IR1/CR1 Processing Times Germany / Europe

Hi fellow Germans/Europeans,

I wanted to create a post where we can share our process and timelines and share our experiences/stories in this looong process. Feel free to share your visa journey if you are doing the consular process in Germany or another European country.

Here a little bit about my journey:

My husband (USC) and I (German, currently living in Germany) started the immigration process on the 02 February 2024. We submitted everything with the help of our lawyer who told us back then in February that the processing times are faster now, they are finally catching up after the pandemic slowed down everything. Also, our lawyer told us that Germany is one of the faster processing countries as there are less people applying compared to other countries, so i-130 might just take 8-10 months.

So now, we are right in this period where we are slowly hoping to receive a message from immigration. Maybe if we are lucky we can still get some news this year. However, I have also read from numerous people that their i-130 took between 11-14 months which seems to be the norm, especially for non-European countries. Unfortunetly, I can barely find fellow Europeans and especially Germans who share their timelines online so my hopes are that they are processed maybe even faster than 11-14 months. This whole waiting game is really annoying and we are slowly becoming very desperate.

How does your timeline look so far? Since when are you waiting?

Looking forward to hearing from you guys! :)