My wife and I are in the same situation. She got caught with a joint twelve years ago during college, paid a fine and has no conviction on her record. Her visa was automatically denied. We hired Lizz Canon, paid the $900+ application fee and submitted the I-601a form in early May 2022.
When we first checked the processing time estimate it was about 12 months. Then it changed to 24 months, two months ago it increased to 25.5 months and has increased by one month every month since. Now it’s 27 months.
What I recommend is that you forget about the FOIA stuff, hire a lawyer and submit the I-601a application as soon as possible. Every month you wait to file is another month you’ll need to wait for the waiver to be processed and (if current processing times stay the same) it will take at least two years for that to happen.
My wife and I are in the same situation. She got caught with a joint twelve years ago during college, paid a fine and has no conviction on her record. Her visa was automatically denied. We hired Lizz Canon, paid the $900+ application fee and submitted the I-601a form in early May 2022. When we first checked the processing time estimate it was about 12 months. Then it changed to 24 months, two months ago it increased to 25.5 months and has increased by one month every month since. Now it’s 27 months. What I recommend is that you forget about the FOIA stuff, hire a lawyer and submit the I-601a application as soon as possible. Every month you wait to file is another month you’ll need to wait for the waiver to be processed and (if current processing times stay the same) it will take at least two years for that to happen.