FAQ: Case Transfers to another Service Center

[d3adc0d3 186]

Case Transfers
Current as of July 2013.

Many posts are being made about transfers, and what these emails/notifications mean.

(I dropped a post in the K1 Forum but it has to do with Service Centers, so I'll post one here too)

If you filed a K-1 petition received a notice that looked like one of the following, your case has been transferred to another Service Center.... NOT your local office. Local offices do not process I-129F petitions. The method of transfers applies to all case types, however whether it was transferred to your local office depends on your case type. You should receive an Notice Of Action Transfer (NoA-T) in the mail telling you where your file was transferred within two weeks of the electronic notification or case update on the USCIS website.

This transfer is usually a good thing. A transfer will occur when a Service Center is backlogged and cannot keep up with the influx of petitions, so they transfer the backlogged cases to another service center so those people can be processed in a timely manner. If you were told you have to wait another 180 days -- this is incorrect. Many Tier 1 Immigration Officers (the first people you talk to when you call the customer service number) are given a script to read from, which more often than not contains misinformation. They do not have access to any information that you, yourself cannot find online by either checking your case status or what is available on the USCIS website. Your case will be processed by receipt date, at the speed of the adjudicator processing it, and influenced by the complexity of the case.

In many cases there will be three notifications when a case is transferred.

The first notification will contain something like this:

On July 10, 2013, we transferred this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E) to another office for processing because they now have jurisdiction over the case. We sent you a notice of this transfer. Please follow any instructions on this notice. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address or call our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283.

This means that USCIS has sent your electronic file to the other office. Every time your file is handled by someone they have to scan it (to track where it is and who last handled it so they know who is responsible if anything come back with an issue), when they scan it if there are updates regarding your case (transfer, RFE, typographical error, inquiry, etc) there will be an accompanying message.

The second notification will typically be a few hours after and will contain something like this:

On July 10, 2013, we transferred your I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E), to your local USCIS Office for further processing. The new office has jurisdiction over your case and will send you a decision as soon as processing is complete or you will be notified if further information or action is needed. If you move, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address.

This means that USCIS has mailed your physical file to the Service Center that will be processing your case moving forward.


The third notification will be about a week later and will contain something like this:

The I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E) was transferred and is now being processed at a USCIS office. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address or call our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283.

This means the Service Center that is processing your file has received the physical file and will begin processing once the adjudicator picks up the batch (based on received date).

Within a week you should receive an NoA-T in the mail, which will look like this (private information has been supplemented by sample info):



What does this mean for me?
This means that for most straight forward cases you may see your NoA2 or an RFE within a month or two. If your case is not straight forward or your case got flagged, it may take longer. Keep in mind every case is different. If you are outside the standard processing times you should contact the USCIS Customer Service line and ask to speak to a Tier 2 Immigration Officer. You should make sure your case wasn't lost in the shuffle, and that it is being worked on. Find out if you missed any notifications or if there is something that you can do to help move it along. Some immigration officers can be quite rude, so always remember to be as polite as possible. These people are overloaded with work and they're just people too. Be clear, concise, and to the point. They are busy people and their time is valuable.

So I can expect to get approved in a month or two?
This is the United States Government. Nothing is a guarantee. You might hear back in a month or two... You might not. It might be an approval, it might be an RFE, it might even be a denial. A lot of cases which were transferred in the past from the VSC to the TSC were adjudicated within 4-6 weeks. Follow the forum posts stay alert, and watch the progress of people within your Service Center to get an idea of what is going on. The speed of who is getting their cases adjudicated has to do with the complexity of the case, whether you're beneficiary is in a high fraud risk country, and the speed in which the adjudicator themselves work.

I am a <Month> filer from that Service Center and I didn't get transferred, should I be worried?
No. The Service centers tend to transfer people in batches. Your case may have already been assigned to someone, or they transferred files between X date and X date, and your file was not within that range. Many times when the files are transferred approvals from both service centers are soon to follow. Don't worry until you're outside of the standard processing time. You can see when your case was last touched, and if it was touched prior to the transfers, chances are you were already assigned.

How do I check to see if my case was "touched"?
If you haven't created an account on the USCIS website you can do so here. If you have you can log into your profile from here (make sure you choose "Customer" for the user type). Once you're logged in you'll see a page that resembles the image below. The "last updated" date shown below is the last time your file has been "touched".



How do you know what the messages mean regarding the electronic and physical files? Nothing in the messages indicates this.
I called a Tier 2 Officer and asked him to explain the transfer process. He explained that for transfers the first email you get is the electronic notification, the second was the actual mailing of the physical files and the third was when the Service Center your files are being transferred to has received the physical files.

Edited July 15, 2013 by d3adc0d3

[prettyjackie 16]

MY F JUST FILED JULY 9, 2013, IT WAS ON ACCEPTANCE BY JULY 12, 2013.. THEN WE GOT NOA1 HARDCOPY NOTICE DATE IS JULY 16, 2013..THEN JULY 22, 2013 ALIEN REGISTRATION NUMBER WAS CHANGE. WHEN I CHECK MY CASE STATUS AUGUST 7, 2013( YESTERDAY) I SAW THE MESSAGE WAS CHANGE BUT STILL UNDER INTIAL REVIEW. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? NOA2 SOON??

"On August 6, 2013, we transferred your I129F, PETITION FOR FIANCE(E), to your local USCIS Office for further processing. The new office has jurisdiction over your case and will send you a decision as soon as processing is complete or you will be notified if further information or action is needed."

[d3adc0d3 186]

According to this Alert on the USCIS website:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=405247ce85e50410VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e7801c2c9be44210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

Starting the week of July 29, 2013, USCIS began redirecting all newly filed Forms I-129F from the VSC to the TSC. The receipt notice will bear a TSC receipt number beginning with "SRC". The case will be processed by the TSC. The CSC will continue receiving Forms I-129F.

[JEWELLA 10]

on the USCIS website it stated that myI129F was transfer August 9,2013,but my fiance never receive any text messages,email or a notification NOA-T) in the mail.I wonder if it got anything to do with me cause i sign up directly to USCIS website for status update with my address and now comparing your screen shots i had the notification off plus no U.S number.do you think that as anything to do with no being notify of whats going on?

[prettyjackie 16]

on the USCIS website it stated that myI129F was transfer August 9,2013,but my fiance never receive any text messages,email or a notification NOA-T) in the mail.I wonder if it got anything to do with me cause i sign up directly to USCIS website for status update with my address and now comparing your screen shots i had the notification off plus no U.S number.do you think that as anything to do with no being notify of whats going on?

he need to choose the YES in accepting email or Yes on mobile.. sign in to ur account again and check if done clicking the YES.

[JEWELLA 10]

he need to choose the YES in accepting email or Yes on mobile.. sign in to ur account again and check if done clicking the YES.

Thank you!

[Lanu 1]

Case Transfers

Current as of July 2013.

Many posts are being made about transfers, and what these emails/notifications mean.

(I dropped a post in the K1 Forum but it has to do with Service Centers, so I'll post one here too)

If you filed a K-1 petition received a notice that looked like one of the following, your case has been transferred to another Service Center.... NOT your local office. Local offices do not process I-129F petitions. The method of transfers applies to all case types, however whether it was transferred to your local office depends on your case type. You should receive an Notice Of Action Transfer (NoA-T) in the mail telling you where your file was transferred within two weeks of the electronic notification or case update on the USCIS website.

This transfer is usually a good thing. A transfer will occur when a Service Center is backlogged and cannot keep up with the influx of petitions, so they transfer the backlogged cases to another service center so those people can be processed in a timely manner. If you were told you have to wait another 180 days -- this is incorrect. Many Tier 1 Immigration Officers (the first people you talk to when you call the customer service number) are given a script to read from, which more often than not contains misinformation. They do not have access to any information that you, yourself cannot find online by either checking your case status or what is available on the USCIS website. Your case will be processed by receipt date, at the speed of the adjudicator processing it, and influenced by the complexity of the case.

In many cases there will be three notifications when a case is transferred.

The first notification will contain something like this:

This means that USCIS has sent your electronic file to the other office. Every time your file is handled by someone they have to scan it (to track where it is and who last handled it so they know who is responsible if anything come back with an issue), when they scan it if there are updates regarding your case (transfer, RFE, typographical error, inquiry, etc) there will be an accompanying message.

The second notification will typically be a few hours after and will contain something like this:

This means that USCIS has mailed your physical file to the Service Center that will be processing your case moving forward.

The third notification will be about a week later and will contain something like this:

This means the Service Center that is processing your file has received the physical file and will begin processing once the adjudicator picks up the batch (based on received date).

Within a week you should receive an NoA-T in the mail, which will look like this (private information has been supplemented by sample info):

What does this mean for me?

This means that for most straight forward cases you may see your NoA2 or an RFE within a month or two. If your case is not straight forward or your case got flagged, it may take longer. Keep in mind every case is different. If you are outside the standard processing times you should contact the USCIS Customer Service line and ask to speak to a Tier 2 Immigration Officer. You should make sure your case wasn't lost in the shuffle, and that it is being worked on. Find out if you missed any notifications or if there is something that you can do to help move it along. Some immigration officers can be quite rude, so always remember to be as polite as possible. These people are overloaded with work and they're just people too. Be clear, concise, and to the point. They are busy people and their time is valuable.

So I can expect to get approved in a month or two?

This is the United States Government. Nothing is a guarantee. You might hear back in a month or two... You might not. It might be an approval, it might be an RFE, it might even be a denial. A lot of cases which were transferred in the past from the VSC to the TSC were adjudicated within 4-6 weeks. Follow the forum posts stay alert, and watch the progress of people within your Service Center to get an idea of what is going on. The speed of who is getting their cases adjudicated has to do with the complexity of the case, whether you're beneficiary is in a high fraud risk country, and the speed in which the adjudicator themselves work.

I am a <Month> filer from that Service Center and I didn't get transferred, should I be worried?

No. The Service centers tend to transfer people in batches. Your case may have already been assigned to someone, or they transferred files between X date and X date, and your file was not within that range. Many times when the files are transferred approvals from both service centers are soon to follow. Don't worry until you're outside of the standard processing time. You can see when your case was last touched, and if it was touched prior to the transfers, chances are you were already assigned.

How do I check to see if my case was "touched"?

If you haven't created an account on the USCIS website you can do so here. If you have you can log into your profile from here (make sure you choose "Customer" for the user type). Once you're logged in you'll see a page that resembles the image below. The "last updated" date shown below is the last time your file has been "touched".

How do you know what the messages mean regarding the electronic and physical files? Nothing in the messages indicates this.

I called a Tier 2 Officer and asked him to explain the transfer process. He explained that for transfers the first email you get is the electronic notification, the second was the actual mailing of the physical files and the third was when the Service Center your files are being transferred to has received the physical files.

thanks! this helped

[sewa 0]

My fiance called the customer service yesterday because since they requested for additional document August 23 2013 we haven't heard anything from them.But when he called the customer service yesterday,he was told that the application is on queue to dispatch,but we don't understand what this means.Pls can you explain to me?.thanks

[Ken Adams 41]

Hello,

My I129F and I130 was transferred to Nebraska Service center on 28/02/2014. Why i am worrying is does NSC process the I129F?

Here my timelines:

I129F NOA1: 18th Oct 2013

NOA T1 -To another office: 25th Feb 2014

NOA T2 - To Your local office : 26th Feb 2014 (Mail Received and mentioned that it sent to Nebraska Service Center)

NOA Touched : 28th Feb 2014

I130 NOA1 :28-Sep-2013

NOA T1 -To another office: 25th Feb 2014

NOA T2 - To Your local office : 26th Feb 2014 (Mail Received and mentioned that it sent to Nebraska Service Center)

NOA Touched : 28th Feb 2014

Waiting for NOA 2

Rg,

Blsuda

[Ken Adams 41]

Still waiting for NOA2

Timelines:

I129F:

10-18-2013: NOA1

02-25-2014: Transferred to another office

02-26-2014: Transferred to local Office

02-28-2014: Was transferred

03-02-2014: Hard Copy received case transferred to Nebraska (NSC)

I130:

09-23-2013: NOA1

02-25-2014: Transferred to another office

02-26-2014: Transferred to local Office

02-28-2014: Was transferred

03-02-2014: Hard Copy received case transferred to Nebraska (NSC)

How many months will it take to get NOA2??

Thanks,

blsuda