I-130 Approved November 2025, No Movement Since
Hi!
It's been a while since I posted here. I lurk occasionally to see how everyone is doing. I wanted to give an update on our case.
My husband is South African. Johannesburg is the only embassy that does IR/CR visas (we are consular processing).
Timeline is this:
- Married November 19, 2023
- Took 3 months to get long form marriage certificate from home affairs. The certificate had errors (they misspelled my name). Took another month to get it corrected.
- Using an immigration lawyer (a gift from my in-laws) based in Missouri. He is the one who advised us to do Consular Processing in the first place. Really regretting THAT now, but I digress. Their office took about 2 months to get all the paperwork finalized and uploaded, which was really annoying. I swear, I don't think getting an attorney is worth it if your case is straight forward and you've immersed yourself in the process, because they've added about 8 weeks to every step of this process just waiting on them to look over our paperwork and submit things, but I digress.
- submitted I-130 in June 2024. Eventually downloaded TMV, it was spot on for us.
- I-130 approved August 2025. Immediately paid the NVC fees and filled out the DS-260/ I-485 (or whatever that other form is called). Sent it to the lawyer Sept 2025. I swear it took them a month to actually submit the documents. I think I finally just did it myself?
- Documentarily Qualified November 2025.
- Have been stuck in limbo since. Johannesburg embassy is currently scheduling interviews for cases that were DQ'd in July 2025, so we're fast approaching a full on-year backlog. There is no option to switch embassies since the guidance changed last year.
We've basically lost all hope. I'm planning to apply for my permanent residency in SA and, once my current job is finished, move down there for a while. I'm almost 36 and we were hoping to start a family soon, but I'm so scared to do that without this mess being finished. I love my husband so much, and thankfully I feel like this whole process has made our marriage so strong. We've had to build so much trust and really learn how to communicate with each other. Long distance marriage is no joke.
My job has taken me to London before (my husband and I lived there for a while when I was working there) and I'm lucky I have the luxury of being able to travel and see him often. But this process is so broken and so fundamentally cruel. I guess all this is to say, my heart breaks for all of you. I feel your pain. And to anyone who has come through the other side, I celebrate with you.
Keep sending out the good vibes, friends. I just keep telling myself this, too, shall pass, but damn it's getting hard to believe it.