and then plan a reception for family and friends at a later date to celebrate.

Elopement sounds wonderful, at least that will give you time to plan on your own pace. For cultural reasons, we won't really have that option. I hope the guesstimates are close for all of our sakes  

 

[Sandy05 24]

10 hours ago, Murph4865 said:

The timeline on here is only a estimate not really truthful but it also depends on everyone that uses these forums to fill in their timelines accurately so the algorithms can calculate on a more real basis better no matter how u look at it, it will never be 100% correct.

Unless thing picks up rather quickly you are looking at around July to October 2018 for NOA 2 alone add another 6 to 8 weeks for NVC case number them it all depends on embassy.

October 2018 for NOA2? I really hope that's worst case scenario. Isn't this whole process supposed to be the fastest with like 6-8 months max? At this rate, it seems like it would have been faster to just get married overseas and apply for the spousal visa instead. We talked to a lawyer before applying and were told if we wanted to go the fast route, that K1 visa was the quickest at 6 months and if we chose to not wait and just get married there instead, we would be separated for 12-18 months while we waited. That's why we gave up on having a wedding overseas where all of our family is, and opted to wait to have an extremely small wedding here instead.   At this rate, the k1 taking so long, it doesn't really make sense since I've seen the stats from people who applied for the K3 and they were approved very quickly it seems. Thanks for the info though. Let's keep our fingers crossed, maybe after the New Year they will catch up on all the pending cases more quickly. 

[reicakes88 35]

On 11/25/2017 at 10:59 PM, reicakes88 said:

Hello there November filers! We just sent out our packet yesterday by express usps and now its just waiting for pickup in Dallas. Wish us luck!

I've been super busy so wasn't able to update sooner. I received my NOA1 on Nov. 29th! No the long and stressful wait begins. 

[Naes 12,205]

7 hours ago, Sandy05 said:

October 2018 for NOA2? I really hope that's worst case scenario. Isn't this whole process supposed to be the fastest with like 6-8 months max? At this rate, it seems like it would have been faster to just get married overseas and apply for the spousal visa instead. We talked to a lawyer before applying and were told if we wanted to go the fast route, that K1 visa was the quickest at 6 months and if we chose to not wait and just get married there instead, we would be separated for 12-18 months while we waited. That's why we gave up on having a wedding overseas where all of our family is, and opted to wait to have an extremely small wedding here instead.   At this rate, the k1 taking so long, it doesn't really make sense since I've seen the stats from people who applied for the K3 and they were approved very quickly it seems. Thanks for the info though. Let's keep our fingers crossed, maybe after the New Year they will catch up on all the pending cases more quickly. 

Before any panic; right now noa1 to noa2 takes 180-210 days an rfe may make it a little bit longer (up to 60 days) we are all hoping it will get a little bit better.. although they are definitely not trying hard enough to go through June at this moment.

 

nvc taking 6 weeks is due to uscis not sending the cases, we don't know why this is happening but it is again connected with uscis. Once NVC receives it it takes normal 2 weeks to get the case number and transfer. So let's also hope uscis will solve at least the NVC crisis soon as many people are waiting over 6 weeks for a case number right now.

[nykolos 711]

I sent my K1 I129 application in mid November, received NOA1 dated Nov. 16.. I was pleased with the response time..  I had a friend who filed a K1 many years ago and it took 3 months, that's what I was anticipating until I found this web forum that delivered a heavy blow,  5-6 months, really?.. I made 3 trips to Russia in 2016-17, my last was in July,  it took 3 months to gather all supporting documentation, I completed the application myself and was very thorough.. I told Natalya it would be 3 months from November, she's going to be so disappointed, I don't know whether to deliver the bad news now before Christmas or after.. I'm thinking after.

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by nykolos

[Sandy05 24]

3 hours ago, Naes said:

Before any panic; right now noa1 to noa2 takes 180-210 days an rfe may make it a little bit longer (up to 60 days) we are all hoping it will get a little bit better.. although they are definitely not trying hard enough to go through June at this moment.

 

nvc taking 6 weeks is due to uscis not sending the cases, we don't know why this is happening but it is again connected with uscis. Once NVC receives it it takes normal 2 weeks to get the case number and transfer. So let's also hope uscis will solve at least the NVC crisis soon as many people are waiting over 6 weeks for a case number right now.

Trying not to panic, thanks for some reassurance. I don't have the heart to tell my fiance that this might take longer than we thought, Im thinking maybe once the holidays are over things might pick up more quickly. 

 

Do you think they have more people applying than recent years? Or does it seem to be a problem with immigration in general due to some of the recent changes in policies? Is there any way for us to check how far along our case is or do we simply have to wait to be notified in the mail for the NOA2? Sorry for bombarding you with questions, this forum has been so helpful with providing information. I never thought I would need to learn so much about USCIS in my life so thank god for all of you  

 

[Naes 12,205]

4 minutes ago, Sandy05 said:

Trying not to panic, thanks for some reassurance. I don't have the heart to tell my fiance that this might take longer than we thought, Im thinking maybe once the holidays are over things might pick up more quickly. 

 

Do you think they have more people applying than recent years? Or does it seem to be a problem with immigration in general due to some of the recent changes in policies? Is there any way for us to check how far along our case is or do we simply have to wait to be notified in the mail for the NOA2? Sorry for bombarding you with questions, this forum has been so helpful with providing information. I never thought I would need to learn so much about USCIS in my life so thank god for all of you  

 

Not really. Actually there are less people applying according to their reports. And also less people got approvals. They are backlogged. not only for k1.

 

 There were an big increase in naturalization applications after January. This is one of the reasons. Another that can be thought of is that the administration wants stricter process and they also send more rfes now. And there were also some mistakes happened apparently such as some files sent to wrong centers etc. so basically lots of incidents happened at once. May this clear a little bit? Sure. But they are already so backlogged I don't know how they will clear it. I'm hoping by your time at least NVC problem will be solved. So all we can do is wait and see at the moment.

[frenchval 7]

On 06/12/2017 at 10:33 PM, MillyandCourtney said:

Hello everyone! 

 

My partner Courtney and I got engaged on August 8, 2017, and we filed our I-129F paperwork to the Dallas dropbox on November 15, 2017 by USPS Priority Mail, and a few days later got notified that our application was received on November 20, 2017, and that it was sent to the California Service Center. Now we wait! 

 

I'm from the UK, and I'm returning there on January 4, 2018. I'm in the US on the Visa Waiver Program at the moment, but considering how much time I've spent here as a tourist over the past year visiting my fiancée, I don't think I'm going to be allowed to come back for a while... so hoping for a speedy processing time, like everyone else is! 

 

Today I added up all the estimated/historical processing times for the various stages (http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/stats.php?history=90) and turns out I should be getting called to my visa interview in London around July 2018, but of course I know it could be sooner or later than that. 

 

I saw some posts earlier on about what people are doing to keep their minds occupied while this long process goes through. Personally, I'm finishing a graduate degree in England (I have to go back to for that anyway, so it wouldn't matter all that much if I could stay in the US!) and I'm going to be spending as much of my time packing up, getting organised, selling what I can, and working hard to save money. I'm not as worried about the time apart as my fiancée is; I miss her terribly when I am not with her, but usually I can cope... but she hates it and can't really cope. Sometimes I wish we were back in the old days (hundreds of years ago) when there wouldn't be all this paperwork, but then again hundreds of years ago we wouldn't be allowed to get married so I suppose we have modernity to thank for that

 

Best of luck everyone. Keep those heads high! 

 

Milly

On 08/12/2017 at 11:18 PM, Fenrir said:

My fiancée is British and will be interviewing in London too.  Our filing days are 2 days apart.  And MAN I’m hoping you are wrong about that July interview date.  😂

Wow! Glad to see there are other gay couples around the same date! My NOA1 was November 22nd so we're very close!

 

Anyway, I'm still lurking at this page, hoping to see some improvment of any kind...
I gotta admit with all the things I'm reading on this page, I'm getting more and more pessimistic...I was hoping to be able to start working in August 2018 in the US (I'm a teacher so it's easier to get hired in the beginning of the school year).

[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!

 

 

 

[K1visaHopeful 2,817]

2 minutes ago, Daniel P said:

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!

 

 

 

Can you clarify what “approved” means? 

NOA1 to what? K1 visa received?

[Daniel P 2,022]

7 minutes ago, K1visaHopeful said:

Can you clarify what “approved” means? 

NOA1 to what? K1 visa received?

NOA1 to NOA2

[K1visaHopeful 2,817]

Just now, Daniel P said:

NOA1 to NOA2

That’s what I thought. Just wanted to clarify for those that think the full process still only takes 6 months. 

I would have done the CR1 route had I not read approval rates of 6 months too.