F2A Visa - I-130 Petition for wife

[budhiman]

Hello,

I have a couple of questions and was hoping if I can be helped:
1. I have applied for an F2A visa for my wife. the priority date is May 2020. The application is at the USCIS California service center. I have been monitoring the processing time on the USCIS page for the I-130 application, it keeps moving backward instead of progressing forward. At the Texas service center, it is much faster. Is there a way to speed up the process apart from requesting hardship? Does anyone have experience with asking the local Senator for help?

2. My wife wants to pursue higher studies in the states (Ph.D. program) since the I-130 is still being processed and we don't know when to expect the approval. To avoid further delay in education. Can an F1 visa be applied in parallel with I-130 in the process or can it be risky? Does anyone have any similar experience if they can share?

[blackswanny]

1. I sent dozen letter to senators and congress members from my CA district, they respond with generic answers and cannot help much. At most you will receive phone call from their office with worries and concerns. If your wife is in US, it's better than those who cannot visit US at all while waiting in other countries to rejoin with family. Since you already applied in CA office it's not possible to move it to Texas , at least idk of such legal way. You apply based on your residence, if you were resident in Texas , you could have applied there. If you were not in Texas, but tried to do so and USCIS will somehow find you are resident of California, you would have been convicted of fraud and your application would be rejected forever. You can move to Texas, show evidence of residency and try to ask USCIS to move your case to Texas, but I never heard of such case happen

2. Afaik, you may not apply for other visas while you wait for GC visa. It's not illegal, but I was told that trying to apply for other visa while waiting GC visa will be visible to officers and they are likely to reject your F1 visa (at least) or even it affects your GC visa, if they consider you try to use F1 to overcome GC visa process (which you do). You can ask them