Hi again

[Jim - Portland, USA]

if you filed an I-129F  18 months ago, your information is useless. If you received a P-3 1 year ago, who cares, it is old history.

I very much disagree with that statement. The point of CFL is to help people. Right? Or is the point of CFL to proclaim to the world that your SO was once interviewed by a government official? I think the point of CFL is to help others. I got a lot of help from CFL, and I firmly believe in "passing on" the favor to others.

 

Detailed timelines serve as a step-by-step guide on how to progress and complete the immigration process.

 

Something like this ...

 

HOW TO GET YOUR SWEETIE HERE

 

Step 1) ...

Step 2) ...

Step 3) ...

 

Our timeline serves as a good example as what some other couple in a similar situation (engaged couple from Oregon/China) should do.

 

I would much rather list all the big steps in my timeline rather than field an endless barrage of questions from others such as:

 

When will the service center confirm receipt of I-129F?

What does NOA stand for?

What happens after NVC processes the paperwork?

When can she get her visa after the interview?

 

Instead of having 1000 people ask the same questions over and over, they can just look at a few detailed timelines to get answers to their questions.

 

I'm grateful to all the nice folks ahead of me who kept (and maintained) detailed timelines which served as step-by-step guides for me to follow. I still feel that way, especially for the AOS process! Bing and Carl are a good exmaple. They and us are in identical boats, but they are a few months ahead of us. So every once in awhile I'll peek at Carl's timeline to see what my next step should be.

 

Back when I felt lost and confused, I wouldn't have cared one bit if there were timelines from 1976, as long as the steps-to-follow were the same.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that timelines are extremely valuable for the details, if not for the timeliness. I'd rather have a detailed timeline than a timely one. With all due respect Stats, perhaps your timeline might be as useless to others as you procalim the lengthy ones to be. Your timeline only begins with the interview. That's fine. But what about all the hundreds of folks behind us who are not yet to the interview? I think my timeline is more helpful to them than yours. And again ... this goes back to my philospohy that the point of CFL is to help others. Others feel differently, they just like to take and not give, I know. But personally I like to help others as much as I can. And what's the downside of detailed timelines? A few extra scrolls? I wish every CFL member had detailed timelines start-to-finish. That would have meant many more scroll clicks for me, but considering the amount of effort that goes into the whole immigration process, some extra mouse clicks mean absolutely nothing.

 

To the contrary, which is more meaningless, mouse clicks or detailed information?

 

I know that after one gets the interview, it's easy to disengage from CFL. To lose interest, and also to lose sympathy for others. One does not feel as compelled to offer assistance to others when not in need of assistance yourself.

 

For me, as long as the steps of the K-1 process stay the same, then I'll keep my timeline the way it is. As soon as the K-1 process changes significantly (submitting application online through web-form, then interview is scheduled following week), then my timeline becomes irrelevant. But as long as the steps remain the same ... then the song remains the same too

[tonymasiello]

One thing I think would be nice, especially for those with the long sigs, is to turn them off when you are making your second, third, fourth... post to a given thread. It is just a matter of unchecking the Do you wish to enable your signature for this post?. One time per thread is sufficient in most cases.

 

Also, I think some of the detail that some go into is a bit of overkill, IMHO. Perhaps because I never made a call to NVC, or got a DHL tracking number, or knew when our P3 was entered into GZ's computers...

[tywy_99]

Keeping a timeline in your signature is good for all who can relate to them during the time that people are going thru the process. People who have filed relatively close together then have something to compare with. After you go thru the process and your SO gets the visa, the timelines become rather useless, unless there is some energetic individual who wants to compile statistical data on them all. They become useless because the system is ever changing. No rhyme or reason to it at all. I used to keep a timeline but after my wife got the visa, I did away with it. People in my timeframe would compare to mine, and in turn, I would compare to theirs. We all compared to each others and it helped to pass the time away.

Looking at some of the timelines posted here these days, I feel that we were fortunate. I wish I can say we were as fortunate in the time it's taking to do the AOS thing.

 

%%- good luck to all

[Stats]

if you filed an I-129F  18 months ago, your information is useless. If you received a P-3 1 year ago, who cares, it is old history.

I very much disagree with that statement.

You haven't been around very long. PJ's post hits the nail on the head.

 

Being a know PITA, I was ranting a bit about seeing overly long sig's with outdated information and, coincidently, usually by people with high post counts.

 

No big deal, just an observation. I'd still like to stick around and help a few people, if I might. If not, I 'll just move on.

[MikeXiao]

Myself, I have found the timelines very helpful in determining about how much time from one step to the next. Unfortunately, we are going the CR-1 route, and there are not many following this path. So I will keep my timeline up, for others to see. Maybe it will help them.

[Chinese Wife!!!]

Then, about a year ago, the same timeline was running 8 ~ 10 months on average.

 

Now, the times are stretching out to 12 ~ 14 months.

 

When looking at posted timelines to get an guesstimate on how long yours will take simply isn't meaningful if you are more than, say, six months later. The process is in constant flux.

 

Looking at the number of steps and the sequence can be helpful, but remember that the process has changed dramatically every six months for the last several years.

UNEXPECTED CHANGE That is the only consistent thing in this process.

 

(The poll forum has some of my comments on this also.)

Back in May/June an I-129F/130 thru CSC was about 12- 14 months.

My I-130 was approved in a MONTH @CSC

 

An I-129F at MSC was a few months.

NOW right about 181 days.

 

NVC function has changed as Don has stated and I believe it has slowed down even more so for the CR/IR 1 path than what is indicated on Mike Xiao's timeline. All the recent influx of CSC approvals, transfers from NSC and TSC (and subsequent approvals) and other increased load at MSC has resulted in a viewable slowdown at NVC for the I-130'S.

 

My NVC timeline: I'm a posterchild on how NOT to do it from China with a problematic USPS/ non-responsive NVC