On second thought, USCIS does not know if they approved our I-130 or not

[Abby&Mario 100]

"LOL, my bad, call back next Thursday." -USCIS

What in the ever loving hell. Last night I posted with excitement because we got our approval e-mail and the case was updated online to post-decision activity: approved on April 17. At just two weeks it was extremely quick and I though we were either very lucky or they must be doing the auto-expedite thing for petitioners filing from abroad again.

At 3 a.m. today I got the e-mail confirming the change of address I made yesterday with a Tier 2 rep a few hours before receiving the surprise approval e-mail, which came in at 12:30 a.m., and saw that in that 3 a.m. e-mail that the case had been changed back to "initial review." My account online had been changed back to the same thing and had a new "last updated" date of April 18 (when it was approved it showed the 17). So I called USCIS and talked to a Tier 2 rep who was quite cranky, told me that the computer wasn't showing her any approval and that processing times for I-130s are between eight and nine months before hanging up on me.

After freaking out, I decided to call again and talk to someone else. The Tier 1 rep said that if I got the e-mail, we were definitely approved but I wanted to talk to Tier 2. This guy said that the computer wasn't showing our change of address yet. He also said "it could be a glitch in the system" in reference to our approval. But then he said that their system hasn't been updated and that I should call back next Thursday. He said he'd seen fast approvals before, that they do happen, but there was no way our case status could be confirmed until we call back next Thursday.

The short version: You can call USCIS to confirm your case status but unless their system is updated, you get nothing but speculation and old information. System "glitches" apparently happen where they send approval notices when they should not. I really can't believe there is no way to confirm the status of our case right now. I'm making a real effort to stay calm, but letting myself feel that excitement and joy only to have it followed by crushing disappointment and now confusion isn't fun, I'll just put it that way.

[Marco&Bettina 502]

Someone fubared. Now they're trying to cover it up.

[Abby&Mario 100]

Someone fubared. Now they're trying to cover it up.

Yep, after calming down and really thinking about it, my husband hasn't even been assigned an alien registration number as far as I know, so I am inclined to agree with you. It still floors me that I couldn't get confirmation one way or the other after talking to two Tier 2 people. It just sucks because I had no illusions about this process taking forever. I accepted long ago that the whole thing would take around a year and we had accepted having to arrange our lives around that. But the shock and elation I felt last night can't even be described. Now I just feel deflated and bitter at the thought of it actually taking that long.

[Marco&Bettina 502]

Yep, after calming down and really thinking about it, my husband hasn't even been assigned an alien registration number as far as I know, so I am inclined to agree with you. It still floors me that I couldn't get confirmation one way or the other after talking to two Tier 2 people. It just sucks because I had no illusions about this process taking forever. I accepted long ago that the whole thing would take around a year and we had accepted having to arrange our lives around that. But the shock and elation I felt last night can't even be described. Now I just feel deflated and bitter at the thought of it actually taking that long.

I can only imagine the emotions you felt last night. All just to be crushed now. I'm sad for you. I'd be devastated if that happened to me. I'm already trying not to obsess over the process. As I'm sure you are as well. So receiving such false news is truly a travesty.

[dwheels76 5,468]

Yep, after calming down and really thinking about it, my husband hasn't even been assigned an alien registration number as far as I know, so I am inclined to agree with you. It still floors me that I couldn't get confirmation one way or the other after talking to two Tier 2 people. It just sucks because I had no illusions about this process taking forever. I accepted long ago that the whole thing would take around a year and we had accepted having to arrange our lives around that. But the shock and elation I felt last night can't even be described. Now I just feel deflated and bitter at the thought of it actually taking that long.

129F's get alien numbers assigned upfront at USCIS not I-130's. Don't be concerned with that. Just call on Monday and everyday until you find out whats up.

[Abby&Mario 100]

I can only imagine the emotions you felt last night. All just to be crushed now. I'm sad for you. I'd be devastated if that happened to me. I'm already trying not to obsess over the process. As I'm sure you are as well. So receiving such false news is truly a travesty.

Thank you so much for your kind words.

129F's get alien numbers assigned upfront at USCIS not I-130's. Don't be concerned with that. Just call on Monday and everyday until you find out whats up.

Thanks, that's very valuable info. And will do; I had already decided I wasn't going to wait till Thursday to call again. As much as the second Tier 2 guy was helpful, I just don't trust any of them at this point.

[Abby&Mario 100]

UPDATE: Called again today and got verbal confirmation from Tier 2 (took a bit of work but I got it out of him) that the system shows that WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED! I requested that they send another NOA2 to our U.S. address since the first one was likely sent to our old Bogotá address, and according to this guy they will do so. What happened was that they approved the petition before I called to change the mailing address address, but I was unaware. I mean, it must have happened mere hours before I called about the address. What are the odds?? The address change was processed after the approval, which is what put our status back to initial review. It was just automatic. I've been instructed to ignore what my case status says online because we were indeed approved.

Thank you to Visa Journey for letting me vent and for all the great information y'all make available here. This is truly an invaluable resource and I continue to be impressed by the work of the veteran posters and especially the mods, who run such a tight ship, every time I log in.

[silverjetplane 34]

UPDATE: Called again today and got verbal confirmation from Tier 2 (took a bit of work but I got it out of him) that the system shows that WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED! I requested that they send another NOA2 to our U.S. address since the first one was likely sent to our old Bogotá address, and according to this guy they will do so. What happened was that they approved the petition before I called to change the mailing address address, but I was unaware. I mean, it must have happened mere hours before I called about the address. What are the odds?? The address change was processed after the approval, which is what put our status back to initial review. It was just automatic. I've been instructed to ignore what my case status says online because we were indeed approved.

Thank you to Visa Journey for letting me vent and for all the great information y'all make available here. This is truly an invaluable resource and I continue to be impressed by the work of the veteran posters and especially the mods, who run such a tight ship, every time I log in.

Wow! I am really happy for you and very surprised! Do you have any idea why the case was expedited so quickly? Were you able to ask anyone? I read in another post you wrote that you speculated about filing abroad having some effect. I am really interested because I also filed from here in Chile and the petition was sent to the California Service Center. In any case, congratulations and good luck for the next steps! Keep us updated!

[Abby&Mario 100]

Wow! I am really happy for you and very surprised! Do you have any idea why the case was expedited so quickly? Were you able to ask anyone? I read in another post you wrote that you speculated about filing abroad having some effect. I am really interested because I also filed from here in Chile and the petition was sent to the California Service Center. In any case, congratulations and good luck for the next steps! Keep us updated!

Thanks, yeah, it was a total shock! I didn't ask why--I thought about it, but I didn't want to push it. Tier 2 reps are not the most cheerful people on the planet and it took me telling the guy today that someone else had told me the approval e-mail might be a "glitch in the system" to finally get verbal confirmation that we were approved. The most I got from one the other day was "quick approvals have been known to happen" when I was still trying to figure out what my real case status was. Just getting the damn case status was enough work that once I got that, I was out of there.

If you've never come across this thread, you might want to take a look: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/357465-usc-petitioner-living-abroad/

Basically, for a while there after DCF was taken away from most of the world, many couples filing from abroad were "auto-expedited." It's a pretty interesting (but LONG) thread, although that trend seemed to die pretty quickly. I added my case there because it may be happening again. That's honestly the only explanation I can think of.

I was extremely meticulous in putting our I-130 packet together and we both looked over it many times before sending it off, but there are plenty of people who put perfect petitions together with oodles of relationship evidence who then have their file sit on a shelf for months. We'll probably never know for sure why it happened to us.

I tried to make this related thread happen but it got pushed down really quickly: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/491670-do-all-i-130s-filed-from-abroad-go-to-csc-now/ Would be interesting to see if we start seeing more quick approvals out of CSC.