pinano

I don't, but I don't see why data is needed for this:
t1 + t2 > t1
t1 = time to adjudicate an I-130 for a spouse
t2 = time to adjudicate an I-129F for a spouse.
Since time machines don't exist yet (AFAIK) and the amount of time to do literally anything is more than not doing it, the total time is increased by having both forms to process.
Given that USCIS processing of petitions is entirely fee-funded and there are no additional fees involved for the I-129F, there's not a basis that they would increase staffing to handle the additional load. The only other way it could speed things up is if the filings resulted in a change of priorities to focus on those cases over others, but that's more of a robbing Peter to pay Paul situation - it would still impact other people, just a different set of them.
 
To what degree it impacts others is purely speculation. Maybe it would be completely negligible. Maybe not.
USCIS provided information on completions per hour per form type (https://www.aila.org/advo-media/whats-happening-in-congress/congressional-updates/uscis-responds-to-letter-from-86-house-members), but there's no way to determine from that data how long the I-129F or I-130 actually takes for a spouse (plus I-129Fs for a spouse are handled by different service centers than those for a fiance, which would still muddy the waters). Maybe it's an extra minute per case? Maybe it's closer to 5 minutes? Maybe it's just a couple seconds to click an extra button? Who knows. When you're dealing with the sheer volume of cases (~350,000 I-130s for an IR at a service center annually) , the impact can be months of delays for just minutes extra per case.
 
=====
 
The concern I have with the suggestion that filing the I-129F for a K-3 may improve processing times is that it's working with on both small amounts of data as well as incomplete data.
1) The small amount of data is a factor already noted - there's just not a large sample size to draw a conclusion, and VJ only makes up a small number of cases. And even then there are biases in the types of cases seen on here compared to the total data set (I suspect VJ would have more individuals engaged with their own process than the average, or those who use agents or attorneys).
2) There are definitely people who submitted an I-129F for a spouse that had their I-130 processed quicker than the average. Some of those cases have been noted in this thread. But how many did the same and were processed roughly around or longer than the average? How does that compare to the total set of domestic filers? These aren't things we know and the tracking systems available to us just don't do a good job of answering those questions. For instance, a quick search on VJ of K-3 cases from 1/1/2018 onward with an approved I-130 comes up with 1 case from 2018. The actual number should be greater but that gets lost as the K-3 path is closed, so there's not a reliable way to obtain or track the data...just asking people and hope they respond, or waiting until somebody announces it. But both of those methods are heavily prone to bias - cases that don't have anything out of the norm going on aren't likely to be tracked, which skews the numbers.
 
I apologize in advance if this rubs anybody the wrong way...
Topics like this pop up every so often on VJ. It's usually among members that have not been dealing with immigration quite as long or intricately as others. They're hopeful. They think there's another way. There's some secret. There's something else they can do to impact the timeline.
The fact is that if there was such a thing, you would be seeing it all over. I would be jumping to provide the info, as I'm sure others would too. The vast majority of the VJ community aren't trying to find ways to ensure the process takes longer than it does. Many (likely most?) of us have endured the family-based immigration process, with at least a decent chunk of them having endured separation during the process.
 
If doing the I-129F did somehow improve the corresponding I-130's processing timeline in a reliable way, trust me that you would start to see a lot more people file both. Nobody wants to be separated longer than necessary, and the number of people that are fine with the longer timeline (they aren't in a rush) is likely a small minority. And at that point, the benefit is quickly eliminated and there's just more paperwork for both USCIS and petitioners.
 
To be clear, I'm not discouraging finding out if there is currently a meaningful difference in timelines. But don't miss the forest for the trees, and don't go into it looking for data to support the conclusion...it often leads to seeing patterns that aren't really there.
People have been filing I-129Fs trying for a K-3 for several years after they were regularly issued, and no association has been identified with I-130 processing times in those years. If there was an association in the past, it somehow missed everybody's radar. If it's something new, it seems really, really unusual to suddenly implement a priority on those cases over regular spousal visa cases.

Hey there! I really hope everyone get their approvals from USCIS soon!
 
We were lucky to be sent to Potomac so we got our approval a while ago. The timeline given by Visa Journey was accurate so before we got our approval, we started to get our documents together. For instance, I got my police certificate and we translated as well as our marriage certificate and my husband birth certificate, we collect our tax returns from the last 3 years and my husband started to fill the affidavit of support; then we scan all the previous documents plus my husband passport bio page and my 2 pics passport size in PDF formats and put simple names on them (our case number + the description of the document). I also review the form DS260 to get to know all the information that I would be asked when we fill that form on line.
 
I also recommend following the thread of the NVC process because you can learn from other’s experiences and it also gives you a good idea of the timeline and. For us, we had to wait a week from our approval until Potomac sent our application to the NVC and it took 1-2 weeks to the NVC to receive the document (we called the NVC to be sure when they got it). That date is important because it gave us an idea of the date we would get our case number and invoice to start with the process (for us it took 1 month). As soon as we got our case number and invoice we paid the fees and when they cleared we upload everything and fill the form DS 260, so that saves us a lot of time. We were approved very fast too.
 
Now we are waiting for an interview. We are at Ciudad Juarez Consulate in México which apparently is the busiest and the waiting time right now is about 10 months. I suggest that you follow your country forum to give you an idea about the waiting time for an interview, which will we shorter than us for sure 😉

Happy happy!!
 
My I-130 with a  Dec 31st 2018 PD was approved yesterday, at the same time my I-129F with PD June 17 2019 was denied. 
 
I know it's a small sampling of VJ users, but hard to contest that I had at least another 6 months to go before seeing an approval. I'd suggest people that fall under Nebraska to consider submitting the K3 as well.
 
Up to now, I had been checking the USCIS Case Status page all the time, so this might be relevant:
I learned of the K3 denial with an email and SMS sent by the USCIS Case Status account we created to track our cases. I-130 continues to show 'Case Received' until now.
The new USCIS site, with two-factor authentication, showed no updates yesterday at all, both petitions were 'Case Received'. This morning, it updated to 'Decision mailed' to K3 and 'Case Approved' to I-130. No emails or text messages, though.
 

Happy happy!!
 
My I-130 with a  Dec 31st 2018 PD was approved yesterday, at the same time my I-129F with PD June 17 2019 was denied. 
 
I know it's a small sampling of VJ users, but hard to contest that I had at least another 6 months to go before seeing an approval. I'd suggest people that fall under Nebraska to consider submitting the K3 as well.
 
Up to now, I had been checking the USCIS Case Status page all the time, so this might be relevant:
I learned of the K3 denial with an email and SMS sent by the USCIS Case Status account we created to track our cases. I-130 continues to show 'Case Received' until now.
The new USCIS site, with two-factor authentication, showed no updates yesterday at all, both petitions were 'Case Received'. This morning, it updated to 'Decision mailed' to K3 and 'Case Approved' to I-130. No emails or text messages, though.
 

Yay!
 
My I-130 with a  Dec 31st 2018 PD was approved yesterday, at the same time my I-129F with PD June 17 2019 was denied. 
 
I posted a more detailed description over at the Nebraska filers thread! 😄

Happy happy!!
 
My I-130 with a  Dec 31st 2018 PD was approved yesterday, at the same time my I-129F with PD June 17 2019 was denied. 
 
I know it's a small sampling of VJ users, but hard to contest that I had at least another 6 months to go before seeing an approval. I'd suggest people that fall under Nebraska to consider submitting the K3 as well.
 
Up to now, I had been checking the USCIS Case Status page all the time, so this might be relevant:
I learned of the K3 denial with an email and SMS sent by the USCIS Case Status account we created to track our cases. I-130 continues to show 'Case Received' until now.
The new USCIS site, with two-factor authentication, showed no updates yesterday at all, both petitions were 'Case Received'. This morning, it updated to 'Decision mailed' to K3 and 'Case Approved' to I-130. No emails or text messages, though.
 

Hello August filers, 
 
I received an email today that my case has been updated so I checked my USCIS account online. 
My I-130 PD, Aug 24th, 2018. 
On July 12th, 2019 my case was approved. Finally💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽
Nebraska Service Center! 
 
I filed an I-129F, my  priority date for I-129F is Jun 21st, 2019. There are are no updates online for the I-129F but  I have no doubt the filing of the I-129F helped speed up my process. 
 
Good luck to everyone waiting. 

I do think this might backfire once the volume of K3 petitions increase significantly. Until then, however...

After been denied for more than 10 times on different kinds of visa we applied, a miracle finally came to our rescue and now I got my visa, flew in safely and enjoying our greatest moment, I have a question thou, can one work with his immigrant visa while waiting for social security number and the green card?? 
 
Thank you guys for the great support and courage you all have been giving me up here.

We got approved too! PD 11/14/18, Texas👏👏👏👏👏
OMG I thought this day would never come...my hands shaking when I found a letter in my mail box, did a little prayer before opened it🙏 The approval was on July 9, that means we suffered 4 more unnecessary days before the happy news reached me. My USCIS account is not updated, nor did I receive any emails and/SMS, even  Case Tracker case shows nothing. What’s the point of getting all those in the first place and checking them every day?
I woke my husband (beneficiary) with good news☎️, he is opening champagne now, it’s 5am in France🍾 😀
I want to say to all who are still waiting: Despite all the frustration, desperation and suffering, there is the light at the end of the tunnel👍and it is approaching you faster than you think. Just a little more of patience and faith, and the best is yet to come!👌

Right.  We’re totally willing to go the K3 route.  Sure, I’d prefer to not have to go through the process of AOS and just get the IR-1, but if a family’s situation meets all of the criteria for K3, and it seems to speed things along, there is no reason not to file it.  Frankly, I think anybody who is angry about it is kidding themselves if they say they wouldn’t file for one, too.  They just feel too close to their approval dates.  
 
It’s a shame that this backdoor process seems to circumvent the more straightforward IR/CR-1 queue, but it is what it is.  I refuse to be angry at anybody else...Potomac filers, asylum seekers, etc. My frustration is solely directed toward USCIS and this administration.  My refrain is that scarcity mentality that they’ve created shouldn’t turn us against each other! 

Thank you and 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

If I were you, I’d file K3 now. It’s never too late, it is free, you have nothing to lose. Many people did it, and it works. Nebraska sucks, you should not suffer because of their outrageously poor service, it’s not your fault your case ended up with Nebraska. If there is a trick to play to reduce the wait, go for it!
Moreover, I think all unlucky couples assigned to Nebraska, should file K3 immediately after receiving NOA1 with the dreadful LIN abbreviation! In solidarity. This way you gonna show to those motherf..s that they need to CHANGE , and NOW!🚩😡✊

Congratulations!! Our I-130 PD is Sept 21st 2018, our I-129 PD is July 1st 2019... Fingers crossed! If this works, we might hear back in 2 weeks.

I think you’ll find most of the people who have filed K3 are willing to go the K3 route If that’s the visa that’s granted first 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

This is very exciting - congrats! 
 
 

I know you are trying to help but please stop scaring her and giving false information. There is nothing wrong with them sending the I-130 tomorrow to the lockbox (assuming they have all the supporting documents to hand), wherever in the world they happen to be. Her husband’s overstay in the UK will have no impact whatsoever on the situation. Where they mail the package from is completely irrelevant. The only “character issue” that stops a USC from petitioning is a crime under the AWA. We have nothing like that in this case. If they have the money and the necessary documents to file, I would urge them to get that stuff in the mail immediately. 
 
British citizens cannot travel to “all  commonwealth countries visa-free”. We need visas for India, Australia, Canada, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and possibly a few others. These are all commonwealth countries. Some of them issue visas on arrival. Others require a full application process. I think you are confusing the commonwealth with the EU.
 
We also don’t file taxes in the UK. We have a PAYE system. 
It does not require notarized copies. It only requires photocopies. 

Omg y’all my case got approved  something told me to go check 😍😩🙏🏽🙏🏽✨✨
I-130 PD January 4,2019
I29f PD June 13, 2019 then denied July 11,2019 
I-130 approved July 11,2019
nebraska service center   
Please y’all file those K3’s this is proof

It will take many months for the petition to be approved. The matter of income doesn't come into play until after the petition has been approved. Hopefully he will have a job by then that pays enough. If not, you will need to find a willing joint sponsor who does earn enough, or who has enough assets.
 
Why are you 'wasting' money on a lawyer? You are in dire straits financially. Is there anything you have not mentioned here that would mean a lawyer would be needed? I understand you have an overstay but that's not that bad (relatively speaking - it is bad but it's hardly a conviction for murder). Many people have successfully filed following an overstay without using a lawyer. Since your husband will have, at least in the initial days back home, plenty of time on his hands he should read, read, read and read again about this process. And ask as many questions here that he has. Please save money where you can. Moving overseas is financially tough on anyone - no need to make it worse than it already is.
 
 

So i wanted to shed some light with cold hard numbers. I attached the antecedent quarterly reports for this calendar year, Q1 (October 1 - December 31st) and Q2 (January 1st - March 31st). The second quarterly report was just recently issued on the 26th of June. It appears as if the overall petitions received dropped by 9.2%, while at the same time, the approvals have raised 7.6% which is a positive indicator that USCIS overall is approving at a faster rate while receiving less petitions. Now for the Nebraska Service Center, the I-130 petitions received dropped by 7.2% last quarter, but also the approval rate dropped by a whopping 26%, which seems to indicate an administrative problem when you juxtapose the fact that the overall approval rates between all processing centers have increased last quarter. It almost seems as if Nebraska is the weakest link in the chain of service centers. California Service Center has sped up it's processing times last quarter by 14%, same with the Potomac Center, 13.3% . Texas has also slowed considerably, by roughly 16.3%. I thought i'd share these figures to open up a dialogue. I will post the Q3 results as soon as they come out in a couple of months after the auditing is done. My conclusion is if the overall approval rates continue to increase quarterly by this proportion in tandem with a decrease of petitions received, i hope that we can eventually go back to a 5-6 month processing time for I-130s like back in 2016-2017. 
 
Q1 I-130 2019 Totals: 

 
Q2 I-130 2019 Totals: 

Q1 I-130 2019 Nebraska:

 
Q2 I-130 2019 Nebraska: 

I130_performancedata_fy2019_qtr1.pdf I130_performancedata_fy2019_qtr2.pdf

As mentioned before, the amount of time it takes to receive the NOA2 (petition approval) is not spent processing the petition. USCIS does not spend 6-8 months working on your petition. It spends all that time languishing in a filing cabinet or on a  shelf waiting for someone to adjudicate it. Remember that the I-130 is your petition, not your wife’s visa. So they are looking for completely different things and it is worked by completely different people than those who approve or deny visas. The actual processing of the average petition takes between 15 minutes and an hour, I’ve heard from someone who works at a USCIS service center. 
 
Each visa application is assessed on its own merits. A CR-1 serves a completely different purpose from a J-1 and has completely different criteria. The previous J-1s will have no impact on her current application. 

I did a new “Outside of processing times” request the other day and I just received the response. We were approved! Our PD is June 22, 2018
 
Type of service requested:
-- Outside Normal Processing Times


The status of this service request is:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) records indicate this case was approved and your notice was mailed on July 2, 2019. If you have not received it within 30 days please contact us again.

The form you receive is the acceptance of your petition. Is called NOA1 or Notice Of Action I-797. And is your receipt too. In there you find, case number that have to start with the 3 letters of your service center, your priority date, beneficiary information, your information and the amount of money you paid for the filling of your petition. Now you're in the waiting game of waiting for NOA2 this is the official approval of your petition. You have to find which service center you're at and then go to uscis.gov and find the approximate time  for adjudication of I-130 and like that you will have some knowledge when you can get approved.

This is promising. In an attempt to benefit from this also, we've recently submitted our 129-f (pd of june 17), while our i-130 pd is only dec 31 2018, so I hope this pattern holds, since hoping for a performance improvement at Nebraska is unrealistic.

Well, exactly - learning about the time it took @Devon&Sandra's petition to be approved has really lifted my spirits - we can always dream.