I-130 Priority Current But Cannot Proceed with CEAC

[dleewo 4]

I am the petitioner for my brother and sister.  Their priority date is March 2008 and that is now current as of last month.  They both received the welcome letter from the NVC just over a week ago with their case number and invoice ID number along with instructions to go to the CEAC website to pay the fees.

 

But when they login, the links to pay the fees and start the application are disabled and there is the message

 

Quote

Due to the numerical limitations on immigrant visa issuance prescribed by law, this petition is not eligible for further processing at this time. The National Visa Center (NVC) will retain the petition until an immigrant visa becomes available.

 

 

Are they not able to proceed with their fees and application?  I sent an inquiry to the public question system and all I got was a generic reply that didn't address my question.

 

Has something changed and they must wait until the Final Action Date is current?  My understanding is that they could pay the fees, do the applications then medical etc, but that can all be done in advance while waiting for a visa number to be available.  The "DATES FOR FILING FAMILY SPONSORED APPLICATIONS" in the visa bulletin is now 01JUN08 for F4 category.  The "FINAL ACTION DATES FOR FAMILY SPONSORED PREFERENCE CASES" is 01JAN08 for F4.

 

Am I misinterpreting what can be done based on their priority date?

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14 by Ban Hammer
removed attachment with real name showing

[appleblossom 3,764]

Which country were they born in?

[dleewo 4]

Trinidad and Tobago

[Ban Hammer 13,964]

attachment removed in OP as it had real name showing.  OP is free to repost said picture after obscuring the real name on it.

[appleblossom 3,764]

Just now, dleewo said:

Trinidad and Tobago

 

That is odd, they should be able to pay the fees then. Are you sure they can’t? On your screenshot above (which may be removed as it contains personal details) it looks as though that isn’t greyed out? I know this sounds daft and I’m sure you’ve already done it, but you’re clicking on the ‘fees’ tab at the top of the page?

 

Also, it makes no difference now but the Final Action date isn’t 1st January 2008, it’s 1st August 2007 this month - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2025/visa-bulletin-for-april-2025.html They also shouldn’t do the medical until they have an interview scheduled, which is still likely to be at least 2-3 years away, because it will expire after 6 months. 

[dleewo 4]

18 minutes ago, appleblossom said:

 

That is odd, they should be able to pay the fees then. Are you sure they can’t? On your screenshot above (which may be removed as it contains personal details) it looks as though that isn’t greyed out? I know this sounds daft and I’m sure you’ve already done it, but you’re clicking on the ‘fees’ tab at the top of the page?

 

Also, it makes no difference now but the Final Action date isn’t 1st January 2008, it’s 1st August 2007 this month - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2025/visa-bulletin-for-april-2025.html They also shouldn’t do the medical until they have an interview scheduled, which is still likely to be at least 2-3 years away, because it will expire after 6 months. 

 

 

The final action date I quoted of 01Jan08 is from the May bulletin which was released late last week.

 

The links are definitely disabled as is the FEES link at the top.  He tried it and I also tried it, logging in both as the petitioner and as the applicant.

 

So my understanding if the priority date timing is correct and all we can do is wait?

 

Would hiring am immigration lawyer help?  I mean, can immigration lawyers talk to an actual person at the NVC to find out why they can't proceed?  Or would hiring an immigration lawyer not provide any benefit and all my brother and sister can do is just wait and periodically login and check until such time the link to pay the fees is enabled?

 

 

 

[dleewo 4]

26 minutes ago, appleblossom said:

 

That is odd, they should be able to pay the fees then. Are you sure they can’t? On your screenshot above (which may be removed as it contains personal details) it looks as though that isn’t greyed out? I know this sounds daft and I’m sure you’ve already done it, but you’re clicking on the ‘fees’ tab at the top of the page?

 

For the FEES link at the top, the HTML for the page is:

 

<a class="main" style="width:253px; display:inline-block;" disabled="true" id="FEE" title="">FEES</a>

 

For the NOT PAID link under the applicant info, the HTML is:

 

<a id="ctl00_SiteContentPlaceHolder_ucApplicants_gridApplicants_ctl01_hlPay" title="Please pay the IV fee for this applicant." class="aspNetDisabled">NOT PAID</a>

 

They are disabled and have t=no target or href. so they are definitely disabled.

 

[appleblossom 3,764]

10 minutes ago, dleewo said:

 

 

The final action date I quoted of 01Jan08 is from the May bulletin which was released late last week.

 

The links are definitely disabled as is the FEES link at the top.  He tried it and I also tried it, logging in both as the petitioner and as the applicant.

 

So my understanding if the priority date timing is correct and all we can do is wait?

 

Would hiring am immigration lawyer help?  I mean, can immigration lawyers talk to an actual person at the NVC to find out why they can't proceed?  Or would hiring an immigration lawyer not provide any benefit and all my brother and sister can do is just wait and periodically login and check until such time the link to pay the fees is enabled?

 

 

 

 

Hiring a lawyer won’t make any difference. Sounds like it’s just a case of waiting for the website to catch up, you can try asking NVC again, but there’s really no urgency anyway as there won't actually be a visa available for quite some time. 

[dleewo 4]

OK, we'll just wait for now.  I just wish there was a wait to get clarity as to what is going on.  If the NVC had responded and said something definitive like you have to wait X more months.  Or you have to wait for the final action date to be current.  Or as you said, it takes a while for the website to work or catch up - it would at least help.

 

The other concern is that the welcome letter said that if nothing is done without 12 months, it would be treated as abandoned. I can't imagine we'll have to wait 12 months to pay the fees, but that deadline is also in the back of my mind.

[Edward and Jaycel 1,260]

2 hours ago, dleewo said:

The other concern is that the welcome letter said that if nothing is done without 12 months, it would be treated as abandoned. I can't imagine we'll have to wait 12 months to pay the fees, but that deadline is also in the back of my mind.

 

You can keep this deadline from expiring by emailing NVC at least once a year asking for a status, etc. until it's time to pay fees and all

[EireneFaith 57]

On 4/14/2025 at 2:33 PM, dleewo said:

 

 

The final action date I quoted of 01Jan08 is from the May bulletin which was released late last week.

 

The links are definitely disabled as is the FEES link at the top.  He tried it and I also tried it, logging in both as the petitioner and as the applicant.

 

So my understanding if the priority date timing is correct and all we can do is wait?

 

Would hiring am immigration lawyer help?  I mean, can immigration lawyers talk to an actual person at the NVC to find out why they can't proceed?  Or would hiring an immigration lawyer not provide any benefit and all my brother and sister can do is just wait and periodically login and check until such time the link to pay the fees is enabled?

 

 

 

Have you filled up DS-261 ONLINE CHOICE OF ADDRESS AND AGENT? It happened to me that I can't click the SELECT PAYMENT. I have no idea what went wrong. Until my son asked me what is this Online Choice of Address and Agent. After I filled up the DS-261 and submit it, it takes few days before it highlight the PAYMENT. I received also email from NVC the Invoice that I need to pay the AOS. Then after 10 days the IV fee.

Maybe it will help you what I shared to you. But no need to hire a lawyer. It's not cheap.

[dleewo 4]

no, the link to start the ds261 application is disabled.  He's not able to do anything.

 

I posted on another forum and an immigration lawyer said that the Final Action Date needs to be current and until that is current, he can;t do anything.  This is despite the visa bulliten saying that once the "Dates for filing" is current ,you can pay the fees and start the application.

 

I guess the process has changed??

[appleblossom 3,764]

3 hours ago, dleewo said:

no, the link to start the ds261 application is disabled.  He's not able to do anything.

 

I posted on another forum and an immigration lawyer said that the Final Action Date needs to be current and until that is current, he can;t do anything.  This is despite the visa bulliten saying that once the "Dates for filing" is current ,you can pay the fees and start the application.

 

I guess the process has changed??

Ask him where that change has been announced? I’ve certainly not heard that before and the current VB doesn’t say anything about it either. 

[dleewo 4]

As an update. TODAY we got an email fro the NVC talking about documents that need to be submitted so we checked the CEAC website and the link to pay the fees is working .

 

Perhaps the NVC just needed a couple weeks for the website to catch up to the welcome letter .

 

After waiting 17 years, it's a relief it's now working

[Edward and Jaycel 1,260]

1 minute ago, dleewo said:

As an update. TODAY we got an email fro the NVC talking about documents that need to be submitted so we checked the CEAC website and the link to pay the fees is working .

 

Perhaps the NVC just needed a couple weeks for the website to catch up to the welcome letter .

 

After waiting 17 years, it's a relief it's now working

 

Awesome news! Hope it is smooth sailing the rest of the way!!