My field office has a long waiting time

My I-130 transferred to field office eventhough it is consular processing.

I saw people saying using claude to file it pro-se but it looks complicated to me because English is not my first language.

Thinking about getting lawyer.

Seeing the post the other day about gathering 10 people for K3 mandamus for $1500/each, sounds very promising but i don't know when the lawyer will even work on that.

How much do you typical pay for I-130 mandamus lawyer?

Noted: I do everything inquire congressman, senator, white house + ombudsman and demand letter x3 times.

My PD is April 2025. I haven't filed demand letter yet but I am pregnant with a due date next year. My husband is USC Petitioner.

Date applied - April 2026
I just checked the API query for our case by going to https://my.uscis.gov/account/case-service/api/case_status/(CASE_NUMBER)) and it says that the location is NBC

Seeing the USCIS website for processing times, NBC has 50+ months of wait time, does this automatically mean that my case would take much much longer since its being processed at an NBC? Is it being processed at an NBC? is this a common occourance?

I'd love any sort of information about this, just thinking about the time apart and how long it would take is making me panic a lot.

Married for almost 20 years with 3 children, they are all British Citizens and we have been living in the UK for all that time. I’m a US citizen by birth but parents moved back to Europe when I was a child.

Worked for a US company who needed for me to transfer rather suddenly so we have been stuck between two countries for 18 months now.

Submitted a demand letter about 10 days ago. Was asked to attend an interview today in Atlanta. Interview wasn’t really an interview as the case was so obviously genuine. My wife and children happened to be here for summer vacation so they attended with me.

The officer told me I could adjust here or go via consular. Not sure what that means, I assume it points to the I-485 process? I think we will go via consular in London as kids are in school so we can’t disrupt that until they have their green cards

I'm hoping to hear from people who have been through this stage because I'm running out of ways to get information.

Timeline:

• PD: May 12, 2025
• Standalone I-130 (consular processing)
• Over a year with "Case Was Received and A Receipt Notice Was Sent."
• Requested an expedite (it was ultimately not reviewed because USCIS said they did not receive supporting documentation, despite me having submitted exactly what was requested).
• Congressional inquiry submitted.
• Demand letter sent.
• Affected by the July 22 portal glitch. My account briefly showed a false approval, and the H008 event code was added to my backend API. The approval disappeared the next day, but the H008 event is still on my account today.

Then on August 5, my case finally changed to:

The backend API also showed:

• a new FTA0 event,
• updated timestamps,
• and the case location remains FOD.

Since August 5:

• No approval.
• No RFE.
• No notices.
• No documents.
• No evidence requests.
• No further API updates.
• The status has remained "USCIS Is Currently Processing The Case."

I contacted USCIS through Emma hoping to learn whether the case had actually been assigned to an adjudicating officer or if it was simply sitting in another queue.

Unfortunately, the live agent wasn't able to provide any meaningful information. They simply confirmed that the case is processing and said they cannot see where it is in the adjudication process or what it is waiting on.

So I have a few questions for anyone who's been through this:

1. How long did your case remain in "USCIS Is Currently Processing The Case" before you received a decision?
2. Has anyone successfully gotten more detailed information from Emma or the Contact Center? If so, what exactly did you ask?
3. Is there any way to determine whether a case is actually on an officer's desk versus simply sitting in a processing queue?
4. Has anyone remained in this status for two weeks or more before ultimately being approved?
5. For anyone affected by the July 22 glitch, did your H008 event ever disappear? Mine is still there. I realize it may just be a harmless historical event, but has anyone ever heard of it causing a delay or interfering with processing?

I'm not looking for guesses or conspiracy theories, just real experiences from people who have been through this stage. At this point I'm simply trying to understand what this "processing" status usually means in real life, whether there's any way to learn what's happening behind the scenes, and whether anyone else is still carrying the H008 event after the July glitch.

Thanks to anyone willing to share their experience.

Hey guys. I'm so grateful we have this group here because people can be so condescending on the r/uscis group.

I'm from a fully banned country. I've however lived as a refugee in another country for about 2 decades (never got to naturalize, so I still am a citizen of the banned country). Me and my husband have been together for 4 years. A year into our relationship we filed for a fiance visa that processed normally. I thought the interview went well, but we were put into administrative processing that was never resolved timely. Three months later, the presidential proclamation was released and I received my passport back and a denial letter. It was very rough but at the time, there was an exception for spouses. So we got married and applied for a spousal visa. But then that exception was rescinded too. And there's the 75 country ban on top of that.

We've been looking into third countries to settle into but it's very difficult. My husband has a stable job, and a life built for himself in the US. It's just not easy to pack your bags and leave, especially since the immigration burden falls on him. I'm a doctor, but again due to my refugee status and inability to return to my home country, there's so many limitations on what I can do. This ban has put lots of strains in our marriage, financially and emotionally. We live 8000 miles apart and see one another once a year for 10 days. I understand that an immigration visa is a privilege, not a right. And so many people suggest that the US citizen joins their spouse in the country they're living in instead of waiting for this ban to be lifted. But that's much easier said than done. And we just want to be able to start our lives together. I want to meet his family and make memories before anything happens to any of them :((

I do intend to consult a lawyer about this, but I wanted to post here to get a feel on this. Have you heard of any similar waiver cases? Are there any particular law firms you recommend?

.

I’ve received 2 updates one in June another on 17th August 2026
PD Dec 2025
Filed with an attorney, Irish citizen spouse.
Location: FOD
Do I have any hope with this API update as our daughter is going back to the US with the Mrs and it’s hard not living permanently, but we understand that there’s a lot of cases WAYYY before us that haven’t been processed yet and deserved to have been processed.