blooper1899

Hang tight, it'll happen!

Forever! They sent for SV on Jan 26, got the SV back on February 1, and sent the recommendation only yesterday, so they waited 1.5 months before they sent recommendation. I don't know why they do what they do. I've waited at DOS since June 22, 2022

Hi all, I got my favorable recommendation yesterday! Now waiting for the USCIS final document before going for GC. I was a Fulbright, so it is possible. I will say that I am from a political enemy country of the US, so I'm not sure how much that played a role given the restrictions and sanctions imposed on my home country in the past. The hardship case was for spouse, who struggles with mental health issues, also my spouse is a member of lgbtq, so I am sure that also played a role given my country's anti-LBTQIA+ laws. I was also a sole breadwinner and insurance provider in our household. We worked with Ranchod law firm and they did a decent job, a bit slow on the start, but the case was presented well. Good luck to all who are waiting! I will be disconnecting from this forum after a couple of days, happy to answer questions in the meantime.

It's back, baby! And still pending. This word is gonna give me ptsd.

Ah, yes, sorry. I had J1, then i left the country, got F1, did my program, was on stem opt, and got o1 and a change of status. So not from J1.

I changed address too, last August. I had to send a form to both USCIS and DOS. I don't know if it postponed the process, maybe, but I wanted to be safe, and my lawyer was pretty adamant about submitting change of address.

I have O1 visa now. You can change your status within the country, my lawyer was successful in that. I transitioned from F1 to O1, and did not have to leave the US. So talk to a lawyer about this!

Yes, I was Fulbright. They received SV on Feb 1, but only updated my case in March, don't know if that's good or bad. Still don't know their final decision, but probably soon.

Nope, they requested SV in the end of Jan 2024, but still waiting to hear anything.

Or do you mean once DOS receives the sponsor views, when they make a decision? Based on the cases above, usually 1-2 weeks once they get the SV back.

I think it varies based on who the sponsor is. From the cases I've monitored, Fulbright tends to take much longer (2-6 months) and some sponsors take a week.

I think they skip the ones with government funding and wait to accumulate cases with the same sponsor. Then they do a batch of sponsor view requests. That's my hypothesis. My case is from June 2022 with funding, and they skipped them initially. Then for three cases that I know of they sent SV requests on Jan 25-26.

They did not! There is one case in October 2022 that they requested SV for, but not for the earlier cases. Now I wonder if it's based on who the sponsor was.

I don't think so. My case reached them in June 2022, and they skipped it. And there is at least one more from May 2022 not decided.

I've been tracking several cases from May-October 2022, including my own in June 2022. They skipped them and moved on to Nov-Dec 2022 and Jan 2023. My hypothesis is because they adjudicate the cases without funding first and then do the ones with gov funding later. Don't know how much later. This is very disheartening, because I also saw cases from June 2022 being decided and was optimistic, only to have my hopes crushed when they moved on to January 2023 cases. I'm very happy for those who don't have to wait that long, but it is very unfair to not process cases as they came in, even if it requires more work on the DOS's behalf.

No, they did not even request sponsor views. My case was completely ignored. So DOS can claim as much as they want that they adjudicate the cases in the order they are received, but it simply is not true.

My case landed at DOS on June 22, 2022. I see they decided on one case from that day, and then moved on to July. I do have sponsor views, maybe that's why, but at least update that you requested sponsor views. I am so discouraged now. So frustrating.

Pending at DOS since June 2022

If you are doing hardship, do it as soon as possible. You can see from this thread, the wait period at DOS alone is more than 14 months. Then USCIS also is increasing their wait times to around 1 year. If you're doing Conrad 30, that's a different story and I don't know anything about it or the process.

Im sure they'll use it to further delay hardship cases processing.

Still waiting, since June 2022 at DOS. There have been some approvals that I saw on the FB J1 Waiver group. They were mostly cases from 2021.

Was gonna say the same thing. I always look for signs and it seemed like things sped up around March- April, but no.

This is so messed up! If I lived closer to DC, I would definitely be protesting. I am considering starting a Change.org petition maybe? I don't have thousands of dollars to hire lawyers to sue the government, I also don't have hours of time to put the case together to file a Mandamus. When people tell me that "they should just come legally", it boils my blood. What we are doing is following the legal process, but the process is broken. People do not have the luxury of waiting for two years. I'm in my 14th month at DOS and I just don't know what else to do, who to call, who to write to. The system is fundamentally broken.

The i-612 and 613 forms are with DOS since last June. I keep checking, every single day, and nothings. It's maddening that there is absolutely no accountability for them! It seemed like things kind of sped up around March/April but are at a lull again.

I am a Fulbrighter, hardship to US spouse. Case has been sitting with DOS since June 2022. We tried expediting through a state representative but nothing happened. Will try the senator route this month. This sucks!