Filing Children's I-130’s 1 year after Wife’s

[Mdvivori 42]

Very recently I received excellent help from 2 members.  TY again.  I took their advice.  Background:  On June 30, 2021 I screwed up and filed 1, I-130 thinking bc my Stepchildren’s names were included in the I-130 that’s all I needed to do. That I-130 was approved on May 13, 2022 and forwarded to NVC.  We filed the I-864 and DS-260 on June 10, 2022.  Now after realizing my mistake, a few days ago, on June 30, 2022, (coincidentally exactly one year after our initial filing.) I filed I-130’s for each of my 2 Stepchildren.  They are 6 & 8 years old. 

 

I’m not sure what if anything I should make of this but, 1 day after filing the I-130’s for my Stepchildren and a day after receiving the receipt for paying the $535 filing fee for each, I received another Email for each stating that “The Case is being actively reviewed by USCIS”.  I received the very same notice on my Wife’s I-130 but 7 months and 4 days after Filing it.  Why did I receive this notice so quickly?  Is this notice meaningful?  Did the new filing automatically trigger an Immediate Review because we’re already in the System?  Does the USCIS try and keep all family members together?
 

I enlisted the help of a decades old personal friend who is also a US Senator to help me expedite my Stepchildren’s filing.  The Senator in turn immediately put a Staff Person on my case when I received the Receipt but I’m quite confident that even a US Senator couldn’t move the USCIS that quickly.  Obviously I don’t want my screw-up to delay us taking the Children to the States so I’m working with all available assets.  My last Posting resulted in 2, no nonsense responses which were spot on.  I’m hoping for the same.  Thanks in advance.

[JeanneAdil 6,400]

Actively reviewed can mean the petition were on the desk of an officer and assigned a case # 

u can hold up the process of the wife at the NVC asking them to hold wife's case till the children catch up

 

my letter from NVC said to contact them by email,  letter or Phone (phoning is not possible now)  once a month to keep a case open / i would do that with wife's case

 

 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

More surprised that your wife’s took so long than that the kids changed so fast. Everything we’ve submitted to uscis has changed to “actively reviewing “ right after receipt notice, a day or two after electronic filing. Still takes usual listed processing time. I don’t think you can in any way assume it’s linked to /accelerated because of your wife’s case. 

[Verrou 1,949]

just helped a friend file AOS ( inside US) and filed for her daughter i-130 for outside US at the same time. both PD 6/27/22 and the daughter case changed to "case is being actively reviewed" immediately when USCIS cashed the check ( daughter got texas service center )

 

in my experience, " case is being actively reviewed" means nothing for me. it changed that when uscis cashed the check and complete silence for 16 months until i have to do something

[Mdvivori 42]

Great news.  I submitted my stepchildren’s I-130’s on 06/30/22 one year exactly after I had filed my wife’s.  It was a mistake, a big one, and I was devastated.  My wife was upset but she didn’t get upset with me.  So sweet.  Anyway on 07/30/22 I contacted my US Senator to ask for help and his Team was very responsive.  Yesterday I saw that on the USCIS site it said  “Case is being actively reviewed” the same as it said on June 30, 2022 but now the date was September 13, 2022.  I checked back a few hours later and it said “Case Approved September 14, 2022”.  I’m in the Philippines so I’m 12 hours ahead.  

 

We are thrilled!  The NVC messaged me on August 18, 2022 asking for some additional IRS Tax information which I submitted on August 20, 2022.  Now I expect my stepchildren’s I-130’s will be sent to the NVC by Monday, September 19, 2022 and I’ll be able to Pay and submit our DS-260 and I-864 by August 23, 2022.  With additional luck they will Merge my Stepchildren with my wife and we will be able to catch our flight we booked for 12/21/2022.

 

I’m very thankful to my US Senator and his Team.  I encourage others who find themselves in a situation similar to mine to reach out to their Congress Person or Senator to ask for help.  I’m not suggesting they can move mountains but my mistake could have delayed our journey to the USA by one year or more and I believed any reasonable person would see my mistake as just that and not warranting a by-the-book process.

 

I’ll post our process as it comes.