Is it just me, or has USCIS granted more approvals lately? Could it be because of 250th anniversary? Has the pause on permanent visas for the 75 countries been lifted?

I'm a US citizen (family has been in US since 1850s) with a spouse in Pakistan.

Oct 2025 - Married

Nov 2025 - Filed I-130 (used boundless immigration to help with initial paperwork)

Dec 2025 - USCIS sent notice of filing received

Jan 2026 - Radio silence - visas paused for 75 countries including Pakistan

May 2026 - Filed for B2 (temporary) visa (used overseas Pakistani travel agency in Lahore to help file)

June 2026 - visa application received and awaiting timeframe for Islamabad Embassy interview. (Estimated time for B2 embassy interview Oct-Nov, is what our travel agency advised)

Anyone offer any insights into our process so far? Are we making progress?

hello! i just want to ask if anyone has the same situation as me. my parent became a green card holder in 2023 and quickly petitioned me under F2A visa for consular processing. my PD is september 2023 at that time i was 20 yo. now, 3 years later (i’m 23 now), there hasn’t been any movement with my petition even though the visa bulletin says its current. i asked chat gpt and its says the visa bulletin has already advanced past my priority date and that the remaining bottleneck is that USCIS still hasn’t approved the I-130. is anyone also experiencing the same thing? and what could be the reason for USCIS taking long to approve the I-130? any advice would greatly help. thank you!

Standalone I-130 submitted in Jan 2023 for LPR spouse residing outside US. USCIS inquiry says its within normal processing times, but I see quite a few posts about approvals for dates later than Jan 2023. I have reached out to congressman, but a not a lot of movement there as well. Can anyone who has tried contacting the CIS Ombudsman share details about it ?

As this community is for Consular Processing I have a question that needs clarifying and hope this gets answered.

If an I-130 petition is approved, an Embassy interview and medical have been completed, but the applicant is a resident of one of the 75 banned countries, can a Writ of Mandamus be filed against the Federal government and enjoin the Ambassador and Consular General as parties to the suit?

Are there any case files like this referenced in LexisNexis to refer to?

Has anyone in similar situation been approved? I’m getting worried.

Can anyone confidently say that USCIS is still actively processing consular I-130 petitions?

From what I understand, trackers like Track My Visa, My Case Hub, and similar sites compile data from both AOS and consular cases. If that's true, how do we actually know that consular petitions are still moving?

The "front of the line" for consular cases doesn't seem to have moved in months, at least based on what many of us are seeing.

If you've had a consular I-130 approved within the last three months, would you mind sharing:

• Your priority date (PD)
• Whether your case was straightforward or had any RFEs/complications

For context, my own case has apparently been transferred multiple times according to different Emma/live agents. I've been told it has moved between service centers, then to a field office, and most recently to the Benefits Integrity Office. I'm not sure how reliable Emma's location information is, but if anyone has had a similar experience, I'd really appreciate hearing what it ended up meaning.

Many of us with PDs from mid-February 2025 onward feel like we're completely in the dark and are still waiting without much indication of progress.

Any insight, recent approval timelines, or experience with these case transfers would be greatly appreciated.

Hello I was wondering if anybody else had a silent update on the 1st of the month on their i130 petition counselor petition for spouses or family members outside the US?

My case became documentarily qualified (DQ) on March 12 for a CR1/IR1 spouse visa at the U.S. Consulate Mumbai. I’m still waiting for my interview letter. Based on current timelines, when can I realistically expect my interview?

Fellow sufferers,

I’m seeing too many people sitting around hoping the black hole of USCIS will magically open up. It won't.

I submitted my I-130 back in April 2025. Since then? Absolute radio silence. Like the rest of you, my case hit a brick wall when the processing pause went into effect in February 2026 with zero transparent explanations from the government.

Today, I finally decided to stop dilly-dallying. I filed a Writ of Mandamus completely pro se (without an attorney), and the entire process cost me less than $500 out of pocket.

If you are tired of checking an app three times a day for updates that aren't coming, it is time to force their hand. Here is the reality check and exactly how I did it.

Why You Can't Afford to Wait

The government's processing holds and policy shifts this year mean your file is sitting in a box indefinitely. A Writ of Mandamus isn't asking for a guaranteed approval; it is a federal lawsuit asking a judge to compel USCIS to do their job and make a decision.

Cost Breakdown (How it stayed under $500)

You do not need to drop $3,000 to $5,000 on a private immigration lawyer just to get a complaint filed in federal district court.

Expense Item	Approximate Cost
Federal Court Filing Fee	$405 (Standard nationwide fee)
Printing & Copies	~$20 - $30 (Complaint, exhibits, summonses)
Certified Mail / Shipping	~$30 - $45 (Serving the summons to USCIS, DOJ, etc.)
Total Out of Pocket	~$460 - $480

How to Do It Yourself (Pro Se)

1. Find Your District Court: Identify the local U.S. District Court that has jurisdiction over your residential address.
2. Grab a Template + Let AI Edit It: Look within Reddit immigration communities for a basic Pro Se Mandamus Complaint template. Once you have it, feed it into Claude (the free version) and use the AI to help you edit, customize, and plug in your specific facts. It makes formatting the formal legalese incredibly easy.Pro Tip on Rate Limits: If you hit Claude's free message limit while editing, don't sweat it. Just spin up a new account with a different email address, copy/paste the text of your previous chat to catch the AI up, and keep editing right where you left off.
3. Draft the Summonses: You will need to prepare official summons forms for the defendants (typically the USCIS Director, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the local Field Office Director, and the U.S. Attorney General).
4. File and Pay: Take your physical copies to the federal clerk's office (or use electronic filing if your district allows pro se electronic access). Pay the fee.
5. Serve the Government: Once the clerk issues the summonses, send them via Certified Mail (Return Receipt Requested) to the specified government entities.

The Bottom Line

Once the U.S. Attorney's office gets served, they have 60 days to respond. In an overwhelming majority of cases, the government would rather just adjudicate your underlying I-130 petition to make the lawsuit go away than spend resources defending it in court.

Stop letting them hold your life hostage. Get your paperwork together, hit up your local district court, and file.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and this is not formal legal advice. I am just a petitioner who got fed up with the 2026 gridlock and took matters into my own hands.

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for recommendations for immigration attorneys or legal teams that have experience handling mandamus cases.

I would really appreciate it if you could share your recommendations and experiences with the attorneys or legal teams you worked with, including costs, timelines, communication, and overall results.

Any advice, insights, or referrals would be greatly appreciated as we evaluate our options and consider the next steps for our case.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Hope you are all have good plans for celebrating the Independence day.

I wish you all those are eagerly waiting for your I-130 approvals and hope that the next 4th of July you are celebrating with your families.

I know it's been a stressful journey for some who got married and really love there spouses. I am one of them.

Hopefully, we all start seeing approvals soon and catch on with our nerves.

Update: Track My Visa said that they recently reported petitioner's interview for I-130 consular case PD February 27, 2025. I don't mind that if that can make my application moving.

I recently heard that the all MAY 29 API update for location changed to FOD was for the entire batch for additional background check?

Is that true?

I hope that it doesn't take too long for approval.

My mind is blown right now.

Hello! I'm curious about something, we filed our i130 online (consular processing) with pd 15th of June 2026 and on the notice of receipt it said the case was at the NBC which I thought was only for AOS or adoptions. Any idea of why this is and if it's common? Edit: my wife is a US citizen

Let me know!

We are waiting on I 130 approval. My husband is a US citizen. I am in India. As the waiting time of I 130 is so long.

If a child is born in India while i130 is in process for spouse, will the child be a US citizen? Or child’s wait time will be as long as say 17-20 months?

I am a natural born white USC with a foreign spouse in a non-banned country. About a month ago, I checked this site to inquire about processing times for my I-130 and I-129F (K3) https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times. Our I-130 was received on March 21, 2025 and our K3 on April 25, 2025. When I had checked for the earliest time I am allowed to inquire about the K3, the site said I could inquire on July 2, 2026. I just checked it again and they moved the date to July 15, 2026. It seems like they just keep moving the goal posts.

filed a WOM and it backfired on you? If so, will you give details??

I filed I-130 3 months ago, and I still have not received the receipt notice, not even in my online account. I also filed a non-delivery notice 2 times. Looks like they stopped doing anything. Anybody has similar or dissimilar experience with recent filings.

Hello everybody,

My husband filled for me (Belgian) a I-130 petition via consular in october 2025. Back then, we were being told that processing time would be around a year and half/2 years.

I have checked on trackmyvisa and I'm horrified to read that "We expect that USCIS will start processing cases from your filing date around December 7, 2027."

My first question is, how reliable trackmyvisa is? And does anybody know how/why processing time is being wicked slow? I'm very scared I won't be able to live with my husband before mid-2028.

Thank you to everybody who answers and good luck for anybody else in a similar (or worse) situation.