My I-140 petition under the EB1A category was approved in October 2022 and subsequently sent to the Department of State on November 18, 2022, for immigrant visa processing.
In February 2023, I received a welcome package from NVC instructing me to pay the required fees, submit the DS-260 form, and provide the necessary civil documents. I completed these steps, and in June 2023, I was notified via email from NVC that my case was documentarily qualified. As my priority date was not current at that time, my case was placed in the queue. Since then, I had not logged into my NVC account until April 2024.
To my surprise, when I logged in to my NVC account in April 2024, I discovered that my case status indicated it had been returned from NVC to USCIS for administrative action. However, there was no update regarding this return on the USCIS website, which still reflects that my case was sent to the Department of State on November 18, 2022. I also did not receive any notification from NVC about this return, leaving me unaware of when this occurred after my case was documentarily qualified in June 2023.
I have contacted USCIS multiple times for clarification. Most customer service representatives assured me that the status on their website is current and that they have not received my returned case. However, one officer informed me that my case was supposedly returned from NVC to USCIS in late November 2022—almost immediately after being sent to NVC—yet confirmed that USCIS has still not received it. They advised me to reach out to NVC for the exact return date and tracking information.
I have made numerous attempts to obtain this information from NVC, but each time I receive a template response stating that my case was returned to USCIS without providing the requested date of return or tracking details. This situation is incredibly frustrating, and I feel as though I’ve reached a dead end.
If my case was indeed returned to USCIS in late November 2022, why did NVC still send me the welcome package in February 2023, instructing me to pay fees and submit documents, and then confirm that I was documentarily qualified in June 2023?
As of July 2024, my priority date is current, and the U.S. Consulate in Montreal is processing cases that were documentarily qualified in May 2023. It is expected they will soon begin processing cases from June 2023, yet I have no idea where my case currently stands. Additionally, I noticed conflicting information regarding my case status at NVC. When I log into the CEAC website (https://ceac.state.gov/ceac/) under the "Immigrant" category and click on "DS-260, Online Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Application," entering my case number and invoice number, it indicates that my case was returned to USCIS. However, when I check the status through the "Check My Visa Application Status" option using my case number, it shows that my case is still "At NVC."
These contradictory results have left me even more confused and uncertain about whether my case has been returned to USCIS or if this is simply a website error. Anyone could share some thoughts? Thank you very much!
