September 2023 I-130 Filers

[OldUser 6,979]

2 hours ago, Josh B K said:

@Cookie88 I got the same response. It made me quite angry and frustrated since I have heard other petitioners get more helpful responses from their congressmen. I feel like all the political energy and division around immigration is hiding smaller failures in government that all citizens would agree need to be addressed. I don't think our leaders or we should be accepting a 15 month processing time for simple petitions from US Citizens. How do you feel about it? 

I wouldn't be too angry as a lot of the times congressman enquiry doesn't do anything. They ask about case, and get standard reply from USCIS saying the case is within processing times. Essentially, you get a VIP concierge experience asking on your behalf but not having powers over USCIS.

Edited November 24 by OldUser

[emeditz 6]

Just to echo what OldUser says: my congresswoman's and senator's inquiries have not gotten me anywhere. You may also end up talking to an intern who knows less about this than you do. Maybe such inquiries are useful when the normal processing times have been surpassed.

Anyway, has anyone within this cohort gotten an approval yet? Most of the August 2023 cohort on here has, it seems.

[Josh B K 13]

On 11/30/2024 at 1:08 PM, emeditz said:

Just to echo what OldUser says: my congresswoman's and senator's inquiries have not gotten me anywhere. You may also end up talking to an intern who knows less about this than you do. Maybe such inquiries are useful when the normal processing times have been surpassed.

Anyway, has anyone within this cohort gotten an approval yet? Most of the August 2023 cohort on here has, it seems.

 

@emeditz I feel the same. I'm hope we see September filers posting about approvals this coming week as everyone returns from the long Thanksgiving holiday. 

[team-joric 2]

Any more yeses? I've seen up to 7 September 2023 approved. This is achingly slow. I looked back at my posts from the beginning of November where I guessed it would be a couple more weeks to get to 14 September (my filing date), and I have to laugh.

 

Me and my husband are writing out the request for assistance from his US senator now, though. If anyone's had any success with that line of enquiry, your advice would be welcomed.

[GABO507_PTY 10]

15 minutes ago, team-joric said:

Any more yeses? I've seen up to 7 September 2023 approved. This is achingly slow. I looked back at my posts from the beginning of November where I guessed it would be a couple more weeks to get to 14 September (my filing date), and I have to laugh.

 

Me and my husband are writing out the request for assistance from his US senator now, though. If anyone's had any success with that line of enquiry, your advice would be welcomed.

As indicated in my initial post my wife wrote both to her senator office and local representative.

 

She personally went to her local representative office at Brooklyn were a community service agent took our request for help with our I-130 pending case.

 

After one week we receive a respond from both offices at the same time indicating that our case was at USCIS Brooklyn Office and it was being evaluated.

 

That same day in the evening we receive the approval notice but it said it was sent by the Nebraska Office.

 

So we don´t know if our case was initially at Nebraska then sent  to Brooklyn and after approved in Nebraska but definitely we think that writing and requesting for help to her senator office and local representative did helped. Maybe because the Brooklyn Office received a letter from her senator/local representative they looked to our case and thought it was an easy-straight forward approval.

 

I strongly suggest all of you to do the same thing as we did. Yes, maybe you will receive a negative answer but maybe won´t, so just do it.

 

I hope that sooner or later all the Sep 2023 I-130 filers will receive a approval notice to your pending cases.

 

Cheers😎

[Gboree 68]

On 12/11/2024 at 5:17 AM, GABO507_PTY said:

 

As indicated in my initial post my wife wrote both to her senator office and local representative.

 

She personally went to her local representative office at Brooklyn were a community service agent took our request for help with our I-130 pending case.

 

After one week we receive a respond from both offices at the same time indicating that our case was at USCIS Brooklyn Office and it was being evaluated.

 

That same day in the evening we receive the approval notice but it said it was sent by the Nebraska Office.

 

So we don´t know if our case was initially at Nebraska then sent  to Brooklyn and after approved in Nebraska but definitely we think that writing and requesting for help to her senator office and local representative did helped. Maybe because the Brooklyn Office received a letter from her senator/local representative they looked to our case and thought it was an easy-straight forward approval.

 

I strongly suggest all of you to do the same thing as we did. Yes, maybe you will receive a negative answer but maybe won´t, so just do it.

 

I hope that sooner or later all the Sep 2023 I-130 filers will receive a approval notice to your pending cases.

 

Cheers😎

 

It is helpful, especially when your case is outside the normal processing timeline. Thanks for the update.

[GABO507_PTY 10]

 

 

 

Hello Sep 2023 Filers.

 

I wanted to give you an update of my case at NVC and a few tips, I hope this information helps you once you get to the NVC stage:

 

NVC case created: 11-18-24

Documents Submitted: 11-26-24

NVC respond do to invalid documents: 12-05-24: From all the documents we submitted two had some tipping errors therefore NVC rejected them and requested us to resubmit them

Documents Re-Submitted: 12-05-24

NVC Documentarily Qualified: 12-12-24

 

Once you arrive to the NVC stage the process is pretty quick and it depends solely in you having all the proper documents and submitting them correctly. They take around 8 to 9 days to verify your submitted documents and accept or reject them.

 

So now we are at the stage of waiting that my local embassy schedule an interview date for me, so this s something that clearly depends on your countries US embassy, I'm on my own now.

 

Uploading Docs at NVC Tip:

1. The PDF documents you submit should be less than 4MB in size.

2. If you upload an PDF document and this error occurs "Invalid Image Detected" error this is what I did to arrange it:

A) Print the PDF as a PDF file again: Microsoft Print to PDF.

B) Then compress the file with Adobe or any PDF reader app.

C) Submit the document again.

 

I hope all of you guys receive sooner or later your I-130 approval and if you have any questions you can contact me directly thru MSG.

 

I´m doing this because this forum helped me a lot with my doubts regarding this lengthy process and now I want to help others.

 

Cheers😉

Edited December 13 by GABO507_PTY

[Josh B K 13]

On 12/13/2024 at 8:52 AM, GABO507_PTY said:

 

 

 

Hello Sep 2023 Filers.

 

I wanted to give you an update of my case at NVC and a few tips, I hope this information helps you once you get to the NVC stage:

 

NVC case created: 11-18-24

Documents Submitted: 11-26-24

NVC respond do to invalid documents: 12-05-24: From all the documents we submitted two had some tipping errors therefore NVC rejected them and requested us to resubmit them

Documents Re-Submitted: 12-05-24

NVC Documentarily Qualified: 12-12-24

 

Once you arrive to the NVC stage the process is pretty quick and it depends solely in you having all the proper documents and submitting them correctly. They take around 8 to 9 days to verify your submitted documents and accept or reject them.

 

So now we are at the stage of waiting that my local embassy schedule an interview date for me, so this s something that clearly depends on your countries US embassy, I'm on my own now.

 

Uploading Docs at NVC Tip:

1. The PDF documents you submit should be less than 4MB in size.

2. If you upload an PDF document and this error occurs "Invalid Image Detected" error this is what I did to arrange it:

A) Print the PDF as a PDF file again: Microsoft Print to PDF.

B) Then compress the file with Adobe or any PDF reader app.

C) Submit the document again.

 

I hope all of you guys receive sooner or later your I-130 approval and if you have any questions you can contact me directly thru MSG.

 

I´m doing this because this forum helped me a lot with my doubts regarding this lengthy process and now I want to help others.

 

Cheers😉

 

What a kindness to share this experience with us! Thank you @GABO507_PTY. I have a follow up question for you? Were you a September 2023 filer? When did you receive your approval from USCIS? 

 

[GABO507_PTY 10]

6 hours ago, Josh B K said:

 

What a kindness to share this experience with us! Thank you @GABO507_PTY. I have a follow up question for you? Were you a September 2023 filer? When did you receive your approval from USCIS? 

 

Hello, yes Im a Sep 2023 filer: Sep 13th.

I was approved by USCIS on Nov 14th, 2024.

 

👍

[k0nstantin 7]

4 hours ago, GABO507_PTY said:

Hello, yes Im a Sep 2023 filer: Sep 13th.

I was approved by USCIS on Nov 14th, 2024.

 

👍

This is faster than normal by about a month. Did you also apply for a K3?

[GABO507_PTY 10]

1 hour ago, k0nstantin said:

This is faster than normal by about a month. Did you also apply for a K3?

Hello, no. I applied for I-130, spouse. This thread is for I-130😅.

 

Cheers✌️

[OldUser 6,979]

2 hours ago, k0nstantin said:

This is faster than normal by about a month. Did you also apply for a K3?

The normal is an average. Actual cases can take few months less or few months more. K3 is an urban myth. If anything, it takes away time USCIS could use to adjudicate more I-130 instead of opening K3 packet and and putting it in trash can.

Edited December 15 by OldUser

[k0nstantin 7]

1 hour ago, OldUser said:

The normal is an average. Actual cases can take few months less or few months more. K3 is an urban myth. If anything, it takes away time USCIS could use to adjudicate more I-130 instead of opening K3 packet and and putting it in trash can.

A year ago I'd agree that K3 didn't affect anything, but these days I see cases with a K3 application getting approved as early as 6 months after filing the K3. They still obviously don't issue K3 visas, but now I find it more plausible that a K3 application may affect how fast the I-130 is approved.

[OldUser 6,979]

4 minutes ago, k0nstantin said:

A year ago I'd agree that K3 didn't affect anything, but these days I see cases with a K3 application getting approved as early as 6 months after filing the K3. They still obviously don't issue K3 visas, but now I find it more plausible that a K3 application may affect how fast the I-130 is approved.

I do not have compelling evidence that K3 speed up anything. Neither lawyer and others who observed immigration for years. It simply doesn't make sense that USCIS is going to drop everything and process somebody faster just because a free form was filed for them. It's not in manuals, it's not in policies. And there's no proven record of it. Some cases get approved super fast without K-3s, expedites or anything special. Some just get lucky. 

Edited December 15 by OldUser

[k0nstantin 7]

7 minutes ago, OldUser said:

I do not have compelling evidence that K3 speed up anything. Neither lawyer and others who observed immigration for years. It simply doesn't make sense that USCIS is going to drop everything and process somebody faster just because a free form was filed for them. It's not in manuals, it's not in policies. And there's no proven record of it. Some cases get approved super fast without K-3s, expedites or anything special. Some just get lucky. 

The reason why K3s may be speeding up I-130 could be the same reason why K1s are now approved in just 6 months. I strongly suspect that it has to do with how USCIS management measures their performance. Someone at USCIS wants to tell their boss that "progress has been made with getting the wait times under control" and "we now have X out of Y visa categories that have reasonable wait times". CR1 is likely the most numerous category, and it's being sacrificed because there's just no hope of getting it under control without hiring more people. Hiring more people is unpopular with politicians right now, so we can expect CR1 to fall farther and farther behind as other categories are prioritized.