appleblossom

No visa is available for your son until his Priority Date is current on the Visa Bulletin, as his category is oversubscribed and there are more applications than visas available. Current means that his Priority Date is earlier than the date for his category. The Visa Bulletin is released monthly. As you can see from this months, people with Priority Dates earlier than 1st January 2015 now have visas available to them. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2024/visa-bulletin-for-november-2023.html So people who applied nearly 9 years ago are only now able to get visas. You need to watch the Visa Bulletin and see how it moves monthly, but nothing will happen for a long time yet. When his Priority Date is current on Table B on the Visa Bulletin, it means USCIS expects a visa to become available in the not too distant future, and at that point they'll invite him to start the NVC side of things (paying fees, completing DS-260 and submitting his documents). So you can keep an eye on that Table in the VB as well. One other thing to mention - the VB doesn't move forward in a linear way, dates can move backwards or stay still too. You can see all previous VB's here to give you an idea, as you can see, the Priority Date for your son's category is the same in next months bulletin. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html And if you look at historical VB's, you'll see that the date for your son's category has only moved forward a month in over 2 years. Here's the Visa Bulletin from Sept 2021 which has a PD of 1st Dec 2014 for his category. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2021/visa-bulletin-for-september-2021.html So best to assume it'll be at least 15 years before a visa is available to him and set your expectations accordingly. Note too that if he gets married in the interim, he moves to category F3. HTH.

Most consulates have a long wait for B visa appointments, as @Boiler said you can keep checking for cancellations though. But even if you got a cancellation for an appointment in the next few days, it’s usually about 2 weeks after your interview that you get your passport back with the visa in, so you still wouldn’t have it in hand for 4th Dec. Which consulate?

Most consulates just do the biometrics at the interview. But as said above, you’re many years away from that, by which point anything you find out about the process may well have changed anyway. No need to worry about biometrics for a loooooong time.

The Visa Bulletin will give you an idea but remember the date on there (Sept 2015 for your category, so just over 8 years wait) is only relevant for those who applied back in 2015. Anybody applying now will have a much longer wait - you can look at previous Visa Bulletins and if you do that you’ll see the date for the F2B category hasn't moved forward at all for over 2 years. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin.html

@salishsea’s response made perfect sense to me. S/he’s saying that if your MIL is only planning on spending weeks in the US after entering on her IV before leaving again (as you suggested in Q 2) then she would risk losing her LPR status.

HTH - 'Hope That Helps' Some consulates are a 2yr+ wait for an interview so 7 months isn't too horrendous although I know it doesn't feel that way when it's your case. Hope you get DQ'ed soon and it's quicker for you.

Depends on which relative? But if you go to the sticky thread at the top of the page you'll see Cairo threads there, seems about 7 months from DQ date to IL for spouses etc, longer for other relatives. HTH.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition/step-2-begin-nvc-processing.html

Yes, I realise that, which is why I said 'assuming hers has been approved too?' You don't have children (from what you've said) so you don't need to worry about them aging out, but it's presumably a factor for your sister if her I-130 was approved as quickly.

Very odd, normally the I-130 takes a lot longer to approve. It must have only taken days? And probably not good news for your sister (assuming hers has been approved too?) as it means no matter how old your niece is she’ll age out. Really for family categories with long waits you want the I-130 to take as long as possible if children are involved.

Exactly, that's what Boiler meant. It doesn't apply to Pakistan now so unless things change she's got a long wait ahead of her.

When your PD becomes current on Table B of the Visa Bulletin. It's currently at 1st March 2008, so approx 16 years. Add on a bit of time for the backlog and maybe around 20 years as a very rough guess?

Yes, because as said above there's no visa number available to you, and won't be for decades. You just have to wait I'm afraid.

How is your Priority Date only a couple of weeks ago if your case is already at NVC? That doesn’t make any sense, can you check the PD again? Is it 29 Oct 2022 maybe? But as said above, it’ll be decades for you and your sister, but your parents are Immediate Relatives so they’ll be able to commence NVC processing soon and should get visas at some point in the next year or so. Your parents can then petition for you and your sister further down the line, it’ll be quicker than waiting for a sibling petition but still not quick - is your sister married? And how old is your niece?

Yes, moved here in July - also an EB applicant. Is Boston where your job/sponsor is?

Wow, impressive that you're both eligible for IV's via EB3! Good luck, I hope the Visa Bulletin speeds up for you both and you get your visas quicker than expected.

Are you the other case with the Jan PD?

Oh ok. Odd then that the processing times tool gives different times for each of the service centres. But either way there's still a lot more to it than just being from the same country, every application will be processed in order but they're not linear, as each takes a different amount of time due to numerous factors.

Being the same nationality as you isn't the only factor though. Were they all done at the same case service centre as yours? You haven't completed your VJ timeline so not sure which one your case is at, but you can see processing times here - https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/

He’s in AP, perfectly normal and no way of expediting it I’m afraid. They can ask for the passport to be returned if he needs to travel though. She can also look at filing a Writ of Mandamus to force a decision.

This is from the website - see Step 3. https://uploads.mwp.mprod.getusinfo.com/uploads/sites/43/2022/05/K1_Packet_September2021.pdf HTH.

Very odd, sounds like somebody has made a mistake. Current PD for visas is 1st Dec 2021, so 2.5 years, but I think Ghana has quite a long wait for interviews. Maybe 3 years? It's as good a guess as any.

Hmmm very odd. The VB sets it out clearly, she shouldn't have been asked to submit docs as her PD isn't current for filing. Does her CEAC status definitely show E3 on it? Just wondered if perhaps she's been put in the wrong category by mistake. But either way I'm not really sure how or why it matters, there's no visa available to her yet, she's still got a long wait. It's not like she's going to jump the queue and get given a visa ahead of somebody else with a current PD. Visa availability is much more strictly controlled and there simply isn't one available to her yet.

The problem she's got is that any of those ties will pale in to insignificance when it comes to the tie to her children. So I think she's got an uphill battle as it will always be assumed that she wants to stay with her children.

Are you sure that’s her PD? When was her I-140 approved?