Immigration Site

My wifes sister has been a LPR in the USA for over 20 years, and a full American citizen for over three.

Last year, she submitted an I-130 petition for us to go and join them in the States. As we fall into the fourth tier of family based applications, we fully expected that we would have many years to wait.

She has now had a letter confriming that the petition has been successful, and that we (the beneficiaries) should expect to hear from the Embassy with the next 90 days.

This letter shows our priority date of 9 November 2009, and the October Visa Bulletin shows that for the 4th tier they are proccessing priority dates on or before 1 December 2001, giving us 8 years and 11 months to wait (currently, although we know that the dates are not moving on a simple linear progression)

Im puzzled that we seem to be getting an interview so quickly; or will the Embassy say "wait until your priority date becomes current", or are we somehow being fastracked under the Affadavit of Support route, which the family are happy to provide for us??

Basically, Im totally confused by the current state of the application - help, please!!

There is definitely an error some where. Current F-4 category wait time is 9.5 years plus minus. After filing the I-130 usually the petitioner will get an approval notice which indicates that the petition is approved but there is a wait for the visa number to be available for the beneficiaries. Ask the petitioner to read the letter again as she may be have mis-interpreted the letters contents.
Good Luck!

Your sister is surely confused, she misread the letter. You can expect to wait for about 9.5 years.

no, she didnt misread the letter. Lots of people on forums, whose PD is years and years from being current, report getting the same notice from USCIS stating that "you will be contacted within 90 days of this approval notice".... Which is not true, of course...