What determines how fast/slow your I-129F gets processed?

[Rosalea 22]

Hi everyone!

 

I have a question about how I-129F's are processed. In my head it works like this: USCIS receives your petition and takes it apart/scans it/puts it in their own folder and then it gets added to a MASSIVE pile with hundreds of other petitions. Then it just sits there for like 7 months til they eventually get to it. They look at it, then either approve or decline it.

 

OR, do they look over it and put it into a simple pile or a complicated pile? I figure if there's less in it (no previous marriages or kids or anything), it should take less time, but I'm not really sure how any of it works.

 

My question is: what, if anything, determines the variation in time within the processing time frame? Or is it just random?

 

I hope this makes sense! I'm super intrigued about how it all works, if anyone knows. It seems like some super secret place where secret things happen haha.

[arken 4,197]

55 minutes ago, Rosalea said:

USCIS receives your petition and takes it apart/scans it/puts it in their own folder and then it gets added to a MASSIVE pile with hundreds of other petitions. Then it just sits there for like 7 months til they eventually get to it. They look at it, then either approve or decline it.

Correct.

After sitting in the pile/drawer/shelf for months, it may just be an hour or few hours depending upon the documents to actually process the case once an IO has it on hand. It could be approval, denial, or an RFE.

Edited November 2, 2021 by arken

[Sammy.NZ 45]

Hi Rosalea,

Welcome to the nightmare that is the US immigration process

We submitted our I-130 petition Feb 9th 2021 and still have not been approved / denied or received an RFE. So, we've been waiting 9 months so far for essentially 'step one' to be approved. Just waiting until someone finally looks at our case!

I consider our case fairly straight forward - first marriage for both of us, no kids, no huge age gap, plenty of proof of legitimate relationship, my spouse is kiwi & NZ is a low visa fraud country, etc... so far I wouldn't say our case being 'simple' has done anything to speed things up. I've heard spousal visas are currently being prioritized over fiancé visas but not sure the difference in processing times. 

Hope this gives you an idea on processing times. 
 

Cheers

[Rosalea 22]

4 minutes ago, Sammy.NZ said:

Hi Rosalea,

Welcome to the nightmare that is the US immigration process

We submitted our I-130 petition Feb 9th 2021 and still have not been approved / denied or received an RFE. So, we've been waiting 9 months so far for essentially 'step one' to be approved. Just waiting until someone finally looks at our case!

I consider our case fairly straight forward - first marriage for both of us, no kids, no huge age gap, plenty of proof of legitimate relationship, my spouse is kiwi & NZ is a low visa fraud country, etc... so far I wouldn't say our case being 'simple' has done anything to speed things up. I've heard spousal visas are currently being prioritized over fiancé visas but not sure the difference in processing times. 

Hope this gives you an idea on processing times. 
 

Cheers

Ah yeah that makes sense, and yeah from what I can see I-130s are taking 15+ months whereas I-129F are taking 6-8 months. But I get what you mean about it being simple and that not really changing anything.

[Sammy.NZ 45]

1 hour ago, Rosalea said:

Ah yeah that makes sense, and yeah from what I can see I-130s are taking 15+ months whereas I-129F are taking 6-8 months. But I get what you mean about it being simple and that not really changing anything.

Good news for fiancés then! Back in 2020 when we were deciding what to do they had pretty similar processing times so we decided to get married in NZ go straight for the CR1. Helps to check the specific processing time of the service center yours is at as well - https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ - some centers are much slower than others. I have definitely seen people on VJ get approved shockingly fast but there seems to be no rhythm or rhyme to it. Just luck of the draw I guess. 

[mitzab 285]

5 hours ago, Rosalea said:

Hi everyone!

 

I have a question about how I-129F's are processed. In my head it works like this: USCIS receives your petition and takes it apart/scans it/puts it in their own folder and then it gets added to a MASSIVE pile with hundreds of other petitions. Then it just sits there for like 7 months til they eventually get to it. They look at it, then either approve or decline it.

 

OR, do they look over it and put it into a simple pile or a complicated pile? I figure if there's less in it (no previous marriages or kids or anything), it should take less time, but I'm not really sure how any of it works.

 

My question is: what, if anything, determines the variation in time within the processing time frame? Or is it just random?

 

I hope this makes sense! I'm super intrigued about how it all works, if anyone knows. It seems like some super secret place where secret things happen haha.

 

Simplest answer is NO

 

And Nobody knows either 

 

They have a set way of doing things and best of luck trying to figure it out.

 

I have seen some K1 applications being approved in less than 6 months and some September 2020 filers still waiting on NOA2 

 

Oh and try getting an answer from USCIS is like trying to teach your cat how to fold clothes.

 

You do your due diligence, based on region, based on embassy load, based on monetary situation that what will work best for you K1 or getting married. There are always pros and cons for both.

 

Best of luck 

 

 

[Rosalea 22]

2 hours ago, Sammy.NZ said:

Good news for fiancés then! Back in 2020 when we were deciding what to do they had pretty similar processing times so we decided to get married in NZ go straight for the CR1. Helps to check the specific processing time of the service center yours is at as well - https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ - some centers are much slower than others. I have definitely seen people on VJ get approved shockingly fast but there seems to be no rhythm or rhyme to it. Just luck of the draw I guess. 

Yeah I remember also reading that it used to be way faster a year/few years ago. Dang, I hope they speed up! And yeah, sounds like it's kinda random. But I'll take a (likely) 7-month wait!

[SalishSea 17,736]

The adjudication of petitions containing hundreds of pages of irrelevant  chat text take the longest.

[SalishSea 17,736]

4 hours ago, Sammy.NZ said:

Good news for fiancés then! Back in 2020 when we were deciding what to do they had pretty similar processing times so we decided to get married in NZ go straight for the CR1. Helps to check the specific processing time of the service center yours is at as well - https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ - some centers are much slower than others. I have definitely seen people on VJ get approved shockingly fast but there seems to be no rhythm or rhyme to it. Just luck of the draw I guess. 

Overall worldwide processing times for K1 vs CR1 from start to finish, are currently comparable,.  Everyone is hyper focused on “NOA2,” but that is only a small part of the process.

[JeanneAdil 6,410]

8 hours ago, Rosalea said:

Yeah I remember also reading that it used to be way faster a year/few years ago. Dang, I hope they speed up! And yeah, sounds like it's kinda random. But I'll take a (likely) 7-month wait!

Faster was back in 2009 when i 1st tried K1 

applied in July and interviewed in November 

 

factors "

1.  yep ,  size of the packet / some countries even need to heavily frontload the petition

2.  the country of the bene/  some are high fraud and need extra scruinty

3.  some countries use fake documents 

4.   beneficary name (as some have names that already appear to be in the system -name used frequently in the country)any idea of how many Mohamed's there are in the Arab world or Patel's in India?

5.  if petitioner has sent info about an arrest,   longer time 

6.  # of petitions in the system/it went from 6 million one year to 9 million 2 years later

7.  USCIS staff holidays and vacations  (Thanksgiving to NY' s day is the slowest as many are told take your accumulated vacation before end of the year or loose it

8.  # of petitions in the office -some needed to be transfered because case load is huge

9.  of course ,  covid 

and the backlog

10. incomplete petitions that still need to be looked at before returning them for missing info like signature

11.  RFE's -different from returning a petition

12.   the office itself as it varies which one is faster

13. payment for petition does not go thru and yeah,  it happens

14.  and most of all ,  like any office,   the person who works on the case/  some know their jobs and do it well and others are just there for the paycheck 

 

I probably didn't think of everything

 

 

Oh yeah,  staff shortages because of covid and the court stopping the increase of fees proposed a few years ago to hire more people

Edited November 3, 2021 by JeanneAdil

[SteveInBostonI130 3,408]

It may depend if scorpio is rising for gemini or if aries is descending in virgo.

 

No real rhyme or reason that I can tell.

 

Except if the petitioner has a criminal history,. Then the I-129F gets to take a long sabbatical in Vermont at VSC.

[Rosalea 22]

7 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

Faster was back in 2009 when i 1st tried K1 

applied in July and interviewed in November 

 

factors "

1.  yep ,  size of the packet / some countries even need to heavily frontload the petition

2.  the country of the bene/  some are high fraud and need extra scruinty

3.  some countries use fake documents 

4.   beneficary name (as some have names that already appear to be in the system -name used frequently in the country)any idea of how many Mohamed's there are in the Arab world or Patel's in India?

5.  if petitioner has sent info about an arrest,   longer time 

6.  # of petitions in the system/it went from 6 million one year to 9 million 2 years later

7.  USCIS staff holidays and vacations  (Thanksgiving to NY' s day is the slowest as many are told take your accumulated vacation before end of the year or loose it

8.  # of petitions in the office -some needed to be transfered because case load is huge

9.  of course ,  covid 

and the backlog

10. incomplete petitions that still need to be looked at before returning them for missing info like signature

11.  RFE's -different from returning a petition

12.   the office itself as it varies which one is faster

13. payment for petition does not go thru and yeah,  it happens

14.  and most of all ,  like any office,   the person who works on the case/  some know their jobs and do it well and others are just there for the paycheck 

 

I probably didn't think of everything

 

 

Oh yeah,  staff shortages because of covid and the court stopping the increase of fees proposed a few years ago to hire more people

WOW yo I weirdly had it in my head that there were way less every year, but MILLIONS?!?! No wonder it takes so long. What a crazy process.

[JeanneAdil 6,410]

54 minutes ago, Rosalea said:

WOW yo I weirdly had it in my head that there were way less every year, but MILLIONS?!?! No wonder it takes so long. What a crazy process.

there were less for about a year of spouse and fiancee but it has picked up again,

remember in this whole process the others who came are doing ROC,  AOS and naturalizaiton plus DV lottery,  work visas , student visas and all the other that run thru the system /they are part of the big count going thru USCIS,  NVC and NBC

Edited November 3, 2021 by JeanneAdil

[EKT 117]

On 11/3/2021 at 11:52 AM, Sammy.NZ said:

Hi Rosalea,

Welcome to the nightmare that is the US immigration process

We submitted our I-130 petition Feb 9th 2021 and still have not been approved / denied or received an RFE. So, we've been waiting 9 months so far for essentially 'step one' to be approved. Just waiting until someone finally looks at our case!

I consider our case fairly straight forward - first marriage for both of us, no kids, no huge age gap, plenty of proof of legitimate relationship, my spouse is kiwi & NZ is a low visa fraud country, etc... so far I wouldn't say our case being 'simple' has done anything to speed things up. I've heard spousal visas are currently being prioritized over fiancé visas but not sure the difference in processing times. 

Hope this gives you an idea on processing times. 
 

Cheers

Hey @Sammy.NZ Just catching up on some other NZ threads! That sounds insanely frustrating. Is your petition still at the Nebraska Service Centre? It says the processing time for I-130 petitions is 3.5 months - 7 months and anyone who filed before May 20, 2021 can submit a case inquiry. Have you tried that? Ours was processed at the Nebraska Service Center and the estimate was bang on for us. Fingers crossed you get your approved soon.

 

@Rosalea you probably know this all very well by now but the current processing time for I-129f petitions at the California Service Center is 6.5 months-8.5 months. It seems like the estimated processing times are pretty accurate, although they are constantly being updated and apparently petitions can also be transferred between service centers mid-processing for no apparent reason. It definitely seems to be to most volatile part of this whole crazy process!!

 

 

[Sammy.NZ 45]

1 hour ago, EKT said:

Hey @Sammy.NZ Just catching up on some other NZ threads! That sounds insanely frustrating. Is your petition still at the Nebraska Service Centre? It says the processing time for I-130 petitions is 3.5 months - 7 months and anyone who filed before May 20, 2021 can submit a case inquiry. Have you tried that? Ours was processed at the Nebraska Service Center and the estimate was bang on for us. Fingers crossed you get your approved soon.

Nahhh, mine got transferred to Texas Service Center ages ago. Last time I checked processing times were 10.5 - 14 months so nothing I can enquire about yet. Was hoping to have approval before Xmas but losing faith, TX processing times only seem to be increasing.  😓