I824 Follow-to-join for Spouse

[frz03]

I'm at my wit's end with NVC/USCIS. Sharing my issue here hoping to find someone with a similar problem or a better idea on how to handle this problem. I was on H1B and got married in Mar 2020 outside of the US. My i-485 got approved in Nov 2021 via EB2. I filed for i-824 in Jan 2022 for my wife. It got approved on March 16, 2022. The USCIS took forever to send the approval notice to the USCIS and after multiple Emma chats and calls to the USCIS finally, around June I got an email along with a notice from the NVC saying
** Because of a change in your visa classification or in the dates used to begin the visa application process, currently there are no visa numbers available for your visa category. Therefore, NVC must temporarily stop working on this case.
The reason for this delay is that there are more applicants than there are visas available in your category. When the priority date on your petition again matches or is earlier than the “Dates for Filing Applications” chart on the Department of State’s Visa Bulletin, we will be able to start processing your petition. We will contact you at that time. You do not need to take any action. You will need the following information to know when your case is again eligible for processing:  Country of Chargeability...INDIA  Visa Category....................E2 - PROFESSIONALS FOLLOWING ADVANCED DEGREES  Priority Date......................08JUN2020 **
I don't know why NVC thinks I am filing for an employment-based visa when clearly I am an LPR filing for a follow-to-join immigrant visa (https://www.uscis.gov/family/bring-spouse-to-live-in-US) for my wife who is outside the US. Now NVC has shut down any phone communication with them and the only way to reach out to them is through the inquiry form which they currently take two months time to respond on.
Can anyone here please tell me if they have run into something similar or know what I could do other than writing to NVC and waiting for them to get back to me?

[newacct]

Derivative beneficiaries have the same category and priority date as the principal beneficiary. "Follow-to-join" means a derivative beneficiary following to join the principal beneficiary. So it is correct that your spouse is also in the EB2 category. Usually, a derivative beneficiary will not have to wait because, if the principal beneficiary got their green card, then a visa number must have been available for their category and priority date in the month of approval, so unless the visa bulletin dates retrogress, it should remain available in the future too. (And even if it retrogresses, it should not be long until it is available again.) In your case, there is no way that an EB2 with priority date in 2020, and country of chargeability of India, would have be approved in Nov 2021 -- the Nov 2021 visa bulletin for EB2 for India shows Dec 2011. So there must be some mistake about the priority date or the country of chargeability. Either your priority date was not Jun 8 2020, or your country of chargeability was not India.

Of course, if you wanted to do family-based immigration, you could file an I-130 petition for your spouse, and they would be the principal beneficiary in this new case, in the F2A category as the spouse of a permanent resident. But you would have to wait for the I-130 to be approved before it goes to NVC, so it would be much slower than getting the current employment-based petition (which is already at NVC) figured out. Also, if you do family-based immigration, you would have to file I-864, which is not needed with her being a derivative beneficiary in your employment-based case.

[frz03]

I am sorry I missed out on a piece of crucial information. My country of birth is Saudi Arabia so as per USCIS Cross chargeability provision (HTTPS://WWW.USCIS.GOV/POLICY-MANUAL/...RT-A-CHAPTER-6) (PLEASE REFER TO SECTION C PART 7) my wife (Born in INDIA) is supposed to have the same country of birth as me which is "SAUDI ARABIA".

Thank you for explaining in-depth and clarifying my doubts.

[newacct]

Yes. She should be charged to your country of chargeability, and a visa should be immediately available to her. The Department of State manual section on cross-chargeability is in 9 FAM 503.2-4(A). I am not sure how you would contact NVC to change this though.

[Karuna0008]

Good Morning,

I am new member to this group. Your help is really appreciated. I am also having same issue. I was on H1B and got married in Sep 2011 outside of the US. My Priority Date is May-5-2011 under EB2 Category and country of .chargeability is India.

I filed i-485 on Nov-23-2020 and got approved in Sep 2021 via EB2. I filed for i-824 in Jan-28-2022 for my wife. It got approved on March 18, 2022. The USCIS took forever to send the approval notice to the NVC and after multiple Emma chats and calls to the USCIS and NVC finally, June-9-2022 I got an email along with a notice from the NVC saying

"your case is not currently eligible for further processing because there is an annual limit on the number
of immigrant visas that the Department of State can issue. For some visa categories, the wait could be many
years.
This petition will be eligible for further processing when your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date for your
visa category. To learn what the cut-off date is for this petition, review the Visa Bulletin online at
usvisas.state.gov/visabulletin.
You will need the following information to determine your cut-off date:
 Country of Chargeability..INDIA
 Visa Category...................E2 - PROFESSIONALS FOLLOWING ADVANCED DEGREES
 Priority Date.....................23NOV2020"

[Karuna0008]

@frz03 I am also having same issue with Priority Date. I just curious to know what to do next. Your help is really appreciated.

[newacct]

Good Morning,

I am new member to this group. Your help is really appreciated. I am also having same issue. I was on H1B and got married in Sep 2011 outside of the US. My Priority Date is May-5-2011 under EB2 Category and country of .chargeability is India.

I filed i-485 on Nov-23-2020 and got approved in Sep 2021 via EB2. I filed for i-824 in Jan-28-2022 for my wife. It got approved on March 18, 2022. The USCIS took forever to send the approval notice to the NVC and after multiple Emma chats and calls to the USCIS and NVC finally, June-9-2022 I got an email along with a notice from the NVC saying

"your case is not currently eligible for further processing because there is an annual limit on the number
of immigrant visas that the Department of State can issue. For some visa categories, the wait could be many
years.
This petition will be eligible for further processing when your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date for your
visa category. To learn what the cut-off date is for this petition, review the Visa Bulletin online at
usvisas.state.gov/visabulletin.
You will need the following information to determine your cut-off date:
 Country of Chargeability..INDIA
 Visa Category...................E2 - PROFESSIONALS FOLLOWING ADVANCED DEGREES
 Priority Date.....................23NOV2020"

It seems that the priority date is wrong. If your priority date was May 5, 2011, then that should be her priority date too.

[Karuna0008]

It seems that the priority date is wrong. If your priority date was May 5, 2011, then that should be her priority date too.

Thanks a lot.

[Karuna0008]

It seems that the priority date is wrong. If your priority date was May 5, 2011, then that should be her priority date too.

About I824 Follow-to-join for Spouse Good Morning Sir, I would like to get your help to ask NVC to fix the Priority date. I am not familiar with the immigration terms. I would like to communicate with you either through email or phone call.

[Karuna0008]

I'm at my wit's end with NVC/USCIS. Sharing my issue here hoping to find someone with a similar problem or a better idea on how to handle this problem. I was on H1B and got married in Mar 2020 outside of the US. My i-485 got approved in Nov 2021 via EB2. I filed for i-824 in Jan 2022 for my wife. It got approved on March 16, 2022. The USCIS took forever to send the approval notice to the USCIS and after multiple Emma chats and calls to the USCIS finally, around June I got an email along with a notice from the NVC saying
** Because of a change in your visa classification or in the dates used to begin the visa application process, currently there are no visa numbers available for your visa category. Therefore, NVC must temporarily stop working on this case.
The reason for this delay is that there are more applicants than there are visas available in your category. When the priority date on your petition again matches or is earlier than the “Dates for Filing Applications” chart on the Department of State’s Visa Bulletin, we will be able to start processing your petition. We will contact you at that time. You do not need to take any action. You will need the following information to know when your case is again eligible for processing:  Country of Chargeability...INDIA  Visa Category....................E2 - PROFESSIONALS FOLLOWING ADVANCED DEGREES  Priority Date......................08JUN2020 **
I don't know why NVC thinks I am filing for an employment-based visa when clearly I am an LPR filing for a follow-to-join immigrant visa (https://www.uscis.gov/family/bring-spouse-to-live-in-US) for my wife who is outside the US. Now NVC has shut down any phone communication with them and the only way to reach out to them is through the inquiry form which they currently take two months time to respond on.
Can anyone here please tell me if they have run into something similar or know what I could do other than writing to NVC and waiting for them to get back to me?

Can you please tell me if your problem is solved or not? If so, what did you ask in the NVC query?

[Karuna0008]

It seems that the priority date is wrong. If your priority date was May 5, 2011, then that should be her priority date too.

When I check the case status in https://ceac.state.gov/IV/Login.aspx, It say "Your petition has been returned to USCIS for administrative action and is no longer at the NVC. Further inquiries should be directed to the USCIS by telephone at 1-800-375 5283, or via the internet at www.uscis.gov."


Do we know how long will it take to USCIS to fix the priority date?

[Karuna0008]

I'm at my wit's end with NVC/USCIS. Sharing my issue here hoping to find someone with a similar problem or a better idea on how to handle this problem. I was on H1B and got married in Mar 2020 outside of the US. My i-485 got approved in Nov 2021 via EB2. I filed for i-824 in Jan 2022 for my wife. It got approved on March 16, 2022. The USCIS took forever to send the approval notice to the USCIS and after multiple Emma chats and calls to the USCIS finally, around June I got an email along with a notice from the NVC saying
** Because of a change in your visa classification or in the dates used to begin the visa application process, currently there are no visa numbers available for your visa category. Therefore, NVC must temporarily stop working on this case.
The reason for this delay is that there are more applicants than there are visas available in your category. When the priority date on your petition again matches or is earlier than the “Dates for Filing Applications” chart on the Department of State’s Visa Bulletin, we will be able to start processing your petition. We will contact you at that time. You do not need to take any action. You will need the following information to know when your case is again eligible for processing:  Country of Chargeability...INDIA  Visa Category....................E2 - PROFESSIONALS FOLLOWING ADVANCED DEGREES  Priority Date......................08JUN2020 **
I don't know why NVC thinks I am filing for an employment-based visa when clearly I am an LPR filing for a follow-to-join immigrant visa (https://www.uscis.gov/family/bring-spouse-to-live-in-US) for my wife who is outside the US. Now NVC has shut down any phone communication with them and the only way to reach out to them is through the inquiry form which they currently take two months time to respond on.
Can anyone here please tell me if they have run into something similar or know what I could do other than writing to NVC and waiting for them to get back to me?

Do you have any update on this? Please share your experience. It will be helpful to others.