GeneO

I believe that is true, but it depends on the person, background, country and other circumstances. I know for some checks it requires a full FBI and INTERPOL check which can take weeks to months (case dependent of course) Eg; It is VERY difficult to background check people from many African countries due to the lack of systems in place to do so but someone from say, the UK could be very quick given the US and UK co-operate heavily. But it is absolutely 99.9999% USCIS just being an incompetent agency if we are being honest! ha ha

Sadly true. However things can be done in the background while being "reviewed" that we may not really know is going on - security checks etc... Funnily enough, sounds like the actual review of the 751 and evidence is the fast part when it finally happens. I saw online somewhere most officers only get to spend about 10 mins on a 751 case before deciding to approve/RFE or whatever it may be.

Agreed! I know there are many different opinions on this but I would rather drown them in evidence than give them bits and pieces to scrutinise and potentially decide they may not like what they are seeing or want more information or even want an interview. I have seen a few attorney blogs now that say to send every single piece of evidence USCIS doesn't have yet with both names on it and let them decide how much of each type of evidence they want to use. Too much evidence is going to be better than not enough every single time. Side note - We are approaching 200 approved March 2023 cases now! making progress...slowly but surely

https://www.casestatusext.com/ Based off their data, it appears USCIS is approving between 1-5 cases a day for March 2023 people. Some days I have seen 10+ approved lately. So they are working on them, albeit slowly right now.

They have approved about 180 March applications under the 0919 grouping now. Not a tidal wave of approvals but they are working on them now finally

They are now working on Feb/March 2023 cases. Hopefully you are lucky enough to get approved soon. IOE0919 cases look to be picking up slowly

They are working on March cases - IOE0919XXXXX, actually they approved 8 more today and are up to about 140 approvals now - out of over 2000...but progress is progress.

Sounds like a new attorney is a good plan. Just one quick question, do you suspect your former spouse could have sent something to USCIS that makes it appear your marriage was fraudulent? A nasty letter doesn't usually get a lot of attention but if they had some documents that make it appear there as fraud involved it could possibly explain why you got such a sudden and unexpected result. Not saying this is what happened, but if you think its possible might be worth doing a FOIA request on your case.

Good point. You are right, the true number is probably under 1%.

Looking at the stats, thankfully it appears most fraud cases seem to be weeded out by the 130/485 phase. They only deny under 3% of all 751 cases so it seems the system works pretty well to catch most of it in the early stages of the game. I have a feeling VAWA either currently is or is about to become the hot spot for a major focus on fraudulent cases, I see far too many attorneys online have started advertising they can get people a green card through VAWA for nearly any reason, one has a youtube show that seems to focus heavily on it as well. Its awful because it makes it so much harder for the people who are genuine victims of abuse.

Thank you, everything is 100% legitimate and bucket loads of evidence to support it. I just unfortunately have an ex spouse who has elected to take the vengeful route. Appreciate the advice

True. I see the denial/refusal rate is around 4% or a little under - and that I assume are all cases from ones with incorrect payments/forms all the way through to the likely tiny number that are actually referred to the court. So 96% of cases sail through. You are correct, it is an utterly out of date and pointless stage in the process. The amount of times we are expected to prove and reprove ourselves is a joke. If they officially accept your marriage as legitimate at the I-130/485 stage that should be absolutely sufficient til one applies for citizenship. One can only assume all these different forms and stages are purely for funding purposes. The more steps they can put in the more money the agency makes, so I guess it will probably never really change.

Thank you, OldUser. See this is what I couldn't find a good answer on. Is it a case of whoever writes first or would her letter - being a US citizen - overrule my request even if I got in first. It's such a horrible situation...only upside is based off 751 processing, I suspect it will be another 6-12 months before any officer even looks at it for processing so I will have the decree by then.

Thank you for the reply. 1 - Final decree is due in May. So Pending divorce. 2 - A heap. I mean at least 16 different types of evidence with many examples of each. 3 - Yes, I have new evidence since the joint filing. Same kind as originally sent but just newer. 4 - I could yes. I am hoping it is possible to just keep the current case open and convert given it has been on file now for about a year. BUT the clincher is, if she writes to them asking to withdraw will they close the case regardless of me also asking them to process it under a waiver category. Thanks!

Hey guys, I know there are similar cases but just wanted to share my situation and get everyones thoughts, My spouse and I filed a 751 in early 2023, we ended up filing for divorce at the end of 2023 after a number of years of marriage. My ex spouse has now informed me they intend to write to USCIS and withdraw their support of the 751 case and "take my greencard" so basically they are going out of their way to be vindictive now. If they send a letter withdrawing and I send a letter asking USCIS to process my case under a divorce waiver will that be sufficient? Or do I need to withdraw and refile again? Obviously my preference would be to just write and convert the case, but I don't know if that will work in this case or not? Any thoughts are appreciated!