We met back when we were in college in Chicago 2011, I was in grad school on a J1 visa. From 2009-2013, I had 3 J1 visas, had to go back home in Haiti in 2012 and 2013 to get a new J1 to finish my 2nd MS degree. I left in 01/2014 to do my two year home residency; back then, our lawyer told us that because I did 2 months both in 2012 and 2013 while applying for a new J1, I had already done 20/24 months required.
I left Haiti in 02/2016 with a cumulative time of 26 months (I traveled to the US often to go see my then girlfriend). We got
- married in 03/2016
- filed for i485, i130 07/2016
- priority date: 08/01/2016
- biometrics 09/01/2016
- work permit 10/15/2016
- interview: 11/29/2016
Officer told us she'd make a decision by the end of the week. I didn't hear back from USCIS until 03/2018 when they asked for RFE. I moved to California to be with my wife who got transferred there for work in 2017.
- case transferred to california visa center: 06/2018
- case received by San Jose office: 02/2018
- interview: 09/2019. That's when we realized the officer in Chicago flagged our application, thinking we got married for the GC even though we've been dating for 5 years, married for 8 months at the time of the interview, but I digress.
- i130 approved: 09/2019
- i485 RFE sent 01/2020
- i485 denied: 04/2020 -> reason: they started counting my 2 years in 2014 instead of 2012 when my 1st J1 visa expired, they concluded I had done 21/24 required months; we were crushed. I just got my career job at Microsoft at the time, I was a vendor not even a FTE, I had no prospects of what I was going to do since the letter also said that I had 30 days to leave the country. We got another lawyer, she told us to file for i864
- i864 filed: 06/2020
- Interview with MSFT 06/2020, passed with flying colors!!!
- left for Haiti 07/2020, with Covid there were no flights until then
- MSFT decided it was best for me to go to the Dublin office, work there for 1 year before they can apply for a L1 visa on my behalf even though I had a family based green card application filed
- Moved to Ireland: 01/2021
- Cumulative time in Haiti for J1 purposes: 21+7 --> 28 months
- USCIS approves i864: 03/2021
- NVC receives case: 04/2021
- documents submitted 08/11/2021
Looking at the timeframe that nvc updates every Monday; since mid july its been going slower and slower. As of 10/04/2021, they are processing cases submitted on 07/18/2021, 78 days behind. From early April to mid July the average time was 38 days.
I am super stressed, I'm going absolutely mad because the processing time is taking so long; I don't know if the issue is with NVC or the Embassy in Ireland. From the little bit of info I found on this site about the embassy in Dublin, it seems they don't have big delay for IR1. I don't when this bad dream will end. I miss home so freaking much, we've been married for 5 years and we haven't started a family because of my situation. I don't know what else to do, nothing is in my control and the wait is literally killing me!
If you made it this far in my story, thank you for reading it!
