F2B- Expedited by Lawyer?

[Sammyd90 4]

Hello Folks,

 

I have a brother overseas that my mom has petitioned for him to come to the US early 2020 and his case has been under "CASE IS BEING ACTIVELY REVIEWED BY USCIS" for over 500 days. The thing is that My parents, my youngest brother and myself are all together, except him as he was 21 and a couple of months old when mom petitioned for him. 

 

My question is, is it a good idea to hire a lawyer to expedite his case or it is a waste of money and effort? He has been waiting for over three years now and we don't knw how much longer he still has to wait.

 

Best,

 

Sam :)

[milimelo 4,520]

Not possible to expedite a case that's pending visa number availability so hiring a lawyer would be wasting money on things that lawyer cannot change. The brother will just have to wait for the number to be available - and remain single for the duration. 

 

[appleblossom 2,833]

As above, a lawyer can’t do anything. No way to expedite when a visa number isn’t available anyway. 
 

As for not knowing how much longer he has to wait, it will be many years, but all you can do is keep an eye on the Visa Bulletin and hope it moves forward. Nobody can even really guess, you could look at the VB and say it’s currently Sept 2015 so he has another 4.5 years to go…….but it’s been stuck on Sept 2015 for a couple of years now without any movement. So it’s not linear and who knows when it will move again, or by how much. All you can do is wait, keep checking, and hope really. 
 

When his date becomes current then he can try to expedite, but he’d need valid grounds to do so - just having the rest of his family in the US isn’t a valid reason. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by appleblossom

[Sammyd90 4]

thank you both!

[Sammyd90 4]

On 7/8/2023 at 1:39 AM, appleblossom said:

As above, a lawyer can’t do anything. No way to expedite when a visa number isn’t available anyway. 
 

As for not knowing how much longer he has to wait, it will be many years, but all you can do is keep an eye on the Visa Bulletin and hope it moves forward. Nobody can even really guess, you could look at the VB and say it’s currently Sept 2015 so he has another 4.5 years to go…….but it’s been stuck on Sept 2015 for a couple of years now without any movement. So it’s not linear and who knows when it will move again, or by how much. All you can do is wait, keep checking, and hope really. 
 

When his date becomes current then he can try to expedite, but he’d need valid grounds to do so - just having the rest of his family in the US isn’t a valid reason. 

 

is the priority date for F2B 2015 or 2017? Because the bulletin has two different tables. 

On 7/8/2023 at 12:05 AM, milimelo said:

Not possible to expedite a case that's pending visa number availability so hiring a lawyer would be wasting money on things that lawyer cannot change. The brother will just have to wait for the number to be available - and remain single for the duration. 

 

I thought the priority date is 2015 but I see also this on the bulletin. So which one is correct?

[appleblossom 2,833]

2015 is correct, but 2017 is the filing date - so people with a PD before this date will be asked to submit documents to NVC etc. They just can’t get a visa until their PD is after the date in Table A, so no interview will happen until then. 
 

So for your brother he’s got at least another 5 years of waiting, but he’ll be asked to submit documents before that. 
 

Note that, as it says in the VB, that date may go backwards (retrogress) for your brothers category soon too so don’t be surprised if it does. 

Edited July 10, 2023 by appleblossom