I received some amazing news yesterday! When I was just about to leave work yesterday, I saw in my personal email that I had a message from USCIS (who handles the first step in the visa process) that said they had taken action on my case. I quickly logged onto the website and saw that it said they are actively reviewing our case! I was floored, so excited to see that some progress was being made.
Of course, I had to tamper my joy, as there have been people who shared their timelines in Facebook groups who had one active review, and then months later had a second active review before finally getting approved. So it was very possible this was just our first active review. But still, I was so excited and quickly messaged my husband and showed him pictures from the website.
It was hard to keep my excitement and hope down though. I kept thinking that since we did not get an active review soon after filing that maybe this was the one and only active review we would get and then we could get approved. That maybe sometime the next day we could get our approval!
He was busy and did not get back to me right away, so I tried to keep myself busy when I first got back home, Finally, when he messaged back, he first just said “Really?” A little later he said that he was excited at first because he said he thought we were approved. We both posted in Facebook groups we are in, asking if they thought we might be approved soon. He got back that we should not get too excited as it was maybe just the first review.
Randomly as we were messaging, just about 2 hours after I first checked the website, I decided to go back on the off chance something had changed. I went through all of the tabs. The first is the Case Status where it still had to “Case is Being Actively Reviewed by USCIS.” The myProgress tab gives an estimate of how long until you get a decision (which I have heard and experienced is totally inaccurate), ours said 19 months. Next is the Case History which shows a history of what has happened in your case. Mine just was showing the date when they received my application and that day where it said “Case is Being Actively Reviewed by USCIS.” The final tab is Documents shows all of the documents you uploaded when filling out your application and any documents USCIS sends you. That is where you will see the Receipt Notice once they get your application.
On our Documents tab I saw to my utter shock we had a file called “I-130 Approval”! We had been approved by USCIS! I had looked it up on my phone and was having a hard time downloading the PDF so I quickly texted my husband that I think we were approved and ran to my computer. I logged in again and downloaded the PDF and yes, we had been approved!
Now, this is just the first out of 4 steps in the process, but typically this first step takes the longest. As of right now, the average length of time given for this first step is 16.5 months. Ours was approved in just over 4 months which is incredible!
Now, USCIS will transfer our case to NVC (National Visa Center) and I’ll get a welcome email from them when it’s been transferred. While we are waiting both my husband and I will start gathering documents and preparing information for the two forms to submit to NVC once I get the email to set up our account. This second step is fairly quick once everything is paid and submitted. Then we just need to prepare and wait for the interview!
I am very hopeful these next couple of steps goes smoothly and quickly and he can finally move to his new home and we can start living our life together!
