APRIL 2021 I-129F K-1 FILERS

[MeG@Am 110]

I wonder if they also slowed down in January 2021... if they will start to catch up in their pacing after the holidays.  It's really getting frustrating but again, there's nothing we can really do but wait.  🙄

[Shane C 22]

I recently read on this site about congressmen/women's staff providing help with federal agencies. I wasn't aware of this resource. I immediately went on my US Representative's website and submitted a help request. I know there's only so much help they can provide. But if everyone on this site has their congressman/women contact USCIS it will put pressure on them to work harder and more efficient at processing our visa petitions. Also, if they're understaffed, they may get additional funding for extra help once congress becomes aware of the backlog. So we could be helping ourselves and USCIS by getting congress involved.

[CJPinEcuador 396]

On 1/16/2022 at 11:00 AM, CJPinEcuador said:

WEEKLY CHART UPDATE 01/16:

 

Approval changes this week: +2

RFE changes this week: +1

 

TOTALS:

117 Approvals

18 RFEs

3343 Other Action aka "waiting and others"

 

WEEKLY CHART UPDATE 01/22:

 

Approval changes this week: +1

REF changes this week: -1

3340 Other Action aka "waiting and others"

 

What I could notice:

A few very early RFEs changed to Denied (I'm guessing they got early RFEs as something may have been obviously missing/problematic and couldn't fix it)

At least a few changed to "Name Was Updated" 

USCIS page currently has April 22, 2021 as the Receipt Date for a Case Inquiry so we will all be out of processing time again in about another week. 

March had their best week yet at over 200 cases "touched" this week (approved or RFE) but over 2700 of them are still waiting on any notification. 

I see many who tell us to have patience as later on AOS is also horribly behind, but man, at least we will be together for that part! This indefinite time frame and processing times for this first part creeping longer and longer has made for a real rough last few months. 

[Sunny54 1]

Hi Guys! ~ I am new here and just have a few questions.. Would love to get some help!

 

We got a notification that the USCIS received our packet on the 16th of April 2021 and then we got our reference number on the 2 May 2021

When should we send an inquiry of processing out of normal times?

 

Also,  does anyone have any time expectation on their VJ when they're expected to receive an answer?

Thanks for the help!

[TxDallas 49]

the weekly approval is disgusting

[CJPinEcuador 396]

3 hours ago, Sunny54 said:

Hi Guys! ~ I am new here and just have a few questions.. Would love to get some help!

 

We got a notification that the USCIS received our packet on the 16th of April 2021 and then we got our reference number on the 2 May 2021

When should we send an inquiry of processing out of normal times?

 

Also,  does anyone have any time expectation on their VJ when they're expected to receive an answer?

Thanks for the help!

You can send one now. With the listed date online of April 22nd you are out of processing times, like almost all of us are (and many of us are on a 2nd inquiry or more at this point as we’ve all been out of processing times at least once already before they rolled back the dates last month again. I’m hopeful to get a second one in before they roll us back even further again).

 

VJ started off estimating my approval for November and has slowly crept back. Currently it is at late February/early March and even then I am losing hope we’ll hear anything by that point if they don’t increase the number of daily cases processed. Besides a rare case here or there, they haven’t even started processing April and are only about 30% of the way through March applicants. 

[MeG@Am 110]

I was looking at other member's timelines, especially with beneficiaries from Egypt, and realized that last year,  up until the last quarter of the year, their average approval is 250 days.  I don't understand why it's much slower this time, when there's no lockdowns anymore.  My friend asked if they can process our cases while working at home?  I thought, maybe yes... maybe no.  No, because maybe they need our physical application documents.  I don't know!

Anyway, it was a mistake looking at timelines because it made me frustrated even more.  I'm thinking, it's not like I did not pay for them to work on my application...  I have been waiting for 270 days now, for crying out loud!  I understand there's a lot of you who waited even more than I have.

(Sigh) forgive my pessimism.

 

[CJPinEcuador 396]

1 hour ago, MeG@Am said:

I was looking at other member's timelines, especially with beneficiaries from Egypt, and realized that last year,  up until the last quarter of the year, their average approval is 250 days.  I don't understand why it's much slower this time, when there's no lockdowns anymore.  My friend asked if they can process our cases while working at home?  I thought, maybe yes... maybe no.  No, because maybe they need our physical application documents.  I don't know!

Anyway, it was a mistake looking at timelines because it made me frustrated even more.  I'm thinking, it's not like I did not pay for them to work on my application...  I have been waiting for 270 days now, for crying out loud!  I understand there's a lot of you who waited even more than I have.

(Sigh) forgive my pessimism.

 

Understandable and I feel the same way. I've been watching these forums since we first submitted over 9 months ago and have slowly seen the processing times go from averages around 230 to 250 to 260 and now over 300 days. The K1 trends in the timeline section for the NOA1 to NOA 2 section didn't even have a 300 days average option visible until recently. I feel like I've been thinking "Ok, just one more month to go" for months and months on end. I was so looking forward to being over 200 days waiting as it meant the end was in sight, and now as we creep closer to 300 days waiting it feels like there is no clear end in sight. Will it be another 30 days until we are finally past this first stage? 60 days? 100 days? 200 days? 300 days? Completely mentally maddening. I could have made a whole new person from scratch in the time we've been waiting!  

[MeG@Am 110]

Also, I was just looking at IR1/CR1 processing trend.  CSC is faster to get the NOA2, but overall, K1 and IR1/CR1 are pretty close to each other now, the latter is just couple of days more.

January/Feb/March last year, K1 trend also slowed down, but not as super slow as this year.  Then, it got better 2nd and 3rd quarter.  However, 4th quarter started to slow down again... and here we are.

I'm thinking that other than maybe staffing issues, maybe the supply chain issues has something to do with it too... since they need office supplies to print all these, etc. (I'm not trying to be political here, because I hate politics)

LOL Jeez! I'm overthinking this weekend.

Welp! I'll still keep my fingers crossed (including my toes), again, nothing I can do but to hope for the best for all of us.

Have a great start of the week, guys!

[slavaskii 886]

15 minutes ago, MeG@Am said:

Also, I was just looking at IR1/CR1 processing trend.  CSC is faster to get the NOA2, but overall, K1 and IR1/CR1 are pretty close to each other now, the latter is just couple of days more.

January/Feb/March last year, K1 trend also slowed down, but not as super slow as this year.  Then, it got better 2nd and 3rd quarter.  However, 4th quarter started to slow down again... and here we are.

I'm thinking that other than maybe staffing issues, maybe the supply chain issues has something to do with it too... since they need office supplies to print all these, etc. (I'm not trying to be political here, because I hate politics)

LOL Jeez! I'm overthinking this weekend.

Welp! I'll still keep my fingers crossed (including my toes), again, nothing I can do but to hope for the best for all of us.

Have a great start of the week, guys!

The overall VJ stats seem to show IR1/CR1 still being a delay of 100 days more; we still list K1 as taking roughly 450 days from start to finish, which is probably reasonable for the current cycle (though just a short while ago, people were getting everything done in around a year flat it seemed). The embassy stage is the 'great equalizer' for us, if somehow I-130s were getting prioritized for interviews over I-129Fs I could see the issue but I don't believe that's the case, given we schedule our own appointments. This all was entirely unpredictable for us filing in March/April 2021, and as many people have said here before, processing times fluctuate constantly. Given the comparatively great processing March filers had last week, there's reason to hope/pray/believe that we're coming out of the tunnel again.

 

It also seems to me that the various processes after AOS are bound to increase in speed, too, as those should be high-priority for USCIS. In my opinion, so long as our time to be united in the US with our fiancees isn't actually notably longer than going the IR1/CR1 route, we should be very thankful. Lots could've gone wrong this year, and at least for us March/April filers, we've been through thick and thin but literally could not possibly be any closer to the embassy stage. We're all going to be okay  

Edited January 24, 2022 by slavaskii

[zedag 61]

9 hours ago, slavaskii said:

The overall VJ stats seem to show IR1/CR1 still being a delay of 100 days more; we still list K1 as taking roughly 450 days from start to finish, which is probably reasonable for the current cycle (though just a short while ago, people were getting everything done in around a year flat it seemed). The embassy stage is the 'great equalizer' for us, if somehow I-130s were getting prioritized for interviews over I-129Fs I could see the issue but I don't believe that's the case, given we schedule our own appointments. This all was entirely unpredictable for us filing in March/April 2021, and as many people have said here before, processing times fluctuate constantly. Given the comparatively great processing March filers had last week, there's reason to hope/pray/believe that we're coming out of the tunnel again.

 

It also seems to me that the various processes after AOS are bound to increase in speed, too, as those should be high-priority for USCIS. In my opinion, so long as our time to be united in the US with our fiancees isn't actually notably longer than going the IR1/CR1 route, we should be very thankful. Lots could've gone wrong this year, and at least for us March/April filers, we've been through thick and thin but literally could not possibly be any closer to the embassy stage. We're all going to be okay  

I really regret not getting married and just doing the spouse visa. At least when he would arrive to the US, he'd have full rights right away instead of having to wait another 9 months for an employment permit. This whole process is so maddening. 

[KSVJ 216]

2 hours ago, zedag said:

I really regret not getting married and just doing the spouse visa. At least when he would arrive to the US, he'd have full rights right away instead of having to wait another 9 months for an employment permit. This whole process is so maddening. 

i've been having the same thoughts. if i knew the timelines for them to get here would essentially be the same i would not have gone the K1 route. it doesn't make sense with the current turnaround time.

[centric23 95]

How often can I submit a case inquiry? My last one was 12/22 and received a response Jan. 4

[Etherial 277]

On 12/30/2021 at 7:57 AM, sb3570 said:

How accurate are the VJ timelines. I’m a may filer (may3rd) but my estimated approval is February 17th but with how slow they’re processing March cases right now I can’t see that being too accurate? Do you think they’ll speed up a bit after the new year?

There is a may thread here: 

 

[slavaskii 886]

20 minutes ago, centric23 said:

How often can I submit a case inquiry? My last one was 12/22 and received a response Jan. 4

Exactly one month (30 days) from the time you received your inquiry response, not the date filed. If you don't know when this is, you can call USCIS and they'll provide you the exact date.