Backlog or stricter vetting, or both?

[HamoAus 20]

G'Day,

 

My U.S. fiancee had our I-129f sent off to Dallas by our lawyer on 02-28-2018, she hasn't received the NOA1 yet but I'm sure it's not too far away.

Anyway, a few days before he sent it off, our lawyer contacted me to advise me that the waiting time from NOA1 to interview had blown out to around 9 months, he said the reason for this was because of tougher vetting policies that been put in place by the White House. Fair enough I said, but then I was surfing these forums last night and saw people discussing the increase in processing times citing a spike in applications that came through last summer creating a backlog for UCIS to work through. 

So I guess my question is; which is it? Is it a backlog or stricter vetting that's created the hold up, or maybe a combination of both?

And, is there any possibility of the waiting time decreasing as they work through the applications they have? 

[Jeff_9802 121]

You should get your NOA1 very soon.  It is probably in the mail already.

 

The time from NOA1 to NOA2 has gone from 50 days to 200+ days in the past year.  It is probably a combination of both stricter vetting and an increase in applications.  There are signs that this time is starting to decrease, so hopefully you won't have to wait as long as those of us that filed last summer.  My fiance and I were lucky compared to many folks.  We waited 190 days for the NOA2 approval.

[geowrian 22,337]

The backlog is the biggest issue, especially for the I-129F. The background checks at that point are primarily for the petitioner. While sometimes there is a holdup on security checks with the I-129F, on most cases I can't imagine this taking very long.

There's always a possibility of the processing taking less or more time. Things do tend to be taking longer than shorter in general, but there is an ebb and flow to the process over the years.

[HamoAus 20]

Well thanks guys for the replies, I guess its pretty hard to tell what USCIS is going to do at any given point. Anyway, my girl and I are expecting a lengthy wait but are hopeful that we might get some wind in our application's sails. 

[Unidentified 2,930]

I think that yeah sure, maybe the vetting has something to do with it. But I also think it's kind of a natural ebb and flow thing. When I filed 4 years ago (can't believe it's been that long already) it took us a year from start to finish. The people who filed about a year after us had smooth sailing with maybe 4-6 months. So it's just different depending on how many are filing and how backlogged or not they are.