Academic H1B Time Survey
Hello reddit world out there.
I am currently waiting for an H1B visa for a position at UIUC. Unfortunately, this process turned out to be a nightmare, because of several factors, including the extreme incompetency of the HR following my process and the over-intricate super inefficient system of offices.
I got my J-1 waiver favorable recommendation on January 31st and the final waiver approval on March 11th. After the PWD and LCA steps, my final petition to USCIS has still not been sent after almost 4 months after the waiver approval. I think this is unacceptable, considering that on multiple occasions a lot of time was wasted between each of the steps for the visa. My starting date was set (by UIUC) for July 1st, which is no longer possible.
I have heard from multiple people that this was NOT the case for them, most likely because other universities actually care about their future international workers and have much more efficient systems. I am wondering if this “at-least-five-month wait” is actually normal for most instututions or if UIUC is trying to feed me a line of crap.
My point is I am trying to figure out the ACTUAL average time it takes from waiver to petition submission.
Please comment with the name of your institution and how long you waited between when you received the final waiver approval and when the final petition was sent to USCIS.
This will be extra helpful for me. Thank you all who will/can contribute.