Congratulations, spe! BTW, RD is the most important date after AOS is successfully filed...
ND is just the date they entered your case into the system. Sure, FP notices are dependant on ND because they schedule each case for FP appointment at time of data entry. But, Location is more important in determining when certain applicants get their FP notices.
There was a gap of about 2 months for Late April/May/June/July/Aug filers because of the 245(i) applications and the mailroom contractor dispute last year. Now ND seems to have caught up to a much closer gap.
After the case becomes adjudication-ready the MONTH of RD is significant and not the RD itself. Once they start assigning cases from your MONTH of RD your case is close to being assigned but there is no predicting where in that month\'s shelf your case lies. I hope it is FIFO within the month of RD but then again your case may be assigned early but to an officer who has a few dozen cases to adjudicate before s/he gets to yours. On the other hand a case may get assigned later than yours and the officer may begin working on it right away. Then the case assigned later would probably see approval earlier. There is an element of luck involved. Adjudication can never be strictly by date of RD even if INS wanted to do it. Again, if there is NOT a significant backlog, INS may assign cases in a few months window depending on resource availability. Currently, we are seeing that April/May/June cases have been consistently assigned. This July RD approval is an early bird special. There will always be such cases in every month. Nevertheless, its exciting for July mailers like myself. We can smell it now! My 2 cents.
