AndiB

There's no sign more complicated cases get left until last. The time you can apply for an inquiry has always been fluid. They delay it if they get too many as it slows them down. It's not always after the processing time is passed. I understand it may give you comfort to be acknowledged by USCIS that you're still waiting but they know that, you're in the system as pending and they'll get to it when they do. Remember responding to inquiries takes time so if they're having to delay when you can apply that means they're being swamped by it. They're not going to message someone saying 'hey they're still waiting btw', it does nothing but give you comfort. I've never seen a post from anyone being forgotten by uscis so I don't think it's a real risk and you need to remind them you're there, if you're in the system, they know. The case numbers reflect when you applied so they can tell straight away now long someone is outstanding.

I totally sympathise with you and that's my fear too, how being 'left behind' will add stress to the relationship. However you are 100% not forgotten, they unfortunately do have x % that see approvals later than the bulk. I saw a dec approval recently and the odd nov too. They will get to it, I'm just sorry they're making you wait like this. It's not fair but your time will come ❤️

Inquirys don't speed up your case, they just tell you the status of it. I think only like may or something though. They pushed it back

Talk of processing hitting 700-800 last week! I am unsure if the spreadsheet I follow includes RFEs as it's usually almost 100 out from totals I see elsewhere so we're either meeting incoming or close to! Either way we shouldn't be seeing jumps in wait times any more (maybe we'll get one more 0.5 increase) and hopefully by spring they'll be tackling the backlog if not sooner! Unless there's a drastic change I don't know if we'll see much of a decrease in wait time this year but maybe we'll at least see some but right now I'm just happy that we shouldn't have longer waits coming!!