Laurie Williams

Hi Joanna, You can file a service request if you haven't heard back for a period of time equal to the average processing time for your case's service center + 60 days. The processing times change lots for the processing centers, and I just checked Texas and sadly it is up to 17 months for them. That means you cannot file a service request unless your status does not change before July 28, 2023. You can file your Service Request here: https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/Intro.do I don't understand how if the processing time was less when we filed, why anything that comes in after ours should affect our case. I can understand if they had staffing changes, but you would think those would get backfilled fairly quickly. You can ask your senator to look into your case, but honestly, I don't think it makes any difference. I called two of my senators and the only update I got was that it was in the pile and they would get to it when they had time. I wish I had something more encouraging to say.

Deal! I hope I lose this bet!

Hi aaroncv3- Your story is beautiful! Good for you for going for it and this chapter of your story is going to be such an adventure. I travel as much as I am able with a career, a child in school here in the US, a house and hobby farm to take care of. We never imagined it would take this long, so we have been thinking, for most of this time, that any day we would have a status change, and then another. It is just discouraging at the moment. For the record, I love the UK and would love to live there someday. Now just isn't the time. We are all very blessed to have the ones we are waiting with. Thanks for the positive push.

Hi Volli, thanks for the reply. Ours is at the Nebraska service center. When we filed in 12/2021 the average processing time was 6 months. Once we reached the 6 month mark, they increased the average to 10.5 months. We are at 15 months now. It has been in Active Review for six weeks already.

It has been almost six weeks since our case status changed to Active Review. It is beginning to feel like they switched that status just to reset the clock. We can't submit another service request until 60 days from the most recent status change. We are feeling defeated. I am writing my senator again, but I doubt there is anything specific they can do. I just want them to know that this system is broken and so are those of us who are waiting to be reunited.

Hi Everyone, My hubby already updated that we finally are in Active Review status after nearly 14 months of being in Received status. One thing I wanted to add was that I called my local US Senator and they did a congressional inquiry (sounds really official, but it is just calling to ask what's happening with our case). The senator's office called back to tell me they just said it is in a stack with everyone else's. That was months ago. What we did that we think may have helped in the end was filing a service request. You can do that after you reach 60 days past the average processing time posted by the USCIS for your processing center. Let me know if you want to and aren't sure how. I would be glad to help. Our case came out of Received and into Active Review within a week of filing our service request. Happy Valentine's Day to all who are spending this day thousands of miles away from their loves today. Someday this will all be a memory. ❤️