I 130 online vs paper filing

[2024 I551 8]

Which is better? What are the pros and cons to each. Any difference in processing time?

[Just Paul 4,595]

Online is typically faster. But not by much.  My preference is to mail petitions in so I can make sure everything is there.  Don't staple or tab anything as that does slow down processing by the contractor. 

[pushbrk 12,994]

4 hours ago, 2024 I551 said:

Which is better? What are the pros and cons to each. Any difference in processing time?

Possible to save a few days of a 18 to 24 month process, by filing online.  Otherwise, the online form is still glitchy.  Filing on paper is still my preferred way to go.  Then you know exactly what they are going to see and in what order.

[2024 I551 8]

Thanks guys.

 

So, two votes for paper. Any for online? I had one for online in my different topic thread.

[OldUser 6,969]

1 minute ago, 2024 I551 said:

Thanks guys.

 

So, two votes for paper. Any for online? I had one for online in my different topic thread.

I can vote online if you want 😃

But personally would file paper. All my petitions so far were on paper other than AR-11.

[2024 I551 8]

42 minutes ago, OldUser said:

I can vote online if you want 😃

But personally would file paper. All my petitions so far were on paper other than AR-11.

Great, so now I have 3 votes for paper and just one for online.

Are the online people asleep or already done with their journey?

[OldUser 6,969]

30 minutes ago, 2024 I551 said:

Great, so now I have 3 votes for paper and just one for online.

Are the online people asleep or already done with their journey?

There's no massive difference between filing online or on paper. You can choose whichever method you feel more comfortable with. USCIS allows and accepts both.

Edited October 2, 2023 by OldUser

[Chancy 6,242]

On 10/1/2023 at 1:20 PM, 2024 I551 said:

Which is better? What are the pros and cons to each. Any difference in processing time?

 

Whether one is better than the other, depends on your preferences.  As others mentioned, there's no significant difference in overall processing time.

 

Online filing --

• Get almost-immediate receipt notice
• You have control over how your evidence is digitally recorded
• Web form could be glitchy, confusing, have incomplete instructions

Paper filing --

• No need to deal with the quirks of the web form
• No file size limit for the evidence you want to submit
• Could get lost in the mail or some documents could get lost at USCIS

[Amunah 62]

Paper, as in first anniversary gift, since it takes that long. It’s only fitting 😁

 

 

[BLC 112]

Online. Paper is antiquated and extra work making hard copies ..not to mention worrying that your packet arrived to USCIS and nothing in it gets lost as they rifle through your evidence. It just seems messy imo. I had no trouble at all filing online. You just need to read the instructions for the paper version for some clarity. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by BLC
Typo

[OldUser 6,969]

5 hours ago, 2024 I551 said:

Are the online people asleep or already done with their journey?

There you go 😃

 

8 minutes ago, BLC said:

Online. Paper is antiquated and extra work making hard copies ..not to mention worrying that your packet arrived to USCIS and nothing in it gets lost as they rifle through your evidence. It just seems messy imo. I had no trouble at all filing online. You just need to read the instructions for the paper version for some clarity. 

 

[top_secret 2,455]

8 hours ago, 2024 I551 said:

Great, so now I have 3 votes for paper and just one for online.

Are the online people asleep or already done with their journey?

 

😴 Well, it's near my bedtime anyways. 😁 Put a very strong vote for online from me, but I would have to elaborate tomorrow if I have some free time and am sitting at my desk rather than on this phone. 

[top_secret 2,455]

Having filed I-130's online and just having filed I-751 on paper I would have to say I think online was better in every way.  These days it is almost certain that if you submit a paper I-130 it will be scanned and uploaded to ELIS anyways, given an IOE number and processed electronically more or less the same as a purely online filing.  So, filing on paper you are often taking an original document.  Scanning it into a computer.  Printing a copy of the scan on paper, then mailing the paper to a lock box where someone who doesn’t care even slightly as much as you do scans the copies back into a computer.  Vs....just scan it and upload it to USCIS.  Going through the whole multiple scanning multiple printing exercise very much degrades the quality of what the reviewer sees. The photos I printed and sent in without I-751 are very nice sharp and colorful in the pdf I created.  The paper printouts I mailed in were nice.  The scan I found in my documents tab in my USCIS account is a HUGE tif file that takes forever just to load up due to its enormous size with very dismal, dark, black and grey pictures where you can barely even make out our faces.  I would much rather have any viewer seeing the original pdf which was less than one tenth the file size.

 

On our I-130' I gave all the pdf descriptive file names, set the default view to have a clickable thumbnail index on the left-hand side.  I guarantee anything a reviewer wished to see out of many dozens of pages they could find in about 10 seconds.  Want to boarding passes?  Click "passport_stamps_and_travel__records.pdf" default view has the clickable thumbnail index, they could go straight to the page they want with a single click or go through multiple pages click click click.  It has to make their job easier.

I actually feel sorry for the reviewer of all the paper pages I sent that they scanned.  I had a list of the contents in the cover letter but the reviewer will have a bunch of giant tif files with no descriptive names.  I can only imagine they will have to go through over a hundred of poorly scanned pages one by one in multiple files to find anything in particular they are looking for.

 

With the online filing I know EXACTLY what the reviewer is looking at. If I have a question i can log in and double check. With the paper filing I have the original copies of the pages I sent.  But I don't really know what they have.  Most of what they are actually looking at is not visible to me. What I can see looks terrible.  I assume it's all there and they can make it out even with the terrible scanning but how do I know?  On my I-751 where i can only see the photos I sent, there is a page they filled out recording the payment along with the photos.   Which makes no sense to me since I would think any page they added would go at the start or the end of my packet.  The pictures were in the middle.  It makes me question if things are even scanned in the order I sent.  Probably they are but again I have a question and there is no easy way I can answer it.

[2024 I551 8]

top_secret. Thanks for your detailed analysis. Based on your post, online wins the thread.