December 2021 I-130 filers

[Laurie Williams 1]

Hi Everyone,

 

My hubby already updated that we finally are in Active Review status after nearly 14 months of being in Received status.  One thing I wanted to add was that I called my local US Senator and they did a congressional inquiry (sounds really official, but it is just calling to ask what's happening with our case).  The senator's office called back to tell me they just said it is in a stack with everyone else's.  That was months ago.   What we did that we think may have helped in the end was filing a service request.  You can do that after you reach 60 days past the average processing time posted by the USCIS for your processing center.

Let me know if you want to and aren't sure how.  I would be glad to help.  Our case came out of Received and into Active Review within a week of filing our service request. 

Happy Valentine's Day to all who are spending this day thousands of miles away from their loves today.  

Someday this will all be a memory.  ❤️

[Laurie Williams 1]

It has been almost six weeks since our case status changed to Active Review.  It is beginning to feel like they switched that status just to reset the clock.  We can't submit another service request until 60 days from the most recent status change.  We are feeling defeated.  I am writing my senator again, but I doubt there is anything specific they can do.  I just want them to know that this system is broken and so are those of us who are waiting to be reunited.   

[Volli 31]

56 minutes ago, Laurie Williams said:

It has been almost six weeks since our case status changed to Active Review.  It is beginning to feel like they switched that status just to reset the clock.  We can't submit another service request until 60 days from the most recent status change.  We are feeling defeated.  I am writing my senator again, but I doubt there is anything specific they can do.  I just want them to know that this system is broken and so are those of us who are waiting to be reunited.   

Changing the status to Active Review sometimes means nothing, but in our case it meant that was sent to another service center for review (we asked EMMA). Even though nothing happened for several months, we finally got approved after exactly 14 month. I don't think they forgot you, give them another one or two weeks. What service center is your case at? I mean the real one, not the one they showed you on your initial received mail/letter at the very beginning of the I-130 process.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Volli

[aaroncv3 106]

I'm sorry this is happening.  I wish I could click a magic switch and make this process instantly be done.

 

I understand that feeling very well.

 

I don't know if you have the ability, but one of the best ways to get through this part is.. if it is possible.. the American spouse can travel to the foreign spouse.

 

Maybe hiring a lawyer is better, I'm not sure what is best for you.  But i think it is so easy to forget what is important when waiting on the bureaucracy.

 

As for me, I am the American spouse, and after convincing myself it was infeasible to be with my spouse in her home country, someone told me, "Just go, the only thing holding you back is you."

 

But instead of rejecting it outright (as i had countless times before), something different happened.  I began to envision what that would look like.  What it would actually take.

 

I opened my mind to the possibility.  And it was as if the universe finally made a way, because all the road blocks i expected were only immovable in my mind, and in the story i had myself believed.

 

I've been in the Philippines since October 2022. And "living together" (i'm just here on a tourist visa) hasn't always been easy.  But I am so glad I did it.

 

We have had time to finally find our rhythm together.

 

While here, our I-130 was approved.  I was lurking the USCIS website, finally saw a change, and screamed, "it was approved!"  It was 1am, she was asleep next to me, but delighted to receive the news.

 

And now we're waiting on the NEXT thing..  NVC. haha.

 

You have so much to be grateful for.  Your spouse, also.  And i know being away is hard.  We endured it.  Most of us here in these forums have or are enduring it.  Some people never get a relationship worth enduring.  Some are perhaps somewhat foolish martyrs and endure simply for the sake of martyrdom.  I think my story could be an example of that.

 

All the best to you and your spouse, my friend.  Good luck, and i hope i was able to offer some hope.

Edited March 21, 2023 by aaroncv3
Grammar

[Laurie Williams 1]

26 minutes ago, Volli said:

Changing the status to Active Review sometimes means nothing, but in our case it meant that was sent to another service center for review (we asked EMMA). Even though nothing happened for several months, we finally got approved after exactly 14 month. I don't think they forgot you, give them another one or two weeks. What service center is your case at? I mean the real one, not the one they showed you on your initial received mail/letter at the very beginning of the I-130 process.

Hi Volli, thanks for the reply.  Ours is at the Nebraska service center.  When we filed in 12/2021 the average processing time was 6 months.  Once we reached the 6 month mark, they increased the average to 10.5 months.  We are at 15 months now.   It has been in Active Review for six weeks already.

[Laurie Williams 1]

8 minutes ago, aaroncv3 said:

I'm sorry this is happening.  I wish I could click a magic switch and make this process instantly be done.

 

I understand that feeling very well.

 

I don't know if you have the ability, but one of the best ways to get through this part is.. if it is possible.. the American spouse can travel to the foreign spouse.

 

Maybe hiring a lawyer is better, I'm not sure what is best for you.  But i think it is so easy to forget what is important when waiting on the bureaucracy.

 

As for me, I am the American spouse, and after convincing myself it was infeasible to be with my spouse in her home country, someone told me, "Just go, the only thing holding you back is you."

 

But instead of rejecting it outright (as i had countless times before), something different happened.  I began to envision what that would look like.  What it would actually take.

 

I opened my mind to the possibility.  And it was as if the universe finally made a way, because all the road blocks i expected were only immovable in my mind, and in the story i had myself believed.

 

I've been in the Philippines since October 2022. And "living together" (i'm just here on a tourist visa) hasn't always been easy.  But I am so glad I did it.

 

We have had time to finally find our rhythm together.

 

While here, our I-130 was approved.  I was lurking the USCIS website, finally saw a change, and screamed, "it was approved!"  It was 1am, she was asleep next to me, but delighted to receive the news.

 

And now we're waiting on the NEXT thing..  NVC. haha.

 

You have so much to be grateful for.  Your spouse, also.  And i know being away is hard.  We endured it.  Most of us here in these forums have or are enduring it.  Some people never get a relationship worth enduring.  Some are perhaps somewhat foolish martyrs and endure simply for the sake of martyrdom.  I think my story could be an example of that.

 

All the best to you and your spouse, my friend.  Good luck, and i hope i was able to offer some hope.

Hi aaroncv3- Your story is beautiful!  Good for you for going for it and this chapter of your story is going to be such an adventure.  I travel as much as I am able with a career, a child in school here in the US, a house and hobby farm to take care of.   We never imagined it would take this long, so we have been thinking, for most of this time, that any day we would have a status change, and then another.  It is just discouraging at the moment.   For the record, I love the UK and would love to live there someday.  Now just isn't the time.  We are all very blessed to have the ones we are waiting with.  Thanks for the positive push. 

[aaroncv3 106]

1 minute ago, Laurie Williams said:

Hi aaroncv3- Your story is beautiful!  Good for you for going for it and this chapter of your story is going to be such an adventure.  I travel as much as I am able with a career, a child in school here in the US, a house and hobby farm to take care of.   We never imagined it would take this long, so we have been thinking, for most of this time, that any day we would have a status change, and then another.  It is just discouraging at the moment.   For the record, I love the UK and would love to live there someday.  Now just isn't the time.  We are all very blessed to have the ones we are waiting with.  Thanks for the positive push. 

Oh, yes, it definitely sounds like it just isn't feasible to leavev at this time.  Actually, I think @Volli is right, you're probably within a couple weeks of approval.

 

On our I-130, the initial "10.5 months" was wrong. They later changed it to "11.5 months", but that went by, too.  It was 377 days for our case.

 

THe time was based on what Texas Service Center was reporting.  So that can also be misleading.

 

A chat through EMMA revealed that the case went to Potomac Service Center on the very same day it arrived at TSC.  So the USCIS times are more or less meaningless, IMO.  The helped pass the first 11.5 months and then the last few weeks was hell, thinking that we somehow slipped thru the cracks.

[Volli 31]

22 minutes ago, Laurie Williams said:

Hi Volli, thanks for the reply.  Ours is at the Nebraska service center.  When we filed in 12/2021 the average processing time was 6 months.  Once we reached the 6 month mark, they increased the average to 10.5 months.  We are at 15 months now.   It has been in Active Review for six weeks already.

After almost 14 month they finally changed it to Active Review. This is different to many (and our) cases when they changed it to Active Review after a few weeks/month after the initial i-130 application and nothing happened for a long long time. As I said before, give them 1-2 more weeks. If you get approved within 2 weeks you owe me a beer - if not I owe you one. Deal?

 

And don't forget to check the Documents Tab in the online system. They hide the approval there in many cases.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Volli

[roughlyworried 5]

7 hours ago, Laurie Williams said:

It has been almost six weeks since our case status changed to Active Review.  It is beginning to feel like they switched that status just to reset the clock.  We can't submit another service request until 60 days from the most recent status change.  We are feeling defeated.  I am writing my senator again, but I doubt there is anything specific they can do.  I just want them to know that this system is broken and so are those of us who are waiting to be reunited.   

I’m right here with you. Except I don’t even have an AR. The separation anxiety recently has been brutal.

[JerseyDomRep1 8]

12 hours ago, roughlyworried said:

I’m right here with you. Except I don’t even have an AR. The separation anxiety recently has been brutal.

Did you guys check your documents on the uscis portal. When mine changes to AR the second time the approval notice was uploaded to the case. 

[Laurie Williams 1]

On 3/21/2023 at 4:44 PM, Volli said:

After almost 14 month they finally changed it to Active Review. This is different to many (and our) cases when they changed it to Active Review after a few weeks/month after the initial i-130 application and nothing happened for a long long time. As I said before, give them 1-2 more weeks. If you get approved within 2 weeks you owe me a beer - if not I owe you one. Deal?

 

And don't forget to check the Documents Tab in the online system. They hide the approval there in many cases.

Deal!  I hope I lose this bet!

[JoannaG01 0]

Hi Laurie, 

 

Thank you for sharing your process. I applied to petition for my husband (Canada) in late December 2021 and we still haven't heard back. It just shows that they sent a receipt on December 29, 2021. We were assigned to Texas Service Center. I had tried to submit the case inquiry on March 25, 2023 since that was the date provided but then they changed it to July 2, 2023 the day that I tried to ask about our application. I have a PDF file saved showing that we could ask on or after March 25th. I am interested in filling out the service request. Where did you locate the service request? 

 

Thank you in advance for your insights! Also I apologize if you have shared those steps in the thread. 

 

Joanna 

[Laurie Williams 1]

48 minutes ago, JoannaG01 said:

Hi Laurie, 

 

Thank you for sharing your process. I applied to petition for my husband (Canada) in late December 2021 and we still haven't heard back. It just shows that they sent a receipt on December 29, 2021. We were assigned to Texas Service Center. I had tried to submit the case inquiry on March 25, 2023 since that was the date provided but then they changed it to July 2, 2023 the day that I tried to ask about our application. I have a PDF file saved showing that we could ask on or after March 25th. I am interested in filling out the service request. Where did you locate the service request? 

 

Thank you in advance for your insights! Also I apologize if you have shared those steps in the thread. 

 

Joanna 

Hi Joanna,

 

You can file a service request if you haven't heard back for a period of time equal to the average processing time for your case's service center + 60 days.  

The processing times change lots for the processing centers, and I just checked Texas and sadly it is up to 17 months for them.   That means you cannot file a service request unless your status does not change before July 28, 2023.  You can file your Service Request here: https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/Intro.do 

 

I don't understand how if the processing time was less when we filed, why anything that comes in after ours should affect our case.   I can understand if they had staffing changes, but you would think those would get backfilled fairly quickly.  You can ask your senator to look into your case, but honestly, I don't think it makes any difference.  I called two of my senators and the only update I got was that it was in the pile and they would get to it when they had time.  

I wish I had something more encouraging to say.  

[Britishwizard 2]

18 hours ago, JoannaG01 said:

Hi Laurie, 

 

Thank you for sharing your process. I applied to petition for my husband (Canada) in late December 2021 and we still haven't heard back. It just shows that they sent a receipt on December 29, 2021. We were assigned to Texas Service Center. I had tried to submit the case inquiry on March 25, 2023 since that was the date provided but then they changed it to July 2, 2023 the day that I tried to ask about our application. I have a PDF file saved showing that we could ask on or after March 25th. I am interested in filling out the service request. Where did you locate the service request? 

 

Thank you in advance for your insights! Also I apologize if you have shared those steps in the thread. 

 

Joanna 

Hello,

I applied for my wife on December 24th 2021. My application received notice came from Texas service center. After a year of waiting I called uscis and was told that the case is in vermont service center. I thought I could submit a service request based on Texas service center but I was wrong. Anyway it was showing September for inquiry now time is increased and it says that out of normal processing time will be November 2023. I contacted senators but no difference. All they say the case is in normal processing time. Its insane that only i130 takes two years for some us citizens but for some a few months. No criteria. All they say every case is different which is a BS. Another lie they tell us that uscis process cases in order they receive. This agency is a joke. I feel sorry for you as I feel for myself and all others who are waiting just for the damn i130, As there will be another wait at state department. I dont know when this will end. 

[TJ&NP 6]

Hi, Just here to offer some solidarity to December folks who are still waiting. My husband and I are also still stuck at "case received" in Vermont. My lawyer was able to file a service request, because we were originally at Texas, and I think it must have been one day before they extended the dates. Don't feel too bad about not being able to file a request because all they said to us is that the case is at Vermont and it is still within "normal processing times" even though it's been over 15 months and the estimated time for Vermont is now 14 months. I think if this is still going on by October, then I will need to put my degree on pause and move to the UK to be with my husband....