I think the delay in hardship cases is partly due to the effects of covid backlog, and partly deliberate policy. The Biden admin probably wants to make it stricter for US citizen spouses to stay here and that's why they just delay and delay to make the hardship process pointless, they want us to spend two years in limbo anyway, either here or back in the home country. Is it fair? absolutely not! it's just so incredibly sad that hardship waivers have become a form of hardship in and of themselves.