APRIL 2020 I-129F (K-1) Filers

[Armika 20]

Hi everybody, 

Hope you all are doing great at this quarantine days and keeping safe ! 
Our NOA1 was on April 9th and we are still waiting for NOA2 ! 
I just want to know if we should send time inquiry or it is better to wait more until our approval ? 
 

[Ms. Clarke 32]

4 minutes ago, Armika said:

Hi everybody, 

Hope you all are doing great at this quarantine days and keeping safe ! 
Our NOA1 was on April 9th and we are still waiting for NOA2 ! 
I just want to know if we should send time inquiry or it is better to wait more until our approval ? 
 

I say send a inquiry. It can’t hurt ! Let’s us know your response. 

[cararyn 12]

My NOA1 is for April 13th. I sent an inquiry last week but haven't heard back from them yet.

[Greenbaum 12,259]

54 minutes ago, Armika said:

Hi everybody, 

Hope you all are doing great at this quarantine days and keeping safe! 
Our NOA1 was on April 9th and we are still waiting for NOA2! 
I just want to know if we should send time inquiry or it is better to wait more until our approval? 
 

An approval will come. It is taking about 6-8 months. Most now a days are getting approvals in the eighth month. Sending an inquiry will only garner you a "pat" answer. Something like we are working on it and we will notify once it's approved. It's still up to you if you want to file but March is still being adjudicated and most of them are waiting so being an April and no Aprils have been approved it's my opinion you are wasting your time.

Edited November 18, 2020 by Greenbaum

[Armika 20]

13 minutes ago, Greenbaum said:

An approval will come. It is taking about 6-8 months. Most now a days are getting approvals in the eighth month. Sending an inquiry will only garner you a "pat" answer. Something like we are working on it and we will notify once it's approved. It's still up to you if you want to file but March is still being adjudicated and most of them are waiting so being an April and no Aprils have been approved it's my opinion you are wasting your time.

Thank you so much for your advice dear Greenbaum. Me and my fiancé also think that sending time inquiry doesn’t help and maybe can hurt ! So we have no choice but to be more patient ! 😩

[Armika 20]

1 hour ago, cararyn said:

My NOA1 is for April 13th. I sent an inquiry last week but haven't heard back from them yet.

Hope they will respond you very soon, I appreciate if you share with us their response. 🙏

[TmcMaximus 9]

5 hours ago, Reg&des said:

Usually when they say this it means they’re actively working on your case. So it’s a good thing. 

Yeah I've chosen to interpret it positively, even though I know better than to get too excited just yet.

Just curious, does anyone have any insight as to how long the actual adjudication takes? I trawled around google a bit trying to find some comments or AMA with an actual USCIS agent but didn't come up with much. It's kind of amazing just how opaque the whole process is

[Greenbaum 12,259]

9 hours ago, TmcMaximus said:

Yeah I've chosen to interpret it positively, even though I know better than to get too excited just yet.

Just curious, does anyone have any insight as to how long the actual adjudication takes? I trawled around google a bit trying to find some comments or AMA with an actual USCIS agent but didn't come up with much. It's kind of amazing just how opaque the whole process is

This is my experience from being here helping people navigate this process. USCIS adjudicates approximately six million visa cases each year. That is a hefty workload. They have never promised a date to which they will be finished with your adjudication process. When you submit your I-129f, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) they send you a NOA1 (first contact). Then they have a website that tells you what month they are adjudicating with a timeline. Once they approve your application, they send you a NOA2 (second contact). Next it goes to the NVC where they are task with assigning a case number and (under normal conditions) will send your file to the embassy and they mail a letter with your case number and the will state that your file has been sent to XYZ embassy (third contact). The embassy receives your case and if you use ceac.state.gov you will see the current updates to your case file (fourth contact). The embassy contacts the beneficiary with the P3 instructions (fifth contact). You complete the DS-160, Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application, pay your interview fee and schedule your interview (no contact is made from the embassy as you are responsible for those steps which can be considered contact 6, 7 and 8th contacts) You show up for your interview (9th contact) your approved and you leave to wait for the official outcome which you will know if you return to CEAC and use your case number scan for your current status (10th contact). CEAC shows that your visa has been issued and instructions are given to where to pick your visa at or that it has been mailed using ACME courier or some other means.

 

There are many other tools to use and I outline most in my PDF found on any monthly NOA2 to NVC to Embassy monthly thread. You'll find the PDF on the first page in the first post. Read it carefully and many of your opaqueness will become much clearer in my opinion.

 

This entire process is about patience. At times it feels like eternity to hear back from USCIS/NVC/Embassy. USCIS states that it can take up to 6-8 months currently to adjudicate your application from NOA1. There is not much you can do till you are approved, then once approved you will see that you will be remarkably busy getting documents together, completing your medical and then your interview.

 

We decided exceedingly early on in our immigration journey that the only petition that we needed to be concerned about was our own. We were happy for other folks having good fortune on their immigration journey. We are all stuck on the same leaky boat, the USS USCIS, some of the folks have longer sojourns than others, some have shorter, that is the way it goes. We never had the time, energy, or inclination to worry about what other people were doing, we have our own life to live. C'est la vie !

 

Good luck on your immigration journey.

 

 

[Bink 7]

USCIS updated their timeline for the California Processing Center (unsure of the others) to reflect March 2020. It's no longer April 2020. This is the new reflection of the newly announced 6.5 to 8 months processing instead of the 5 to 7-month processing. So it seems this is actually more in line with the data provided by VJ. They are still processing March 2020 applications.

 

I'm sure some will say, "well, at least they are working on it!". However, in my opinion, it's disheartening. Logic: A good number of people tend to take vacation time in December. Before, COVID offices would be almost a ghost town. I believe this will cause a more significant slow down on processing. I think it would be realistic to prepare (read: preparation for a sanity check) for a January 2021 approval. January 2021 is speculative and hopeful. Personally, I'm bracing for a February 2021 approval.

 

Here's the link: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/. 

[Greenbaum 12,259]

3 hours ago, Bink said:

 

USCIS updated their timeline for the California Processing Center (unsure of the others) to reflect March 2020. It's no longer April 2020. This is the new reflection of the newly announced 6.5 to 8 months processing instead of the 5 to 7-month processing. So it seems this is actually more in line with the data provided by VJ. They are still processing March 2020 applications.

 

I'm sure some will say, "well, at least they are working on it!". However, in my opinion, it's disheartening. Logic: A good number of people tend to take vacation time in December. Before, COVID offices would be almost a ghost town. I believe this will cause a more significant slow down on processing. I think it would be realistic to prepare (read: preparation for a sanity check) for a January 2021 approval. January 2021 is speculative and hopeful. Personally, I'm bracing for a February 2021 approval.

 

Here's the link: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/. 

I concur with your statements. It's become an arduous process that seems there is no end to the twists and turns you are being promulgated on you. I think your optimistic as I believe you won't see anything till March. It is taking USCIS about 60 days to get through a month of applications.

 

We need a little housekeeping on your end. Many of our answers are predicated on the information you supply in your profile. When we look at the left column and can't determine your timeline OR your Embassy it's hard for us to give you a factual answer. Our answers will sometimes be tailored to a specific Embassy hence the reason for you to complete your profile. If you look at the profile of others here, they have a flag for their country, so it makes it easy for us to reply as we can quickly determine their Embassy. The country that should be used is the country where the interview will take place.
 
So, if you could help yourself out and complete your profile that sure would help us out when we want to reply to your question with factual information.

 
Timeline: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RTx4pIFfcIXyW15L-nyLuBGzwqYRx5lI/view?usp=sharing

Country and Visa Type: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RyJiLo_7WTmqvkzXXqLuOlVHm9oyhAES/view?usp=sharing

 
Once you finish that then return and you will see a flag in your profile. Select it and see what wonderful information will open up for you.
 
Thanks 

[Reg&des 26]

9 hours ago, Bink said:

 

USCIS updated their timeline for the California Processing Center (unsure of the others) to reflect March 2020. It's no longer April 2020. This is the new reflection of the newly announced 6.5 to 8 months processing instead of the 5 to 7-month processing. So it seems this is actually more in line with the data provided by VJ. They are still processing March 2020 applications.

 

I'm sure some will say, "well, at least they are working on it!". However, in my opinion, it's disheartening. Logic: A good number of people tend to take vacation time in December. Before, COVID offices would be almost a ghost town. I believe this will cause a more significant slow down on processing. I think it would be realistic to prepare (read: preparation for a sanity check) for a January 2021 approval. January 2021 is speculative and hopeful. Personally, I'm bracing for a February 2021 approval.

 

Here's the link: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/. 

At least it’s more realistic now. They’re saying March 22nd. But I’m seeing approvals for March 23rd and up on FB. Next month will be month 8 for us. Let’s keep praying guys. ❤️

[Beegirl 21]

Has anyone noticed they’ve officially changed the processing time on USCIS for K1? It’s now listed as “6.5-8 months” and they moved the inquiry date all the way back to late March. I’ve been keeping an eye on the inquiry date because mine was supposed to come up for late April in a couple weeks so I went to the site today and saw the change.

 

We can safely say now that processing for filing is taking twice as long as usual. I think I’m just going to accept that this process from NOA1 to arrival in the US for my fiancé is going to take close to 2 years. It freaking sucks. Yes, I’m well aware of patience. Doesn’t make it suck any less.

[TmcMaximus 9]

38 minutes ago, Beegirl said:

Has anyone noticed they’ve officially changed the processing time on USCIS for K1? It’s now listed as “6.5-8 months” and they moved the inquiry date all the way back to late March. I’ve been keeping an eye on the inquiry date because mine was supposed to come up for late April in a couple weeks so I went to the site today and saw the change.

 

We can safely say now that processing for filing is taking twice as long as usual. I think I’m just going to accept that this process from NOA1 to arrival in the US for my fiancé is going to take close to 2 years. It freaking sucks. Yes, I’m well aware of patience. Doesn’t make it suck any less.

Agreed. I understand about being patient too, I get the backlog is huge and all that. I just don't understand why the process has to be so deeply shrouded in mystery. I read somewhere that background checks and such are completed before the application lands on the desk for adjudication, so once the petition is on someone's desk what is it that takes so long?

 

I don't really mean this as an angry complaint or anything, I just think it would be great if we could be walked through the process. I'm really curious about what goes on behind the scenes. I think a little knowledge about that could help people's patience.

[daniel_and_lily 45]

Let's say you get the approval tomorrow. What are your next steps? Assuming your fiancé passes medical tests and interviews and what not. How will you get her here ? Are all countries with a visa open to fly over here? I'm specifically wondering (obviously) about Vietnam in my case. Will she even have the option to fly here ?

 

@TmcMaximus  I see you're in the same boat, maybe you know ?

Edited November 20, 2020 by daniel_and_lily

[TmcMaximus 9]

1 hour ago, daniel_and_lily said:

Let's say you get the approval tomorrow. What are your next steps? Assuming your fiancé passes medical tests and interviews and what not. How will you get her here ? Are all countries with a visa open to fly over here? I'm specifically wondering (obviously) about Vietnam in my case. Will she even have the option to fly here ?

 

@TmcMaximus  I see you're in the same boat, maybe you know ?

As far as I'm aware there are currently flights departing Saigon daily. I noticed that ANA to Tokyo has been flying nearly every day. It is possible right now to book a flight with ANA Saigon-Tokyo-LA, for instance. I don't believe there are any problems with her getting out of the country (as of now). Also there don't appear to be any relevant entry restrictions to the US or Washington State (where I'm at) at the moment, only a suggestion to quarantine.

 

Of course we still have a long wait ahead of us, so hard to say what will happen. I'm choosing to be optimistic!