UPDATE: My USCIS Case Status “3 WEEKS” ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL CASE DECISION?!
November 25th, 2023
I woke up this morning and, as I was scrolling through one of the many CR1 Facebook groups I belong to, there was a post that caught my eye. An anonymous member posted on a group wall explaining that she had submitted her form I-130 roughly 3 weeks ago and she received an update on her “myUSCIS” portal that it will be “one month estimated time until case decision.”
This was shocking. The current estimated wait times are 10 - 14 months. To receive a case decision within two months of filing form I-130 is unheard of. It seemed too good to be true.
I thought to myself, “hmmm, we submitted our form I-130 around the same time… how cool would that be if we were to have a similar estimated time until case decision.”
I proceeded to FaceTime Jessica as she is five hours ahead of me and works later today. She had a hell of a last night at work. After listening to her summary of her nightmare, I remembered to tell her about the interesting news I saw in that Facebook group. The unbelievably short estimated time until case decision was so rare that it was worth mentioning. She asked in a slightly impatient tone, “well, did you check?!” I told her I didn’t because I decided to call her first, of course. She then very politely but very sternly told me to, “GO GO GO GO” check my my USCIS portal online.
I made my way from the kitchen to my computer with my phone in one hand and a glass of tea in the other chuckling at Jessica’s lack of patience. I sat down, logged in to my profile, and I could not believe what I saw:
“3 weeks estimated time until case decision.”
My USCIS profile home page this morning
It’s been only 13 days since we submitted our form I-130. If this information is correct, we could be approved within a month from today…. or less.
I was in such disbelief that Jessica could tell that what I saw was good and not bad. I was also in such disbelief that it took me awhile to think to even share the information with Jessica even though she was still with me on FaceTime. After a little teasing, I finally flipped the camera and revealed what I saw to her. The timing could not be better as I think this news was one of the few things that could start Jessica’s day on a high note after the nightmare she experienced at work the day previous.
Now, I don’t want to get too excited just yet. There are a lot of stories of the estimated time until case decision changing drastically and at will. The bad news is that the estimated time until case decision can be erratic and is typically inaccurate by large margins. The good news is that I have not heard of any stories where the estimated time until case decision changes too drastically once it reaches a time frame that is so close.
It may change, but, if it does, it won’t be too much longer… so I hope.
Even if it takes a little longer than the estimated three weeks, we would still be making great progress when I compare to what i expected and prepared for. I will try my best to not get my hopes up too high, however, this incredible update this morning has kicked off what will now be an awesome weekend regardless of what occurs through Sunday evening. This news automatically makes it a GREAT weekend and I am so thankful and grateful; fitting that this is the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
I realized earlier this week that this is going to be hard. I had my first experience with doubts and discouragement; the idea of how long this process can potentially take is soul crushing. I am prepared to wait as long as I have to, however, I cannot lie and say that waiting is not painful and that this will be easy. I am simply overjoyed at the moment and this little update has picked me up after feeling down. I am going to ride this high until we receive notification of acceptance or until the estimated time until case decision changes, for now.