Upgrading F2A to IR1 Visa Questions

[AKKH 48]

Hi, 

 

You can find everything in my signature and timeline.

Here is my own N400 experience: 

• Feb 4: applied online
• July 9: notice for biometrics 
• August 3: biometrics done
• October 1: notice for interview - online 
• November 9: interview, approval recommendation, placed in line for oath ceremony 
• November 22: notice for oath - online
• December 8: oath ceremony 

and here is my wife's visa progress: 

Old Category: F21

Emailed NVC on Dec 18, 2021

New Category (on Dec 28, 2021): IR1

 

Application priority date (I 130): 03/23/2018

USCIS Approval: 08/09/2019

Welcome Letter: 10/15/2019

Submission to NVC: 02/03/2020

I-864 Rejected (minor error): 03/09/2020

Resubmission: 03/09/2020

DQ'ed: 06/19/2020 (100 days of second time)

Expedite Request NVC: 03/03/2022

Expedite Approval NVC: 03/04/2022 (15 hours)

Status Update: At NVC 03/04/2022

Expedited Approval Email: 03/08/2022

Status Update 2: In Transit 03/08/2022

Status Update 3: Ready 03/15/2022

Email from Embassy for scheduling an interview: 03/16/2022

Medical Exam: 03/25/2022

Interview (done by applicant): 04/07/2022

[Needhelpme 1]

3 hours ago, AKKH said:

Hi, 

 

You can find everything in my signature and timeline.

Here is my own N400 experience: 

• Feb 4: applied online
• July 9: notice for biometrics 
• August 3: biometrics done
• October 1: notice for interview - online 
• November 9: interview, approval recommendation, placed in line for oath ceremony 
• November 22: notice for oath - online
• December 8: oath ceremony 

and here is my wife's visa progress: 

Old Category: F21

Emailed NVC on Dec 18, 2021

New Category (on Dec 28, 2021): IR1

 

Application priority date (I 130): 03/23/2018

USCIS Approval: 08/09/2019

Welcome Letter: 10/15/2019

Submission to NVC: 02/03/2020

I-864 Rejected (minor error): 03/09/2020

Resubmission: 03/09/2020

DQ'ed: 06/19/2020 (100 days of second time)

Expedite Request NVC: 03/03/2022

Expedite Approval NVC: 03/04/2022 (15 hours)

Status Update: At NVC 03/04/2022

Expedited Approval Email: 03/08/2022

Status Update 2: In Transit 03/08/2022

Status Update 3: Ready 03/15/2022

Email from Embassy for scheduling an interview: 03/16/2022

Medical Exam: 03/25/2022

Interview (done by applicant): 04/07/2022

Thankyou for reply. My case has not reached to NVC yet. Its ha only one message "actively  reviewing  "at USCIS website online checking.since December 2020. One more question brother, your wife has reached US now? And my priority  date will make my case fast ? I don't  understand that priority  date of F2A will be same for Ir1 ? If it is the same then can it make approval and process  fast?

[Needhelpme 1]

16 minutes ago, Needhelpme said:

Thankyou for reply. My case has not reached to NVC yet. Its ha only one message "actively  reviewing  "at USCIS website online checking.since December 2020. One more question brother, when is expected  for your wife to reach US?And my priority  date will make my case fast ? I don't  understand that priority  date of F2A will be same for Ir1 ? If it is the same then can it make approval and process  fast?

 

[Chancy 6,241]

*** Moved from Bringing Family of USC forum to IR1/CR1 Process & Procedures ***

 

[AKKH 48]

17 hours ago, Needhelpme said:

Thankyou for reply. My case has not reached to NVC yet. Its ha only one message "actively  reviewing  "at USCIS website online checking.since December 2020. One more question brother, your wife has reached US now? And my priority  date will make my case fast ? I don't  understand that priority  date of F2A will be same for Ir1 ? If it is the same then can it make approval and process  fast?

Of course!

She's still not interviewed yet. The interview is scheduled on 4/7/2022. So we are not sure when she gets the visa and we have not planned to buy the tickets just yet. 

Priority date is not important really, if you are upgrading your visa. What matters is your I-130 gets approved first. And then it'll be forwarded to NVC. They will take care of collecting fees & documents and put you in a queue for an interview. You may check the timelines to figure out the timing for I-130. 

It would be faster assuming your visa category upgrades to IR1. 

[AKKH 48]

Update: 

She was interviewed today (4-7-2022). They handed her a paper that says ‘My Visa Is Approved’ that includes some frequently asked questions. They told her your passport will be ready next week. 

I hope everyone’s cases gets approved soon!

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by AKKH

[Needhelpme 1]

On 4/7/2022 at 5:04 PM, AKKH said:

Update: 

She was interviewed today (4-7-2022). They handed her a paper that says ‘My Visa Is Approved’ that includes some frequently asked questions. They told her your passport will be ready next week. 

I hope everyone’s cases gets approved soon!

 

Congratulations  . It's so nice to hear.

[Ryan H 3,812]

~~~Hijack post along with reply removed; if you have your own question, you need to start your own thread.~~~

[Ayc610 10]

On 3/8/2022 at 10:40 PM, Ayc610 said:

Hi @AKKH, I came across your post as I am in a similar situation - my husband recently became a USC and we followed the same process as you and contacted NVC to upgrade our case from F2A to IR1. 
 

I was wondering whether you have a sense of the level of backlog at your embassy? My case is being processed in Montreal, Canada, and they are actually quite up-to-date with IR1 interviews (as of Feb 2022, they were scheduling interviews for people who were DQ’d in Jan 2022). I’m not exactly sure how that translates to my case processing after the upgrade so wanted to check and see if you might be able to share more about yours. 
 

Thanks! 

Just an update on my case - we contacted NVC to upgrade our case to IR1 in late February and received a response in mid-April (which was in line with their processing time posted on the website) confirming the upgrade. Today, I received an interview invite for June 1, 2022, which is quite a bit faster than I had expected. Wanted to share my experience/timeline in case it is helpful for anyone. Fingers crossed and good luck all. 

[AKKH 48]

2 hours ago, Ayc610 said:

Just an update on my case - we contacted NVC to upgrade our case to IR1 in late February and received a response in mid-April (which was in line with their processing time posted on the website) confirming the upgrade. Today, I received an interview invite for June 1, 2022, which is quite a bit faster than I had expected. Wanted to share my experience/timeline in case it is helpful for anyone. Fingers crossed and good luck all. 

Nice. Thanks for letting us know. You can also add it in your timeline if you have not. All the best and congratulations!

Edited May 2, 2022 by AKKH

[Unknown2017 0]

So something weird happened to my case. I applied for an upgrade from F2A to IR1 on Feb 9th and I still haven’t received an upgrade yet and they have covered the entire month of Feb and are now working on March. Can anyone guide me on why I got skipped or is it normal? I followed the exact procedure for upgrade and email and even called them but they said they don’t skip people however, they did skip me. 
even the comment above says they applied in mid-feb and have revealed an upgrade :/

[yeezydm 0]

@AKKH thanks very much, this is an amazing thread. I did some research, although each consulate may have their own process, but with the excellent crowd-sourcing threads in the Canada forum 

 

1. Montreal F2A tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1phSTiwuIBzBBDGDSwBTgA6iwPt6vhWgd_JQWlHoj7vE/edit#gid=0

2. Montreal IR1 tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LvnDvX95_tfWtTvsJJM49PDPPvPKal0WG2rgdZHhsz0/edit#gid=1797779787

 

Average wait time from DQ to IL for F2A is well above one year, while that wait time for IR1 cases are almost non-existent: it's just one month. 

 

In case anyone in the future comes across this thread, IMO it is a no-brainer to do the F2A to IR1 upgrade, plus that is also legally the most accurate state of your case anyways after citizenship. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by yeezydm

[Mary1995 0]

On 11/23/2021 at 7:47 AM, AKKH said:

I appreciate your response.

 

2) Correct, our reason for expediting is not upgrading, but it is the long time that we've been waiting. Our case was completed ~1.5 year ago. Would that be a valid reason to expedite? Because I'm pretty sure that the embassy is interviewing/issuing visas for applicants who their case was completed after June 2020 for IR1 category. Basically could they put us in the front of the queue or we should wait even more? My concern is that if upgrading visa class would delay visa interview even further. 

 

Thanks!

Hi 

i just want to know how did you upgraded you case 

i sent public inquiry form from sep 16 

and there is no update yet :(

[Mary1995 0]

On 2/15/2022 at 10:35 PM, AKKH said:

Not a problem. Yes submitted it on the Public Inquiry Form (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html). 

Did you uploaded also on NVC website with your document or just on the public Inquiry From