September 2023 I-130 Filers

[Cookie88 112]

Update: We responded to the spouse RFE and haven't had any movement since on spouse's case, but did get issued ANOTHER RFE on one of the stepchildren's petitions. Waiting for the letter to upload to see what that's all about now. Round 2 of RFE stress.

[Goodnews2023 5]

Petition for my daughter, 20yr old from Africa. I am USC

09/14/2023 initial filing

09/21/2023 Active reviewing 

01/30/2025 approval 

16.6months total 

 

All the best for everyone. This is not easy to wait this long. I did petition for her just few months to her 21st birthday so she was grandfathered as a minor <21yr unmarried. 
 

Again, may all September 2023 filers get approved this week. May your weekend be filled with joy. All the best and thank you all for posting your stories. 

Edited January 31 by Goodnews2023

[Cookie88 112]

6 hours ago, Goodnews2023 said:

Petition for my daughter, 20yr old from Africa. I am USC

09/14/2023 initial filing

09/21/2023 Active reviewing 

01/30/2025 approval 

16.6months total 

 

All the best for everyone. This is not easy to wait this long. I did petition for her just few months to her 21st birthday so she was grandfathered as a minor <21yr unmarried. 
 

Again, may all September 2023 filers get approved this week. May your weekend be filled with joy. All the best and thank you all for posting your stories. 

 

Congratulations. Which service center did the approval come from?

[Goodnews2023 5]

No idea. Will see when I receive the notice by mail. 

[Cookie88 112]

Just got all 3 approvals. 2 RFE’s later, it took exactly 500 days from PD, for anyone lurking on here to track. 

[Ara Burton 34]

33 minutes ago, Cookie88 said:

Just got all 3 approvals. 2 RFE’s later, it took exactly 500 days from PD, for anyone lurking on here to track. 

Congrats Cookie!!!

 

What was your PD?

 

What was your service center?

 

What did you get the RFEs for?

[Cookie88 112]

8 hours ago, Ara Burton said:

Congrats Cookie!!!

 

What was your PD?

 

What was your service center?

 

What did you get the RFEs for?

Thanks!

 

PD: 22nd September 2023. 3 petitions - spouse and 2 stepchildren.

 

We applied online, and our initial receipt notices came from Texas. 5 days later, 2 petitions were sent to Nebraska, 1 sent to California. Around mid-January 2025, I was getting told by Emma agents that now all 3 were at Nebraska. I assumed they had linked us under one officer. But interestingly, the approvals came from 2 x Nebraska and 1 x California. They were all approved within minutes of each other, so it did seem like one officer reviewed them collectively. I was thinking maybe it's different with online applications? Maybe the reviewing officer in Nebraska 'pulled' the one that was in California from the online system, when he saw we were a family of 3 petitioning together. But that technically it was 'assigned' to the California SC still on the system. If that makes sense at all. 

 

Our RFEs were for the spouse (nebraska) and one stepchild (california) - both asking for the exact same thing but very differently phrased - did not seem the same officer when we saw the choice of phrasing. But a lawyer we spoke to said they must be under the same officer. 

 

It's all very confusing, lol. 

[Ara Burton 34]

14 hours ago, Cookie88 said:

Thanks!

 

PD: 22nd September 2023. 3 petitions - spouse and 2 stepchildren.

 

We applied online, and our initial receipt notices came from Texas. 5 days later, 2 petitions were sent to Nebraska, 1 sent to California. Around mid-January 2025, I was getting told by Emma agents that now all 3 were at Nebraska. I assumed they had linked us under one officer. But interestingly, the approvals came from 2 x Nebraska and 1 x California. They were all approved within minutes of each other, so it did seem like one officer reviewed them collectively. I was thinking maybe it's different with online applications? Maybe the reviewing officer in Nebraska 'pulled' the one that was in California from the online system, when he saw we were a family of 3 petitioning together. But that technically it was 'assigned' to the California SC still on the system. If that makes sense at all. 

 

Our RFEs were for the spouse (nebraska) and one stepchild (california) - both asking for the exact same thing but very differently phrased - did not seem the same officer when we saw the choice of phrasing. But a lawyer we spoke to said they must be under the same officer. 

 

It's all very confusing, lol. 

Thanks for responding.

[Goodnews2023 5]

It took 3days from approval to receiving a letter from NVC for payment. We are working with attorney which is making the process easy. Gathering documents then set up interview and biometrics at the embassy. This was the hardest wait, the rest should go easy. All the best for those waiting. I’ll clock out. 

[Cookie88 112]

16 hours ago, Goodnews2023 said:

It took 3days from approval to receiving a letter from NVC for payment. We are working with attorney which is making the process easy. Gathering documents then set up interview and biometrics at the embassy. This was the hardest wait, the rest should go easy. All the best for those waiting. I’ll clock out. 

 

Thank you for updating us on this. I was wondering, did it take 3 days from when the status officially changed to 'approved' under the account, or from the date you got the approval document? I ask because we have 2 different dates. We got lots of emails for 'actively reviewing' on Monday 3rd, and found the approval doc in the documents tab with an approval date printed on as 2/3. The status on the account didn't change until 2 days later to show they're all approved, and the status message also claimed we were approved on 2/4. I know this is only a difference of a day, but I have been curious as to how people are calculating how many days it took between approval and NVC welcome email. 

[emeditz 15]

09/19/2023 initial filing

02/19/2025 active reviewing 

02/19/2025 approval 

17 months total 

[OldUser 7,865]

1 minute ago, emeditz said:

09/19/2023 initial filing

02/19/2025 active reviewing 

02/19/2025 approval 

17 months total 

Congrats! 17 months is the new average as it seems.

[Cookie88 112]

2 minutes ago, emeditz said:

09/19/2023 initial filing

02/19/2025 active reviewing 

02/19/2025 approval 

17 months total 

 OmG!! Finally!!! Sooo happy for you and your wife!!! I hope the next part of this goes a lot smoother