Cirkul

Hi Redro, No I have not tried to file an I129F. Nor have I tried a K3. I think because I married my wife in her country the I129F is off the table...but not the K3.

IOE

I'm afraid I don't even know how to tell where the lockbox is. But I did send a certified letter to TSC in January for a case update but no response.

I will look into the k3. Thank you so much!

Thank you, Redro. My only concern now is, do I dare file a K3 at this point? We could be approved next week. K3 might delay it a few more months. But I'm no lawyer or expert. If I'm still stuck in a background check, my worry is that the same thing will happen if I file a K3.

Thank you, Family. I really appreciate it. I'm going to give this a other month or two before I do this. Attorney or no attorney involved. I really do appreciate your help. Thank you so very much!!

Thanks. I did. Looks like we are way behind schedule but looks like there are a lot of people still st USCIS stage like my wife and I

Well, that's not very encouraging and I thank you for your oppinion. This is so hard...

Hello Everyone, I am married to a Filipina and our two year wedding anniversary will be April 18th. USCIS started processing our case early July of 2022. We are still at the USCIS stage. My lawyer wants to just file a Mandamus in July of this year. I don't want to spend the 6 grand. I will if I have to though. He has told me, reaching out to a senator will do nothing, contacting a local lawmaker will do nothing, and contacting USCIS is a "colossal waste of time". I feel like he just wants the 6k for filing the writ. He explained to me that if he files it, his "contact" at USCIS will email him and ask what can be done to avoid going to court. Does any anyone have any ideas to prevent me from spending another 6 thousand dollars? My lawyer seems confident in his plan, but I just want this petition approved. It's been nearly two years now. Read my other, threads that should answer any questions..

I'm going to assume you are in the US. I got married after 18 days and could have gone faster if I wanted. You're going to need to have someone send you your birth certificate. I would think a friend or legal courier could do this for you. The municipality you are in MAY allow you to present a copy of it in which case someone can email it to you, and you can print it off of someone's computer. Go to the embassy in Manila and get your Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Marry notarized (very important). You will need all divorce decree's and also certificates of any prior marriages. Your fiancée' will need a valid CENOMAR. She may need parental consent if she is under a certain age( I want to say its 24) and if the parents refuse there are forms for that. Some Municipality's you need counseling, some you don't. Go to the local registrar, apply for marriage and wait 10 weekdays. Then book the venue. Or book the venue months prior like I did. You would be wise to have your fiancée get a list of EXACTLY is required for a foreigner to marry a Filipino in her municipality. Be sure to send your marriage certificate to PSA, right away. I was lucky in the fact that I was able to have a lawyer sign my affidavit because it was still right after COVID. Hope this helped! Marriage - U.S. Embassy in the Philippines (usembassy.gov)

Well, my wait time went from 2 months to 4. Which tells me they got my inquiry letter.

Happening to me to on my PC if I try to access anything relate to Visa Journey. I wiped my PC as I thought I had been hacked.

@FlyG22 It won't let me submit an inquiry, which is why I mailed a letter to my service center. I do still think those of us that are kind of outside the bubble, so to speak will be getting some good news in the next month or two.

@FlyG22 I'm cautiously optimistic we will be getting some good news soon. Did talk to my lawyer today who said that if we don't get approved by July, he will file a lawsuit against USCIS. I get the sense from him that it won't come to that though.

@vinny7 I'm a late May 2022 filer. Similar to you my case is taking extra-long. It did have to go to VSC for background checks. As far as I know it's been at VSC for 7 months. I sent a letter to my original service center(Texas) asking for a status update about 3 weeks ago. Have not heard anything. I uploaded evidence in November(PSA certified marriage certificate) and all that did was increase my processing time by 4 months. Now I'm down to 2 months. But I've been down to two weeks before. I'm happy for all of the approvals, but its frustrating that my wife has still not been approved after 19 months. Sorry, it is BEYOND frustrating.

Hasn't worked for me since last evening. Relieved to find out it was not just me!

Thanks, after reading posts on this part of the forum I've concluded that the estimated times don't mean much. Some people are getting approvals even when their account says 3-4 months until approval.

Is there any rhyme or reason to the "estimated time until decision" on my USCIS account? Some of you may recall an earlier post from me this summer asking about dismissed charges that were flagged by Vermont Service Center because the dismissed charges were flagged AWA(even though they were dismissed). I went in for Biometrics, got fingerprinted and photographed. I didn't hear anything for four months. My USCIS Account would just say "your case is taking longer than expected". Then in September it suddenly said "5 months until decision", until 2 days ago I was down to "3 weeks". Two days ago I contacted my lawyer and told him we still never uploaded our PSA marriage certificate. He instructed me to upload it, which I did. The very next day my account jumped to "7 months until decision". Now it says "four months until decision. I was trying to avoid an RFE by uploading the PSA marriage certificate. We used the Municipal Certificate to get started on the I130. Is there any reason for these fluctuations? It is very frustrating because the embassy is doing interviews en masse every 6 months in the Philippines. I know we will miss the December slots. Would be devastating to miss the next slots which will be 6 months after the December interviews are done. Thank you.

Over two months now and nothing from USCIS. When should I contact them?

Just a small update, I did go to USCIS and was fingerprinted. My timeline was updated to actively reviewing as of June 2, 2023. So I think it is being looked at. If I get an RFE I will respond to it. I will keep this thread updated.

Thank you, Yes I can provide a documented reason why everything was dismissed. I have all of the court records.

Retheem, Thank you for your response. I understand there may be a delay and I halfway expected it. I didn't expect something like a denial or a notice of intent to deny. If I get a NOID I will respond accordingly. It was a dismissal. No diversion. Thank you again.

Boiler, That is my understanding as well. I was not convicted of a crime. Of course it will attract scrutiny. I've read posts on this website where USCIS still sent a NOID just for seeing dismissed charges and citing the NOID for AWA. My hope is that USCIS is just taking my biometrics as part of the background check with increased scrutiny due to the dismissed charges. I already have a certified copy of the dismissal with me in my office in case it is asked for.

Vicky's Mom, No my lawyer has not asked for more money. He is not one of those guys. He did many free consultations with me the 2 years leading up to my marriage. Only just prior to my first to trip abroad did I pay the retainer. It's just that he bluntly said he doesn't have a lot of AWA experience that frightens me. Trying not to worry. Maybe I should stop reading some of the bad stories. One foot in front of the other, right?

Thanks for the replies everyone. It sounds like this can be done, however I am in a dark, dark place. It's hard to NOT worry about the prospect of my wife of whom I have been with for 3 years to not be able to come here. I mean we even started shipping her clothing/personal effects here. To top it off these were charges I was innocent of. I don't know what is better, a RFE or a NOID....since I will have to respond to both in the same way. 3 times I have gone to the Philippines to be with my wife. 2 of those times I was flagged for a secondary inspection where USCIS did a deep search of my name, but ultimately could not find anything. Each secondary inspection took about 10 minutes. My most recent visit(April/May) I had no secondary inspection. I wonder if there is miscommunication between State and Federal agencies. Again, trying to stay hopeful. But this is probably the hardest thing I've gone through and I must admit, most of it is due to my negative attitude.