Late June-Mid July 2024 Filers, Skipped Batch

[apnzz 268]

2 hours ago, OldUser said:

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...

Wow, I never actually knew this. It's actually terrible an organisation can do that. But then again there are only limited sources that can actually do something about their obscurity and inefficiency, and even when you contact Congressmen or senators, they usually accept any generic response USCIS provides.

 

I never knew they hid data like that, thank you for sharing, but sorry that happened to you and others. 

 

Either way it's really terrible USCIS is able to do that type of thing without any consequences or accountability. 

 

[Mahned 0]

On 11/26/2024 at 4:02 PM, JKHUSA said:

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

 

I am one of applicants who are from June 28th and we didn't receive NOA2 yet. I have no idea what happened?

On 11/26/2024 at 4:02 PM, JKHUSA said:

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

 

I am one of applicants who are from June 28th and we didn't receive NOA2 yet. I have no idea what happened?

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

3 hours ago, Mahned said:

I am one of applicants who are from June 28th and we didn't receive NOA2 yet. I have no idea what happened?

I am one of applicants who are from June 28th and we didn't receive NOA2 yet. I have no idea what happened?

Hey there,
The short version is that it seems USCIS has put another stack of applications from Jun 28 to July 11 on a separate table to 'do them later'.
We don't know why they did it, but we think it was to keep their numbers / turnaround time looking good.

That said, as of today there is a little fresh movement - I think several RFEs and two approvals went out!

[shamahs 6]

Oh wow I even see some July 5th update. Let's hope for things to start moving then.

Thanks for the update! 🤗

[Bunninuts 31]

Based on reading feedback from a previous USCIS worker on Reddit, it probably isn't that they are trying to make their numbers look better. They also had a move from one building to another this year (I think in June?). All of the files are real paper, not electronic. This can lead to all sorts of organization problems where files are in a box/s and put in a place out of sight or on the bottom when they should have been on the top. They do not go in order. I've watched numerous around my number be approved while mine still sits waiting. Do they separate by country? By difficulty of case? Mine is very straight forward with no criminal background or conflicts yet is still waiting 6 months now. Some that submitted their request this month have been approved while others from Feb are still waiting. They also have a high turnover rate while it is very difficult and takes a lot of time to hire new workers. There are so many variable that we don't know about how this agency operates other than they give approvals, denials, and RFEs.

 

We can speculate why these things happen but truly, they are a rogue, on their own type of agency where not any outside entity like congress, governors, senators, can urge them to do anything. They are a necessary agency that is very important while also treated as subpar without resources to do what they need to. We are all stuck in the middle just hoping to be with someone we love.

 

Try to keep your spirits positive and hope for the best so we are all putting positive energy out. Wishing all their happily ever after 💜

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

55 minutes ago, Bunninuts said:

We can speculate why these things happen but truly, they are a rogue, on their own type of agency where not any outside entity like congress, governors, senators, can urge them to do anything. They are a necessary agency that is very important while also treated as subpar without resources to do what they need to. We are all stuck in the middle just hoping to be with someone we love.

 

Try to keep your spirits positive and hope for the best so we are all putting positive energy out. Wishing all their happily ever after 💜

You are of course correct on all your points, thank you for posting

[shamahs 6]

3 hours ago, Bunninuts said:

Based on reading feedback from a previous USCIS worker on Reddit, it probably isn't that they are trying to make their numbers look better. They also had a move from one building to another this year (I think in June?). All of the files are real paper, not electronic. This can lead to all sorts of organization problems where files are in a box/s and put in a place out of sight or on the bottom when they should have been on the top. They do not go in order. I've watched numerous around my number be approved while mine still sits waiting. Do they separate by country? By difficulty of case? Mine is very straight forward with no criminal background or conflicts yet is still waiting 6 months now. Some that submitted their request this month have been approved while others from Feb are still waiting. They also have a high turnover rate while it is very difficult and takes a lot of time to hire new workers. There are so many variable that we don't know about how this agency operates other than they give approvals, denials, and RFEs.

 

Tbh I'm having hard time believing that it's a consequence of them moving offices. Simply because they did it before. February/March range was skipped before they moved offices in August.

They have their reasons which probably have to do with their numbers and we're just a collateral damage to them.

It's infuriating seeing August 7th case being approved while you have not only 1700+ cases from July waiting but hundreds from February, March and so on and you know you can't do anything.

It's awful knowing that once more we won't be able to celebrate together birthdays, anniversaries and all the other important dates, especially for us whose partner doesn't have a way of coming to the US even as a tourist and can only see each other twice a year but we still have to keep a positive mind here and hope for the best. Nothing else we can do.

[Seth.n.Amelia 3]

6 hours ago, shamahs said:

Tbh I'm having hard time believing that it's a consequence of them moving offices. Simply because they did it before. February/March range was skipped before they moved offices in August.

They have their reasons which probably have to do with their numbers and we're just a collateral damage to them.

It's infuriating seeing August 7th case being approved while you have not only 1700+ cases from July waiting but hundreds from February, March and so on and you know you can't do anything.

It's awful knowing that once more we won't be able to celebrate together birthdays, anniversaries and all the other important dates, especially for us whose partner doesn't have a way of coming to the US even as a tourist and can only see each other twice a year but we still have to keep a positive mind here and hope for the best. Nothing else we can do.

I absolutely relate.
 

My person has been in some scary situations which I would have preferred to be around for, but watching at a distance has me feeling very powerless and upset.
I feel you.

I hope your case is moved along quickly, it's very hard to sit by and wait while the world does not stop, isn't it?

[apnzz 268]

12 hours ago, shamahs said:

Tbh I'm having hard time believing that it's a consequence of them moving offices. Simply because they did it before. February/March range was skipped before they moved offices in August

As someone who was skipped from the feb/march cases, I wholeheartedly agree with this.

 

We got skipped months before they moved offices  so I highly doubt it's the reason for the skip.

 

They claimed moving offices would help improve processing times and "streamline" the process but statistically you can see nothing but a decrease in processing speed and just an overall decline in productivity. 

 

They used to approve 200-300+ cases per day, now it's lucky if it hits over 120. (source: trackmyvisanow has a discord bot set up in the K1 discord to provide daily updates on case productivity every day).

 

I 100% believe that they purposely skipped that feb/march section to make their data look better; they were approving April/May filers in under 90 days - hundreds of them even in under 40 days. So when you look to file at that time you're seeing under 90 day visa in hand be so common - you're naturally gonna wanna file then because it "looks" fast. 

 

But officially the processing times still are above 8 months. When I filed it was 14 months, when I was approved it had reduced to 9 months. They keep their official websites projecting those times on purpose; so they don't have to be held accountable. 

 

So you may see cases approved in 4,5,6 months but you can't do anything until your inquiry date passes (when I filed mine was May 2025, reduced to April 25 2025 around the 4months waiting mark). Congressmen and senators just give the same responses about it being normal and USCIS can proceed with no accountability.

 

There's no way they didn't know about the feb/march skip - hundreds of us were calling regularly and complaining, pointing it out, getting congressmen and senators involved. They had to have known. It's such a specific skip too - it wasn't like a few cases were getting approved from that block, the entire block was skipped and not touched at all. 

 

We may never know their true processes and how they do things, but I refuse to believe such a specific period of skipped cases was an accident. and our skip definitely wasn't because of an office change because it happened months before the office change.

 

Fingers crossed for you guys to hear back soon - I know first hand how awful this is. Please hang in there - there's a light at the end of the tunnel - I promise.

[shamahs 6]

5 hours ago, apnzz said:

They claimed moving offices would help improve processing times and "streamline" the process but statistically you can see nothing but a decrease in processing speed and just an overall decline in productivity. 

 

This. Things started going downhill when they let go of those 400+ workers I believe and after that it never went back up. All that story about moving offices did nothing positive in reality as numbers still keep going down.

 

It's so hard to not be frustrated when you can't be with your person through all the hardships and happy moments because those that are supposed to do their work properly don't. Yes, there's a light at the end of the tunnel but it's unfair to have to wait way longer for that light when we shouldn't. They are messing with people's lives here. Not to mention that it's now obvious they won't deal with our range before January 20th and that's now an additional reason to stress and worry.

 

What I also don't understand is why are we allowed to only contact them once a year has passed and not after 8 or 9 months. I don't want to have to imagine having to contact them after July 10th 2025 (that's our inquiry date) and to only be told that we're within processing time. It's cruel.

 

And to answer @Bunninuts, they don't separate by country at this stage. That comes later. It's all supposedly done randomly.

 

[OldUser 6,971]

1 hour ago, shamahs said:

What I also don't understand is why are we allowed to only contact them once a year has passed and not after 8 or 9 months. I don't want to have to imagine having to contact them after July 10th 2025 (that's our inquiry date) and to only be told that we're within processing time. It's cruel.

It is indeed cruel, but even if you were allowed to contact them more frequently, they'd say stuff like "your case is still being processed". USCIS doens't have enough resources to get calls more frequently.

 

Also, most of the times there's not much agents on the phone can do. It's almost like it's a phycological helpline you can call to get somebody to listen to your frustration. Guess what, we have VJ for this 😅

Edited yesterday at 03:54 PM by OldUser

[shamahs 6]

2 hours ago, OldUser said:

It is indeed cruel, but even if you were allowed to contact them more frequently, they'd say stuff like "your case is still being processed". USCIS doens't have enough resources to get calls more frequently.

 

Also, most of the times there's not much agents on the phone can do. It's almost like it's a phycological helpline you can call to get somebody to listen to your frustration. Guess what, we have VJ for this 😅

I guess you're right 😅