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?

4 minutes ago, Anna Hessler said:

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.

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

23 hours ago, New Romantics said:

Was this just updated or did I miss it? https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/historic-pt

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.

Just now, Daphne . said:

Just USCIS being USCIS I guess! 😅

But I am really happy for you, I know this was stressful for you and not an easy time and I hope your recovery is going well! 

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!

9 hours ago, Daphne . said:

Wow, that was super fast! Congratulations!

 

USCIS seems to be following the ‘last in, first out’ principle now because many new cases seem to get processed really quickly now, while older cases just keep sitting idle. I hope this doesn’t encourage (even more) people to just adjust status from non-immigrant visas, because it is starting to look like it is worth doing that instead of filing for an immigrant visa now!

USCIS needs to clean up their act! 

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!

Just now, Quimat said:

So we were basically hopeful for nothing? 🥴

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

4 minutes ago, asleepydoctor said:

Any idea what the current backlog is since September 30 (the last quarterly report)?

the report said there were 55k cases pending, but one of the spreadsheets says only 38k pending as of october, and i don't get how they got that number

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!!

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!

Just now, FromMexico W/Love said:

Not snotty at all! Let's start a Google Drive Folder to collect stories. I am willing to write a letter (along with my fiancé) and provide information (address, email, phone#) for this. What else do you think we need? 

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

1 minute ago, FromMexico W/Love said:

The question is how do we do this? Because I am totally serious about presenting my senator and their teams with a case file that shows numerous cases of impacted US citizens by USCIS' timeline in processing I-129f cases.

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. 

2 minutes ago, FromMexico W/Love said:

I actually think this is a great idea, but not just for the book but for us to take all of these stories to our senators and representatives. Imagine if each of our senators got a binder with 500+ stories like ours and the USCIS ...

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!

16 hours ago, AndiB said:

I see youre a Nov 2022 filer @Quimat

You have to remember a lot of 2021 filers filed when it was 6-9 months and saw it increase to 15.5months so have been waiting 6-9months longer than they expected so they're used to being disappointed. I think we'll end up just under a yr for our NOA2 but will take a month+ to get a good idea of trend. 

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.

3 hours ago, AndiB said:

I've seen a lot of cases messed up by bad advice from attorneys too so it's honestly hit or miss. I agree most I'm seeing are letters of intent missing or two years meeting either missing or vague (no dated pictures/plane tickets etc). It seems, at least for 2021 that there were a few who thought covid meant the 2yr rule was flexible/ could be ignored or they thought meeting after filing would suffice. I think I saw someone meet 2 weeks after filing but had been over 2yrs prior to filing so were denied.

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. 🤣 

53 minutes ago, Lynxyonok said:

Finally, a definite proof to my claims that RFEs have spiked from 6% to 25% (one in three). 😅

Back in November it spiked to 40%! 

1 hour ago, AndiB said:

Ah I count withdrawals as backlog reduction but they're so minor. Ty!

Thats fair! They do eliminate a case. 

1 minute ago, AndiB said:

curious our numbers seem to vary a lil. Do you count RFER and withdrawals?
it's only a lil so not stressin but just curious

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.