Marriage green card timeline — NVC delays

My husband is a US citizen. He filed I-130 for me (I'm in my home country). The petition was approved in June 2025 and forwarded to the National Visa Center. It's now February 2026 — eight months — and NVC still hasn't scheduled our interview.

We submitted all our documents (DS-260, financial evidence, civil documents) within two weeks of receiving the NVC welcome letter. Everything was marked as "complete" in the CEAC portal by August 2025. Since then, the status has just said "In Transit" or "At NVC" depending on when I check.

We've called NVC multiple times and just get the same generic response about processing times. Is this normal? Is there anything we can do to speed this up? Being separated from my husband for this long is incredibly hard.

I understand how frustrating this is. Unfortunately, NVC delays have been significant over the past couple of years. Here's the current landscape and your options.

Current Processing Times: For immediate relative (IR-1/CR-1) cases, NVC is currently taking 6-14 months to schedule interviews after documentarily complete status, depending on the embassy. Some embassies have their own backlogs on top of NVC's delays. Which embassy is your case assigned to? That matters a lot.

Expedite Request: You can request an expedite through NVC based on extreme hardship. Qualifying reasons include medical emergencies, military deployment, and severe financial hardship due to the separation. NVC grants these selectively, but it's worth trying if you have a legitimate basis.

Congressional Inquiry: This is often the most effective tool. Contact your husband's US Senator or Representative's office and ask them to submit a congressional inquiry to NVC on your behalf. Every congressional office has a caseworker who handles immigration inquiries. They can't force NVC to schedule you faster, but the inquiry often prompts NVC to review and prioritize your case. This is free and I recommend it to every client in your situation.

For more on the marriage green card process and current timelines, see /Trump/Immigration/Marriage-Green-Card/.

Our case is at the US Embassy in Manila. I've heard Manila has a large backlog. My husband is going to contact his congressman's office this week — we didn't know that was an option.

One other question: I've seen people mention "interview waivers" where NVC approves the visa without an in-person interview. Is that possible for marriage-based cases?

Manila is indeed one of the busier embassies, but they've been working through their backlog and scheduling more interviews than they were a year ago. The congressional inquiry should help.

Regarding interview waivers — yes, they exist, but they're primarily used for returning resident cases and certain employment-based categories. For marriage-based immigrant visas (CR-1/IR-1), an in-person interview is almost always required. The consular officer needs to assess the bona fides of the marriage, which is difficult to do without meeting the beneficiary in person. I wouldn't count on an interview waiver for your case.

That said, once your interview is finally scheduled, the actual interview for legitimate marriages is usually straightforward. Bring originals of everything you submitted to NVC plus updated evidence of ongoing relationship (recent photos together, communication logs, evidence of visits, joint financial accounts if applicable).

Manila embassy here too — just had our interview last week after 10 months at NVC. My wife (US citizen) did the congressional inquiry through her senator's office and our case was scheduled about 6 weeks later. Could be coincidence but I'd say definitely do it.

The interview itself was about 15 minutes. The officer asked how we met, when we got married, basic questions about each other's families and daily lives. Brought a big folder of photos, chat logs, and flight records from visits. Visa was approved on the spot. Now just waiting for the passport to come back with the visa stamp.

Hang in there — it's a terrible wait but it does end.

One thing that isn't discussed enough — make sure your financial sponsor (I-864) numbers are still current. If your husband's income has changed since he filed the affidavit of support, he may need to submit updated tax returns or pay stubs before the interview. The poverty guidelines also update annually, so what met the threshold in 2025 might be cutting it close in 2026 if his income is near the minimum.

Also, if your medical exam (panel physician exam) was done more than 6 months before your interview date, you may need a new one. Something to keep in mind as you wait — don't do the medical too early, but don't wait until the last minute either once you get your interview date.

Thank you all so much. This gives me hope. My husband called his congressman's office today and they were really helpful — said they'd submit the inquiry within 48 hours and that they handle a lot of these. They asked for our NVC case number and a brief summary of the situation.

Good point about the medical and I-864 — we'll make sure everything is updated once we get an interview date. I'll update this thread when we hear something. The support here really helps during the waiting period.