At the time we submitted our K1 application, it was currently taking about 5 months to do the initial review at the California service center, so we were hoping that soon we would be getting word back soon, as the 5 month date would be tomorrow.
I went out to the USCIS site, to check the processing times, and they had jumped up to 6 months! I didn’t know why it had slowed down, or if it would affect us, so I decided to do some research, and found this post on visajourney.com
Apparently, I wasn’t the first to notice it, and the poster did a lot of research and number crunching to determine why things were getting delayed. It’s pretty technical, but in a nutshell, what it means is:
…the recent slowdown coincides almost perfectly with the California Service Center (CSC)’s acceptance of a new type of application called the I-821D Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals(“DACA” applications)
The DACA applications have caused a major slowdown in the processing of I-129F petitions at the CSC. The CSC has singled out I-129F petitioners to bear the brunt of these DACA filings. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Let your representatives know that you do not deserve to be singled out for a delay in reunited with your loved one while DACA applicants jump the line to approval. Use this evidence in your complaints to them if you’d like. The USCIS is playing games with our petitions, but now we have the facts to call them out on it. So what are you waiting for?
So this is pretty frustrating. From the numbers, it seems like a lot of the people that are doing the processing of I-129f (fiancee visa) applications have been pulled to do the DACA’s, and now there is a growing backlog of people waiting for their I-129f’s
There is some more information here as well. The poster who put it up online, has already been waiting over 7 months, and there are others waiting over 8 (meaning that they filed before we did, and are still waiting)
One poster contacted their senator, and got this reply from their case worker:
USCIS electronic records indicate the referenced I-129F case, WACXXXX-XXX-XXXX, was filed on 8/22/2012. Our current processing time is approximately 5 months from the date the petition was received. However, please note that our office has received a high volume of submissions in this workload. There is a current backlog and the petition is currently located with the adjudication division for the assigned I-129F workload (pending action).
You can really see it in this graph:
The uptick in the yellow line shows the backlog of waiting applications, and the green bars show how many have been completed. Note the sudden drop off, and we don’t have stats for Feb or March yet.
Anyway, it’s makes my heart ache to wait even one extra day….This really sucks…and we may have to adjust the dates for the wedding plans as well.
USCIS—美国公民及移民服务局(US Citizenship and Immigration Services)
USCIS下设四个服务中心:
VSC—佛蒙特服务中心(Vermont Service Center),处理EAC开头的移民申请文件.
NSC—内布拉斯加服务中心(Nebraska Service Center),处理LIN开头的移民申请文件.
TSC—德州服务中心(Texas Service Center),处理SRC开头的移民申请文件.
CSC—加州服务中心(California Service Center),处理WAC开头的移民申请文件.
4/12/13: I have been waiting for almost eight months now for the CSC to process my i129f K1. They received it 8/17/13. It would seem that nothing can be done. The USCIS is not responsive to questions. The data they do publish is highly suspect. This is a huge facility and they do not care about the “stakeholders.” Their job is to process paperwork and they do work hard at it. Our problem is political. Obama promised almost all the illegal children in the country that they could become legal in order to help him win in November. His decision has required that all the new applications from these illegal kids be given priority, and the USCIS has responded by reassigning K-1 workers to the DACA paperwork. SInce my application was received, over 400,000 DACA application have been received by the USCIS, and over 250,000 have been processed. During this time very few i129f applications have been touched. Eventually they will begin working the i129f applications again, but nobody can say when, even though they have been given 5 Million Dollars by “Stakeholders” to process them.
Rob & Rachel, I just wanted to say I enjoyed your story.
I too have the woman I love waiting in China for a K-1 approval to join me in the US.
I was lucky to have spent the month of March with her in Beijing and an 8 day tour of Yunnan Provence. So many of your experiences are the same as I had experienced it was if you where writing my story.
Thank you for sharing and I hope you guys will be rejoined Soon.