WoodlandsFamily

You've got plenty of time because it's about 17 months approval time for the i-130 abroad and in that time you can file the last 3 years tax returns and print off the transcripts, look up what other documents the NVC is going to ask for so you're ready.

Even if you earned $0 or were paid in Euros it is still recorded as $0 on the Affidavit of support. You still have to show your tax transcripts once you get to the NVC part of the process alongside the co-sponsor who shows theirs as well. 

2 hours ago, Luna2025 said:

I did the whole process with the us embassy in London. So I filled the I-130 and paid the fees. 
then I got the letter from the embassy to file ds260 online

and they said the embassy is with my case so uscis/nvc is not envolved.

i am european, so maybe is because of that

but it doesn’t show anything on the embassy website t check the case number. I believe I will file the papers , criminal record affidavit and medical in person , not online 

 

Aah are you Direct Consular Filing?? Probably why you're dealing with them only. I am in the UK too but we are going through the NVC. 

27 minutes ago, Luna2025 said:

i went to london to file i-130 on feb 4th, then the week after i got that letter for the ds260 online. been waiting ever since. Tried to find the forum and couldnt 

Yes you might have to wait for the interview letter now. Not sure how long, it was about 3 or 4 months not sure now.

1 minute ago, WoodlandsFamily said:

I think they send something to say you are 'documentarily qualified'.

 

I'm not quite there yet but others will be able to help. Then apparently you get 6-8 weeks notice of the interview in a letter with the date to go to London. I'm sure there is a London forum on here somewhere ...

How long did it take to get your documents approved after sending them to the NVC? I'm hearing a few weeks or so...

Just now, Luna2025 said:

I am not sure, how do I check that? 

on the page where i filled the ds260 it says approved on the documents area 

I think they send something to say you are 'documentarily qualified'.

I'm not quite there yet but others will be able to help. Then apparently you get 6-8 weeks notice of the interview in a letter with the date to go to London. I'm sure there is a London forum on here somewhere ...

Following ..  

Did you get DQ? So just waiting for interview letter? It was 3 to 4 months but others might have an updated time. I'm interested to know too. 

2 hours ago, 2024 I551 said:

Oct 8, 2023

They are getting quicker, I was approved 6th and heard 10th 

13 minutes ago, James and Neil said:

We got approved today so 2 days short of 16 months! 

Congratulations 🏆 I was 3 days before 16 months so there's definitely a pattern! 

18 minutes ago, Ara Burton said:

Yayyyyy congrats!!!!!!!

 

Congrats!!!

Thanks Ara, won't be long now for you! 

2 hours ago, seer8 said:

A sixth email from VJ saying "Your approval is past due". The past 5 emails I would check my timeline and it would say that there was not enough timeline stats as to when it would say when it would be approved. Also, on the USCIS myprogress tab, it would be visible and not visible for the past week. The progress changed to 3 months after it was 6 months for the past month in January. Then, there was an update on case status since my NOA1, as there was an action on my case with a date of 2/10/25 as my NOA1 was 10/2/23.

 

APPROVED!!

Congratulations 🏆 🎊  I am approved too 😀 9/10/23. Good luck with the next step!! 

3 hours ago, Ara Burton said:

I don't want to be negative but I doubt they are doing anything to reduce processing times.

 

Legal Immigration is not a priority of theirs based on everything I have seen but I am trying to be positive and hope for the best.

They're definitely doing September and I've heard of some October 2023. Like you say we will just have to be positive and hope it won't be ages more. 

2 hours ago, Ara Burton said:

Yeah it's all over the place and quite annoying.

 

I too been checking both sites...I am guessing the VJ site is maybe judging persons who have adjusted status from November 2023 within the US being approved instead of consular processing.

 

Quite frustrating!!

 

I hope it is reduced from 16.5 months for approval.

It is frustrating 😒 I dread to think how long people applying now will wait. We were told 14.5 and it's now 16.5. It hopefully won't be many more weeks now. 

2 minutes ago, Cookie88 said:

It's hard to say. We are 3. Spouse and 2 kids. All with the same PD. Filed within seconds of each other. Spouse and one child were transferred to Nebraska 4 days after filing, and on the same day one child's petition was transferred to California. Around 13th January the California petition got moved to Nebraska. You would think this was them linking our cases under the same reviewing officer, right? But no. We got an RFE on 17th January for the spouse. Responded on 28th January. Got another RFE on 31st January for the child that was transferred from California to Nebraska for the exact same thing, just with different choice of words. The way the two RFE letters were written it did not seem like it was the same person. 

Hope you are answered quickly and on to the NVC soon. I'm dreading the RFEs and keep thinking what if I didn't fill out something right. Etc. 

Mine had alot of activity around the time we filed and said actively reviewed etc a few weeks later but nothing since. That might have been them moving, not sure though. I have 3 in Texas, 1 in Nebraska and 2 in Vermont. 

2 hours ago, Cookie88 said:

They're on around 5th October 2023, if you follow the sequential order of things, not the anomalies included.

Oh I hope you're right 🥰 I'm 9th - 13th October with 6 cases in 3 different service centres. Do they approve parents, then the kids do you know? Or can they just be random? Thanks 

On 1/30/2025 at 10:32 PM, KMG said:

So this is interesting... I was just on another forum and someone with a December 11, 2023 filing date was approved today, and their spouse is outside the country.  I know they are in the midst of October, right now so it is highly possible for an approval soon.

I'd heard they're working on end of September 2023 but then as you say you hear a December has been put through and it's like "what?!!".  But how does anyone really know what date they are on it seems random though its not supposed to be 😪

13 minutes ago, TiffAndMike said:

April 7th would be exactly 16 months for me. I contacted my Senator's office last week expressing my dissatisfaction with how long USCIS currently takes so I've been wondering if maybe something came from that as my attorney's office said that tends to cause USCIS to act. 

That would be great news. Fingers crossed 🤞 

50 minutes ago, TiffAndMike said:

Thank you for sharing your experience.  I just checked my account again and a little over 24 hours later, it is now saying "4 weeks". 

 

I'm just grasping at any little sign of hope there is at this point. 

I wouldn't take alot of notice of those timelines, they do yo yo about. I would think it's typically around 16 ish months at the moment so maybe April for you? Good luck 👍 

9 hours ago, seer8 said:

Again, an email (4th one) from VJ saying my i-130 approval estmate is "Any day now!". If I'm not approved by next week Monday, I'm going to try to contact USCIS and ask to speak to a tier 2 officer about the status. 

I don't think the VJ timeline is exact unfortunately 😕 hopefully won't be long now 🤞

19 minutes ago, Cookie88 said:

Just saw your PD! I've seen approvals up until 3rd October 2023. You should be hearing something within the next two weeks. Probably only a few more months left in the process. Good luck!

I hope so 🙏 thank you 😊 

17 minutes ago, TiffAndMike said:

My husband travels on a ESTA to visit me while our I-130 is pending.  We just renewed his ESTA a few months ago as well. No issues. 

 

To be safe, make sure your plane ticket is round trip and bring supporting documents (lease, employer statement, ect) to prove your ongoing ties to your home country. 

Thank you 😊 

3 hours ago, Cookie88 said:

I understand the fear, as I had the same fear traveling with just 2 kids and we all had pending I-130's. A lawyer told me it was up to the immigration officer to let us in or not, but seemed to be discouraging attempting it. It was others I spoke to that told me it's not a big deal. I did research online and only heard of good outcomes, didn't hear of anyone getting sent back because of a pending I-130. We were traveling on standby flight benefits though, so I did have a plan B if we were rejected entry to just fly to Canada on the shortest flight and get some rest there before we figured out what to do about the time we had off 😅 I think that helped me get over the fear of spending so much money and traveling 24 hours to get to the US only to get refused. I totally get how you're feeling regarding the risk factor with that big of a family. 

 

At the end of the day, it's up to you and your peace of mind on whether or not you would want to try it. But just know that, I really have not read a single horror story on this. Another tip is to download the MPC app so you go in the shorter MPC line (kind of like global entry, but the free version - it's supposed to let you through quicker). You answer so many questions on the app prior to getting to the immigration counter, that typically you are not really asked much when at the counter. When I went, the MPC que was literally 5 minutes long (the other immigration line was huge and barely moving), we had about 3 families in front of us and the officer was keen to keep the line moving quickly so was stamping everyone quickly. All we got asked was 'are you here on vacation?'. I said 'yes'. He smiled and stamped our passports. He was very pleasant too. We were done so quickly we were the first ones from our flight at the baggage collection belt. 

I notice that we have similar timelines. Good luck to you too! 🤞

3 hours ago, Cookie88 said:

I understand the fear, as I had the same fear traveling with just 2 kids and we all had pending I-130's. A lawyer told me it was up to the immigration officer to let us in or not, but seemed to be discouraging attempting it. It was others I spoke to that told me it's not a big deal. I did research online and only heard of good outcomes, didn't hear of anyone getting sent back because of a pending I-130. We were traveling on standby flight benefits though, so I did have a plan B if we were rejected entry to just fly to Canada on the shortest flight and get some rest there before we figured out what to do about the time we had off 😅 I think that helped me get over the fear of spending so much money and traveling 24 hours to get to the US only to get refused. I totally get how you're feeling regarding the risk factor with that big of a family. 

 

At the end of the day, it's up to you and your peace of mind on whether or not you would want to try it. But just know that, I really have not read a single horror story on this. Another tip is to download the MPC app so you go in the shorter MPC line (kind of like global entry, but the free version - it's supposed to let you through quicker). You answer so many questions on the app prior to getting to the immigration counter, that typically you are not really asked much when at the counter. When I went, the MPC que was literally 5 minutes long (the other immigration line was huge and barely moving), we had about 3 families in front of us and the officer was keen to keep the line moving quickly so was stamping everyone quickly. All we got asked was 'are you here on vacation?'. I said 'yes'. He smiled and stamped our passports. He was very pleasant too. We were done so quickly we were the first ones from our flight at the baggage collection belt. 

Thank you for your kind comments and understanding. I am hoping its gonna be this year we finally get the green cards and go. Fingers crossed. But thank you for the advice and help should we decide to go visit before. 😊 

4 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

All countries can deny entry to visitors.  You shouldn't travel at all if that's too big of a risk for you.

 

Why do you think being denied entry would be that bad?  I can see it's no fun, but it has zero impact on the immigrant visa process (unless there was misrepresentation/illegal activities).

As I said to another member in the chat, I have 5 kids with pending 1-130 so if they were all denied at entry that would be pretty bad 👎 I'm not talking about the immigration impact I am referring to the having to go home after an 8 hr flight with 5 kids impact 😉 😂

8 hours ago, Crazy Cat said:

Was it the AI generated answer?  

No idea. Heard it from online lawyers too that it can be risky - shown immigrant intent blah blah 🤷 

2 hours ago, Megadreams said:

Chiming in on this as well, I have successfully entered using VWP when my i-130 was still pending. The officer I talked to was fully aware of the petition and happily let me in. No idea where you got that information from, but it's not true whatsoever.

I got the information online and have heard lawyers say its a risk online also. I have heard it is up to the officer at the port of entry. Personally I wouldn't want to risk it but that's a personal choice based on my own circumstances. I have 5 children with pending I-130s and to be told no and go home would be financially and emotionally awful 😢 

9 hours ago, Daphne . said:

My lawyer never said anything like that, they did say that it’s always up to CBP if they let you in. Even if you do get denied entry on an Esta or tourist visa because they think you won’t leave the US after your visit (suspected immigrant intent), it won’t impact a pending I-130. 

That's what I mean though. I wouldn't want the risk of possible denial because of the immigrant intent already there. But if it works for others and the OP that's great 👍