stardust79

Greetings to my fellow North Carolinians,

I just wanted to introduce myself to the group. I'm a USC and my husband is an Australian citizen. We sent in our AOS papers the first week of January 2004 and received our filing receipt at the sometime in mid-Feb. I was really afraid that I wouldn't get a filing number like Eilis but my husband got an A-number just fine.

I called to set up the fingerprint appointment and they said the Charlotte office was booked for the next 42 days for appointments and that I should keep on calling. Does anyone have any advice for getting an appointment? I was going to call twice a day once in the morning and once in the evening. How long and how often did all of you Charlotte people have to call to get an appointment?

Thanks!

-Star

anggraeni

hi stardust,

i filed my AOS back july 2003 and got the receipt on sept 2003. still no news after that. i tried to call them up and make appointment for fingerprinting, but the lady there told me 'you cant do that, you have to wait until we send you letter of appointment'.

i would love to hear something from you again when you have any progress going on.

anggraeni

Siddartha

I don't really have advice for you in that matter. I can just share my experience here since I live in NC, too. I got the receipt notice for the AOS & EAD end of December '03 and although I had sent the pile of paperwork to Charlotte, it obviously had ended up in Missouri, the National Benefit Center. In that receipt notice letter they told me to schedule an appointment for fingerprinting at the Application Support Center in Charlotte via the National Customer Service Center. So I called 1-800-7671833 that was given there and luckily I got somebody to talk with at the first attempt. I got an appointment within three or so weeks. I was there at the beginning of February. Now I still wait for the paperwork to get approved. And it will take ages. As we all know.

I guess that it depends where your paperwork is located. If it is in Missouri, they will send you a letter telling you to schedule an appointment yourself. If your paperwork is in Charlotte, they will send you a direct "invitation" for fingerprinting from Charlotte to you. That is my assumption, but I don't know for sure.

Let's keep in touch about that matter.

Siddartha

Tess_press

Glad to know that we are in the same boat. Let's share
experiences/concerns and hopefully we can help each other out.

My hubby is USC and I sent out the whole package(I130/I485 etc) on
Sept 4, 2002 and it ended up at MSC/NBC October 31. I called and tried
to schedule the fingerprint appointment back then but was told there
was no vacancy until mid Jan, 2004, and I was told the same thing to
call each day to check. I did not want to wait that long and was tired
of calling, so I talked to a guy, he told me I could schedule an
appointment anywhere, so I scheduled an appointment at Alexandria, VA
in two weeks, and to my surprise, there was no line and no waiting,
only took my an half of hour to finish. However, I haven't heard
anything yet for the result. I heard people got their results just in
weeks, so I was concerned that either the process was slow in
Alexandria, VA or the result was sent to the wrong Services Center,
Vermont instead of MSC, I was thinking to call the FBI in VA to check.
So I wouldn't recommend to shedule to a different location from my own
experience, and I would go ahead to schedule the appointment instead
of calling everyday, hope someone dropping out the list. Does 130
aprroval require clearance of fingerprint?

On my receipts for I-130 and 485, there is no priority date, on the
online checking it states it will take 30-90 days for I-130 and
120-180 days for 485. It's been 4 months, I hanven't heard anything,
so I called the National Custom Service, I was told that the date was
NOT accurate, it should follow the processing time in MSC which is
Nov. 1. 2001. I was very dissappointed. It seems that date has not
moved for the last three months, anyone got idea? BTW, it was not a
pleasant experience last time I called, the lady was very abrupt and
did not try to help at all.

Regarding the 485, it seems Charllote is processing Feb. 13 2003 which
is ahead of I130 in MSC. Without 130 approval, how can they process
485?

Thanks.

Siddartha <member12041@british_expats.com> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > Originally posted by stardust79 Does anyone have any
    > advice for getting an appointment? I was going to call twice a day once
    > in the morning and once in the evening. How long and how often did all
    > of you Charlotte people have to call to get an appointment?
    > >
    > > Thanks!
    >
    > >

stardust79

Hey everyone,

I called the National Service Center this morning and they said they did have one opening at the end of March which I immediately took. In looking at the receipt notice I noticed that the filing number began with MSC-XXX-, so I thought that my case had been transferred to the Missouri Service Center which has really slow processing times. I asked the operator about it and she said that the MSC was processing my husband's fingerprints but after they were done that the application would be processed in Charlotte. So that's what I heard.

You know what it seems like in almost every story people tell on this board the USCIS is messing something up. When I called for my appointment she took my phone number and said that the system was down so should couldn't give me a confirmation number. She couldn't even re-confirm the time and date that she set. She said that USCIS would call me and give me a confirmation number probably in the next two weeks and that I would have to have that confirmation number for the fingerprint appointment. What are the chances of government remembering to call me to do this? NONE. So even though I got a date I'm still iffy if it went into the system properly, I'm going to call in a week and try to see if the system is up so I can get my confirmation number. If anything else happens, I'll let you all know.

-Star

I found a link that explains this pre-processing thing! It's at:

http://www.immigration.com/newslette...upd240103.html

Here the text of it:

MSC to File Family-Based Adjustment of Status Applications

The Missouri Service is slated to become a "field processing center" where family-based adjustment of status applications (including the I-130 where concurrent filing is available and ancillary benefit applications like the I-765 and I-131) will be filed at the MSC instead of the district offices. Naturalization applications also will be filed at MSC instead of at the other service centers. MSC will perform the "pre-processing", including fee-in, IBIS checks, fingerprint scheduling and biometric collection, as well as issuance of the EADs and advance paroles. The file then will be transferred to the district office for interview. MSC expects to phase this program in, starting in June 2003 with applicants residing in northwestern U.S.