BIGAPIGREG said:
Hopefully my recent experience will lend some perspective to those of you who find this thread and are waiting.
My wife and I finished our class and scheduled our fingerprinting after doing the online application. Fingerprinting was scheduled for April 2, 2013. Based on the fingerprinting results shown when being done, mine should cause no problems, but my wife's, as expected (she is a nurse practitioner and fingerprints have all be disappeared from washing constantly) showed rejected on all but 1 print. The last time she was fingerprinted for the TX Nursing Board (random check) it took three trips and finally they had to do it on paper. In any case we mailed off our materials that afternoon (4/2/2013) and then settled in for the wait.
Based on her fingerprint situation I was expecting to hear something from Austin within a couple of weeks since I was sure she would have to have it done again, but at the end of 30 days still nothing I decided to give it a couple of more days then I would call.
On May 8th, I called Austin and explained the situation and asked what might be the time she would hear about have to have it done again. A check on the application showed it had just cleared fingerprint check that day and was moving to background check, I was amazed they accepted 1 print but the guy on the phone said there was a slim possibility that since she had prints on file already (several sets over the years) they may have compared and used them. In any case he also checked my application and it was in a similar status. I asked about the online status report and he said it updates in the evening for whatever happens that day. Sure enough when I looked the next day (5/9/2013) it reflected that all paperwork and fingerprints were done and it was pending background checks.
A daily check from that day online showed background check completed and moved to manufacturing on 5/21/2013.
The next day it showed mailed. I, like others here, realized that didn't really mean it was in the mail on 5/22/2013 but that it was finished being produced and sent to the mailing room.
We received them on May 28th, but that was the first mail delivery day after the Memorial Day holiday.
Total time from us mailing until us having them in hand, 56 days.
Assuming you aren't having a background issue, I bet it changes almost any day now. I am just betting that based on the mood of the country in general and here in TX, the CHL application rate is skyrocketing; hence, longer processing time. When we took the class, our instructor told us the typical turn around was about 45 days. Well we added 10 days to that for us. I am guessing it will just get longer as time goes on for a while.
