Eddie101

Check the document below. I think you can officially request USCIS to check into your case. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sN2bo1xZhs8oVU6-QDUdBXBX2_ci8_QJ0wiz59Gp6H4/edit#gid=1603169151

I was curious and it seems they started on February. I saw an approval just today (March 20th) of an February 7th 2022 petition.

I think so, too. It feels like we are getting close and it's nice to see how USCIS is processing so much faster the last couple of months.

I agree. Looking at I-130s you can see USCIS definitely has the potential to crunch down the K1 backlog very very quickly. They only have to decide to put their focus on it for some time. But of course it's easy to see how spouse visas might be considered more important than fiance visas. On this portal there is an interesting interview with a former adjudicator and it sounds like new hires get trained on certain types of easier petitions before they move one to the more complex ones. He said K1s ("honey bunny" is how they call them internally😃) are considered being less complex and usually adjudicated within 15 minutes or so. Good news K1 processing really seems to speed up.

I would think these are K3s. I think some I-130 filers try to use them to speed up their processing. Almost always they get denied.

If I had the script and the file template I could do the scan for March when stuff is starting to move there.

They recently said they hired more staff and when you look at how spouse visa processing times are different between service centers, some load balancing might help and the desks of certain officers are not totally stacked with petitions. It would also tell whether they consider K1 as something important or just as "ouch, we have to process them, too".

Before covid K1s were processed at more than one service center. I wonder if there are plans to get back to that situation. That could really help to crunch down the queue.

I think you are good. As powerpuff said it was holiday season. Look out for the money withdrawal. That's the best indicator. As far as I know they do a basic check for a formally correct petition at the lockbox before they charge money and queue up the petition. Question out of curiosity. You have Munich as consulate. As far as I know only Frankfurt does K1s and other immigration related visa. Would be interesting to know if that works out or they later ask you to flip to Frankfurt.

This is really crawling, It's August and the year is almost done. So unfair

Maybe new adjudicators are more cautious and tend to RFEs. Did you already see chunk of updates in Nov? Wonder if they go ahead with 14 months and process older petitions later. They definitely seem to process petitions from several months at the same time and maybe expand that window.

Thanks for that. I know they are kind of jumping through the list of queued petitions. However, even then it would be nice if they had a tool where you just type in your number and it'll tell you how many petitions are in front of you and some kind of forecast how long it might take.

Probably already seen, but I found it interesting. Page 13 shows the development on their workforce. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/reports/OPA_ProgressReport.pdf

I read somewhere that filing K3s could speed up a spouse visa application. That might explain the relatively high number of denials recently. Maybe those I-129Fs are being processed faster as they are usually denied. Who knows. In the end we are looking for signs that things go faster, I guess. I also don't hope the 90days show makes K1s going slower.

Got'ya. I think we are all in the mindset of expect the worst and hope for the best. Let's see how it goes. Maybe there is a chance that we see an improvement for family based visa classes as well.

Yes, it's interesting. I think they are willing to improve things but low on resources and the work flow is generally slow. EADs now seem to go so much faster. Maybe that processing has been updated with modern technology. Of course we stay positive, we have to, and it feels like the worst is behind us.

It's good to hear you recently saw approvals within 13 months.:) They might spread approvals over several months in order to reduce average processing time. However, this comes with a cost. The reduction is temporary and leaves some petitions behind. When they finally process those their average processing time goes up again. ...or they were able to hire more staff and also process K1s faster, let's see. By the way it sounds like you are actively tracking the progress of USCIS which is really cool! Thanks for that. Do you happen to have a google doc or so of pending fiscal 2023 petitions? That way we can see how many petitions are out there each month? I know there is one for 2022, and I think I saw a link somewhere here for 2023 but can't find it anymore. When our month is getting closer to become due maybe I could help to track progress. We were lucky to meet roughly every 3 months outside the US which helped. We could use ESTA to visit but are unsure if it would have any negative impact. Anyway, it's still hard to wait so long. It really shouldn't be such an ordeal.

I really hope they speed up and close August 2021 and all the other months that are only partially processed and stop keep them waiting. That is very frustrating.

We had the same thoughts and we are May 22 so quite behind you. The CR1/IR1 might be faster to get to the final AOS, however with the already invested waiting time slower to get your loved one over. So, we finally dismissed that idea and keep hanging in there. Just getting through the winter and there should be light at the end of the tunnel. We set ourselves some tiny little milestones, like for example that they just started approving more and more fiscal 2023 petitions and be happy about it. Little baby steps And by the way amazing work of all the people here keeping track of the progress. Thank you!

I just recently saw they approved the first few fiscal year 2023 petitions. A nice little milestone, I think. Maybe the next would be to see their processing time go down at least not increasing even more. I think it was 10 months when we May 2022 filers started, now it's 15,5 months. Crazy. I hoped we have seen the worst and things are getting better in the near future. Fingers crossed.

Well, that's probably very true. Maybe quite a number of people at USCIS today went through the immigration process themselves. You really get all into this while you are waiting and waiting... I somehow read they were forced to do something about the employment visa backlog. But isnt't it true that at the same time family based visa processing slowed down? Just because they had to shift their focus. I hope they somehow get their focus back to the family based visas. K1 and CR1 are really slow. Just three years ago or so people went through that process so much faster.

Looks like these are the first approvals of petitions of fiscal year 2023. Kind of a little milestone for 2022 filers.

I wonder if USCIS had a hard time hiring adjudicators. According to VJ trends processing of all types of visas seems to get slower and slower.

I think one milestone will be when they start with fiscal year 2023 petitions. They are close following the threads here.

I think I have seen a 2022 spreadsheet somewhere but I can't remember. Would be interested too as a May 2022 filer.