ForumTitleContentMemberSexCountryDate/Time
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

Those couple whose NOA1 is dated 2/27/12 who got approved 2 days ago made me so excited as I have the same NOA1 date. Hopefully, we all done within 2 weeks. Do you have any approved petitions around that date?
Thanks.

I actually don't have any numbers past 2/21: if you wouldn't mind PMing me yours to give me some idea of the range to search, though, I'll try to find some. Most of the numbers I have are from earlier in the month, so it would be great to balance those out and get some idea of what's going on later in the month.

Yeah. When I gathered these I was searching down by the 100s as I just wanted to get a rough idea on progress. This was around the time VSC was slowing down and I wanted to be sure it wasn't just visa journey members neglecting to update their progress (hah yeah right!)

I've been checking your spreadsheet and it's very impressive! It's actually quite helpful to see the % completed from the dates. Nice job.


Thanks! :thumbs: I'd be happy to share it with others too, if anyone is interested in watching. It is linked to my gmail account, though, so you have to promise not to turn into a crazy stalker.

In other news, I just found a few islands of I-129Fs received 2/8, and there is a LOT of recent activity. Out of 31 petitions, 13 are already approved, and 3 more have RFEs. The recent stuff:
Aug. 1: 3 approvals
Aug. 3: 1 RFE
Aug. 6: 4 approvals, 1 RFE
Aug. 7: 1 approval
Aug. 8: 2 approvals, 1 RFE
Aug. 9: 1 approval
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-09 11:28:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?
I found a few new approvals during this morning's check of the numbers: 1 from 2/2 (approved yesterday), and 2 from 2/7 (1 approved yesterday, 1 today). I haven't checked the 2/21 numbers yet, though. Later on, I'm going to try to find some time to go prospecting for new numbers. We really have very few from most of the days I'm watching.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-09 09:24:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

Sorry if you have answered this many time in the past. But how are you getting this info?

I got the info directly from the USCIS website by searching with receipt #s (some of which I got by looking at the receipt #s above and below mine, and some of which were passed along by other people). It certainly doesn't represent all of the petitions for February (not even close: if there are roughly 200-300 for Feb. 21, then ~20 workdays a month would give us 4000-6000. But it's something, anyway.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-08 12:12:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

So, the him went to work and I spent the past few hours "running numbers " on the USCIS website and now I cant access my page anymore :unsure:

Its telling me

"Access To Selected Resource Not Authorized.
You have not Logged In or Your Session has Timed Out"

Errrr....what to do guys?

Yes, don't log in! You can check numbers without accessing your account.

Thanks to everyone who has shared receipt#s/ranges! I have 537 that I am tracking now. So far,
81 approvals
46 RFEs
42 immediately rejected for being improperly filed, or withdrawn
Total 169 (31%) with any form of activity at this point.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-08 11:50:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?
I'm not sure if any of these overlap with Mary's (probably), but for this week so far, I've found (all dates are receipt dates, not NOA1 dates):

August 6
2/6: 1 RFE, 1 approval
2/13: 1 approval

August 7
2/6: 1 RFE, 2 approvals
2/7: 2 RFEs, 1 approval
2/13: 2 approvals
2/21: 1 approval

August 8
2/6: 2 RFEs
2/7: 3 RFEs, 1 approval
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-08 10:56:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

Feb. 13 (31)

Make that 54! Just found some more.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-07 22:12:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?
Congrats, Gavin + Heather!

Just ran through the numbers on my NoA2 date and 2 approvals so far. Granted there are like 100 I129F received on my NoA2 date but a girl can only hope and pray to NOT be in the much dreaded "lost pile".
Fingers crossed for tomorrow and the rest of the week.
*hugs*

There was also an approval from my day (received 2/21) today!

Would anyone else like to share the receipt #s you're monitoring? Of course, if we do that, then we could end up posting duplicate reports for the same petitions, but I guess that wouldn't be a horrible thing. I'd really like to add some more to my list, particularly from mid-February and later. I have some from another VJer (thanks, Kattze!), so that brings the collection I'm monitoring to:
Feb. 1 [note: receipt date, not NOA1 date] (27 petitions)
Feb. 2 (75)
Feb. 3 (13)
Feb. 6 (24)
Feb. 13 (31)
Feb. 21 (215)

No approvals or RFEs in any of these today except for the 2/21 one I mentioned above. Grrr.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-07 21:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

The process is quite straight forward. They blindfold a member of their staff, they go into the storage office and grab 3 random boxes. The contents of the boxes are then tipped out into one pile, which is then shuffled a little. All staff have to pick a handful of petitions from this pile blindfolded, they then have to find their way to a desk. Once at a desk they can removed the blindfold and start processing what they have.

It's difficult for some as they even miss a lunch break while trying to find an unoccupied desk. I think they should introduce a rule that if they've not got a desk in a couple of hours they should be able to remove the blindfold. Any petitions not complete at the end of the day are randomly put back on the pile.

At the end of the week very little is approved on Friday. This is because they're putting the petitions they haven't yet done back in boxes for storage over the weekend. Then Monday they repeat the above.

I hope this helps, it's the only way I can imagine they do it :P :rofl:

This sounds pretty much like how I imagine it, too, except that they're doing all of this with their feet, having their hands tied behind their backs and all. Also, they are now keeping the blindfolds on while they are adjudicating petitions, which is why there have been so many RFEs lately.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-07 07:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

OMG APPROVED :) checked the system and nothing two minutes later received the text.

Yay, congratulations!
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-06 11:24:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?
I just checked my group of I-129Fs received 2/21, and there was an approval yesterday! :star:
It's not much, but I'll take any encouragement I can get.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-03 12:52:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?
Oh, and in the interest of accuracy, I was looking back at this week's approvals, and realized that the way I'd been entering the dates when I was searching timelines for the graph was leaving out the Monday and Friday petitions (i.e. "2012-07-30 to 2012-08-03" translates to "after July 30 but before August 3" rather than "on July 30 and August 3 and all days in between"). Which admittedly weren't plentiful at times, but it still makes a difference. The pattern of approvals is still more or less the same, though.

Posted Image
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-03 09:16:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

Filers from feb @ VSC can start expecting approvals soon. Not to discourage you all or anything but expect a wait of 6.5 months before you all hear anything. and expect to be stalled from all the RFE.s they gave out for Jan petitions. Otherwise from that, im wishing you all the best and speedy approvals. :thumbs:

I'm hoping that with this spurt in VSC productivity, the worst of the elongated wait times will be a thing of the past. Just since July 20 (after seeming months of no change at all), the approved January VSC petitions have gone from 63.9% to 73.4%, and the February ones from 8.8% to 17.1% (with the effect dampened slightly by the fact that the total number of VJ petitions for each month keeps inexplicably increasing: there have been 7 new January petitions and 16 new February petitions added to VJ since July 20). If the next couple of weeks continue on this trajectory, the whole picture will change very rapidly.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-03 08:25:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

Cool, thanks for that. I'm guessing staff holidays in June ;) Looking better now though, no more holidays until they've caught up! ...I don't mean that, all those lovely people at VSC are doing a great job, truly amazing people (I'm not sure if they read VJ, but...) :)

Yeah, it could have been vacations, but if that was the case, it should have affected California equally but it didn't. Not to mention that they didn't break their stride a bit during Christmas/New Year. But as long as they're heading in the right direction, whatever.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-02 22:54:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes to play with numbers!

Last night I made this graph. I've been keeping track of the # of VSC VJ approvals per week for a while, and then I went back and searched timelines to find data for each week since around the beginning of the year. Things are definitely looking up! This week and the week before last are in a two-way tie for the highest # of VJ approvals at VSC since February!

Posted Image

(Also, the end of June? <cringe> That was a bad, BAD time...)
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-08-02 11:10:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?
Congratulations, Bobbie!
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-07-31 06:39:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

I'm very sorry if it might be inconvenient for you, but I was wondering if you could teach me how to do that myself? I looked on the USCIS site everywhere and I couldn't find any link that would allow me to see other receipt numbers, how many applications they received on a specific day, etc.

There's no easy way to check how many petitions on a particular day, other than looking through a very long sequence of receipt numbers until you start to see petitions earlier or later than the target date. But you can check the status of any receipt # (not just your own) at https://egov.uscis.g...s/Dashboard.do. Just start with your own receipt # and then increase or decrease the last digit to see adjacent ones. Warning: it can get addictive.

Any idea where the wac applications are? I am assuming that "WAC" means "western area center" and EAC is eatern.


What do you mean by "where the wac applications are"? If you mean the current progress on CSC petitions, I have no idea, but in general they are speeding far, far ahead of the VSC ones.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-07-30 15:53:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

Alas.. No. My petition is all on its lonesome, surrounded by work authorization and protected status petitions. What a terrible place to be!


Just out of curiosity, is it between EAC1290462716 and EAC1290466881? That's the region I've catalogued thus far. If not, could you post your receipt # (maybe without the last 1-2 digits, for privacy's sake, even though there isn't any personal information available from the USCIS site)? I'm hoping to be able to monitor all of the 2/21 petitions.

And there are so, SO many work authorization and temporary protected status applications! Mind-boggling.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-07-30 12:01:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsAny February 2012 filers?

Wait... The 2/21 apps are being processed? Is this my lucky week!? Afoyoswa do you think we're in the same box? We have the same touch date.

Trying not to get excited here.

Could be! I wonder if your petition is in the batch that I am watching? It should be, but I probably don't have quite all of the 2/21 petitions yet. Are there others in a cluster around your receipt #, also? Yours may be part of a cluster I haven't yet discovered. It's a little like being an astronomer.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-07-30 07:51:00
Vietnaminterview proof of relationship

Thats not a wedding Photo !! It's a photo from a Dam Hoi (engagement ceremony)

As I said before, things are different in Viet Nam.


I've seen photos from quite a few of my Vietnamese friends' engagement ceremonies, and no one has ever worn a Western-style wedding dress in any of them, hence my confusion. I guess the consulate there must really be different if the usual advice (not to have anything that looks like a wedding, for fear of being denied a K-1 due to being presumed already married) does not apply. I wish it were possible for me to take photos in my wedding dress with my fiancé's family in Uganda without having this worry: so jealous!

Edited by afoyoswa, 26 February 2012 - 09:08 AM.

afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-02-26 09:07:00
Vietnaminterview proof of relationship
Looks like you have everything I can think of, but I hope that's someone else's wedding photo in your avatar!
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-02-25 19:16:00
VietnamStock And The Engagement Ring

but he's checking twice a day for the NOA2 and counting down the days, that's gotta be good for something. if he checks the site 4x/day maybe he'll get it by the end of june :thumbs:


Haha, if that would work, I would have had my NOA2 by, oh, March? I've been checking an embarrassing number of times every day since I submitted it. If only...

Edited by afoyoswa, 14 June 2012 - 09:58 PM.

afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-06-14 21:58:00
VietnamStock And The Engagement Ring

the end of July that's when I get My NOA2

Never mind the BoA stocks: the prediction I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting to see the outcome of is the one where you absolutely, most certainly, definitely get to I-129F approval in less than 4.5 months!

--Someone who filed before you & sees no end in sight

Edited by afoyoswa, 14 June 2012 - 09:16 PM.

afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-06-14 21:15:00
VietnamFRE requesting Marriage Certificate for me and my fiance

We did not get legally married and planned to do that when we got to a court house here but had a wedding there for her family.


I kind of skimmed over this part on the first reading, but it seems like this (bolding mine) could be a problem more than having photos in wedding attire. I have read here about other people running into situations when they had a ceremony in another country that was not legally binding in that country but ended up being considered a legitimate marriage here in the US (as many types of traditional ceremonies are: I don't have the thread handy, but there was a man who had a traditional Muslim ceremony overseas while still married to a US wife and seemed to have wound up not eligible for K-1 *or* CR-1 due to being thought to have legitimately married the 2nd spouse while still married to the 1st one, even though the 2nd marriage was not considered official in the non-US country). Was it an actual wedding ceremony, with guests and vows and all?
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-04-04 08:43:00
VietnamFRE requesting Marriage Certificate for me and my fiance

Would it be bad etiquette for me to re-post this on the Vietnam forum?


Yes, from what I have seen I think it would be frowned upon, although perhaps a moderator will move this one for you if that would be more relevant place for the thread.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-04-03 23:44:00
VietnamFRE requesting Marriage Certificate for me and my fiance
I wonder when the Vietnam forum people will show up and insist that including/openly posting photos in wedding attire when applying for a K-1 is perfectly fine, even expected? (http://www.visajourn...f-relationship/) Still seems like a potentially problematic idea to me, and this situation illustrates exactly why. Even if it *is* completely normal to have a universally accepted symbol of something (wedding dress = marriage) not necessarily mean what it symbolizes at all in a particular context (Vietnam), there's no way to ensure that everyone throughout this lengthy and multi-location process will understand that, so even if it is possible to overcome a problem like this, why would someone willingly risk the headache? Good luck getting this sorted out!
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-04-03 23:09:00
USCIS Service CentersVSC Updated their processing times page, and it's not pretty
Regardless of the projections from VJ or from USCIS itself, they'll still get to my case exactly when they get to my case, and not a day sooner, so what is the use of getting tied up in knots about projections or estimates? There is still a wide range of normal, and no way at all to predict when your particular case will be adjudicated. So...meh?
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-04-23 15:35:00
USCIS Service Centersvsc shut down?

Okay I originally had the service center as Texas because that is where we originally filed... but they moved it to Vermont. Visa Journey says to put original Service Center there... I changed it to Vermont and now it is saying my ajudication dates are June 4th, to June 11th. That sounds more like it... keeping fingers crossed.

Good! The Texas Service Center (which doesn't handle I-129F petitions) and the Dallas Lockbox (which distributes I-129F petitions to Vermont and California) are not the same thing, so you'll only get accurate estimates listing the service center where your petition is actually located.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-04-26 10:34:00
USCIS Service Centersvsc shut down?

why do we have to succumb to this ####!


Public service announcement:
I really hope your petition gets approved soon! Because otherwise, with the state of extreme indignation and high blood pressure that you seem to be in with every last post that you make, your health (and, to be honest, my patience with you) may not stand much more waiting. I would recommend acquiring a new hobby or starting some sort of new project as a way of learning to cope with this unpleasant in-between state (which most people tend to encounter time and time again throughout life, making it worth learning to handle gracefully). Everyone else here is waiting, too, just like you, and most of us manage not to be tied up in knots about it 100% of the time. Breathe.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-04-26 10:24:00
USCIS Service CentersVermont Service Center K1 Filers

the are not in order too..

They are never in order. Never have been, never will be as long as multiple people are processing petitions. (Although conversely, I guess, they're more likely to be approved in order now than ever, given that VSC now seems to have one lone person working on VJ I-129F petitions for approximately 10 minutes per week, this week at least. And that 10 minutes is a generous estimate.)
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-06-20 07:33:00
USCIS Service Centersany word on VSC
I don't know what it is that VSC is doing, but it isn't I-129F petitions and hasn't been (consistently, at least) since April. Hope they notice the growing pile of boxes everywhere SOON.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-06-19 21:48:00
USCIS Service CentersOCCUPY VSC!!!!!
Yep, they've never processed the petitions in date order, so that's not news at all. They're assigned in batches to different adjudicators who work at different speeds, on petitions of different complexity, etc. so there's really no way to predict what sequence they'll be processed in. Not a great system, but there you have it.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-09-18 07:30:00
United KingdomOriginal I-129F folder to interview?
This may be embassy-specific, but it is not outside the realm of possibility that some portion of the original I-129F package may have been lost/mislaid before your interview, so the people who bring the extra copy to the interview are trying to be prepared to resupply anything that could be missing. The VJ instructions recommend making a full copy of the petition before sending it, so most people already have a spare copy ready going into the interview and it isn't a big deal. My fiance will have one with him (but of course Nairobi is a tough consulate).
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-09-20 14:55:00
Russia, Ukraine and BelarusWho DIDN'T meet online??
Not RUB, but we met in person first (in his country). It *does* seem quite rare here on VJ: even the people who didn't meet on dating sites still mostly met via Facebook, online games, etc.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-09-24 07:46:00
Africa: Sub-SaharanPacket 3 mailed?
From what others have said, it doesn't seem that the mail is a reliable delivery mechanism between Kenya and Uganda (or Kenya and Kenya, for that matter).

However, all of the forms in the packet are (I believe) available at the Nairobi embassy's website at http://nairobi.usemb...a-packets.html. We're just going to print them out ourselves and complete them.

Good to see another Uganda couple! Are you the beneficiary or the petitioner?
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-02-28 08:56:00
Africa: Sub-SaharanSo has anyone considered moving to Africa instead of living here in America

we talked about me moving to senegal for a long time. but i wanted him to understand my culture as well (i had lived and studied in senegal). we decided to try living here first. in a few years, though, i imagine we'll go back.


This is us, too. My original plan was to move there, but I want him to be familiar with the US and comfortable navigating in my culture (such as, for instance, if he had to be over here without me for some reason), and it would also make things so much simpler if he could stay long enough to get naturalized. I've spent about 5-6 weeks over the past year in Uganda, and while I'm not completely up to speed on how things work, I feel comfortable there. We're hoping to go back together later.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-02-08 11:13:00
Africa: Sub-Saharanvacation together
I was thinking of trying to arrange a meeting in a 3rd country in order to be able to see my fiance sooner (gave up on this due to cost), and looked into the visa requirements throughout Europe. The UK and the western European countries seemed to be the most stringent: the only one I saw that might have been doable with an African passport was Italy. Do you have someone in the UK to invite him? (You mentioned a friend, but not sure what this person's status in the UK is and whether it's sufficient to invite a foreigner to visit.)

Edited by afoyoswa, 10 April 2012 - 09:21 AM.

afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-04-10 09:19:00
Africa: Sub-SaharanFrequency Of Communication

An astute point and why I decided to stick with RebTel.

Another thing I noticed is by the time you calculate the roundings and surcharges with Amantel it is not that much of a savings over RebTel.


The roundings/surcharges didn't look too bad, although I only looked at the details for the $50 card:

Product Details Connection Fee: No Fee
Call to International Cell Phones:Higher rates may apply
Sale Price:50.0
Maintenance Fee:No Fee
Expiration Date:6 months from the date of 1st use

Details: Calls are billed in 1-2 minute increments; partial minutes are billed as whole minutes. No connection fee or taxes. Minutes are advertised with local access number. *Toll free number charges extra 2.0c per min. Advertised mins are based on one single call as rounding and surcharges will reduce the actual delivered mins than advertised on website.

It would probably work well for keeping in touch with people back in Uganda once Aaron gets here: I'll keep it in mind for once we no longer have to be concerned about the call records.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-05-18 10:53:00
Africa: Sub-SaharanFrequency Of Communication

This is an eye opening experience.

RebTel is 8.4c/min
Pingo is 7.5c/min
LocalPhone is 6.5c/min
Amantel is 4.7/min

Going to try Amantel.

Thanks.

Does Amantel store records of phone calls, though? If not, I'll stick with RebTel: very easy to get and print history. It's 9.9c to Uganda, and Amantel is ~6-7c depending on how much credit you buy, but we really need the call history option.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-05-18 10:04:00
Africa: Sub-Saharangoing to pursue CR-1, live with him abroad (not in his home country). how will this affect the visa process

Then how did you connect?

She answered this already upthread: a Nigerian stranger contacted her out of the blue on Facebook expressing interest in her, and when she wasn't interested, he suggested that she might be interested in his friend instead. The Facebook group sounds like it came along after the fact.
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-05-15 08:59:00
Africa: Sub-Saharangoing to pursue CR-1, live with him abroad (not in his home country). how will this affect the visa process

Believe it or not, a long distance never-met-him-before relationship IS STILL a relationship.

And that is seriously the only thing you noticed about everything that I said to you in this thread? Like someone else pointed out downthread, believing your plan to be a good idea would take a healthy dose of ignoring everything you don't want to hear, and ignoring everything a poster says except the one thing you can snark about is a classic symptom of that. Best of luck!

(Also, religion and claiming to have religious ideals/motives is a classic lure and a great way to convince someone to let her guard down. Many people who are not at all involved in the religious world are well-versed in the lingo and would be perfectly capable of making someone think that they are the most devout people to ever walk the planet. So the missionary part? I'm not buying it.)
afoyoswaFemaleUganda2012-05-15 06:21:00