Mrkeysfla

Olga and I are still waiting in limbo since our original AOS interview last
November 15th. They did not give us the AOS that day because we didn't have
her vaccinations on the so-called immunization "supplemental" form, although
we had them with us. We had a civil surgeon fill out the forms and put them
in sealed envelopes as requested by the INS. However, when we returned for
our follow-up interview in December, we were told 2 things:
#1. Our interviewer was out sick and no one else could see us (they have no
procedure in place for notifying people that their appointments could not be
honored. There were several others equally pissed off.).

#2. The US Govt. had FROZEN all approvals until further notice with no
explanation as to why, and the INS would not give me anything in writing to
this effect, despite speaking to supervisors.

Very annoyed with the whole thing, I wrote my congressman (Peter Deutsch),
and he sent a letter with my complaint (prepared by one of his clerks, I am
sure) to his liason at the Miami INS on December 19th. I decided to give
them some time.

I tried calling the INS in January, leaving messages for my examining
officer, which were never returned. I later found out after going through a
myriad of phone numbers that she had been assigned to a "special project"
and could not return any calls until she was finished, whenever that would
be.

I finally did hear from her (the examining officer) early last week .She
told me that they are severly backlogged and there was no way to tell when
they would get to our AOS. She had all the papers and forms she needed.
Nothing to do but wait...indefinitely.

I called my congressman's office 2 days ago to complain that I never got a
follow-up response from them. His aide, a woman named Betty Ann, told me
that typically it takes about 12 weeks to get a response from the Miami INS,
and there was nothing she could do about it.

We are at our wits end, my wife is really soured on the US since this
reflects directly on our government and how they can treat people however
they wish with no accountability, and I can say nothing to counter this
opinion. She is right, it's a disgrace what they get away with in Miami INS.

There's nothing we can do but wait.

Thanks for listening.

John

Kristin

Hi John - Hey, we're in the same boat up here in Michigan. We were
interviewed on January 6 in Detroit and also didn't get the stamp. Our
officer said he couldn't because 1) he didn't have the "complete file"
from the consulate in Montreal; and 2) my husband's security clearance
had to go through (he got fingerprinted at the interview). No mention
of the "freeze" but I knew it was going on. He said it would take a few
weeks for the security clearance to come through, and that my husband
would get a letter approving his AOS, and could come in to get a stamp
then. Since then, nothing. We did get our EAD, but didn't file for AP
- yet. My husband will be going down to Detroit next week to ask about
his case, and file for AP, since we are desperate to get back to Toronto
for a visit. :-) I think the whole "freeze" thing was supposed to be
over as of the middle of January, but since then I also haven't seen
many AOS approvals, and no one who got caught in the freeze has posted
about being called back to get their stamp since.

The only consolation about this is that we are waiting out the INS
together - many on this board are separated while the INS gets further
and further backed up processing special hurricane applications or
special registrations or whatever the reason is today. Tell your wife to
hang in there - luckily the INS does not represent the rest of the US!
Kristin