1-129F: approved faster than expected?

[chocolatechai 1]

My fiancé (Spanish citizen) and I (US citizen) sent in our I-129F back in May. It was marked received May 9, and I got NOA1 a few days later. Just today I received NOA2 in the mail, notifying us that our petition was approved and our case will now be sent to the NVC. On the website it is still marked as "received" rather than "approved," but maybe that's just because they haven't updated the system yet or something. This is obviously great news, but it's way faster than we were expecting! Based on what I had researched, I was expecting a 5-7 month wait at minimum for NOA2. I'm also kind of confused because the USCIS website says that the California Service Center is still reviewing January cases, so I'm not sure how ours (a May case) was approved already. Has anyone else had their NOA2 come this fast? Any ideas on why?

 

Also, my fiancé won't be able to come until January anyway due to work. I read online that once his visa is issued at the US Embassy, he has 6 months to enter the country. I am expecting that between getting sent to the NVC, then the department of State, then making an appointment with the embassy, etc. he probably won't be issued the actual visa until October or so, so I don't think this should cause problems for our timeline. However, the NOA2 form I got says that it is only valid until December 8. What does this mean? 

[Crazy Cat 41,981]

12 minutes ago, juliabean said:

I read online that once his visa is issued at the US Embassy, he has 6 months to enter the country.

He will have UP TO 6 months to enter the US.  The issued visa will normally expire 6 months after his medical exam.

 

Note:  My wife's visa expiration date was 5 months after her medical exam.

Edited August 17, 2019 by missileman

[HRQX 4,145]

1 hour ago, juliabean said:

the NOA2 form I got says that it is only valid until December 8. What does this mean? 

The embassy can extend the NOA2 for up to 12 months. Most of the time they do it automatically. It's very rare for the embassy to not extend it and list the expiration as a reason for denial: https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/715580-i-129f-petition-denied-at-interview-because-of-expiry-date-passed/

Edited August 17, 2019 by HRQX

[Allaboutwaiting 2,503]

The NOA2 always expires after 4 months of being issued. As mentioned on the previous post, it can be extended up țo 12 months -4 months at a time-.

In your case, you'll be fine if you/your fiancé schedule the interview before the NOA2 expires and he'll have 6 months counted from when the medical was performed, to enter the US.

 

As for why it was so quick, it's been very normal lately.

[alvnadh 1]

That was really fast, our fiancé visa took 10 months from filing to visa in hand, also from Spain. From NOA2 it took around 2 and a half months to have it in hand.

 

If you have any questions for future steps just send me a message. Congrats!

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,093]

7 hours ago, juliabean said:

My fiancé (Spanish citizen) and I (US citizen) sent in our I-129F back in May. It was marked received May 9, and I got NOA1 a few days later. Just today I received NOA2 in the mail, notifying us that our petition was approved and our case will now be sent to the NVC. On the website it is still marked as "received" rather than "approved," but maybe that's just because they haven't updated the system yet or something. This is obviously great news, but it's way faster than we were expecting! Based on what I had researched, I was expecting a 5-7 month wait at minimum for NOA2. I'm also kind of confused because the USCIS website says that the California Service Center is still reviewing January cases, so I'm not sure how ours (a May case) was approved already. Has anyone else had their NOA2 come this fast? Any ideas on why?

If you look at what VJ users have reported here (just look at the CSC chart for step 2; it's very rare for a case to be sent to VSC, and since 2017 TSC on a K-1 is a data entry error by someone confusing the Dallas Lockbox where they sent the K-1 to with the Texas Service Center), you can see that NOA1 to NOA2 times started dropping a lot in the second half of 2017 and have mostly stuck at the new lower level (going up just a little very recently), though NOA2 to embassy times have gone up some.

 

For everything except EAD and AP (employment and travel authorization while waiting for your green card), the official processing time estimates on USCIS' web site seem to be on the conservative side compared to what VJ users report.

[jaysaldi 213]

I filed through the California Service center in early October and it took 5.5 months for NOA2.  Maybe they are getting faster.

[CON 34]

11 hours ago, juliabean said:

My fiancé (Spanish citizen) and I (US citizen) sent in our I-129F back in May. It was marked received May 9, and I got NOA1 a few days later. Just today I received NOA2 in the mail, notifying us that our petition was approved and our case will now be sent to the NVC. On the website it is still marked as "received" rather than "approved," but maybe that's just because they haven't updated the system yet or something. This is obviously great news, but it's way faster than we were expecting! Based on what I had researched, I was expecting a 5-7 month wait at minimum for NOA2. I'm also kind of confused because the USCIS website says that the California Service Center is still reviewing January cases, so I'm not sure how ours (a May case) was approved already. Has anyone else had their NOA2 come this fast? Any ideas on why?

 

 

The time frame given is an average... I've seen a bunch from California Service Center get approved 2-1/2 to 3 months around Mar - May 2019 filing, me included.  I filed on April, got NOA2 in 90 days.  You can slow it down by just waiting for your packet 3 to arrive as supposed to contacting NVC to get case numbers and such. It usually takes a while for packet 3 and packet 4 to come if you are not pro-active... then you still have the medical and interview appointment which you can also take your time on. 

Edited August 18, 2019 by CON

[jaysaldi 213]

12 hours ago, juliabean said:

 I read online that once his visa is issued at the US Embassy, he has 6 months to enter the country. I am expecting that between getting sent to the NVC, then the department of State, then making an appointment with the embassy, etc. he probably won't be issued the actual visa until October or so

At least in my experience (Cambodia) when we sent in the DS-160 we got an interview date almost two months later.  And then 8 more days to get the visa. Time frame from NOA2 to interview was 5 months, but we delayed a month sending in the DS-160. 

 

Maybe Spain is faster but I wouldn't expect him to have the visa before December or January.