February 2024 filer; USCIS seems to have skipped over our batch

[widude 38]

 If it’s any consolation, plenty of us are near you with the process timeline. There may be a few outliers, but take the average. Of course, the process isn’t for the faint of heart, easy to get frustrated.

 

  It’s kinda a relationship test also, just think if it was a 2 month process? I’ve just tried to look ahead, be ready for the follow on steps as they come. 

[apnzz 63]

1 hour ago, widude said:

 If it’s any consolation, plenty of us are near you with the process timeline. There may be a few outliers, but take the average. Of course, the process isn’t for the faint of heart, easy to get frustrated.

 

  It’s kinda a relationship test also, just think if it was a 2 month process? I’ve just tried to look ahead, be ready for the follow on steps as they come. 

This is what I said to my friends! I've been with my partner for over 4 years now, but I said there's so many people who try to do this for the wrong reasons - it isn't for the faint of heart, and it's so worth it in the end, to finally be with your partner and begin your family and life together. Only strong relationships will prevail through that - and that's how it should be in my opinion - it should test you and it will be so much more rewarding when we get out on the other side and say wow, we survived how horrible that was, lengthy etc and it'll just make us stronger :)! 

 

+ I try to tell people that despite the super speedy approvals lately, the amount of them are so so so small in comparison to the normal  / average. USCIS clearly wanted to make it seem faster in some way - maybe to appeal to more people to apply so they can get more funding (it's funded entirely off of visa submission fees) - but the actual truth and average is several months, not just a few. + that brings me closure - it isn't fair, no, but nothing in life is.

 

Keep y'alls head up guys!!

[Wagoneer 3]

Yeah really the unfairness and the lack of communication is more frustrating than the wait.   Feb 23 here.    But for us, both of us are small wallet peasants who’s struggling to put together our proof of financial support thing     So skipping us over is actually giving us an extra month or two to get to that 125% poverty line number.  Blessing in disguise for us maybe?

[Alyssa112 14]

23 hours ago, apnzz said:

This is what I said to my friends! I've been with my partner for over 4 years now, but I said there's so many people who try to do this for the wrong reasons - it isn't for the faint of heart, and it's so worth it in the end, to finally be with your partner and begin your family and life together. Only strong relationships will prevail through that - and that's how it should be in my opinion - it should test you and it will be so much more rewarding when we get out on the other side and say wow, we survived how horrible that was, lengthy etc and it'll just make us stronger :)! 

 

+ I try to tell people that despite the super speedy approvals lately, the amount of them are so so so small in comparison to the normal  / average. USCIS clearly wanted to make it seem faster in some way - maybe to appeal to more people to apply so they can get more funding (it's funded entirely off of visa submission fees) - but the actual truth and average is several months, not just a few. + that brings me closure - it isn't fair, no, but nothing in life is.

 

Keep y'alls head up guys!!

They've probably done it because it's an election year. Apparently rhe K-1 isn't the only type of application where they've moved on to new cases and pushed old ones to the side. Now that the "average" time is lower, they can say "look how well we've done getting processing times down!" I still find our cases to be a strange exception though..

[apnzz 63]

16 hours ago, Alyssa112 said:

They've probably done it because it's an election year. Apparently rhe K-1 isn't the only type of application where they've moved on to new cases and pushed old ones to the side. Now that the "average" time is lower, they can say "look how well we've done getting processing times down!" I still find our cases to be a strange exception though..

Normally I'd agree but it wouldn't make much sense to do that for just 2 months. (April and May) where the majority of the really fast approvals, including the end week of March, but the election is in November. It doesn't make much sense to say hey look how fast we are, when they were only (currently) fast for less than 2 months. There's still hundreds waiting from April and May too. & The fact they haven't begun June and afterwards yet means it wont be that fast either, those filers already waited 2 months + now, and they've shown no signs of beginning June still - yet. In order to actually make themselves look better they'd need to keep it up for longer than what they have.

 

It's realistically probably more likely they did it to attract more filers. USCIS is funded entirely off of visa submission fees, it isn't a tax funded organisation. So by making the processing times seem faster by skewing their data (skipping thousands between Jan and March) in favor of processing April and May at extremely fast rates, the filers from the end of May, June and July and now August, are a lot of the by-product of "omg it is so fast now lets apply and we'll be together in 2 months max". The amount of filers I've seen on reddit that purposely filed recently because they were convinced it'll be fast because of the movement in April and May is actually crazy + their increase in fees = USCIS being very happy right now.

 

Another factor in them slowing down could be the fact they are moving offices in California. The CSC is moving to a different location in California and I'm assuming on some level this would contribute to the slowing down in general of CSC productivity - this was announced in late around June-July, which is where the processing activity really slowed down. They used to process on average 1.7k cases per month, then the end of May hit and now it barely hits an average of 800.

 

But they still haven't processed June - which, for a lot of us in the facebook March filer group, think is a good sign. I hope that skipped period gets processed before September ends. I'll be happy with that still. It's really all dependent on whether they continue to focus on previous months instead of June. 

 

Honestly just hope to see approvals from that time soon - even if it isn't our case; I'd just be happy to see the people who are hurting to get approved, like they deserve. 

 

Hang in there guys ❤️ 

Edited August 8 by apnzz

[Alyssa112 14]

12 hours ago, apnzz said:

Normally I'd agree but it wouldn't make much sense to do that for just 2 months. (April and May) where the majority of the really fast approvals, including the end week of March, but the election is in November. It doesn't make much sense to say hey look how fast we are, when they were only (currently) fast for less than 2 months. There's still hundreds waiting from April and May too. & The fact they haven't begun June and afterwards yet means it wont be that fast either, those filers already waited 2 months + now, and they've shown no signs of beginning June still - yet. In order to actually make themselves look better they'd need to keep it up for longer than what they have.

 

It's realistically probably more likely they did it to attract more filers. USCIS is funded entirely off of visa submission fees, it isn't a tax funded organisation. So by making the processing times seem faster by skewing their data (skipping thousands between Jan and March) in favor of processing April and May at extremely fast rates, the filers from the end of May, June and July and now August, are a lot of the by-product of "omg it is so fast now lets apply and we'll be together in 2 months max". The amount of filers I've seen on reddit that purposely filed recently because they were convinced it'll be fast because of the movement in April and May is actually crazy + their increase in fees = USCIS being very happy right now.

 

Another factor in them slowing down could be the fact they are moving offices in California. The CSC is moving to a different location in California and I'm assuming on some level this would contribute to the slowing down in general of CSC productivity - this was announced in late around June-July, which is where the processing activity really slowed down. They used to process on average 1.7k cases per month, then the end of May hit and now it barely hits an average of 800.

 

But they still haven't processed June - which, for a lot of us in the facebook March filer group, think is a good sign. I hope that skipped period gets processed before September ends. I'll be happy with that still. It's really all dependent on whether they continue to focus on previous months instead of June. 

 

Honestly just hope to see approvals from that time soon - even if it isn't our case; I'd just be happy to see the people who are hurting to get approved, like they deserve. 

 

Hang in there guys ❤️ 

Yeah, they have stopped processing the new cases, definitely weird! I do hope it brings some relief to those of us in this specific group of filers, and those before us. Still can't wrap my head around WHY this timeframe has been untouched...

Thanks for the insight! I know we will all be with our loved ones soon enough. 

[TBoneTX 44,613]

A post has been removed because of several instances of thinly disguised profanity, along with a post quoting those instances.

 

The applicable provision in VJ's Terms of Service is:

"Use alternative characters to spell profane or scatological words, or post images containing such words, to bypass VisaJourney's language filter."

 

Folks, we've all felt like cursing, punching walls, and worse during this infernal process.  It's perfectly understandable to express frustration, but please do so in family-friendly fashion.

 

TBoneTX

for VJ Moderation

[apnzz 63]

Did you guys see the approvals lately? This entire week so far they've been approving June 3rd and 4th cases.. Still no care given about us...

[OldUser 5,976]

Yep, I've seen this movie before with all sorts of cases: AOS, Asylum, I-751s...

 

Personally was in a batch that got delayed by 6 months compared to few weeks before and after.

 

Good luck and have patience guys. You'll get it eventually!

[sonnyboy0323 19]

Right. And what you mean by that is us unlucky few will be stuck until the absolutely ridiculous inquiry date, we'll inquire, and then our case will be shipped elsewhere to be "properly" looked at and we'll be stuck in another limbo for another 4 to 7 months. 

Sound about right? 

Edited August 23 by sonnyboy0323

[apnzz 63]

As much as it sucks and I am upset and mad and it's unfair, they do say the process can take up to a year and we personally were prepared for that to be the case when we filed. No one can control USCIS and there's genuinely nothing we can do, it'll happen when it happens. I know we all miss our partners etc but at some point you have to focus on the positive.

 

The official USCIS estimations have reduced; used to be 12 months, then 11.5 months, now it currently displays 10 months. In addition, my inquiry date (filed March 4) is now April 25th 2025, whereas it was originally June 26th 2025. It's reduced 3 times so far and so that's good news.

 

I know a lot of us thought it would be a fast process because it was for the majority of the 2024 filers, but we personally didn't base too much dependency on that happening; USCIS is so unpredictable and even historically you can see that. It's not fair and it's not right, but please remember to put your health first; I'm not saying don't be sad or mad, but being too angry etc it'll only affect your health more. I know it's easier said than done, but I know first hand how bad my mental health was getting in the last few weeks and I really just took a step back & realised that it'll all be okay. 

 

I hope you guys will be okay, I worry about people a lot because I know it's such a struggle. 

Hang in there

[sonnyboy0323 19]

and at some point positivity and hopes get you nowhere but sadness and more frustration.

 

you're correct, we all read generally how long the process would take, and we accepted it and expected the wait, that's not the issue. but to be so blatantly skipped in the way that we have been with ZERO communication or acknowledgement is an absolute spit in the face. Even TMVN has posted a notice saying this is an anomaly! how are we expected to not be frustrated?

 

those of us coming up on 200+ days should be good little boys and girls and twiddle our thumbs while there's couples who are VISA IN HAND or even in the states already in as little as 4 months or so. What's the explanation there?

we've compared some cases: same beneficiary country, same petitioner country, even same petitioner state, and yet we're stuck in limbo, and they're VIH already.

 

I refuse to give the USCIS any benefits of doubt because this is a joke. our cases are "processing as normal" but who's to say they haven't been misplaced or even straight up lost? unlikely? i'll give you that. but certainly not impossible. So what if we wait until our inquiry date just to get hit with a "whoopsie, our bad lol" ???

 

as i've said MANY times before, the WAIT would NOT be an ISSUE if there was any clear form of COMMUNICATION AND SOME CONSISTENCY.

i'd wait a year and more if there was any consistency or clarity. but no, we've been blatantly skipped and we're just expected to sit in the dark and wait on false hopes. 

[OldUser 5,976]

9 hours ago, sonnyboy0323 said:

those of us coming up on 200+ days should be good little boys and girls and twiddle our thumbs while there's couples who are VISA IN HAND or even in the states already in as little as 4 months or so. What's the explanation there?

we've compared some cases: . 

My only hypothesis is USCIS gets better stats by working on new cases quickly. This reduces overall wait time on paper.

 

As @apnzz mentioned, you're still within normal processing time.

 

Spare yourself, you have AOS ahead. With changes in administration after election, cases may go much slower for the next part of process.

 

 

 

Edited August 23 by OldUser

[OldUser 5,976]

10 minutes ago, OldUser said:

My only hypothesis is USCIS gets better stats by working on new cases quickly. This reduces overall wait time on paper.

 

As @apnzz mentioned, you're still within normal processing time.

 

Spare yourself, you have AOS ahead. With changes in administration after election, cases may go much slower for the next part of process.

 

 

 

And should I mention I-751s that take close to 3 years nowadays... Hopefully when you file yours it will be faster.

[Alyssa112 14]

Y'ALL!!! We got approved yesterday. My fiancé just showed me. Apparently they are working! We did not get an email though, we had to check the USCIS website. 

Edited August 23 by Alyssa112