Late June-Mid July 2024 Filers, Skipped Batch

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

"USCIS has temporarily skipped cases filed between June 28th and July 11th, 2024. While we cannot predict when they will return to this date range, a similar delay occurred for cases filed between February 23rd and March 6th, 2024, and USCIS eventually resumed processing those cases. We will continue to monitor this situation closely. In the meantime, we recommend keeping an eye on the Recent Status Changes section for updates on USCIS activity."
It seems that USCIS has skipped a batch of cases again as referenced here so I am starting a thread to track things with other people in our group.

Personally we filed on July 3rd, got our NOA 1.
No NOA2 or other movement as yet.

 

[Edward and Jaycel 280]

I know it sucks man... Jaycel and I waited 265 days for our NOA2 for the K-1. It ended up being 50 weeks from application date until she arrived here in the US. All I can tell you is that it is worth it and once you guys are reunited, all of the delays getting there just fade into the background. Wish you a speedy approval and interview process!

[shamahs 6]

July 5th. We reached the front of the line around Oct 30th and just when we thought it's gonna happen soon they started on July 12th cases and I knew that our range will be skipped. TMVN confirmed it 2 weeks later.

It's unfair, especially when you see people complaining how it's slow and they filed like a month or 2 after you and you're aware they'll now get their application reviewed before us. We were hopeful that they'd reach us by January 20th because nobody knows at this point what the new administration will do but now we've come to terms that that probably won't happen. 

It is what it is. Life is unfair. Just train your patience.

 

[JKHUSA 1]

June 28th here. Thank you for making the thread. Knowing that other people are in the same boat helps a lot. Wonder what we all did in a past life to deserve this /j

 

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

Yes, it does feel unjust.
On the upside I would suggest keeping an eye on this thread as there is hope.
There are folks already reporting having their cases approved, so it's still only a matter of time.

 

[snailyote 7]

I was part of the skipped group in late February and it does really suck. It’s hard not to feel bitter and jealous when I keep seeing people who filed months after me already with their visa in hand or living with their partner in the US. The only piece of advice I can give is to try your hardest not to pay too much attention to what everybody else’s timelines are. Focus on other things, like hobbies and spending time with your partner virtually or over the phone. If you do start getting frustrated with your situation, a punching bag definitely helps! Wishing you the best

[shamahs 6]

2 hours ago, Seth.n.Amelia said:

Yes, it does feel unjust.
On the upside I would suggest keeping an eye on this thread as there is hope.
There are folks already reporting having their cases approved, so it's still only a matter of time.

 

They've started approving that skipped range at the end of August so it's been going for a few months now and still not done. 

I also keep in mind that their processing rate was higher 2,3 months ago than it is now. 🥲

 

I mostly think it's unfair because we all pay the same fees so the least you'd expect is that they process it in order but that's obviously not how it works.

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

On 11/26/2024 at 12:01 PM, shamahs said:

I mostly think it's unfair because we all pay the same fees so the least you'd expect is that they process it in order but that's obviously not how it works.

Yes, it is easy to see it as luck of the draw but it is a system and not really up to chance.

We will persevere.

Looking forward to heading from you folks as things start moving again.

[OldUser 6,976]

On 11/26/2024 at 9:01 AM, shamahs said:

They've started approving that skipped range at the end of August so it's been going for a few months now and still not done. 

I also keep in mind that their processing rate was higher 2,3 months ago than it is now. 🥲

 

I mostly think it's unfair because we all pay the same fees so the least you'd expect is that they process it in order but that's obviously not how it works.

This is common in all sorts of cases, be in K-1, I-751, N-400 or asylum case.

 

For example, I know somebody personally who filed I-751 2 weeks after me and got approved 4-5 months earlier than I did because my block got skipped.

[Tom-Addy 2]

June 28 NOA1 here. How is it possible that we can't even contact USCIS until a year and week after our NOA1 date? This is absurd that there is not a way to get them to address this skipped batch today. I saw and felt so sad for the February-March 2024 batch that was skipped.  How could they repeat the mistake again so quickly? Why can't a single communication method be used to say "WAKE UP, you skipped a batch!"

 

I'd love to have an employee of CSC to join us here.  Perhaps USCIS should allow an insider to join this community and provide informal updates. I know tech companies monitor their users' forums. 

 

Yeah, i know... be patient... yadda yadda yadda  :'(

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

3 hours ago, Tom-Addy said:

June 28 NOA1 here. How is it possible that we can't even contact USCIS until a year and week after our NOA1 date? This is absurd that there is not a way to get them to address this skipped batch today. I saw and felt so sad for the February-March 2024 batch that was skipped.  How could they repeat the mistake again so quickly? Why can't a single communication method be used to say "WAKE UP, you skipped a batch!"

 

I'd love to have an employee of CSC to join us here.  Perhaps USCIS should allow an insider to join this community and provide informal updates. I know tech companies monitor their users' forums. 

 

Yeah, i know... be patient... yadda yadda yadda  :'(

 You could theoretically write your local or state representatives, or at least that is what I have seen written on the forums here and am now parroting.

I think it would be a conflict of interest and a security risk for someone employed at a government agency to do so, but I also wish it was possible.

The upside of this is that I have a TMVN subscription for free and I will share updates as they come, we are all in the same boat after all.

So far no intel on our group / no changes - your date has no approved cases so no change on your day, nor mine.
 

Fingers crossed that things move ASAP.
Being patient is a given, but IMO even though it is 'common' and I feel calm about it and although I am not challenging the process and I respect it, it does seem to me that it is unfair to apparently arbitrarily hold over a group of applicants in favor of another.
Oh well, restating it doesn't help it - we all understand.

I am happy for the folks who are having better luck than I. Who knows, maybe some of them will be my neighbors ;)

[shamahs 6]

Honestly, I don't think that contacting your representatives will do anything, they'll just tell them that you're withing normal processing time which is true.

I checked yesterday to see if there's an update in the processing time for K1 and it's now 8.5 months but was 9 like 2 weeks ago so I think it's fair to assume that they've skipped our range so they could improve their numbers.

We don't have a problem with waiting, you go into this knowing it'll take time and patience but you don't expect you'll be pushed aside and left to wait without any explanation. It's like you said, they're holding our range in favor of another and that's what's unfair, especially given the fact that we are all paying the same amount of money so the least you hope for is that the process will be fair. 

I saw yesterday, possibly on reddit that someone's whole process lasted 7 months from start to them arriving to the US and that was painful to read as we're now approaching 6 months of waiting. But yeah, we need to stay positive as we all can see that there are still people from February and March waiting, probably the skipped range so it's even worse for them.

 

Please let us know should you see any movement in our range on TMVN. 🙏 

[apnzz 268]

On 12/10/2024 at 8:37 PM, Tom-Addy said:

June 28 NOA1 here. How is it possible that we can't even contact USCIS until a year and week after our NOA1 date? This is absurd that there is not a way to get them to address this skipped batch today. I saw and felt so sad for the February-March 2024 batch that was skipped.  How could they repeat the mistake again so quickly? Why can't a single communication method be used to say "WAKE UP, you skipped a batch!"

 

I'd love to have an employee of CSC to join us here.  Perhaps USCIS should allow an insider to join this community and provide informal updates. I know tech companies monitor their users' forums. 

 

Yeah, i know... be patient... yadda yadda yadda  😢

As someone who was a part of that feb-march skipped batch, we tried literally everything and nothing worked. Congressional aid, senator aid. Calling USCIS. nothing worked. we even had screenshots and proof that they skipped the period - USCIS took the stance that they didn't skip any cases, that it's impossible that that happened and that there's no way for us to prove or know we were skipped because cases are processed in order of when they are received. Which we all know in reality this isn't true.

 

We all know we had proof, but USCIS refused to acknowledge any of it. I know for a fact dozens if not hundreds of us called regularly and tried congressmen etc. They just essentially gaslight you on the phone lol. I'm fully aware the customer service people are only tier 1 officers and have nothing to do with adjudicating cases, but to us at the time we all felt like if they just put their hands up and said "hey, yea, you guys were skipped, we'll get back to it eventually" it would've felt less upsetting. But they just denied it was even happening and then any congressional or senator aid responses were "USCIS has informed us that you filed on [insert date] which is within normal processing times" and that I could re-request assistance after my inquiry date - as a March 4 filer, my inquiry date was April 25th 2025.

 

At the same time, people who filed just a week after me, up to May filers were getting approved in under 90 days - so many even under 40 days. It was heart breaking. The situation now is with June/July filers is still the same in terms of being skipped, but generally processing times aren't as fast as they were in early 2024. It seems like they're slowing down. The initial feb/march skipped period filers speculated that we had been skipped to make their data look better; processing times looked so much faster but they had skipped over 3k cases from feb-march at the time. that could be what's happening here -who really knows haha.

 

As much as it is upsetting and unfair, please hang in there. It isn't the first time it has happened, and unfortunately with how USCIS processing behaviour works, it is unlikely to be the last.

 

For a bit of hope/motiviation; we got approved Aug 23, (I was extremely lucky compared to others skipped in this period, some of my friends from the same filing day as me had to wait until October or even November to get approved) and booked the 2 days ago for Jan 23rd. So there definitely is light at the end of the tunnel - we went into the process saying anything under 12 months would be considered a huge win for us, since the processing times for k1 were, in previous years, atrocious compared to what we have in 2024. Hang in there! ❤️ 

Edited December 13 by apnzz

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

On 12/11/2024 at 6:33 AM, shamahs said:

 

 It's like you said, they're holding our range in favor of another and that's what's unfair, especially given the fact that we are all paying the same amount of money so the least you hope for is that the process will be fair. 

 

Please let us know should you see any movement in our range on TMVN. 🙏 

On both points, yes.

I will certainly share news as soon as I have it

[OldUser 6,976]

12 hours ago, apnzz said:

As someone who was a part of that feb-march skipped batch, we tried literally everything and nothing worked. Congressional aid, senator aid. Calling USCIS. nothing worked. we even had screenshots and proof that they skipped the period - USCIS took the stance that they didn't skip any cases, that it's impossible that that happened and that there's no way for us to prove or know we were skipped because cases are processed in order of when they are received. Which we all know in reality this isn't true.

 

We all know we had proof, but USCIS refused to acknowledge any of it. I know for a fact dozens if not hundreds of us called regularly and tried congressmen etc. They just essentially gaslight you on the phone lol. I'm fully aware the customer service people are only tier 1 officers and have nothing to do with adjudicating cases, but to us at the time we all felt like if they just put their hands up and said "hey, yea, you guys were skipped, we'll get back to it eventually" it would've felt less upsetting. But they just denied it was even happening and then any congressional or senator aid responses were "USCIS has informed us that you filed on [insert date] which is within normal processing times" and that I could re-request assistance after my inquiry date - as a March 4 filer, my inquiry date was April 25th 2025.

 

At the same time, people who filed just a week after me, up to May filers were getting approved in under 90 days - so many even under 40 days. It was heart breaking. The situation now is with June/July filers is still the same in terms of being skipped, but generally processing times aren't as fast as they were in early 2024. It seems like they're slowing down. The initial feb/march skipped period filers speculated that we had been skipped to make their data look better; processing times looked so much faster but they had skipped over 3k cases from feb-march at the time. that could be what's happening here -who really knows haha.

 

As much as it is upsetting and unfair, please hang in there. It isn't the first time it has happened, and unfortunately with how USCIS processing behaviour works, it is unlikely to be the last.

 

For a bit of hope/motiviation; we got approved Aug 23, (I was extremely lucky compared to others skipped in this period, some of my friends from the same filing day as me had to wait until October or even November to get approved) and booked the 2 days ago for Jan 23rd. So there definitely is light at the end of the tunnel - we went into the process saying anything under 12 months would be considered a huge win for us, since the processing times for k1 were, in previous years, atrocious compared to what we have in 2024. Hang in there! ❤️ 

Essentially, at best USCIS ignores the problems and denies it. At worst, they hide data and become more obscure. For example, when I filed I-751, I could look up processing timer per each individual service center and field office. Now when you go to https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/, you can only filter by "All service centers" and "All field offices". Essentially, the details are being hidden. I wonder if it's because of large differences. Some offices and service centers had 2+ year estimated time difference compared to others...