Ramirez65

Mine started out at 3 months and kept counting down until the dreaded "taking longer than expected." It's been this way since October. I think this is a feature they're testing out for the future (to support their claim that they're enhancing their technology) and we're just seeing it in beta form.

Awesome! I check from time to time to make sure it's still in that processing center because I know they transfer cases around a lot and don't notify you.

Go here: https://www.uscis.gov/tools/meet-emma-our-virtual-assistant When you scroll down this page, the Ask Emma feature will pop up in the upper righthand corner of the screen.

This morning I was telling my Software Engineer son about your data scraping on USCIS and how I check 100 different sources to try to come up with one little nugget of information. He sent me this and said "Mom, this is you." He's not wrong 😝

You know you can get that information instantly on Emma? When you open Ask Emma, just type in Live Agent and go through the steps to get to a live person. You can ask them where your case is being processed and they'll answer you immediately. I do that every couple of months.

Oooooh.....I'm in California as well

Congratulations!! All of us here want to be in your position right now. My PD is February 14, 2022 (my case turned a year a couple of days ago). I had our Congresswoman send an inquiry on my case and I got the same response as you did (it is within normal processing times). Maybe I'll try our Senator next. Which processing center approved your case?

🤣 This pretty much describes my job since I went remote 3 years ago. My favorite part - he's wearing flip-flops in the office 😂😂😂😂

😂 😂 😂 😂 Just to give you an idea of exactly how far my neurosis led me......I was on the usajobs.gov website and I spotted an open position for a Technical Project Manager (right up my alley....I fulfilled all the requirements.....remote position......pay was good......hey, why not??). Then I went on Glass Door and read every one of the 450+ reviews written by current and former employees of USCIS. Wow - if you want to read about some disgruntled employees, just check out the reviews from people who were hired to handle the asylum cases 😬 I decided after about 3 hours of that I really didn't want to work for USCIS. I think once I get through this process, I am going to erase everything having to do with USCIS from my brain! There was one review that I found very interesting and made me think that we don't realize what those officers go through. Here it is for your reading pleasure (I know it's long but it gave me a new perspective): Pros I’ve worked in both FOD and SCOPS. -Field Office will provide the most value for your career path with a lot of opportunities to grow and promote. -SCOPS has remote and flexible schedules; very convenient for work/life balance. -GS pay scale on career ladder promotions is great. -You should have no fear, I’ve never seen anyone fired from FOD or SCOPS. Also a con. Cons -This is a reactive agency not proactive like it should. I've noticed we're never prepared for what is ahead even with full awareness and abilities to prevent failure. Our reputation speaks for itself. This agency damages itself and is often misprioritizing or focusing in the wrong areas. We often just shift work around to make it appear were doing something. -Depending on administration; the work demand and focus changes either in a positive or negative way. It’ll never be stable, but there will always be work. Immigration will never go away. I would say current administration leaves this agency in the negative hence this bullet in the con. -FOD and SCOPS both have horrible ineffective training, leaving you with very little knowledge or ability to do your job effectively. You will learn as you go on the fly and some not at all which you’ll notice through sheer incompetence. I would say SCOPS training is by worse compared to FOD, both still a dumpster fire. They just want bodies in to start stamping up cases. -SCOPS has an extremely low standard for quality of work. Quantity is valued over quality, yet still has a very poor production time. Feels like a circus and the overall mindset is to just decide a case without any real thought process or reasoning almost always leaning into incorrect decisions. -SCOPS case work is for some unknown reason dissected into parts and spread to multiple teams to complete. I'm often waiting on other teams to complete my part (final decision) of the case. No one can explain why or the logic behind it. It’s very ineffective and slows down my production. But I will be harassed with emails for case inquiry status updates and my answer is I am still waiting on someone else. I can wait months for something I could have completed on my own. -SCOPS leadership (supervisors, chiefs, assoc directors) appear inept, they have very little adjudication skills or understanding of immigration law. This is the leadership responsible for production and effective, meaningful decisions but doesn't comprehend any more than a standard officer. -You're given independent authority; however, approvals are never questioned, yet denials are. I often find errors in other officers’ work/decisions when it comes time to follow up on applicants’ status. -SCOPS is very backlogged with cases and appears to have no control over the issue. I would attribute this to the severely lacking leadership missing the right set of skills and experience. Also, an overabundance of upper-level positions. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians; creating chaos and mishandling the overall operation. -SCOPS will hire anyone with a pulse. I am often astounded by the other officers lack of skills and abilities; commonly making incorrect decisions and frequent use of poor judgment, they like to call "discretion". Cases will be blindly decided, poor critical thinking & writing skills, etc. -SCOPS has little accountability, because most are remote workers with no one looking over their shoulder - resulting in trickling production. The production expectation is also set very low. -SCOPS is very restrictive with its overtime, which I find odd considering the demand to reduce the backlog. Go figure. -FOD interviewing can wear you down after months of it at a time, every day, nonstop. Although it is rewarding and challenging. -FOD has a demand for as many interviews completed without enough time to provide a quality and sound decision to gather all facts and review in a timely manner. -SCOPS feels redundant and robotic because you will be placed on a team to work only a single form type day in, day out. -The agency pulls billions from fees but is cheap when hiring. They're unlikely to offer reasonable pay to anyone coming from the outside, even with multiple degrees. -Promotions are usually not based on qualifications, more so based off who is most liked. -Hiring process is not streamlined and to transfer for the same positions you must apply and interview. Advice to Management -Improve the hiring process and selections. Raise the standard and pay to attract better officers. -Consolidate the superfluous management positions and make better selections. -Raise expectations from officers and instill more accountability overall. -Take a thorough look at training and survey officers how to improve; then actually do it. Invest in your officers and you’d have better quality of work and production. -Find a solution to the quantity over quality to eliminate erroneous decisions. My first suggestion would be to implement better policy and beef up the regulation. End the constant extensions and allow to reject or deny applications that submit zero evidence or multiple duplicate applications. I would think this would speed up wait times and allow officer to spend more time focusing on applications that are ready for adjudication. Allowing a 7-month extension for applications that have been pending well over a year for lack of evidence only contributes to blocking the pipeline to someone with a clear-cut ready case or cases that require some quality time to review. -Integrate your systems and stop adding more standalone systems.

What we really need is one of us to go and work for USCIS and report back....a mole of sorts 🤣 I'm only half-kidding - don't think I haven't looked into it myself

Very interesting! I look at hilites every day just to be reassured that cases are at least moving. It’s more of a distraction than anything. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can assume or predict anything with USCIS.

That’s great! There’s a lot of information on that site and it’s accurate since it’s coming directly from USCIS.

I'm not sure what to make of the 95xxx either but I wouldn't worry about it - I don't think the numbers have anything to do with the order in which they're approved. Also keep in mind hilites doesn't include ALL I130 cases - if you want yours added, you can message the creator on that page and ask him to add it. Today that page says that almost 3,000 cases were approved since yesterday but I'm sure that number is much higher, it just isn't fully represented there.

Okay so this is tedious but you have to copy the case # and then plug it into the tab called "Insights" and that'll give you their timeline. I usually do the ones that are close to my case #. I wish there was a way to check them in bulk but beggars can't be choosers. I'd also like to find a way to know which service center each case came from but again, I'm not a data person so I have no idea.

I actually have 2 cases - one for my husband (processing in California) and one for my stepson (processing in Potomac). I'm watching them both but my stepson is 18 already so I won't be disappointed if my husband's case gets approved first

Good morning February filers, I just want to put out some positive vibes to everyone here. Although I've been down in the dumps lately and not very optimistic, today I woke up with a different attitude! I feel like we're all so close to getting approved. I follow a website called hilites today (https://hilites.today/) - it was created by a fellow filer like ourselves who figured out how to manipulate the data and show how many cases are approved for each category. Keep in mind it's not all inclusive - I don't think he's able to scrub all the data (so all cases may not be included) but it's a good snapshot of what's going on. I usually go through the I-130 approvals and look at a few that are close to my case number to see their timeline and I see a lot of February filers there. Keep the faith everyone.....I really believe God's timing is perfect!

Thank you for this - it's exactly what I needed to hear today. I appreciate you putting this all into perspective and bringing me back to what is really important.

Priority date (your receipt date).

You’re not alone. I’ve never been so down in my whole life. I’m seeing all these approvals every day, some for people who filed after us and it’s seriously starting to get to me. On Tuesday my case will be 12 months old. I haven’t seen my husband in 8 months. I’m usually a very upbeat and positive person but this process has broken me. I saw a post on Reddit yesterday that worried me even more. I don’t know how this person knows this or if it’s true but it seems logical. The post said: Immigration implemented a new pilot program in the Summer to get these cases processed faster. However, it only appears to have applied to cases filed after the program started, and has not grandfathered those who filed before the program was implemented. Which is why you see such huge differences in processing times for folks that filed in 2021 and early 2022, and those who filed in mid-2022 and after.

I'm right there with you! Our case will be "celebrating" its one-year anniversary next week. I'm in the cold and dark recesses of Wisconsin and my husband is in Colombia. We haven't seen each other in 9 months. Every day is a struggle but I have faith that very soon we'll hear something. I've noticed a trend lately that many cases are taking around 12-1/2 months so you should be very close. Hang in there! As far as Ask Emma goes, when you have that open, just type Live Agent and go through the prompts that follow. Eventually it'll connect you to a live agent. Let me know if you have any questions.

You have to get on a live chat with USCIS through Emma and ask which service center is handling your case. I do it periodically because they don't always tell you it's been transferred.

I'm also in California and I saw this post on Facebook - it gave me hope. Lately I've been thinking that California was sleeping. Does anyone know if there's any way to track how many cases each service center approves each day (specifically the I130's)? I know there's Hilites.Today but not every case is represented, only a certain portion of cases so not very accurate.

No updates on our case yet - we're almost at the 11th month mark as well. How do we know which cases California is currently processing?

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share my timeline. I filed I130 on February 14, 2022 (that’s my receipt date). It started in Nebraska but moved to California (according to Emma). Went to active review on March 16, 2022. My husband is in Colombia. Today is our one year wedding anniversary. I was hoping to wake up to an approval this morning 😭😭😭😭. The wait has been so stressful. I’ve been trying to keep busy but I have no motivation. This whole process just seems so inhumane. Did anyone get a WhatsApp group created? I’d like to join!