February 2022 Filers!

[Alex&Nayden 91]

53 minutes ago, davidtech said:

Hey! That's very interesting before sending the K3 did you have an "actively being reviewed notice" on the USCIS site? My case has said actively being reviewed since February 27th. The date has not changed for that even after K3....hmmm

The receipt notice that I stated was for the K3, they sent me mail stating they had received it.

My I-130 is in California, but best of luck to both of us! Hopefully waiting times decrease.

No, I didn't have an actively reviewed before that. I am still waiting on approval. But from what I am seeing, a lot of couples have been getting i130 approvals 3-4 months after sending their i129f. 

 

We are currently sitting at 97 days since sending the i129f sooooooo I really hope we heard some good news in September. If not, it's not a big deal. I know the typical wait for i130 is 10-12 months so we are prepared for that wait. 

 

[davidtech 8]

18 minutes ago, Alex&Nayden said:

No, I didn't have an actively reviewed before that. I am still waiting on approval. But from what I am seeing, a lot of couples have been getting i130 approvals 3-4 months after sending their i129f. 

 

We are currently sitting at 97 days since sending the i129f sooooooo I really hope we heard some good news in September. If not, it's not a big deal. I know the typical wait for i130 is 10-12 months so we are prepared for that wait. 

 

Oh okay, like you said we are at about the same timeline here. I did hear that as well..

 

Yes! Hopefully soon, if I hear anything ill make sure to update on here! Thanks for sharing.

[davidtech 8]

Has anybody seen a "Processing Time" tab in the main USCIS page where you check on your case documents and whatnot?

I logged in today and just noticed this new tab was added on mine, is this new or has this been a thing?

 

Either way gives me hope it may be sooner than I thought! Finger's crossed.

[Alex&Nayden 91]

29 minutes ago, davidtech said:

Has anybody seen a "Processing Time" tab in the main USCIS page where you check on your case documents and whatnot?

I logged in today and just noticed this new tab was added on mine, is this new or has this been a thing?

 

Either way gives me hope it may be sooner than I thought! Finger's crossed.

Yup, I have it too. But I think it's something they are adding to make it clear that people have to wait 10-14 months. It's the same information you see on the USCIS Processing Times page soooooooooo nothing new. 

[Mor 6]

1 hour ago, davidtech said:

Has anybody seen a "Processing Time" tab in the main USCIS page where you check on your case documents and whatnot?

I logged in today and just noticed this new tab was added on mine, is this new or has this been a thing?

 

Either way gives me hope it may be sooner than I thought! Finger's crossed.

yes..just noticed it also. Mine says that my case is taking longer to process than expected.

[davidtech 8]

Yeah it's interesting but like someone said already it's pretty much the same info were able to get on the USCIS processing times page.

Mine does say 3 months, which cuts the estimated months from 10.5 to 10! I can only hope it is spot on or sooner, would be nice.

[kiwipete 18]

Case update -- unless I'm getting something wrong, it looks like our petition was approved?!

I'd been checking the USCIS Case Status Online tool every day and noticed the 'actively reviewing' date changed from 2 Feb (when we filed) to 18 Nov. My wife checked the USCIS portal and there was an approval notice. Not sure if she also got emailed about it. Weirdly, both the USCIS portal and the case status tool still both show 'actively reviewing' from 18 Nov, but I read sometimes they're slow to update after sending the notice.

We were expecting Feb 2023 and were actually about to submit K-3 visa paperwork, but I'm not complaining! The only other thing I can think of is I submitted an entry for the Diversity Visa (DV-2024) program on Nov 8, but not sure how that would have any impact.

 

We started at Nebraska. The Approval Notice came from Texas, so we must have been transferred at some point.

Hope more come through soon for everyone else as well

[Alex&Nayden 91]

8 hours ago, kiwipete said:

Case update -- unless I'm getting something wrong, it looks like our petition was approved?!

I'd been checking the USCIS Case Status Online tool every day and noticed the 'actively reviewing' date changed from 2 Feb (when we filed) to 18 Nov. My wife checked the USCIS portal and there was an approval notice. Not sure if she also got emailed about it. Weirdly, both the USCIS portal and the case status tool still both show 'actively reviewing' from 18 Nov, but I read sometimes they're slow to update after sending the notice.

We were expecting Feb 2023 and were actually about to submit K-3 visa paperwork, but I'm not complaining! The only other thing I can think of is I submitted an entry for the Diversity Visa (DV-2024) program on Nov 8, but not sure how that would have any impact.

 

We started at Nebraska. The Approval Notice came from Texas, so we must have been transferred at some point.

Hope more come through soon for everyone else as well

If you have an approval doc then you are approved. Congrats!! Keep an eye out on your inbox for an email from NVC. People say it usually takes 5-10 days. 

[davidtech 8]

Hello everyone, over the weekend processing "tab" time has changed from 1 Week, to "Your case is taking longer than expected to process". 

I am aware this means the same thing as the processing time we would get on the check your status page.

However, just thought I'd post an update... I did find out someone who had this same message got approved after a month, from one of the Facebook groups I am in.

 

Let's hope California Service Center speeds up soon!

 

[kiwipete 18]

Hi everyone, given a few of you will hopefully be going through the NVC/CEAC process soon, I thought I'd share a gotchas from our experience in case it helps speed things up. They're all mentioned in other threads here, but figured a timely note might not hurt :)

• Fees - need to be paid from a US checking/savings account. For some reason I thought we could use a credit card, so we ended losing a couple of days to transfer money to my wife's US account for us to pay.
• Payment processing time -  takes a couple of days to process, and you can't upload/fill out forms until it's processed -- so do this ASAP so you can get on with the rest.
• If you're using a joint sponsor - there are two steps: 1) add them to the case, 2) upload supporting documents
  • To add the JS you need their I-864 and a proof of citizenship (eg. passport). After you've uploaded those there's a processing time to add them to the case, and you can't upload any supporting documents (tax transcripts/returns, W-2s, etc.) until this has been processed. The CEAC website says "up to an hour" but there are threads on VJ with people being stuck for a couple of weeks (mainly in 2021, so this might be fixed now). I added a JS ~45 mins ago, and currently stuck on this step. So if you're using a JS, add them early! You can't upload support documents (eg. tax transcript/return, W2, etc.) until they've been "added to the case".
• DS-260 (general)- not too bad, but there are a couple of parts that require a long history; for me it was everywhere I've lived since 16, and everywhere I've worked for the last 10 years. The DS-260 is filled out interactively on the website (so you can't access it until you access the CEAC site), but there is a draft DS-260 that you can view before you get access. I would highly recommend reading through this and gathering all the info you'll need ahead of time.
• DS-260 (form timeouts) -- filling out the form, the form timed out frequently for me (and I'm a pretty fast typer). Especially on the long forms (eg. 10 years employment history). I'd recommend having all the info ready to go and fill it in quickly (and carefully). If you take time to look up dates in emails (like I was), the form will probably time out and you'll need to log into the CEAC website again. The form does save after each step, and there's an option to manually save, but it won't do it unless all fields are valid.
• I-864s - these are submitted as PDF uploads (ie. not an online form). They're available online, so I'd recommend you get everyone you need to fill them out ahead of time, and collect supporting documents the supporting documents. The forms aren't too arduous, but they are tricky. I would highly, highly recommend reading the I-864 instructions very carefully. There are VisaJourney threads for just about every curly question/situation you'd have - I used these forums a lot. An example of 'tricky' is that my wife is employed, but her income is $0 (because none of it is qualifying income). These are all spelt out in the I-864 instructions and FAQs, but there's no mention of many of the gotchas on the actual I-864 form itself.
• I-864 - need to be filled out typed or in black ink.
• I-864 - the downloaded form appeared to be password protected (I was able to fill most of it out on my laptop, but my wife/relatives couldn't). Some fields also don't seem to work correctly (eg. there's an auto-calculated field for number of household members that just doesn't change, and the phone number for me wasn't long enough to accept a NZ phone number). We ended up printing it, hand-filling, and scanning.
• Resizing PDFs - they all need to be under 2MB. This was fiddly on a Mac (there is a default 'Export and Reduce file size' setting in preview, but the result was unreadable). Solution: (Mac only, sorry) go to this question on StackExchange and look for the second answer: "Use Apple's built-in ColorSync Utility to create a custom filter" (the accepted answer is really fiddly, requires you to edit a config file, and didn't work properly for me anyway). In short, you use ColorSync to create the filter, which then becomes available in Preview when you go File > Export. This is the fastest/easiest way to fiddle with compression settings to get a mix of under 2MB, but also still readable.

That's all I can think of now, and hope it saves someone some pain!

[Alex&Nayden 91]

8 hours ago, kiwipete said:

Hi everyone, given a few of you will hopefully be going through the NVC/CEAC process soon, I thought I'd share a gotchas from our experience in case it helps speed things up. They're all mentioned in other threads here, but figured a timely note might not hurt

• Fees - need to be paid from a US checking/savings account. For some reason I thought we could use a credit card, so we ended losing a couple of days to transfer money to my wife's US account for us to pay.
• Payment processing time -  takes a couple of days to process, and you can't upload/fill out forms until it's processed -- so do this ASAP so you can get on with the rest.
• If you're using a joint sponsor - there are two steps: 1) add them to the case, 2) upload supporting documents
  • To add the JS you need their I-864 and a proof of citizenship (eg. passport). After you've uploaded those there's a processing time to add them to the case, and you can't upload any supporting documents (tax transcripts/returns, W-2s, etc.) until this has been processed. The CEAC website says "up to an hour" but there are threads on VJ with people being stuck for a couple of weeks (mainly in 2021, so this might be fixed now). I added a JS ~45 mins ago, and currently stuck on this step. So if you're using a JS, add them early! You can't upload support documents (eg. tax transcript/return, W2, etc.) until they've been "added to the case".
• DS-260 (general)- not too bad, but there are a couple of parts that require a long history; for me it was everywhere I've lived since 16, and everywhere I've worked for the last 10 years. The DS-260 is filled out interactively on the website (so you can't access it until you access the CEAC site), but there is a draft DS-260 that you can view before you get access. I would highly recommend reading through this and gathering all the info you'll need ahead of time.
• DS-260 (form timeouts) -- filling out the form, the form timed out frequently for me (and I'm a pretty fast typer). Especially on the long forms (eg. 10 years employment history). I'd recommend having all the info ready to go and fill it in quickly (and carefully). If you take time to look up dates in emails (like I was), the form will probably time out and you'll need to log into the CEAC website again. The form does save after each step, and there's an option to manually save, but it won't do it unless all fields are valid.
• I-864s - these are submitted as PDF uploads (ie. not an online form). They're available online, so I'd recommend you get everyone you need to fill them out ahead of time, and collect supporting documents the supporting documents. The forms aren't too arduous, but they are tricky. I would highly, highly recommend reading the I-864 instructions very carefully. There are VisaJourney threads for just about every curly question/situation you'd have - I used these forums a lot. An example of 'tricky' is that my wife is employed, but her income is $0 (because none of it is qualifying income). These are all spelt out in the I-864 instructions and FAQs, but there's no mention of many of the gotchas on the actual I-864 form itself.
• I-864 - need to be filled out typed or in black ink.
• I-864 - the downloaded form appeared to be password protected (I was able to fill most of it out on my laptop, but my wife/relatives couldn't). Some fields also don't seem to work correctly (eg. there's an auto-calculated field for number of household members that just doesn't change, and the phone number for me wasn't long enough to accept a NZ phone number). We ended up printing it, hand-filling, and scanning.
• Resizing PDFs - they all need to be under 2MB. This was fiddly on a Mac (there is a default 'Export and Reduce file size' setting in preview, but the result was unreadable). Solution: (Mac only, sorry) go to this question on StackExchange and look for the second answer: "Use Apple's built-in ColorSync Utility to create a custom filter" (the accepted answer is really fiddly, requires you to edit a config file, and didn't work properly for me anyway). In short, you use ColorSync to create the filter, which then becomes available in Preview when you go File > Export. This is the fastest/easiest way to fiddle with compression settings to get a mix of under 2MB, but also still readable.

That's all I can think of now, and hope it saves someone some pain!

 

I love this! Thank you for sharing! 

[kiwipete 18]

Update - the joint sponsor is showing as added to the case this morning. So it took a little more than 1 hour, but less than a day.

Now that we can view the documentation requirements, they also need a proof of US domicile (separate to the petitioner). We're going to try a US driver license and utility bill based on other VJ comments -- will update if it works.

Edited December 8, 2022 by kiwipete
Added information

[Mern V 14]

Hi, just joining and saw this thread.

 

My husband filed I-130 for me (Canadian) on Feb 4.

 

"Actively reviewing" notice was on June 17.

 

I just checked "estimated processing time" again today and we are down to 4 weeks. 

 

This has been the longest year of our lives. We will be married 20 years in Feb 2023, my biggest wish is to be able to celebrate our anniversary together!

 

 

[Ramirez65 69]

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to share my timeline.  I filed I130 on February 14, 2022 (that’s my receipt date).  It started in Nebraska but moved to California (according to Emma).  Went to active review on March 16, 2022.  My husband is in Colombia.  Today is our one year wedding anniversary.  I was hoping to wake up to an approval this morning 😭😭😭😭.  The wait has been so stressful.  I’ve been trying to keep busy but I have no motivation.  This whole process just seems so inhumane.
 

Did anyone get a WhatsApp group created?  I’d like to join!

[davidtech 8]

Has anybody received any updates on their case or know any information about what cases USCIS is currently going thru? I am at about 11 months waiting still no update since filing I am hoping yo hear something soon….if there is a whatsapp group also please let me know. 

 

thanks