Hello!! Anyone else in the same position?

[Lesleylou81 1]

Hello!! We are new to this and just posted our i129f form (27th September). 
Im looking for people in the same position or people who are slightly ahead to share experiences with.

I have no idea what to expect apart from the website says that currently at Texas the form I 129f is taking 15 months to process. 
Does anyone know when we will hear something? 
All I know is the envelope made it to the drop box because we sent it recorded delivery.

 

I guess now we wait ……………… and wait…..

[SalishSea 17,874]

8 minutes ago, Lesleylou81 said:

Hello!! We are new to this and just posted our i129f form (27th September). 
Im looking for people in the same position or people who are slightly ahead to share experiences with.

I have no idea what to expect apart from the website says that currently at Texas the form I 129f is taking 15 months to process. 
Does anyone know when we will hear something? 
All I know is the envelope made it to the drop box because we sent it recorded delivery.

 

I guess now we wait ……………… and wait…..

Your 129F will be adjudicated at the California Service Center, not Texas.  I think it’s taking 6-12 months on average.

[smilingstone 189]

4 hours ago, Lesleylou81 said:

I guess now we wait ……………… and wait…..

 

Yes, get ready to wait!

 

For us, it took 108 days from NOA1 to approval. We did receive an RFE which may have delayed things for us, but also I read that processing times have slowed since May/June.

 

I went into this assuming approx. a 12 month total wait, give or take - 6 months for I-129F, 6 months for K1. I think when all is said and done (married) that will be a pretty close estimate.

 

You can search VJ timelines and filter by country. It will give you a good idea of things.

Edited October 2 by smilingstone

[JJrockman 1]

March 5th filer here and still waiting to hear back on I 129. Hopefully any day now. 

[M plus D 57]

Note that there is currently a significant slowdown in the processing of i-129f.

The amount of petitions processed in September 2024 are not even a third of those processed in May 2024. This is according to websites that analyze data from USCIS API.

 

Why is this happening, you ask? Of course we cannot know for sure. We do know that the adjucating service centre in California (CSC) has recently moved (source). This could be cause for a temporary slowdown.

This same service centre has allegedly laid off around 400 workers. However, sources are scarce and differ on how many people were laid off, what their work entailed, and if they are being replaced or not.

Finally, we know USCIS needed to be within a certain average processing time in order to increase their fees. Now that the fees are increased, perhaps this removed incentive to keep up the same processing times.

Edited October 6 by M plus D

[SL2024 70]

On 10/2/2024 at 4:30 PM, SalishSea said:

Your 129F will be adjudicated at the California Service Center, not Texas.  I think it’s taking 6-12 months on average.

 

I always thought Massachusetts would be covered by Vermont Service Center? https://davieslegal.com/news/service-center-will-process-immigrant-petition-application/

 

Is this not the case? And if not when did this change? Would be useful to know so I can update my knowledge.

[M plus D 57]

23 minutes ago, SL2024 said:

 

I always thought Massachusetts would be covered by Vermont Service Center? https://davieslegal.com/news/service-center-will-process-immigrant-petition-application/

 

Is this not the case? And if not when did this change? Would be useful to know so I can update my knowledge.

Currently, all i-129f petitions are processed in the California Service Center. The only exception is that i-129f filed by a petitioner that has AWA-related history, will be transferred to Vermont Service Center.

In the past, it was California, Texas, and Vermont. Vermont had stopped processing i-129f first, and later Texas also stopped processing them.

 

The list you linked is for immigrant petitions, whereas i-129f is technically a non-immigrant petition. Also note that the page was published in 2018. A lot has changed since then, so it is good to double-check using more recent sources.

Edited October 6 by M plus D

[SL2024 70]

1 minute ago, M plus D said:

Currently, all i-129f petitions are processed in the California Service Center. The only exception is that i-129f filed by a petitioner that have AWA-related history, will be transferred to Vermont Service Center.

In the past, it was California, Texas, and Vermont. Vermont had stopped processing i-129f first, and later Texas also stopped processing them.

 

The list you linked is for immigrant petitions, whereas i-129f is technically a non-immigrant petition. Also note that the page was published in 2018. A lot has changed since then, so it is good to double-check using more recent sources.

 

I did see that the page was published in 2018 so I did wonder or suspect to a degree that things may have changed since then so thank you for letting me know and clarifying. Much appreciated! 

[SL2024 70]

I think I was under the assumption that it was just a regional thing due to the USA being such a vast country where each Service Center was able to process all types of visas along with when I went on the USCIS Processing Times section on their site you could select I-129f and the relevant Service Center and it would show different processing times for each Service Center. So once again thank you for confirming to me as I literally had never heard of California being the only one to do I-129f petitions. So thank you for once again for confirming!

Edited October 6 by SL2024
-

[SalishSea 17,874]

1 hour ago, SL2024 said:

 

I always thought Massachusetts would be covered by Vermont Service Center? https://davieslegal.com/news/service-center-will-process-immigrant-petition-application/

 

Is this not the case? And if not when did this change? Would be useful to know so I can update my knowledge.

Perhaps you have very old info?  

Petitioner state of residence and service center for I-129f petitions have not been connected since at least >2015, if ever.

 

Vermont processes a very small percentage of petitions that have certain types of criminal background (AWA).   Otherwise they all are processed in California.

[SL2024 70]

3 minutes ago, SalishSea said:

Perhaps you have very old info?  

Petitioner state of residence and service center for I-129f petitions have not been connected since at least >2015, if ever.

 

Vermont processes a very small percentage of petitions that have certain types of criminal background (AWA).   Otherwise they all are processed in California.

 

Hi SalishSea, thanks for replying back but M plus D replied back to me above with the relevant info and I gave my reasoning above as well. Thank you though

Edited October 6 by SL2024
-