Use separate milestones for preparation, the initial application, USCIS documentation, vetting, a requested gift and further immigration processing. No completion date is guaranteed here.
Make commitments against confirmed events
The official site describes expedited handling, but availability and individual review still matter. Ask counsel which stage has actually been reached before treating a receipt or payment as an outcome. Keep housing, employment and school plans flexible until the relevant immigration position is confirmed.
Stage is a matter of record, and the record is the notice actually issued. Hypothetical example: The founder of a payments processing company treats an intermediary’s email confirming that a submission has been made as evidence that the case is under way. It is not: what establishes a stage is the document the relevant agency generates — a receipt, a request for evidence, a decision notice — bearing an identifier and a date the applicant can quote.
Retain those originals, in order, and treat everything else as correspondence about the file rather than the file itself. Payment records deserve the same treatment: a transfer confirmation shows that money left an account, while a receipt from the recipient shows what it was received for. The official material describes expedited handling, but availability and individual review still apply, so let each confirmed document, not an expectation, release the next commitment.