Important: If filing for K3 visa please read this.

[esmp 1]

Dear All,

Today I decided that I was bored of waiting for our NOA1 for the I-130 so I called USCIS and managed to get to speak to an immigration officer here is how I did this and the info I got:

1) To speak to an immigration officer, not just a general customer service person, say that you have been waiting for over 45 days for your NOA1 and that the person you spoke to last advised you to call back today and ask to be transfered to the people who can track the case. (Do not ask to speak to an immigration officer I tried this & they won't let you if you ask directly)

2) The customer service person will transfer you to the immigration officer. Note you will be on hold for about 25+ minutes

3) Yippee you have an immigration officer all to yourself, the one I got was lovely and asked me about 5 times if there was anything else I wanted to ask.

So here is what I learnt:

Anyone who filed from mid to end of May and have not yet received there noa1 yours have been posted last Friday or this Monday - yay for you!

Beginning of June filers expect yours at the end of this week/start of next.

The reason that we have all been sent to California is that the powers that be have decided that California is now the only centre to process 6 different forms including the I-130 therefore they are behind!

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

Well I hope that you all may have found some points of interest in my mini-ramblings.

Best of luck as ever.

Emma and Family

[ApprovalPlease 0]

Haha Misinformation Line strikes again.

[pushbrk 13,114]

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

The above statement is confusing. The USCIS "officer" is not privy to visa time frames. He would be privy to the time frames for adjudicating petitions. Are you saying he predicted six months from receipt of petition to I-130 petition approval and then even longer for an I-129F for spouse?

Or, was he generalizing on actual visa time frames that vary widely depending on the country?

Perhaps his "even longer" comment was in the context of petition filing to green card.

This is why you see some of us continually reminding people of the correct terminology. If you want meaningful answers you must ask the right questions. If you want your reports to give the proper impression, they must be as verbatim as possible.

Any clarification would be appreciated if your memory serves you well.

[G&A 1]

Anyone who filed from mid to end of May and have not yet received there noa1 yours have been posted last Friday or this Monday - yay for you!

Good news. So mine should be in the mail and since it takes 2 days to get the mail. I should have it today.

[Tim and Bethanie 1]

Dear All,

Today I decided that I was bored of waiting for our NOA1 for the I-130 so I called USCIS and managed to get to speak to an immigration officer here is how I did this and the info I got:

1) To speak to an immigration officer, not just a general customer service person, say that you have been waiting for over 45 days for your NOA1 and that the person you spoke to last advised you to call back today and ask to be transfered to the people who can track the case. (Do not ask to speak to an immigration officer I tried this & they won't let you if you ask directly)

2) The customer service person will transfer you to the immigration officer. Note you will be on hold for about 25+ minutes

3) Yippee you have an immigration officer all to yourself, the one I got was lovely and asked me about 5 times if there was anything else I wanted to ask.

So here is what I learnt:

Anyone who filed from mid to end of May and have not yet received there noa1 yours have been posted last Friday or this Monday - yay for you!

Beginning of June filers expect yours at the end of this week/start of next.

The reason that we have all been sent to California is that the powers that be have decided that California is now the only centre to process 6 different forms including the I-130 therefore they are behind!

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

Well I hope that you all may have found some points of interest in my mini-ramblings.

Best of luck as ever.

Emma and Family

I hope so for those waiting, but do keep in mind the officer you spoke with is human and very capable at playing guessing games as well as making mistakes.

[esmp 1]

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

The above statement is confusing. The USCIS "officer" is not privy to visa time frames. He would be privy to the time frames for adjudicating petitions. Are you saying he predicted six months from receipt of petition to I-130 petition approval and then even longer for an I-129F for spouse?

Or, was he generalizing on actual visa time frames that vary widely depending on the country?

Perhaps his "even longer" comment was in the context of petition filing to green card.

This is why you see some of us continually reminding people of the correct terminology. If you want meaningful answers you must ask the right questions. If you want your reports to give the proper impression, they must be as verbatim as possible.

Any clarification would be appreciated if your memory serves you well.

Hi,

Good point well made!

I take shorthand notes of everthing which is said so they are verbatim.

So let me give you the type up of my shorthand for this section and then everyone can use their own interpretation of what has been said and let me know if I have got hte wrong end of the stick: IO is officer EM is me

EM: The reason I am inquiring about the delivery time of the I797 is that we wish to file a form I-129f in order to obtain a K3 visa...

IO: Currently from receipt to approval the I-129f for a spouse visa is taking longer than the than the I-130 visa by a few days. If your I-130 gets to the embassy before your I-129f then the embassy will not see you under the I-129f and you will have wasted your money. You also have to remember that you will not become a permenant resident for 2 years and with your husband possibly not being in the US at that time this could be a problem for you. There is also the extra costs involved.

EM: Can you tell me if this an estimate of the timeframes? and is that generally or for cases the same as ours using the CSC and the London embassy?

IO: No one will be getting anyone into the country quicker than this ma'am.

From here I asked a few questions regarding expediting the case due to issues which have occured with my husbands job I was told at this point that no I-130 or I-129f can be expedited under any circumstances (NB: this is not what I was told yesterday!!!)

I am sorry if anyone feels I am passing on duff info. We have however decided to abandon the K3 visa for various reasons which I won't bore you with as they are not relevant to most people here.

Well hope this clarifies things for everyone. I'm feeling a bit sad so I'm having an early night!!

Emma

[esmp 1]

I hope so for those waiting, but do keep in mind the officer you spoke with is human and very capable at playing guessing games as well as making mistakes.

Sorry again, I should have said that she told me she was reading from a notice but it is certainly not gospel as they say.

I do have a nasty habit of presuming everyone takes the same attitude as me in life which tends to be that I don't believe anything until it is in my hands/reality I really hope everyone does get their NOA's as the "notice" suggested.

Emma

[pushbrk 13,114]

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

The above statement is confusing. The USCIS "officer" is not privy to visa time frames. He would be privy to the time frames for adjudicating petitions. Are you saying he predicted six months from receipt of petition to I-130 petition approval and then even longer for an I-129F for spouse?

Or, was he generalizing on actual visa time frames that vary widely depending on the country?

Perhaps his "even longer" comment was in the context of petition filing to green card.

This is why you see some of us continually reminding people of the correct terminology. If you want meaningful answers you must ask the right questions. If you want your reports to give the proper impression, they must be as verbatim as possible.

Any clarification would be appreciated if your memory serves you well.

Hi,

Good point well made!

I take shorthand notes of everthing which is said so they are verbatim.

So let me give you the type up of my shorthand for this section and then everyone can use their own interpretation of what has been said and let me know if I have got hte wrong end of the stick: IO is officer EM is me

EM: The reason I am inquiring about the delivery time of the I797 is that we wish to file a form I-129f in order to obtain a K3 visa...

IO: Currently from receipt to approval the I-129f for a spouse visa is taking longer than the than the I-130 visa by a few days. If your I-130 gets to the embassy before your I-129f then the embassy will not see you under the I-129f and you will have wasted your money. You also have to remember that you will not become a permenant resident for 2 years and with your husband possibly not being in the US at that time this could be a problem for you. There is also the extra costs involved.

EM: Can you tell me if this an estimate of the timeframes? and is that generally or for cases the same as ours using the CSC and the London embassy?

IO: No one will be getting anyone into the country quicker than this ma'am.

From here I asked a few questions regarding expediting the case due to issues which have occured with my husbands job I was told at this point that no I-130 or I-129f can be expedited under any circumstances (NB: this is not what I was told yesterday!!!)

I am sorry if anyone feels I am passing on duff info. We have however decided to abandon the K3 visa for various reasons which I won't bore you with as they are not relevant to most people here.

Well hope this clarifies things for everyone. I'm feeling a bit sad so I'm having an early night!!

Emma

Thanks, Emma. Your notes as transcribed above don't mention anything about six months. How is that?

Anyway the USCIS officer probably has less current timeline information about various visa processes after they leave USCIS service centers than is available here. I wouldn't take anything he said about NVC or Consular procedures as gospel. He clearly failed to mention that if you file a timely I-129F, you effectively kill your CR1 possibilities or that the NVC part of the process is far longer for the I-130 than for the I-129F. (The former he should know but there's no reason to expect him to know the latter.)

[Urge To Race 2]

I hope so for those waiting, but do keep in mind the officer you spoke with is human and very capable at playing guessing games as well as making mistakes.

Sorry again, I should have said that she told me she was reading from a notice but it is certainly not gospel as they say.

I do have a nasty habit of presuming everyone takes the same attitude as me in life which tends to be that I don't believe anything until it is in my hands/reality I really hope everyone does get their NOA's as the "notice" suggested.

Emma

Emma,

I know that you said you were abandoning your thoughts of filing the 129F and that you had your reasons. Which is ok, but I hope your reasons are more than just what the USCIS CR told you on the phone. You never know which will get approved first, but as pushbrk pointed out the 130 approval get through NVC a lot faster, interview will get scheduled earlier. Yes, there is certainly the issue of having the green card versus having to pay for and do the AOS, but if speed is an issue, I would reconsider on the decision to not file 129F. For me, I want to bring my wife as quickly as possible. If the 129f gets approved and my 130 get archived, great. I don't care, I will gladly do AOS later. If the 130 gets approved weeks before the 129f, then it will get sent to NVC and through to the consulate and not be archived.

[G&A 1]

Anyone who filed from mid to end of May and have not yet received there noa1 yours have been posted last Friday or this Monday - yay for you!

Once again, inaccurate information is supplier by USCIS agents. nothing in the mail today!

[Rings 10]

I actually talked to the immigration officer twice on obtaining my NOA2 because I am freaking out about adjusting my husbands status and not having the right paperwork and the lady told me that she didn't understand why people were filing for K3 because if the I-130 gets processed before the K3, then they will only forward that one to the NVC and abandon the K3 (which would esentially be a waste of money - processing fee)

She also told me that because my K3 was processed faster than my I-130 (even though they were both approved on the same day) the USCIS will hold onto my I-130 and process the K3 instead. If the K3 is sent off to NVC then the USCIS will hold onto the I-130 and you will have to pay them $200 to forward it and even then, your K3 will still beat the CR1 and you will again be wasting money.

She said that the cost difference is really not that high because the K3 blobs all the fees and fines together as opposed to the CR1 that has each party pay a fee. Essentially it all adds up to the same amount because we are paying for the same forms to be processed just in different ways. She told me that the difference is around $200.00 and if I pushed my I-130 through then it would end up costing the same amount due to fees and then we would spend even more time apart as well.

She told me that I should stay on track with the K3 and the fact that the I-130 is already approved only means that they can adjust my husbands status faster.

[pushbrk 13,114]

I actually talked to the immigration officer twice on obtaining my NOA2 because I am freaking out about adjusting my husbands status and not having the right paperwork and the lady told me that she didn't understand why people were filing for K3 because if the I-130 gets processed before the K3, then they will only forward that one to the NVC and abandon the K3 (which would esentially be a waste of money - processing fee)

She also told me that because my K3 was processed faster than my I-130 (even though they were both approved on the same day) the USCIS will hold onto my I-130 and process the K3 instead. If the K3 is sent off to NVC then the USCIS will hold onto the I-130 and you will have to pay them $200 to forward it and even then, your K3 will still beat the CR1 and you will again be wasting money.

She said that the cost difference is really not that high because the K3 blobs all the fees and fines together as opposed to the CR1 that has each party pay a fee. Essentially it all adds up to the same amount because we are paying for the same forms to be processed just in different ways. She told me that the difference is around $200.00 and if I pushed my I-130 through then it would end up costing the same amount due to fees and then we would spend even more time apart as well.

She told me that I should stay on track with the K3 and the fact that the I-130 is already approved only means that they can adjust my husbands status faster.

Unfortunately, this person is wrong on so many counts, the ones she's right on don't mean much. All evidence points to I-129F's consistently processing faster than I-130's through the service centers and completing the DOS end of the visa process much faster. She's only looking at the front end cost of the petition fees paid to USCIS and ignoring the later fees. The K3 process is far more expensive than the CR/IR process from petition to green card but people do it because it reunites the families faster.

She was correct in telling you your I-130 will be held unless you file an I-824 and pay another $200 but she left out how long it takes to act on the I-824.

[Rings 10]

What's odd is that ours both approved on the same day and they pushed the K3 through. I am so irritated by that because we were not notified and I would have rather pursued the I-130 an abandonned the K3. I am trying to see if there is a way that we can obtain the CR1 even though it is unlikely. We want to be together sooner, but we were less educated in this in the beginning aas to what it meant. Either way, Loke and I will do whatever we have to do.

However, I did get her to tell me that my I-130 was approved in her system because I told her that I already knew it was approved and the NVC said they hadn't received it yet and I advised her the approval date (my last touch) that was the same as the other touch and she did confirm that I was correct. Either way there is little we can do about it now.

[esmp 1]

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

The above statement is confusing. The USCIS "officer" is not privy to visa time frames. He would be privy to the time frames for adjudicating petitions. Are you saying he predicted six months from receipt of petition to I-130 petition approval and then even longer for an I-129F for spouse?

Or, was he generalizing on actual visa time frames that vary widely depending on the country?

Perhaps his "even longer" comment was in the context of petition filing to green card.

This is why you see some of us continually reminding people of the correct terminology. If you want meaningful answers you must ask the right questions. If you want your reports to give the proper impression, they must be as verbatim as possible.

Any clarification would be appreciated if your memory serves you well.

Hi,

Good point well made!

I take shorthand notes of everthing which is said so they are verbatim.

So let me give you the type up of my shorthand for this section and then everyone can use their own interpretation of what has been said and let me know if I have got hte wrong end of the stick: IO is officer EM is me

EM: The reason I am inquiring about the delivery time of the I797 is that we wish to file a form I-129f in order to obtain a K3 visa...

IO: Currently from receipt to approval the I-129f for a spouse visa is taking longer than the than the I-130 visa by a few days. If your I-130 gets to the embassy before your I-129f then the embassy will not see you under the I-129f and you will have wasted your money. You also have to remember that you will not become a permenant resident for 2 years and with your husband possibly not being in the US at that time this could be a problem for you. There is also the extra costs involved.

EM: Can you tell me if this an estimate of the timeframes? and is that generally or for cases the same as ours using the CSC and the London embassy?

IO: No one will be getting anyone into the country quicker than this ma'am.

From here I asked a few questions regarding expediting the case due to issues which have occured with my husbands job I was told at this point that no I-130 or I-129f can be expedited under any circumstances (NB: this is not what I was told yesterday!!!)

I am sorry if anyone feels I am passing on duff info. We have however decided to abandon the K3 visa for various reasons which I won't bore you with as they are not relevant to most people here.

Well hope this clarifies things for everyone. I'm feeling a bit sad so I'm having an early night!!

Emma

Thanks, Emma. Your notes as transcribed above don't mention anything about six months. How is that?

Anyway the USCIS officer probably has less current timeline information about various visa processes after they leave USCIS service centers than is available here. I wouldn't take anything he said about NVC or Consular procedures as gospel. He clearly failed to mention that if you file a timely I-129F, you effectively kill your CR1 possibilities or that the NVC part of the process is far longer for the I-130 than for the I-129F. (The former he should know but there's no reason to expect him to know the latter.)

Sorry, the reason it was left off was because I stopped typing half way through due to my youngest daughter bumping her head and I lost my place. I am at work now but will look again when I get home and see which sentence I missed out.

Although, it be honest it seems a little pointless as the information based on NOA arrival dates was clearly wrong. Bah all very frustrating. I think I am just going to step back from things for a few days my husband is out of contact for a while so I will not know if your NOA1 arrives anyway.

Emma

Emma

[Yodrak 7]

Rings,

What's odd is that ours both approved on the same day and they pushed the K3 through. I am so irritated by that because we were not notified and I would have rather pursued the I-130 an abandonned the K3. .....

What's odd about this? You indicated that you wanted to pursue a K3 visa route by submitting the I-129f, they did what you asked them to do. You were notified with the I-130 approval that if you want to pursue the immigrant visa you can do so, and how to do it. If you want to abandon the K3 at this point, you can do so easily with a letter to the consulate (hard to stop a K3 at the NVC, the petitions passes through too quickly).

We want to be together sooner, but we were less educated in this in the beginning aas to what it meant.

This is the truth of the matter! Many DIYers are in this position, learning as they go along. (This is why, in the lawyer-no lawyer debates, I recommend that one should begin the visa journey with a consultation and then decide.)

Yodrak