r/I130Suffering

Consular standalone case, USC filing for South Korean spouse. Filed last march, waited patiently like everyone else. The infamous slowdown started. 5 months passed. tired of waiting. Congressman didn’t help, expedite got denied, processing time on USCIS kept getting longer.

Finally sent a demand letter last Saturday (email+physical mail to USCIS chief counsel. Our case was in Texas service center but didn’t bother to send them anything) and got approval letter 4 days later. The physical mail obviously hasn’t got delivered so I assume they read the email version.

Approval letter received and for us, no petitioner interview scheduled. Guess we’re moving to NVC now?

Anyway, this community helped me with writing the demand letter and made me feel less alone while waiting.

Thank you guys and I hope your case also gets approved soon. 🇺🇸

I just submitted a demand letter 3 days ago and I havent receive any response or something. When should I expect some response? Do you have same experience that they never had a response from your mail? What should I do?

Background: I am a USC and husband is Italian. We have been married for 7 years and have two kids together ages 9 and 5. Both kids born in Italy. We never filed before because we thought we would be abroad forever and still had time. I worked for the UN and he was remote with another UN agency. Im a total dummy because I should have just filed and then he could have gone straight to citizenship since I was posted abroad with an international agency recognized by the UN. Anyways hindsight is 20/20. I had to leave my job for various reasons last year (less funding and they were forcing me to a non-family duty station so I took a buy-out). Our long term plan is to be back in the states but I need a job there first. In the interim we have settled in Rome while we wait which is not too bad and I have picked up some consulting work.

I filed in July 2025 (no updates) and submitted our kids Italian and American (CRBA) birth certificates, our marriage certificate and Apostille, my Will & Testament leaving everything to him of course, my Italian equivalent of a “green card” and that’s pretty much it besides identity documents. We had a courthouse wedding right before covid hit so no big wedding photos or anything. I was advised to proceed this way because we have kids so it’s straightforward but I am still nervous that I did not submit “enough” - any thoughts? Thanks to you all.

I live in the US and my wife is living in Brazil, we have been waiting for our application to process for a little bit over 16 months. After sending a demand letter our case started to process and we got the interview schedule information today. What is worrying us is that it says, "If you, the petitioner, have filed the Form I-130 based on marriage, in addition to your husband or wife (the beneficiary) coming to the interview with you, bring:"

I checked in the I-130 form we submitted lines 60-62 that my wife is able to go to the US Embassy in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I called USCIS about the interview and the lady on the phone thinks that this just might be the standard boilerplate language that doesn't get updated. Did anyone else go through this?

Hi everyone,
I filed a Form I-130 for my spouse under the F2A category (Spouse/Child of LPR) (country India)

Priority Date: November 2024

Time : ~20.5 months (628 days)
Given the current processing times and backlog, I’m trying to decide if it’s time to reach out to my local Congressman/Senator for an inquiry.

Has anyone in a similar timeline or category had success with a congressional inquiry at this stage? Or will they likely just send back a template response stating it's still within standard processing times?
Would appreciate any insights or recent experiences!

Hi everyone! Our I-130 expedite request was just approved on August 18 via Congressional help because my husband in active-duty US Navy. The I-130 isn't approved yet, but we want to get a head start and be completely ready for the NVC stage so we can move fast. Can anyone share the exact list of requirements we will need to upload to the NVC portal once the I-130 is approved, and what the next step look like? Thank you so much

Can somebody please help me with making an senator/congressional enquiry regarding i130

Please guide me how to do it
Thankyou

Hi, my husband (USC) and I are trying to expedite. Honestly, we really need this to work my husband is in a very bad way. I know expedites are very rarely approved but we have to try!

So far we are doing:

Statement from USC pet
Statement from beneficiary (me)
Evidence from various health professionals, including one that states my husband’s condition significantly improves when we are together.

Would it be beneficial to contact our congressmen with an expedite request first?

Finally my turn!! I-130 approved. I am the wife of a U.S. citizen and we have a daughter together who is also a U.S. citizen. PD March 2025. What a relief. Best of luck to everyone.

What needs to be in this demand letter to congressman , meaning what's important to include and how to compose it ?

Anyone who filed their I-130 between March–July 2025 and has already received an approval? Please raise your hand 🙋‍♀️
If possible, share your PD, service center, approval date, and whether you’re an IR-1/CR-1 spouse. It would really help us track the current approval pattern. 🙏

My I-130 was filed Feb 2025 (PD 05/29/2024), no movement since. Want to reach out to my congressman’s office for help before escalating further.

How do I actually contact them is it a form on their website, email, phone? What’s worked for others?

Hi, our PD date is May 6,2025. Im extremely disheartened to see that the wait time has gone up to 24 months. i feel overwhelmed. can someone please help me on how i should go about a demand letter or wom? we are doing consular processing.

https://preview.redd.it/e5xaylb2t6kh1.png?width=982&format=png&auto=webp&s=20c12af7fe3c2b5046ba58883b5f1085ba0afc18

When should I file a demand letter / mandamus?
Hi everyone! My I-130 is marriage-based (IR-1/CR-1) with a PD of December 18, 2025.
For those who have experience with demand letters or mandamus:
At how many months after your PD did you send the demand letter?
Did USCIS take action after the demand letter? If yes, how long did it take?
If you proceeded with mandamus, how long had your I-130 been pending?
Would you recommend doing it around 13 months, 15 months, or waiting longer?
Did you use an immigration attorney, and approximately how much did it cost?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have actually gone through the process, especially recent I-130 filers. Thank you! 🙏

When I filed for I-130 in June 2025, the processing time was showing 17 months, and then it changed to 21.5 months, and now it’s showing 24 months. It just keeps increasing, and I wonder what people should do about it. I also wonder if a writ of mandamus, demand letter, and things like that even work. I would like to hear from people who have applied for it and also from people who have any alternative solutions to this. I’ve also been thinking about relocating to another country with my wife, who is in the USA, while waiting it out because we don’t know how long it’s going to take.