P+J

Agreed! I get real nervous seeing an RFE on my date. I just don't even want to see it, I'd rather it just stay at intial review.

Yup. I'd rather they pass me by then get stuck with that..I just don't want to be waiting for NOA2 anymore. Approve, and move on. The RFEs are even scarier when you know it would have to be for some bizarre reason.

oh uh RFE continuous!!! 2 x RFE January 20 (updated just now) and one of them is close to me

After using an attorney with over 25 years of experience focusing strictly on K1s and IRC-1s, I would be horrified to receive an RFE..But as we've all learned anything is possible during this process. It's a strange experience indeed. It does seem like RFEs come earlier in the day and approvals later..At least lately..but definitely don't want to receive an RFE. Certainly would rather wait a few more days then be hit with that...Good luck to everyone today. Still no activity with the petitions surrounding my own..about 8 petitions out of those 14 remain untouched..1 RFE. mainly approvals..but last action on any of the 1/18s around mine was on 7/11.

Someone stole all the dots on your i's.

My estimated NOA2 date on my timeline has been two weeks away for a month and a half. I was told current processing window is 6 months for VSC when I called.

and for some of us...even beyond the 6 months now...

I will be watching the dark knight rises now and hoping to hear some good news in 164 minutes

Hope so too! Come on VSC!! Last Friday we had a couple of approvals so not too bad. Maybe we could get 4-5 VJ related approvals out of them. Would be nice!!

your says 60? ours said 90 days!!! yeah well at least there are movements so I am sure we are on someone's desk... hopefully someone who is not on holidays right now

ha the lack of consistency is crazy. has to be the most frustrating part of the whole process. It's like even they don't know exactly how they go about processing the petitions. Different responses to the same questions or similar situations. We'll see if my Congressman has any effect. At this point, it will be impossible to know for sure if it was just time or the effects of an expedite. Glad I didn't bother trying to push the service request...Looks like they are just about useless.

Von, Sabi, Paul, everyone else waiting... Lets have some great news today!! Good Luck!!

Hopefully a good day for approvals ahead! So close.

wondering if paul is among the five that got approved. Thats the activity i wanna see for the 20th. its safe to say they working these 3 days right now. not much happen for 20th today but hopefully tomorrow will be different. we gonna make 6 full months tomorrow

still waiting here...Hopefully tomorrow! Congrats to LA and JK!!!=) and no activity in the group of petitions surrounding my own...last one approved was still July 11th..=/

Well looks like today was pretty weak again for VJ petitions..Maybe we'll see 1 or 2 more but certainly not what we need...the wait continues...I will keep my expectations very low for Friday. usually not a very good day for VSC. The 5 months update is also pretty annoying...has anyone called today to see if they are still reporting January 9th? I would think an update to the reported date would occur concurrently with the update to processing times.

Well, if they start sending stuff over to CSC it is gonna be even worse IMO. Lost files etc.

We are almost there, 6 months... Cant be much longer.

Yup. We were with VSC until the end for sure..I'm thinking March and April filers might see something happen with their petitions. They might not endure this insane wait.

Wow that sucks. I got my police certificate in 5 mins, just went there, paid their fee and in 2 mins i was ready to pick it up...

It is valid for 6 months, so is our medical.

The thing is i have to get done all the tests and xray separately, the immigration doctor only checks if i have everything and signs the form..

So i have to go to multiple doctors to get this done...

It is different for each consulate though. Slovakia seems to be easy and quick since there's no one going for K1 visa but me LOL ( since 99 % of slovak people get married on tourist visa or Esta)

Yup. If only we'd be getting our NOA2s we could be moving on quickly! VSC is in bad shape right now. I was just browsing through Igor's list. I think it's safe to say that this may be one of the worst backlogs ever to happen there. It's literally impossible to correct now. I think we'll see petitions sent out to CSC. They have 146 VJ users pending for February alone. They won't be coming out of this one. It went on too long. Unless they're going to change processing time to 7-8 months or something. These forums should have been lighting up for VSC weeks ago. It's going to be too little too late now. And they still seem to be neglecting 1/18, 1/19, and 1/20 I don't understand what the problem is with the petitions received on these dates.

That is what I thought. I kept it to the point. Ray and I had seen each other 5 times prior to filing, I wrote a summary of that, had all of the passport stamps and the plane tickets with our names on them, plus a photo from each time... I can't imagine they need info regarding that... So I am not sure what it is they are looking for? I will be so pissed if it is a mistake they made, like loosing a paper..

You included more than enough evidence for this part of the filing process. There was no reason to receive an RFE for anything related to proof of meeting. And if you included at least something about how you first met (many people didn't even include it and still received approval) the only explanation would be related to lost documents if it relates to proof of meeting. Maybe it's something minor on the forms..something you wouldn't have expected...I can't see how they would be RFEing you for anything else. You included exactly what everyone else did to receive approval. The passport stamps and plane tickets are the gold standard. The photos do not matter. Obviously you need to include a few. But dates. and linking them to certain trips. All extraneous and not primary evidence. You already went above and beyond so I would think an RFE for meeting evidence is just about impossible for you unless again they lost documents or screwed up during adjudication.

I wonder if VSC will end up unloading some of their petitions to CSC at some point. I think last time I checked there was around 146 unapproved petitions for February on Igor's List!!! I think it would be near impossible for them to correct the course of this ship now...The average processing time is creeping up toward unprecedented levels. I'm just not seeing the level of consistency that will be necessary to address the kind of backlog they must have there now. It's going to be near impossible to restore a reasonable processing time at this pace. I'm thinking we'll have an update to processing times this coming Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully that will change the reported date (1/9) when calling the national hotline...But I will be completely shocked if they still indicate a 5 months processing time on the internet. It's not possible. The backlog is completely out of control now.

Vermont is still a nightmare..It's been this way since May and only been getting worse...we're at 183 days with no end in sight...Things are very bad there. But if you're a recent filer or even March or April it might recover for you...Jan and Feb filers are dealing with some of the worst average processing times ever seen there...It's not pretty...And every day just gets harder..

No idea??? I thought my shizit was together.... I can't even imagine... Unless my description on how we met was not long enough??? I followed everything on this site...

Oh and sorry, no we did not use and attorney.

I can't imagine it would be because of the description. they don't need a novel. only proof that a meeting occurred in the past 2 years. and just some information about how the couple met. In the past people have included only a single sentence. Makes no sense that they would be RFEing for that. Details are for the consulate stage (questions at interview), not USCIS. Hopefully they didn't lose any documents. Maybe it's something really minor, some annoying small thing.

Im curious about this also. I wonder if i can get my fiancee to take care of Medical and Criminal record ahead of time or does it have to be no more than 30 days before appt? Anyone know what Russia Embassy requires?

Medical could be done earlier. But I'm not sure how the Criminal Record works in Russia. My fiance had to get another police certificate because it was only valid for 3 months...and then things slowed down to this horrible level. There was a time that we expected to interview late July or the worst early August...now we're hoping for a miracle just to interview in August..NOA2 still feels so close yet so far out of reach..

Well, I just checked, they sent us an RFE today.. I can't stop crying... Wow, so much for wanting my file looked at.

any idea what it could possibly be? did you use an attorney at all?

Paul, can you fiancee get everything done ahead of time?

Ukraine and Slovakia are neighbors (i know that doesn't matter though just saying) and we can get medical done anytime... and get an interview appointment within 2 weeks after the case reaches our embassy.

Plus they don't send any packets or anything i will just take all the forms they are requesting to the interview.

Is that what you meant by Ukraine consulate is a fast one? Just wondering

Yup we plan to have everything ready so that the week the case is in the system it might be possible to schedule the interview within 2 weeks or even a couple days later. In Ukraine some beneficiaries have been offered a chance to interview 3 days later (few are ever ready or it creates a scheduling conflict for them). I told my fiance to be ready that the interview could go down the same week that she calls. so she'll be ready to move quickly on it. She's prepared to go any time and any date. The only thing I had to investigate was the medical but they are very flexible with that too and sometimes even take walk ins at the required clinic. As long as we have everything prepared document wise, it is possible she could have visa in hand 4-5 weeks after NOA2. And if we really got lucky could be a mere 3-4 weeks...But first just have to get this NOA2 out of the way. I am getting concerned though because I really didn't want to be getting so close to July...guaranteed to slow down the NVC stage if it hits there too far into August...Just wish they'd approve us already...183 days! this is crazy.

Well, I just checked, they sent us an RFE today.. I can't stop crying... Wow, so much for wanting my file looked at.

ah so sorry to hear that. hopefully a speedy NOA2 after the RFE response..No activity on or around my petition yet today..

anyway it's Thursday and it's been a lucky day for some people since a few weeks so good luck to you guys and hopefully today is your turn

Hope so too. I would love to give my fiance some good news today....it's been very hard to live like this....

are you contacting your congressman or waiting till next week?

Faxing the paper work at the end of day today. And they will initiate something Friday afternoon if we haven't heard anything. And hopefully we can hit the ground running early next week..really don't want to see what 200 + days feels like....

So it's Thursday..Hopefully, we see some approvals today on VJ. Would be nice to have 7 or 8 again...I hope that I'm not into the 190s next week...gahh..

Just hope that CSC maintains a reasonable pace for I-129Fs approvals...VSC has taught me the meaning of emotional distress now...6 months and counting...still no end in sight....

For those of you wondering, CSC has really sped up their time to NVC... Mine was received and case # assigned in 2 weeks total. I hope the approvals start coming from VSC soon!! Stick in there guys!!

Congrats. always good to hear that the NVC stage has improved for some. the wait at VSC has been horrific lately. 6 months and counting here..If I could get out of this week with an approval I would be thrilled....Really would be nice to move on to the next step before the very end of July...

i wonder if you have wrote the history of your relationship progression? or do you think it is detailed enough?

They usually don't need such intricate details and even an interview conducted with a Service Center Director (VSC) and a former adjudicator indicated an emphasis upon establishing that a meeting occurred within the past two years as the most important criteria. I did include circumstances of meeting with my petition in addition to the above evidence. It was merely a paragraph, but it simply stated that I met her while she was on her J1 Work and Travel. It's unfortunate that they would have RFE'd you for something like that. Must have been an adjudicator on a bad day.

Why haven't you contacted your congressman?

Nothing can be done until one reaches the 6 months point. I'm finally eligible for some help I hope. Although, the effectiveness of Congressman does seem to vary. I'll know in a few days if it's had any effect...