mcjimbo

I found this on Visajourney and thought it was pretty cool:

http://www.digitaldvdguy.com/k1calc.aspx

Might be of interest to some?

James

Mtravelkay

mcjimbo wrote:
    > I found this on Visajourney and thought it was pretty cool:
    >
    >
    > http://www.digitaldvdguy.com/k1calc.aspx
    >
    > Might be of
    > interest to some?

No really any more interest than when the link was posted here a few
days ago by the owner of the page.

Hypertweeky

Hey James!!

I have visited that site a few times and I never saw that!, How cool!! I am not a K1 but hey it is very neat
Take care!

Matthew Udall

It's pretty neat that someone would take the initiative to put that together. One problem I see however, is that it calculates overdue dates on the worthless, fictitious, non-binding estimated processing times listed on a receipt notice. Having that calculation is meaningless and will likely lead others to think that those projected processing times are actually worth following.

I do see that there are other calculations below that based on "backlog" reports. I only looked them over briefly, but I couldn't make any sense out of them. I assume he's referring to the Service Center reports, but again, I'm not sure what the table is telling me.

And we use the "Notice" date, not the "received date" on a receipt notice to make an overdue calculation using the Service Center processing reports (there are some cases where those two things might be separated by a few days or more).

Plus, is it making the calculation correctly? Here is how it's supposed to be done (As told to me, face to face by the Director of the CSC, which was the first Service Center to experiment with JIT Reports... and since I could not make any sense out of the calculation, I'm not sure if its programmed correctly).

Assuming a case does not have an IBIS hit (and I did not see that mentioned anywhere on the page), than once one sees the report indicate that they are working cases with a notice date "later in time" than the person's notice date, than add 30 business days (60 for the NBC) to the date of publication of that report (and when I talk about date of publication, I'm talking about the date listed at the top of the report… not the date one is looking at the report [it seems the USCIS site always says its "published" on today's date… the date one is looking at the USCIS' webpage]). That is how to calculate the overdue date.

So, does this program reflect this? If not, than its just going to add to a couples confusion, and will lead to unrealistic expectations.

21stcenturylove

In my opinion, the USCIS does not claim that the report is published on "today's date". It clearly mentions that the report was posted (in other words "published") on a previous date and that it is simply displaying it on the date one is looking at the USCIS webpage. It is the onus of the person reading the website to take note of the words.

mcjimbo

I guess I just liked the guy’s initiative in putting the whole thing together. With some tweaks it could be really useful.

zakandmimi

Hi my name is Isaac. I am the one that programmed the K-1 Calculator. Actually the calculations for Min and Max dates are right on. It displays March 2nd 2004 for our maximum approval date. We were approved on that exact date. I threw the overflow dates on their just as an estimate only, because some individuals posted that their cases were taking over 200 days to process. This morning I updated to calculator to exclude this estimate.

As far as the coding being wrong, I highly disagree with you. The program uses built in comparison functions written by Microsoft. I'm not sure where the confusion is on comparing the number of days according to the Service Center Backlog dates? You are the first person to ever bring this up. The calculator takes the received date on the I-129F and compares it to their current backlog date for that particular Service Center. If you have any suggestions for improving the language please let me know. Suggestions only make the calculator better.

Matthew, think of this calculator as more of like what you see when you go to a realtor's web site. You use their mortgage calculator to get estimates on what a monthly mortgage payment would be. The calculator does not guarantee your payment, it is only an estimate. Same with the IRS W2 calculator. The K-1 calculator gives you estimates based on their minimum and maximum days shown on the NOA1. It does not factor in every exception. Our petition is proof that it does give an accurate window of approval. Like I said the calculator showed March 2nd as our maximum approved date and that's when we were approved.

Please email me all of your suggestions for improvement.

[email protected] thank Matthew. God Bless.

suiram

Well, I couldn't resist ....
You are implying that your program is correct BECAUSE it is using "comparison functions written by Microsoft". Are we talking about the same company that created 2+2 != 4 calculator and a very creative calendar?

zakandmimi

HEHEHEHEHEHHE Good point!! Borland C++ to the rescue. HEHE

Matthew Udall

Hi Isaac,
I have no doubt that sometimes the USCIS actually processes a case in accord to the wild guesses it is required to list on a receipt notice (especially when a service center is moving along quickly, as the VSC usually does). I'm happy your case was processed within the wild guess time frame, however there is also no doubt that quite a number of posters in this group report the opposite; that their cases are not approved within the wild guess timeframe quoted on their receipt notice.

Also, Dona Coultice and other Service Center directors have told us AILA members in numerous meetings, point blank, that we cannot use the projected processing time numbers listed on the notices, that the service centers themselves don't come up with those numbers, and that the service centers themselves do not have the authority to change or delete those numbers.

Due to the very nature of this work at the Service Centers, at the time of filing it is impossible for them to know when a case will eventually be approved. That is why the CSC was given the task of trying out a better system, called the JIT Report, so people could actually monitor where the CSC was in the process (See if a case has likely been given to an officer yet). Couple that with their policy that the officer should either approve, deny or issue an RFE within 30 business days of being given the case; that allows one to calculate an "overdue" date.

The JIT Reporting system was such a success and a better way to deliver vital information to the petitioners and beneficiaries, that the USCIS decided the TSC, NSC, VSC and NBC should also publish JIT Reports.

Again, I didn't spend that much time looking at the bottom section of your calculator, but to have it reflect reality (and you can tell me if it is designed to do this) than one should be able to input their "notice date" (not received date) and have it either say the case is still on the shelf, or have it calculate an overdue date based on the most recent Service Center report.

I assume that you, as the maintainer of the calculator, will have to input into the calculator's data base, the new numbers for each of the service centers (as the new reports are issued), so that way the calculator can say, "Your case is still likely on the shelf waiting its turn to be given to an officer and therefore you don't yet have an overdue date", or if the persons notice date is now earlier in time than the date listed on the report, the calculator would say something like, "Assuming your case did not get an IBIS hit, than according to the report created on March 15th (for example) your case was likely given to an officer and it should be approved, denied or RFE sent within 30 business days after March 15th, or April 26th is your overdue date (If I counted my business days correctly)".

Again, the estimated processing times written on the notices are worthless and that is information that has come from the Service Center directors themselves. Instead, if its possible for you to program this, it would actually give useful information if your calculator could calculate someone's overdue date the same way we manually do it using the service center's own reports.

I think your calculator is a good idea, but if its not based on the Service Center reports and does not calculate an overdue date taking working days into account (and its 60 business days for the NBC), than it won't really be providing useful information and might reinforce someone's mistaken belief that they can actually put stock into the wild guesses printed on a receipt notice.

If you want to try reprogramming your calculator and you don't quite get how to use the reports (from my postings about how to do so), than give me a call and we'll run over a few examples and I'll have you make this calculation manually a few times. That should do the trick in showing you how to make the calculation (and thus, you should be able to figure out how to program your calculator… which is going to likely require you to update its database each time a new report comes out from the Service Center).

Matthew Udall

OK, even though I don't do this type of work, let me try to flow chart this.

Q: Have you or your fiancée ever been arrested before?
If yes, than it will print: Your case will receive an IBIS hit and will experience and extra delay in processing, slight to significant while the follow up IBIS work is completed. Unfortunately this also means you cannot use the Service Center reports to calculate an overdue date as those reports only reflect the case movement for cases that did not receive and IBIS hit.
If no, than it will allow you to proceed to the next question below.

Q: Is your notice date earlier in time than the notice date listed on the most recent report?
If No, than it prints: Case still on shelf, no overdue date yet.
If Yes, than the calculator takes the date of publication of that latest report and adds 30 business days onto that date of publication of that report and prints: Your overdue date is [have it print out the calculated overdue date]. You should contact the Service Center if your case becomes overdue.

zakandmimi

Hi Matthew, you are missing my point though. And I absolutely hear what your saying. You didn't acknowlege what I mentioned in my original post.

Example 1:

I login to www.johnlscott.com, they offer a mortgage calculator to figure out most likely what your payment would be. It does not factor in variables such as, "My credit sucks" so I'm going to have a higher mortgage payment then what the estimate gave me. It only gives you estimates based on the sales price and what most likely will be the interest rate at that time. Does that mean I would give my 20 to 30 day notice and move out of a rental knowing this? Absolutely not.

Example 2:

I go on to the IRS W2 calculator. It says that based on my information I would most like want to file with 5 exemptions because of my child care cost and interest on a home mortgage. You say wow great! But their maybe other factors determining factors such as an increase in earnings that could throw of this calculation. At tax time would I go and say, HEY IRS!! I DON'T OWE $3000! Your calculator told me to file 5 exemptions. Do you think that would fly? No not at all.

Being an attorney, I realize that you have an excellent knowledge of the law and close relationship with the immigration department. That's great. The calculator goes by exactly what INS provides on the Notice of Action Receipt, whether accurate or not that is what they provide.

This calculator provides a window based on the dates they provide. Yes, I do a bi-weekly update for calculations based the back log dates the USCIS provide for each of their service center.

I did change the wording on the calculator to say receipt date instead of received date. Thanks for that Matthew.

This is just a tool for couples to get estimated time frames of approvals based on the data the USCIS provides openly to the public.

If the aila would like to create a calculator I would be more then willing to give you guys the source code. I think that would be wonderful if you guys could create one with all the factors.

I promise Matthew that I am not being defensive. You actually have some awesome ideas! Let's work together on this. What I would prefer is for the aila to tweak the source code and factor in everything. Thanks again Matthew. God Bless.

Here is my email address if you need it [email protected]

Matthew Udall

I did not acknowledge your other calculator examples as they don't apply to this situation, and this situation deals with the fact that the USCIS themselves have told us quite plainly that we cannot use the projected processing times listed on receipt notices in order to determine when a case is overdue.

In support of that, I offer two things. 1) The USCIS itself knows this, and is why the USCIS itself came out with the bi-monthly reports to try to convey information that could never be accurately conveyed on a static (unupdatable) piece of paper that constitutes a receipt notice, and 2) I'm sure others (and I'm talking a majority of people here) in this news group will tell you that their own case experience fell outside of the window of projection listed on their own receipt notices (unlike your particular case).

At least the two other calculator examples you gave are "somewhat" based in reality (they don't take into account all factors, but for what they "do" try to accomplish, their calculations are based on facts based in reality and math that is accurate).

Your calculator, if it counts out days based on the notice, might have accurate math going for it in coming up with that date in the future, however it is based on the faulty premise that the projected processing times listed on the notice are accurate. They simply are "not" accurate and there is a danger that your calculator is just going to feed into a petitioner or beneficiary's mistaken reliance on the notices and will reinforce their unrealistic expectations. That is not doing anybody any good.

Again, what the INS (USCIS) provides on the notice of action is not worth the ink it took to print. Due to my excellent relationship with the USCIS, I've been given that information straight from those who know… the top ranking USCIS officer at the Service Centers (the directors themselves) who also tell us to instead use the bi-monthly reports and explain how to use them (and "why" to use them, because the projected processing times listed on the notices are not accurate, those numbers don't come from the Service Centers themselves and therefore are most of the time not based on current processing time reality at a service center, and that the Service Centers don’t have the permission to make any changes to the information listed on the notices [that is up to USCIS HQ, not a service center to decide]).

One should use one's "notice date", not "received date". What you posted above, receipt and received, are the same thing.

Again, I like the fact you took the initiative to try to do this, however if all it does is count out days based on inaccurate information listed on a receipt notice, than that is no more helpful to someone than when they take out their own calendar and manually count those days. Both would be based on a fallacy… that the projected processing times are accurate (when they are not, and we've been told that by the USCIS itself).

I'm not a programmer and I'm not AILA (although I am a member of AILA). I've already told you how to use the reports to calculate a realistic overdue date, I've offered to run you through some example calculations so "you" could understand how to make the calculation so you could then tweak your calculator design if needed, and I've told you what the USCIS has told AILA about not relying on the fictitious processing times listed on a receipt notice.

You are welcomed to contact AILA if you wish or perhaps the USCIS themselves. I've already tried helping you with information, so that is going to be my contribution. You are the one wanting to create the calculator and you have access to correct information now. What you do with that is up to you.

Waterpony

Matt,

He is calculating overdue days based on the Service Center's reports at the bottom part of the calculator...and the processing times are updated as posted on the site. I did not check if 60 days are accounted for, but that can be fixed easily.
Even though some improvements can be made (and this is true for every piece of software, don't you agree?) this is a free application meant to be used as an estimate, with no guarantees. Honestly, with all your inside knowledge of USCIS processes, can even you guarantee that someone's application will be processed according to the SC posted timeframe?

Isaac, keep up a good work!

bequibar

You have a typo where you ask for a donation: chruch