Bleauwolf's US Immigration Timeline

Petitioner's Name: E Beneficiary's Name: H VJ Member: Bleauwolf Country: China Last Updated: 2010-12-15 Add Comment to Timeline Register or log in to follow this timeline

Immigration Checklist for E & H:

USCIS I-130 Petition:       Dept of State IR-1/CR-1 Visa:     USCIS I-751 Petition:   USCIS N-400 Petition:

IR-1/CR-1 Visa Event Date Service Center : California Service Center Transferred? No Consulate : Guangzhou, China Marriage (if applicable): 2008-09-16 I-130 Sent : 2009-09-01 I-130 NOA1 : 2009-09-15 I-130 RFE : I-130 RFE Sent : I-130 Approved : 2010-01-08 NVC Received : 2010-01-14 Received DS-261 / AOS Bill : 2010-04-15 Pay AOS Bill : 2010-04-19 Receive I-864 Package : 2010-04-21 Send AOS Package : Submit DS-261 : 2010-05-05 Receive IV Bill : 2010-05-20 Pay IV Bill : 2010-05-21 Send IV Package : Receive Instruction and Interview appointment letter : 2010-05-26 Case Completed at NVC : 2010-08-11 NVC Left : Consulate Received : Packet 3 Received : 2010-07-20 Packet 3 Sent : 2010-07-21 Packet 4 Received : 2010-08-12 Interview Date : 2010-09-13 Submit Review Interview Result : Approved Second Interview (If Required): Second Interview Result: Visa Received : 2010-09-15 US Entry : Comments : Here We Go!!! 2009-09-09 USPS confirmation I-130 packet received / USCIS Chicago Lockbox 2010-04-02 Contact NVC: 1) (10 weeks - Nothing received). NVC claims backlog. Letter should be sent out in a week. 2) Submit email address to NVC all future NVC correspondence will be sent to me via email. (no more postal waiting time). 2010-04-15 Received from NVC: AOS Fee Invoice / DS-3032 (choice of agent) form for H. 2010-04-19 AOS Fee sent electronically via DOS website. 2010-04-21 AOS Fee status PAID. Portal access given for I-864 form and instructions, via DOS website. 2010-05-05 1) DS-3032 submitted via email / 2)Sent official 'Opt In' email to NVC to continue NVC process electronically. 2010-05-20 Applicant IV Bill received. 2010-05-21 Pay IV Bill. 2010-05-26 IV Bill status: PAID 1) Portal access given for DS-230 Visa Applicant form and instructions, via DOS website. 2) Noted several mistakes made by NVC in the email sent to us. 3) Prepared a response email indicating mistakes and also failure of NVC to acknowledge our 'Opt In' email and failure to give us a new NVC case number to be used for electronic processing. 2010-05-26 Received 2 response emails from NVC 1) Mistakes made in past correspondence by NVC were corrected. 2) Acknowledgment of 'Opt In' for electronic processing. 3) New case number for electronic processing issued. 2010-07-07 At last all docs completed! DS-230 + civil docs / I-864 (x2) + required docs; All submitted to NVC via electronic process. 2010-07-08 1) NO Electronic auto receipts received from NVC via email. 2) Called NVC (got nowhere). Was told to re-send DS-230 and I864's again to be safe... All packages resent. AGAIN, NO auto response receipt received. 3) Wrote email to NVC Inquiry. Re: no auto response receipt for all vital docs sent. Request confirmation. 2010-07-14 As of yet have not received any response from NVC acknowledging receipt of vital docs (DS230 / I864 (x2). Prepared another inquiry email to NVC and attached previous inquiry from July 8. 2010-07-15 Received NVC letter via email. Confirmation DS-230 and I-864 packages received by NVC on 9 July. 2010-07-20 1) Second response comes from NVC via email regarding my inquiry (July 14th email). 2) NVC indicates one last form needed for process completion. However, the idiots don’t list or specify what’s needed. 3) In the letter they say they have sent a duplicate blank DS-230 packet plus the mystery form needed by postal mail to China. F’ing idiots. WE’RE IN ELECTRONIC PROCESSING and the DS230 packet was already approved on July 19!! 1148PM Made a call to NVC and raised a storm. Lucky this time I had a competent agent who knew his stuff. He saw the email NVC sent and said disregard it as it is erroneous. NVC was preparing another email to be sent out. However, we cut to the chase and FINALLY I got an answer that the final form needed was the P3 Supplement Sheet, and he gave me the link. Form downloaded and completed / H met me on-line / I sent the doc / she went to print shop, printed it signed it and emailed back to me (total time to accomplish = 45 minutes) / cover sheet and completed P3 Supplement submitted by email to NVC before they were open for business. NVC auto response receipt received. DONE! I will add this footnote as you will see the absurdity of how long NVC took to “review” one simple form. The P3 has 6 simplistic and redundant, basic questions. They are: Applicant’s Name / Case Number / Visa Category / Date of Marriage / Local Address (China) / Local Telephone Number. THAT’S IT!! (As if that info is not plastered all over multiple docs already). 2010-07-28 Six days have passed since P3 received by NVC, nothing yet from NVC. I call NVC. The operator tells me no P3 received. However system shows several documents were received recently (meaning DS230 & I864 packages). Recently received? The gd things were approved back on 19 July!!! Ask to transfer call to supervisor. Supervisor confirms the P3 was received on 22 July (even though it was sent before NVC office opened on 21 July). Now comes the volcano… I am informed the P3 is currently under review and will take 6 to 8 weeks to complete review. :0 what the f… WHAT?!?!?! I informed the supervisor of the six questions on the P3 and that it is incomprehensible why this one form would take 6 to 8 weeks to review, ESPECIALLY when the 75 pages of docs (DS230 / I864x2 packets) were reviewed and approved in 10 days (7 business days). Supervisors generic response… NVC is really back-logged. Prepare a letter and call Congressman’s office. File a formal complaint detailing all mistakes made by NVC, which have caused huge delays, and request an inquiry to NVC regarding this case. 2010-08-03 No news. Call NVC again. Get nowhere. Generic answer: “case is currently in review”. No information available when the review will be completed. 2010-08-06 Call NVC for update. I was told: System shows that case is set to get (consulate) interview appointment. Unfortunately, unable to set an appointment date for August as the Guangzhou consulate appointment calendar is now booked up for August. Unknown if we will get appointment date for September. 2010-08-09 Receive email from NVC. 1) Confirms all documents have completed review. 2) When a consulate interview date is available we will be notified. (No idea or time frame given as to how long that will take). NOTE: It took from 22 July to 9 August to complete review of the one page / 6 question P3 form. Although I am certain they also re-reviewed the other docs again (admin process). Keep in mind that all other docs were officially completed review and approved on 19 July. Follow-up letter written to Congressman’s office. 2010-08-11 Still no news. 1) Call NVC. Got nowhere. 2) Phone call made to Congressman’s office in Washington DC. Spoke with Director of Liaison Services. Informed her of the whole nine yards and also that my initial submission has not been adequately addressed. Said that she will follow-up on it personally. 2010-08-13 RECEIVED INTERVIEW APPOINTMENT DATE (13 September 2010). A FOOTNOTE TO THOSE WHO MAY READ OUR TIMELINE: In most cases I would NOT recommend taking the route of contacting your congressional or senatorial representative… UNLESS you truly have a problem out of the ordinary. The reason I say this is because: if those offices get bogged down by too many inquiries about “typical delays” (meaning unpredictable processing times), then the use of getting help when it’s really needed for legitimate problems will be ineffective. In the end I did contact my Congressman because of several reasons combined. I will just mention the most important ones. 1) We were in electronic processing which is significantly supposed to cut processing time. Yet, in the end her interview date is 12 months and 2 weeks since the case was first submitted to USCIS. To give a quick statistic so you have a better idea: 250 pages were submitted as part of the I130 petition to USCIS. They completed and approved it in 4.5 months (including delivery time). Statistically, for that year, it was completed nearly 6 weeks ahead of approximate statistical average. On the other hand, a total of 75 pages of documents were submitted to NVC (nearly 66% Less than that submitted to USCIS) and NVC took 8 months to complete, approve, and schedule the interview date. 2) Most importantly, NVC made some significant errors during the process, to include giving out erroneous instructions which were against the policy and guidelines of electronic processing. They didn’t follow their own procedures… more than once. Primarily, NVC was the cause of nearly three months delay for us. 3) Several times calling NVC I received very contrary information regarding updates, to the point that the inaccurate information made everything meaningless (all my calls to NVC are not listed here). I could tolerate a mistake or probably even two. But, NVC was grossly incompetent in the handling of our case. The main reasons I’ve listed here, along with a few others, was the reason I finally took the step to contact my Congressman’s office. But I did so only after many things had built up. I didn’t do so just because NVC took a long time. To be fair, I will add that at one point we were later turning in the DS230. The reason was my wife was seriously ill at the time and was bed ridden. However, this delay was only about 3.5 to 4 weeks. PINK! PINK!......... and PINK!! 2010-12-14 So sorry to everyone for my update delay. Due to a major internet problem with my ISP (spam virus) I had no internet access until now. I will post my review in the China portal within the next few days. Processing Estimates/Stats : Your I-130 was approved in 115 days from your NOA1 date. Your interview took 363 days from your I-130 NOA1 date.

Member Reviews: None Found

To enter a review please select one of the following:

--o Consulate Reviews
--o US Port of Entry Reviews
--o US CIS Local Office Reviews



Timeline Comments: None yet, be the first!



*Notice about estimates: The estimates are based off averages of other members recent experiences
(documented in their timelines) for the same benefit/petition/application at the same filing location.
Individual results may vary as every case is not always 'average'. Past performance does not necessarily
predict future results. The 'as early as date' may change over time based on current reported processing
times from members. There have historically been cases where a benefit/petition/application processing
briefly slows down or stops and this can not be predicted. Use these dates as reference only and do not
rely on them for planning. As always you should check the USCIS processing times to see if your application
is past due.

** Not all cases are transfered

ver 5.0