Lynxyonok

First wave of approvals is in 4300s. If you're lucky to be among them, next week. P.S. Mask your exact case name. Never know...

4 cases were approved in 2290004300 range - that's October 8th, 2021, precise 14-month mark: - 4375 on the 8th - 4385 on the 9th - 4386 on the 8th - 4388 on the 8th P.S. A couple of stray approvals at the end of October, too.

I think that all the extra workforce and other visa processing will eventually trickle-down resources to K1, but not just yet. I'm curious about one thing though. It seems that USCIS effort is hard-driven into (1) creating new citizens (2) getting people into workplace. Speeding up people already here at the cost of slowing down people who are still outside of the country. It's not a bad strategy. Just bad timing for us all

Of the field office and asylum officer workforce. Not of the service center processors. 81 postings currently on UsaJobs - none are for CSC. On a related note, anyone wants to go represent USCIS in China for 95K?

Yup. K-1s just perished. So much for spring promises of 6-month cycle time. That's gone.

It's a sound strategy if not facing short layovers and travelling with carry-on only.

No worries/no pressure. There are ways to get to Russia: that said, if you can wait a bit, more venues will open up.

And the closest case to us that's approved is - WAC2290003802. Approved today from October 7th, 2021. Mind you, that's the first wave as USCIS is cherry-picking easy (or just lucky) cases to keep the official processing timeline down (posted: 15.5 months, true: 17). For a mid-May filer like me that's still... 23,407 cases away. 46 weeks, if USCIS keeps up their pace as of late. Approval - just in time for Halloween of 2023... And that's if I'm extremely lucky

Hi-speed Allegro is down, yes. I think some others are running as far as the border on both sides.

One more: https://www.flightradar24.com/airport/svo/arrivals - substitute Sheremet'evo with your airport - you can see who's actively landing from overseas. Do realize this: Russian airlines do not post tickets more than a couple months out ---> it looks like there's no competition ---> foreign airlines jack up prices. If you could share the exact itinerary, I can help more.

Check Air Serbia. They are about to launch Chicago - Belgrade flights in May 2023. Then onto Moscow, Kazan, Krasnodar from there.

Well... not really. VJ places May approvals around August 2023. I personally think September 2023 is more likely, with an extra month layered onto the next phase as compared to those dealing with NVC now. Dang. It would have been nice to claim her (him) on 2023 taxes

Link: USCIS Fiscal Year 2022 Progress Report In short, efforts were spent on: - More employment-based visas (to the level of working 7 days a week on them) - Cleaning up the backlog of expiring EADs, particularly those of asylum-seekers - Processing Temporary Protected Status and similar paperwork (Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc.) - Making money The 14-page report does not mention "K-1" or "I-129" even once.

Here's an interesting metric. How long was the gap between the end of a fiscal quarter and the posted results of said quarter? Q3-2022 (Ended 6/30/22) was reported on November 3, 2022: 4 months, 3 days later: 19% increase quarter-over-quarter Q2-2022 (Ended 3/31/22) was reported on July 15, 2022: 3 months, 15 days later: 59% increase quarter-over-quarter Q1-2022 (Ended 12/31/21) was reported on March 9, 2022: 2 months, 9 days later: flat Q4-2021 (Ended 9/30/22) was reported on December 15, 2021: 2 months, 15 days later: flat / a tiniest decrease Q3-2021 (Ended 3/31/31) was reported on August 17, 2021: 2 months 17 days later Thus. Either USCIS leadership (edit: New leadership - they changed Directors / some Assistant Directors this spring - right when the expedites dried up) truly believes they will prevail, and they just need to last long enough to prove that. Or they are sinking. But we're going to be positive.

By the way, looking at 2021 Excel file ( Jan to Dec 2021 Filers - Google Drive ), even at USCIS's own 80% completion metric, their true processing timeline is about 17 months, not 15.5 as of 12/6 updates for July 2021 cases. They may be indeed jumping the queue just to keep averages lower.

- Don't leave any boxes empty (NONE, N/A) - Make sure the barcode prints out at the bottom - it won't from the browser, you have to open the file in Acrobat - Date / Place each photograph on the back

Mine is much simpler than spreadsheets and other scripts flying around, it's just a manual tally of open cases. I'm not all the way to early October (approval border) though just yet.

The most underrated and the worthiest advice. Picking up one's SO from the interview will count as the honeymoon.

I'd give you praises, but you're already a super star Now I know why Seriously, if this is a valid path to pre-avoid a RFE, isn't a sticky warranted?

First of all: This is a planning post, not a panic post. So, some of us will be lucky: I see some petitions being approved right now right at the 13-month cusp. So don't fill up your calendar past June 2023. On the other hand, should anyone's case fall behind and start to exceed processing times, do be aware that we can't ask USCIS until we reach 130% of processing cycle which is for us February of 2024. So do think of where you may meet your special other in the meantime. Everyone's mileage will vary: my SO has got to see me every 6 months - I'm lining up my travel plans accordingly. Find out your timeline. :)

130% of cycle time ( https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/more-info ) thus 15.5 * 1.3 = 20.15 * 30.42 = 1 year 8 months 2 days.

Thank you for this, I had no idea this was possible! Thank you so much.

Congrats! Any last-moment words of wisdom for those of us, about to follow you?

There are a few petitions being approved here and there with no apparent rhyme or reason. We don't know if they were due to an expedite or whatnot unless somehow one has daily statuses of each petition saved for the past year+. Overall, FYE 2023 real work is about 1.5 - 2 weeks away.