IOE0914_Jan2022

Moved from marriage based counselor processing to marriage based AOS. I was on H1B before but that has no relationship to the family based application.

It's been really hard to understand or get any useful information from USCIS about my case status. Feeling like a lost cause, so I hope others can share their experience or insights. Really wish there was some transparency about the actual details of our case status and our place in the proverbial queue. tldr: Question - Where is my case and what does USCIS or I need to do to move it forward? WoM is an option, but I want to exhaust all reasonable options before I spend another $5k on this process. Some details relevant to the question above: 2021: 1.1 Jan 2021: Files for Consular Processing under F2A category. F2A was current. 1.2 March 2021: I-130 was approved in March 2021. 2022: 2.1 Jan 2022: Moved case from Consular Processing to AoS by filing for I-485. Fingerprint done in Feb. F2A was current. 2023 3.1 March 2023: RFE for bonafide marriage proof from local field office (San Francisco). F2A was current. 3.2 April 2023: RFE response received. F2A retrogresses. 3.3 August 2023: F2A upgrade to IR requested. Emma live agent confirmed case is with San Francisco Field Office. 3.4 Sep 2023: Tier-2 agent returned call and confirmed case has been upgraded to IR. Expedite request declined - " case is processing as expected". 3.5 Oct 2023: Congressional Inquiry submitted. USCIS responded back with "The San Francisco Field Office has requested beneficiaries case file from the National Benefits Center." ??? It's possible that the Emma live agent misspoke or had outdated information about where my case was in Aug 2023. However, the RFE communication in March came from local field office. 1. Did the local field office transfer my case to NBC once it retrogressed in April 2023? 2. Besides WoM, is there anything else we can do to make USCIS process the file? 3. As a last resort, we will file a WoM around end of Nov / early Dec. Is it too soon?

Thanks Mike. I was able to find the episode you are referring to and it was helpful. I also don't want to wait unnecessarily for too long. We reached out to our congress staffer but they just said that the impending govt shutdown is their main priority and they can't help with this for another month. Are there things you recommend us doing that shows that we have tried sufficiently to push things before WoM?

Correct. Which is why I want to be patient. But I also want to try anything that can help my case. But it would be helpful to see how long other "upgradees" had to wait and if there was something they did to help speed things up.

We switched from Counselor Processing (Jan 2021) to AOS (Jan 2022) since there was no movement in CP. Both of us are in the US right now.

We filed an I-485 under F2A category in Jan 2022 with an already approved I-130 (early 2021). I was current till April 2023, but then due to retrogression my category regressed to 2019 (ouch). In August 2023, we were able to upgrade our category to IR1. Did not hear anything back from USCIS about the upgrade request but eventually a T2 agent confirmed that the request has indeed been upgraded. As of now, my case time has been 20 months. USCIS 80% time is 18.5 month for my FO (San Francisco). But since the upgrade was done a month ago, I might have to wait a bit longer. Curious to hear from others who were upgraded in SF FO, how long did it take for your I-485 to finish? We did an expedite request to both get the confirmation for upgrade and push for the case, but USCIS told us that the case is processing normally. This was before we spoke to a T2 agent. What do people recommend we should do (besides waiting that is)?