Anna Hessler

Hi! Sorry for being MIA suddenly! I was really, really sick! Numbers seem like theyre still good?

I'm not seeing any data for Wednesday and on so my post is delayed. Unless you have it Andi?

Although, USCIS changes their mind and contradicts themselves all the time 🤣 so maybe it doesn't! Who knows with them anymore.

Please remember that the processing time on this site includes expedites. Which is why the average is 14. Someone asked this question during one of those live Q&A things USCIS did a while back and they said it includes expedites.

Hi! I haven't seen Saturday RFE numbers but I didnt want to delay this any further. RFEs don't reduce the backlog or improve the times anyway, so I'm not too worried about them. The numbers are still much better than before, but the approvals and denials only total to about 700. We need ~820+ to reduce the backlog. I didn't include December because I didn't realize that had started, but I think there were only 20 or so. Next week I'll clean this up a little. This week was a bit busy for me. Have a great week!

Thank you! I really appreciate it! We were actually considering expediting EAD because I'm still out of work for 6+ more weeks. Very grateful!

I've noticed that too. A lot of people who filed November-January got it in 1-2 months and those who filed a year ago are still waiting. 😕

I just wouldn't expect major timeline reductions. Right now they are just about breaking even. But even this is fantastic news. We were all expecting it to go to 16.5 months and that doesn't look like it'll happen!

No! They're better than before, and that is always good news!

We have to wait for the report by USCIS to know for sure.

If anyone is curious about updates, my husband got his EAD in 29 days!! 4 January 2023 - filed the I-130, I-131, I-485 and I-785 5 January 2023 - NOA1 for all four 14 January 2023 - notified that biometrics was scheduled 18 January 2023 - got biometrics notice in the mail, appointment scheduled for 3 February 3 February 2023 - biometrics 3 February 2023 - I-485 status updated to “actively being reviewed” 3 February 2023 - EAD actively being "actively reviewed," then approved!

If you want more good processing speed news, my husband got his EAD approved in 29 days. 🤣

Is there a rule on posting links? I cant remember. There is one guy on YouTube that I actually trust. His numbers look accurate. Its called Jan. 22, 2023 Update: USCIS I-129F K1 Fiancé Visa Processing Wait Times if you want to look it up.

Hi! Sorry for being MIA for a few days. I got a project dumped on me that I need to focus on for a little bit. But I can still do the weekly update. We are currently at 1010 for the week for July-December. This includes approved, denied and RFE. For those of you who are asking about the backlog being reduced, the answer is no. The backlog is not being reduced and the times will not decrease as of right now. 286 of those are RFEs. RFEs do not reduce the backlog because those cases still need to be touched again, they are not closed cases. Theres only 714 approvals and denials - which do eliminate a case from the backlog. Since they get about ~850 submissions a week (minus about 30 for the ones that are automatically rejected, leaving us with 820) we would need 820 approvals/denials a week. Even with this increased speed, we don't have that. So yes, they are working faster. But the backlog is not going down and the times are not reducing. We need more approvals and less RFEs for that to happen.

There is an immigration subcommittee and I'm going to do my best to get our information escalated to them after this. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/subcommittees/subcommittee-on-border-security-and-immigration

It will take me some time to get the requests out there. But I can use this time to gather the stories. Feel free to share the email address with anyone you know who would have something good to contribute. I'm excited about this. It's really easy to brush off a letter or email. But if I'm standing there in person it'll be harder for them to ignore me. 😉 And thank you!

I just made an email account to compile stories. Email me a well written but compact (1-2 pages?) story and I can start putting things together. We can definitely do a drive, but if people want to write anon I want that privacy to be respected. familyimmigrationstories@gmail.com

I've actually been thinking about this for a good 6+ months. Because I really am serious about doing something to help fix immigration. I am a research scientist at Yale University. This is going to sound unbelievably snotty and I swear I don't mean this in an elitist way, but because of the prestige of my employment it is very easy for me to get an audience with officials in my state. I've done it before. I had an incident about a year ago where I was having an emergency and the courts and police weren't doing anything. Some higher ups at my university pulled some strings and I met directly with some state officials and got it handled. I can certainly pull some more strings and even work with journalists to get stories out there. I won't promise results, but I can get an audience.

Yeah! My dream goal in life is to publish one book so thats where I went with it. But your idea is even better. It might actually spark some change!

I'm going to write a book after all this! A memoir, really. About living through COVID and USCIS BS forcing my family apart and single parenting through all this. Don't read it, it'll be ####### 🤣 but I think that all of us going through this probably have fascinating (maybe not in the most positive way) stories to tell. I'd be delighted to compile these stories.

I second this! 90% of the posts on here with something wrong with their case start with "I hired a lawyer but they didn't tell me ..." Yes, sometimes people don't pay attention. But bad lawyers and overly cautious new USCIS employees make up the bulk of RFEs I've noticed. Back in October-November the RFE rate was through the roof (see my post above) and we're pretty sure it was the new USCIS employees asking for an RFE whenever they weren't sure. My K1 FB group was seeing RFEs for things that should never matter at the I-129F stage, like chat logs. But its gotten way better thankfully! My husband and I feel like immigration near-experts after all this. He's applying to law school next year. 🤣

Back in November it spiked to 40%!

Thats fair! They do eliminate a case.

No, I dont count things that arent a USCIS decision! Were looking for USCIS speed and backlog reduction. RFER and WCT don't affect that.

Hi everyone! In each month's filers group there is a data miner posting daily numbers. There has been some interest in having all this information in one place instead of 4-6 threads. I've complied a master list and will update this every Sunday. This week seems to be a new record for USCIS processing of I-129Fs! I'll clean up the spreadsheet for next week. I wasn't going to include July and August until I saw how many approvals there were for them this week. Any other feedback is very welcome. Credit where credit is due: July - @Cheddy August - @fenerbahce1907 September - @Elson George October - @Kiana & Katarina November - November K1 filers FB group Have a great week and enjoy the excitement!