I-797 Notice of Action time frame?

Question

My letter back after i submitted the I-130s was a I-797C & it will be processed from Laguna Niguel,CA i was wondering what the time frame will be before i will hear anything & what the next step will be? My wife is from China & lives there she keeps asking me if i have heard anything more. It didnt have a priority date on the document that was sent.

Answer 1

If you are a US citizen (not LPR), and if you submitted your affidavit of support with proof that your income and assets is sufficient to support your spouse and guarantee a $30,000 bond, and submitted proof of your marriage, etc. with your I-130, it will take about 2 to 2-1/2 years to actually get your wife's spousal visa and permission to enter the US.  

Your file has been assigned to Laguna Niguel (notoriously overloaded with applications -- immigration is very high in CA, AZ, etc. and they are just plain overloaded with applicants, so wait your turn).  They need to review your file, see if you need additional forms, documentation, etc.  Once that is handled, there will be interviews.

Answer 2

2 to 2 and a half years processing time? $30,000 bond? based on what, where does that information come from?

there is no bond, because none is required. You have to show an income that is 125% or more of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and that is all. At the moment, that means you need to show an income of at least $17,500 on an affidavit of support, the I-864. That, you can look up for yourself at http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/...  

Having said that, there's no way to predict a precise time frame. it's taking 6 months or more for USCIS to process IR-1/CR-1 petitions. Then it goes to the National Visa Center for additional processing for several months and  then on to the US consulate in China. So, 8-12 appears to be about average. I have never seen anyone here claim that it took 2 to 2 1/2 years to get their IR-1 petition processed and sent to any US embassy or consulate overseas.

If anyone has, by all means, let us know.

Answer 3

You can go to uscis.gov and look up processing times for the California service Center. You would use the date of receipt on the receipt notice you received.

Are you a US citizen or resident?