Every case is different is all I will say….We just don’t know what is involved in every person’s case.

My understanding is that the cases that are stuck usually require a secondary approval where for some reason the case manager could not make an immediate decision. This would send them to a secondary approval queue with additional checks being performed (and more waiting time of course). Best comparison would be airport security. Some people get searched, others just walk through and you always have a priority line and sometimes it’s completely luck based as to which security line you got queued at. People already in the US would depend mostly on field offices and the NBC, for us outside of the country we have the service centers. Generally for standalone ones from outside the US you don’t just get lucky unless you have an expedite on your case. This is an idea only though, I had to somehow rationalise this past 16 months of nonsense.

My PD is 5/26/23 and still waiting they haven’t even reviewed our I-130

@K 🇺🇸 D 🇭🇳 Agreed💯

@Agnes 🇬🇧 Well explained but I believe that cases that need secondary approval shouldn’t be kept waiting for long beyond the processing time no matter the peculiarity of the case. it just seems like they completely abandon the case when priority date is past. The service should know they’re not just working on documents but people’s hope and emotions too.

@jenn epp wow! have you tried reaching out to them?

@Dorcas OY no based on the time frame it’s still within normal processing time and it says please don’t contact us before this date so idk if I should

I agree with you @Dorcas OY - but I am beyond criticising any of it as I just condemn the whole process. The whole purpose of it is to create a funnel and stop people from immigrating regardless of the reason. All of us here are not even in the queue yet for immigration, we are just saying our spouses are real people, they are American citizens and the marriage is real. They could do this (and already doing this) during the green card application. For comparison the UK has 300k family visas a year, the US has 500k with 6x the population. Its a disgrace is what this is and nobody’s case should take more than 4 weeks before they can apply for a green card.

my pD is nov 2 2023 still waiting for approval

@Agnes 🇬🇧 That’s really a lot for a year. That still shouldn’t make them delay decisions cuz they’re still going to go through the same scrutinization process for the cases. I hope it gets better and everyone is happy at last

@jenn epp when was the last time you reached out to them? are you in US?

@Dorcas OY I’ve never reached out to them . yes we’re in the US. my lawyer said there’s nothing we can do just sit and wait for an answer. I’m a born us citizen and my husband arrived with a work visa idk why it’s taking so long.