Will I be needing a waiver for my husband once the I-130 gets approved then it will be denied at the embassy? If I’m correct or what should I be expecting
Husband overstayed in USA by 5 years
Filed I-130 abroad in Poland
Waiting currently
Hi everyone, a very random question. I'm trying to understand the difference in receipt numbers for cases submitted online. It seems like the standard receipt number starts in IOE09, but my receipt number starts with IOE987. What is the difference in these starting numbers?
I'm a USC filing for my spouse and my PD is 02/27/25. I'm still waiting on my approval.
Please just scroll past this if you dont agree or dont like what I am about to say but I think everyone should hear this. I am the beneficiary applying for IR1/CR1. I am a Canadian Citizen and my husband is a U.S Citizen, married for 3 years.
As of today it has been almost 10 months of waiting on our I-130. We are all frustrated, we are sad, we miss our partners, we miss our family, we all share the same goal, to be reunited. We all have our own personal situations. Some of us applying from banned countries. Some of us having children, alot of us struggling mentally and physically.
I have been waiting 10 months. Others have been waiting 13 months, 16 months, 24 moths etc. I am struggling mentally, I am struggling financially. To the point where I dont know if ill have a place to stay next month. Every day that passes not knowing when approval will come is painful. I havent seen my husband in over a year. We both cant afford multiple trips a year and not only it being financially difficult its even more difficult to take that time off work. That doesnt mean we are both not trying to make it work. But we also need to save for all of the costs for my visa and moving.
We are all in these groups for multiple reasons. Getting updates, seeing the trends on approvals. Sharing our stories. Sharing our frustrations with the system. Connecting with eachother. Knowing that we arent alone.
I see people posting about these things and venting. Telling their story. Being vulnerable. So why are some of us undermining their situation over the amount of time they've been waiting? We know there are others who have been waiting alot longer than us. Its unfair. We know. It shouldn't matter that they havent been waiting as long as you. Those comments saying "we have been waiting (x amount of time) relax/calm down/sit tight/stop complaining you still have a long way to go".
If youd like to share your story nobody is stopping you from doing so, its already difficult enough having to wait but making others feel bad for sharing that they are frustrated or sad. can we please stop with the negative comments on others posts.
We should be there for eachother. We are all waiting. And I cant imagine what those people who have been waiting way longer than they should be, how they are feeling and what they are going through. And I really hope your time comes soon. But its out of all of our control so instead of commenting just scroll past those posts.
Thank you.
Has anybody looked at applying for a K-3 visa?
My husband is on the pause list. We’re not living in america right now but the next big step in my career is going to have me go to the states. The K-3 last for 2 years. Of course the goal is to get a green card…. But is this loop hole something that is possible or am I google detective getting my hopes up too much??
My spouse filed an I-130 petition on May 31, 2024.
We received a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) on August 18, 2025, and USCIS confirmed receipt of our response on September 10, 2025.
By January, we still had not received any further update from USCIS, so we contacted our local congressman for assistance.
The congressman’s office later informed us that:
* Our case remains pending at the Los Angeles Field Office.
* USCIS stated that the case is “within normal processing time” and “may be scheduled for an eligibility interview when an interview slot becomes available.”
We have a few questions:
Shouldn’t our case be handled by the Service Center at this stage rather than the Los Angeles Field Office?
Is it normal for USCIS to mention a possible interview after a NOID response, even though my spouse is in the United States while I am currently in the Philippines?
We’re wondering what our next steps should be, as receiving this update has been extremely devastating for us.
Im november 2024 and not yet !
After 26 months of waiting on USCIS and sending like 8+ inquiries, we kept getting the same copy/paste reply “Your case is delayed due to national security.” No real info, no timeline, just endless waiting. It was honestly miserable.
Out of frustration I made a post here on Reddit, and law firm reached out and offered to help pro bono because I had to quit my job and move to Poland while my wife was pregnant.
They ended up suing USCIS, and about 3 months later we were approved.
Now my wife already did her medical exam and is waiting for her visa interview on June 9, and yesterday our baby officially became a US citizen through CRBA 🇺🇸
We truly can’t thank Gozel enough for their help and support. The relief after so much stress is unreal.
If you’re stuck like we were and you can hire a lawyer, seriously don’t hesitate, having legal help can make all the difference.
We’ve all been wondering how many 2024 cases are being approved, since the USCIS front line has completely stalled while they look back at older cases that were left behind. Save this post and leave your approval here when your time comes. It will definitely help others to not lose hope.
Just a vent session. Feel free to scroll by.
Hubby (🇺🇸) filed for me (🇨🇦) 319 days ago. In these past 319 days, we (like all of you) are supporting two households, and traveling to see one another when finances and work schedules allow. It’s breaking us mentally and financially. In August, my grandfather passed, and due to finances, my husband could not be by my side to say goodbye. In October, our first grandchild was born. Thank God hubby was here for that, because our sweet grandbaby princess died 20 mins after she was born. Hubby had to go home two days later, and was not able to be here for her funeral a couple of weeks later. It broke him. Then, my grandmother passed away this past Friday. Hubby refuses to miss another funeral, so we’ve scraped together the insane $1200USD to get last minute flights up here to Canada so he can be with our family. I understand the importance of good, solid background checks and screening. I understand wanting to keep the US safe, and not overwhelming the health system, and housing system, and everything else. As a Canadian, this is vitally important to me, as Canada has FAILED dramatically in its immigration programs. But the front of the line hasn’t moved in months, and families deserve to be together. We chose to file this way because we are both in our 50’s, previously divorced, and have to work to support ourselves and our commitments. We could not have filed any other way, and have me not work while waiting in country. I have bills to pay! However, those applicants are getting their visas in 6 months , and us consular processing applicants, who have obeyed all the rules, are waiting years!!! I’m so frustrated.
Ughhhh…thanks for listening.
I haven’t reached out to my attorney yet, but wanted to see if anyone had real world experience here. I just filed the I-130 (consular processing) in March of this year and my wife is Colombian. On top of the seeming halt to I-130 processing, there is the visa pause. I have the option to work remotely 75% of the time so I’ve been considering moving for a year or so while we wait out the process.
What are the implications? I can maintain an address in the states but I would be living there 0% of the time honestly. Only a fraction of my non-remote work in the states would be in the office.
Update to this post from two months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/USCIS/comments/1rr3vag/uscis_has_stopped_processing_i130_consular_cases/
TL;DR: The latest new approvals for consular processing are from the second half of February, then it came to a halt.
UPDATE:
Two months later, still no new approvals for I-130 (this part is handled stricly by USCIS in consular processing). AOS cases seem unaffected.
Why isn't there any information regarding this limbo? Why are consular cases left in the dust? Why is this "front of the line" pause happening?
We only have gossip and speculation. Current possible reasons:
1. Increased vetting / enhanced security checks
Recent reporting suggests this may be a factor. However, those reports indicate the policy was introduced around the end of April, while the slowdown in consular processing has been ongoing for over three months already.
2. SCOPS employees moved to field offices
There's no official public confirmation. This has been mentioned in a TMV blog post and discussed on r/fednews (some posts were reportedly removed).
Based on those discussions, it appears that many primarily remote workers are being reassigned to field offices and retrained to handle additional petitions - mainly AOS - and to conduct interviews.
Some employees reportedly live far from any field office, suggesting this may function as a de facto return-to-office mandate that could lead to resignations.
3. USCIS is clearing older cases
Partially true. Recent approvals are for older priority dates. However, overall approval volume appears to have slowed significantly. If cases were being processed at previous speeds, the backlog should be clearing faster, with a much higher number of older approvals by now.
4. Re-vetting green cards from the previous administration
There are indications that resources may be redirected toward re-reviewing previously approved cases. If so, this could further reduce capacity for processing new applications.(Source: https://x.com/USCISJoe/status/2048056901825437865)
5. Government shutdown
This was one of the leading theories months ago, as it has impacted DHS and background checks. However, processing has been ongoing normally during previous government shutdowns, and this one ending didn't influence Front of the Line pause.
Are there any other theories or information?
Why is it that just consular cases are affected? We are talking ONLY about the I-130 Front of The Line stalling. This is strictly under USCIS, not related to NVC or embassy level interviews.
Hello, quick question for everyone here:
What is the realistic timeline for someone whose PD is 12/25? My spouse is an USC, and I’m an Austrian citizen.
I’m flying to the USA in 1.5 weeks, and I’ve prepared a lot of documents to show my strong ties to my home country.
Has anyone experienced any issues or difficulties visiting the USA while their I-130 was pending?
Hello everyone I have filed an expedite on my i130 petition for my husband overseas. I am expecting a phone call from a tier 2 officer. I was wondering, has anybody received a phone call late in the evening from them? I have been waiting over a month for this call. They keep telling me that I am in. Queue for my phone call.
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to get an idea of timelines for moving to the U.S. and would really appreciate hearing your experiences.
My husband is a U.S. citizen (born in the U.S.), and we submitted our I-130 petition in January 2026. We’re currently waiting and trying to understand how long the full process might take from here until I can actually move.
For those who have gone through this recently:
- How long did it take for your I-130 to be approved?
- How long after that until the visa interview and final approval?
- Overall, how much time did it take from filing to moving?
I know timelines can vary a lot, but any recent experiences would really help set expectations.
(I‘m located in France).
Thanks in advance!
Been pulling monthly I-130 approval counts from public receipt status data going back about a year. The shape of it is unsettling enough that I wanted to ask if it matches what people are actually seeing.
Back in May 2025, roughly 19,600 I-130s were getting approved per month. By December 2025 that monthly count was down around 2,860. So roughly an 85% drop in monthly throughput across seven months, and it didn't recover in early 2026 either.
The piece that worries me: USCIS hasn't announced any policy change big enough to explain a slide of that size. The published processing time bands haven't moved nearly as much as the actual approval volume has. And the active pending pile I can track grew by about 7% in a single week recently, so receipts are still coming in normally, they're just not coming out the other end.
Most of these (~99% last week) are electronically filed, so this isn't a "they shifted everything to a paper center" story either.
Anyone with an I-130 receipted in late 2025 actually seeing movement on their case? CR-1, IR-1, F2A, whatever category. Trying to figure out if approvals just stopped, or if approvals are happening and people aren't updating their statuses, or if it's something else entirely.
Prior to this our plan was spousal visa.
I am USC and my significant other is Honduran (not of the banned country list). No criminal records, nothing that complicates her case.
We have plenty of evidence of a bona fide relationship too.
We are hoping to get married in the future. We want to live in the United States.
I don’t mind living a year or even two for processing. Just not 3+ years. My work is flexible so I can be with her in Honduras.
After reading this forum, I wanted to hear what is the best way for her to come here. At this point with all the delays, is it just better for her to come on a K-1? Do any of you regret doing the spousal visa?
Edit: Ignoring cost. I also can prove domicile in the US
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.
Hey everyone,
My I-130 status updated yesterday to say an RFIE was sent. However, it has been over 24 hours and the actual PDF letter still hasn't appeared anywhere under my "Documents" tab.
I know the ELIS system can sometimes lag and create "ghost documents," but with the planned server maintenance happening this weekend, I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing this specific glitch right now?
For those who have been through this recently:
How long did it take for your PDF to finally render online after the status changed?
Did it ever update over the weekend, or did you have to wait until Monday (or just wait for the physical mail to arrive)?
Appreciate any insight!
Just wondering, any idea how long more I still have to wait?
