Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Apr 11th 2005, 9:01 pm
#16
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 14,049
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Alex,
My wife is in a similar situation - the result of her background check is not in yet, although she had her fingerprints and biomtrics done several months ago. The interviewing officer said that he would re-order the background check but his estimate of the wait time was several months, not several weeks.
My wife did not submit a vaccination supplement from a US civil surgeon. Her K3 visa medical exam included a completed DS-3025 Vaccination Documentation Worksheet and that sufficed.
Regards, JEff
My wife is in a similar situation - the result of her background check is not in yet, although she had her fingerprints and biomtrics done several months ago. The interviewing officer said that he would re-order the background check but his estimate of the wait time was several months, not several weeks.
My wife did not submit a vaccination supplement from a US civil surgeon. Her K3 visa medical exam included a completed DS-3025 Vaccination Documentation Worksheet and that sufficed.
Regards, JEff
Originally Posted by alex_lg
Hi,
My wife had her AOS interview this AM @ the San Jose, CA district office.
The interview went very well and smoothly. Since we had our toddler with us, there were hardly any questions at all about our marriage. Basically the officer, a very nice man by the way, just requested some documents from us to put in his file and asked the routine questions like if she was ever arrested.... He did ask for our medical. We gave him a sealed vaccination supplement from a local civil surgeon. He commented the medical was incomplete. We reminded him since my wife came in on a K-3 and a full medical was performed to get a K-3, a vaccination supplement by itself should suffice. He accepted our explanation.
It did surprise us a bit at the end that he couldn't put an I-551 stamp in her passport right away because the case still needed to go through a background check. But he did assure us that the BC should only take a few days and we should receive an approval letter in the mail in 2 weeks time frame unless something wrong came up from it. He also mentioned these days it took only 6-8 weeks for the plastic Green Card to arrive in the mail. If we had to travel before the card arrive, then make an appt on Infopass to go in for an I-551 stamp. If not, there were no further actions on our part.
I'm not worried about the approval since we don't expect any vice to pop up from the check. But does this sound right that a background check is done after the AOS interview? I thought it was done long time ago when she was fingerprinted. Again, of course they can also worry a lot of things could've happened between then and now.
By the way, I don't know if this applies to all CIS office. No cameras are allowed at the San Jose office, that includes those tiny ones on a PDA or a cell phone. I was turned away first by the security because of it and had to put it away. No, you can't leave it with the officer. They don't want that responsibility.
Here is our time line for ref.
I-485 filed: 8/15/04
finger print date: roughly a month later
Interim EAD: visited San Jose office after 90 days to get an interim EAD issued
regular EAD: arrived 4-5 months later after 8/15/04
AOS interview: today - 3/23/05
Approval letter: ?
Plastic Green Card: ?
My wife had her AOS interview this AM @ the San Jose, CA district office.
The interview went very well and smoothly. Since we had our toddler with us, there were hardly any questions at all about our marriage. Basically the officer, a very nice man by the way, just requested some documents from us to put in his file and asked the routine questions like if she was ever arrested.... He did ask for our medical. We gave him a sealed vaccination supplement from a local civil surgeon. He commented the medical was incomplete. We reminded him since my wife came in on a K-3 and a full medical was performed to get a K-3, a vaccination supplement by itself should suffice. He accepted our explanation.
It did surprise us a bit at the end that he couldn't put an I-551 stamp in her passport right away because the case still needed to go through a background check. But he did assure us that the BC should only take a few days and we should receive an approval letter in the mail in 2 weeks time frame unless something wrong came up from it. He also mentioned these days it took only 6-8 weeks for the plastic Green Card to arrive in the mail. If we had to travel before the card arrive, then make an appt on Infopass to go in for an I-551 stamp. If not, there were no further actions on our part.
I'm not worried about the approval since we don't expect any vice to pop up from the check. But does this sound right that a background check is done after the AOS interview? I thought it was done long time ago when she was fingerprinted. Again, of course they can also worry a lot of things could've happened between then and now.
By the way, I don't know if this applies to all CIS office. No cameras are allowed at the San Jose office, that includes those tiny ones on a PDA or a cell phone. I was turned away first by the security because of it and had to put it away. No, you can't leave it with the officer. They don't want that responsibility.
Here is our time line for ref.
I-485 filed: 8/15/04
finger print date: roughly a month later
Interim EAD: visited San Jose office after 90 days to get an interim EAD issued
regular EAD: arrived 4-5 months later after 8/15/04
AOS interview: today - 3/23/05
Approval letter: ?
Plastic Green Card: ?
Apr 11th 2005, 9:25 pm
#17
Member
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 14,049
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Marnee,
Alex used the term "background check", you are using the term "namecheck" - are you and he talking about the same thing do you think? I know that there are a number of different checks that are made along the way, and I don't know much of anything about them, but I always associated the term 'namecheck' with the IBIS check and in this case I associate Alex' "background check" with the check of the fingerprints and biometrics, something different from a name check.
As for the medical exam - my understanding and experience is that K3s and K4s are handled the same as K1s and K2s.
Regards, JEff
Alex used the term "background check", you are using the term "namecheck" - are you and he talking about the same thing do you think? I know that there are a number of different checks that are made along the way, and I don't know much of anything about them, but I always associated the term 'namecheck' with the IBIS check and in this case I associate Alex' "background check" with the check of the fingerprints and biometrics, something different from a name check.
As for the medical exam - my understanding and experience is that K3s and K4s are handled the same as K1s and K2s.
Regards, JEff
Originally Posted by USA & Pakistan
If they havent received the namecheck results in the last 6 months, then what makes them think that they will be complete in the next 2 weeks? And if they are just starting the namecheck process, then isnt the minimum time 4-6 weeks? Hmmm.
There is nothing you can do at this point but wait and see how it works out. For more information about the FBI namechecks, click on the link in my signature line.
Good Luck!
Marnee
P.S. I thought that k-3ers did have to have a whole new medical exam done... But maybe that is because it is only good for a year? Congratulations on the successful interview!
There is nothing you can do at this point but wait and see how it works out. For more information about the FBI namechecks, click on the link in my signature line.
Good Luck!
MarneeP.S. I thought that k-3ers did have to have a whole new medical exam done... But maybe that is because it is only good for a year? Congratulations on the successful interview!
Apr 11th 2005, 9:58 pm
#18
Cool Member
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: Oregon
Posts: 1,084
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Originally Posted by jeffreyhy
Marnee,
Alex used the term "background check", you are using the term "namecheck" - are you and he talking about the same thing do you think? I know that there are a number of different checks that are made along the way, and I don't know much of anything about them, but I always associated the term 'namecheck' with the IBIS check and in this case I associate Alex' "background check" with the check of the fingerprints and biometrics, something different from a name check.
Alex used the term "background check", you are using the term "namecheck" - are you and he talking about the same thing do you think? I know that there are a number of different checks that are made along the way, and I don't know much of anything about them, but I always associated the term 'namecheck' with the IBIS check and in this case I associate Alex' "background check" with the check of the fingerprints and biometrics, something different from a name check.
Marnee
Last edited by USA & Pakistan; Apr 11th 2005 at 9:59 pm. Reason: typo
Apr 11th 2005, 10:15 pm
#19
Member
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 14,049
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Marnee,
Thanks for the link to your previous post.
Regards, JEff
Thanks for the link to your previous post.
Regards, JEff
Originally Posted by USA & Pakistan
From what I have found in my research (see post: http://www.britishexpats.com/forum/s...9&page=2&pp=15 ) there are three different checks that they do. The IBIS check, the name check (they are not the same thing), and the fingerprint check. So, yes, in this case, maybe they were only waiting for one of the other 2.
Marnee
Marnee
Apr 12th 2005, 5:57 am
#20
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Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 150
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Hi,
Thank you all for the info and congrats. I've learned a lot from all of you in this saga...
I'll definitely post an update after we receive her plastic GC for everyone's ref.
In the mean time, best wishes to you all.
Rgds,
Alex
Thank you all for the info and congrats. I've learned a lot from all of you in this saga...
I'll definitely post an update after we receive her plastic GC for everyone's ref.
In the mean time, best wishes to you all.
Rgds,
Alex
Apr 12th 2005, 1:29 pm
#21
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 164
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
I have checked with a bunch of attorneys and I have never heard of it pending for 6 years. They only starting the AOS rigereous name check shortly after 9/11. They were prolly just tring to blow you off. Most i heard was it pending for 2 years. It is a bummer but there aint nothing that can be done at this point. Its the intelligence community and not immmigration that is stalling.
Originally Posted by Richard III
Garfield2005 -
I received today an answer to my email to the Records Management Division of the FBI, which I sent on December 1, 2004 (it took over four months for them to get around to answering my query). I was asking for a status on my wife's name check for her AoS. The answer? Pending. The request for name check was submitted on March 18, 2004. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get someone's attention? The individual who answered the phone at the FBI RMD today made it clear that some folks have been waiting as long as six years for a name check to clear so we shouldn't be so impatient. Whatta bummer.
Richard III
I received today an answer to my email to the Records Management Division of the FBI, which I sent on December 1, 2004 (it took over four months for them to get around to answering my query). I was asking for a status on my wife's name check for her AoS. The answer? Pending. The request for name check was submitted on March 18, 2004. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get someone's attention? The individual who answered the phone at the FBI RMD today made it clear that some folks have been waiting as long as six years for a name check to clear so we shouldn't be so impatient. Whatta bummer.
Richard III
Apr 12th 2005, 4:52 pm
#22
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Joined: Jan 2003
Location: Loveland, Colorado
Posts: 409
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
I know, I am trying to see things from their (FBI RMD) standpoint. They are swamped with work, under-funded, overworked, no prayer of ever seeing daylight again. The real problem here lies with Congess, they choose to fund these folks at a very low level, knowing that it has an impact of timely results and the political reality is that they DON'T CARE. They know their constituents don't place a high priority on this sort of stuff and they act accordingly. It's just human nature.
Richard III
Richard III
Originally Posted by Garfield2005
I have checked with a bunch of attorneys and I have never heard of it pending for 6 years. They only starting the AOS rigereous name check shortly after 9/11. They were prolly just tring to blow you off. Most i heard was it pending for 2 years. It is a bummer but there aint nothing that can be done at this point. Its the intelligence community and not immmigration that is stalling.
Apr 12th 2005, 5:17 pm
#23
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 164
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
That is what i mentioned in my other post. They seem to be expremely underfunded. It seems like the orders might have come up the chain and they were told to do more with the limited resources they had. I dont think this will get a lot of media attention. Mostly because it invovles a very small portion of the US population. Also it seems like they are not only doing the name check etc for AOS and Citizenship but also for indivuals applying for visa's to enter the US. That is alot of workload.
Originally Posted by Richard III
I know, I am trying to see things from their (FBI RMD) standpoint. They are swamped with work, under-funded, overworked, no prayer of ever seeing daylight again. The real problem here lies with Congess, they choose to fund these folks at a very low level, knowing that it has an impact of timely results and the political reality is that they DON'T CARE. They know their constituents don't place a high priority on this sort of stuff and they act accordingly. It's just human nature.
Richard III
Richard III
Apr 12th 2005, 7:57 pm
#24
Cool Member
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: Oregon
Posts: 1,084
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Originally Posted by Garfield2005
That is what i mentioned in my other post. They seem to be expremely underfunded. It seems like the orders might have come up the chain and they were told to do more with the limited resources they had. I dont think this will get a lot of media attention. Mostly because it invovles a very small portion of the US population. Also it seems like they are not only doing the name check etc for AOS and Citizenship but also for indivuals applying for visa's to enter the US. That is alot of workload.
Apr 13th 2005, 2:28 am
#25
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 164
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Again until US citizens make a noise about it it wont get any media coverage. And unfortunaly it effects only a very small portion of US citizens, ppl that are sponcering thier spouse etc. And i'm sure the intelligence community will use the comback that they are doing this for security and no one is going to argue with that, espcially since no one really knows what they are doing.
Originally Posted by USA & Pakistan
Ya, but i still think they should be under some kind of time constraints to get the applicant an answer. If they havent found the file in 2 years, it is doubtful that they ever will! Innocent until proven guilty, etc, etc.
Apr 13th 2005, 6:57 am
#26
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Posts: 150
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Richard,
This is just my speculation. Are there any reasons you believe that your wife's case warrant special attention from FBI?
If not, let's face it. They don't have the man power to investigate everyone. That means it's an electronic process for the majority of applicants. You know how fast the computer can crank out these things. So the bottle neck is from the time the order is placed to the time someone runs it thru the computer. Would it not make sense to think that everyone should move around the same pace since it's the same queue?
I've been on this board for a while now. The majority postings I've read indicating AOS is done by the time they went in for an interview. In our case it surprised me it wasn't but the guy promised to get it out in 2 weeks. How could he know FBI was able to get it done in 2 weeks? I almost got a feeling that someone forgot to do something and pending background check is the standard padded answer.
By the way, that your wife is from the former USSR alone should not place her in a special attention queue. My wife was born there too though she immigrated from Canada this time.
Have you thought if the way you filled out the I-485 created issues for you? For example, in the former USSR every kid by default was a member of the communist party pioneer or whatever you call it. You don't get to choose to be part of it or not. The reality is it's kid stuff. Who cares. However, we have friends who bothered to put this kind of stuff down and got more questions than necessary when going thru their AOS interview. That was before 9-11. I don't know how they do it today when they see something like this. If I were a CIS officer, and I saw something I don't understand in terms of foreign politics/ affiliations, I would turn it over to FBI for investigation. It's their job to tell me whether the applicant is ok or not. Agains, I'm just making a logical conjecture.
I got a feeling that your case is either lost somewhere that no one care to go find it or something alarmed them to put her on an investigation path. Personally I would start by double checking your copy of I-485 and asking her to think really hard if there is anything at all in the past that would trigger this alarm... Is her name similar to someone who may be in trouble... You need to know why the delay before you can figure out a solution.
My 2 cents...
Alex
This is just my speculation. Are there any reasons you believe that your wife's case warrant special attention from FBI?
If not, let's face it. They don't have the man power to investigate everyone. That means it's an electronic process for the majority of applicants. You know how fast the computer can crank out these things. So the bottle neck is from the time the order is placed to the time someone runs it thru the computer. Would it not make sense to think that everyone should move around the same pace since it's the same queue?
I've been on this board for a while now. The majority postings I've read indicating AOS is done by the time they went in for an interview. In our case it surprised me it wasn't but the guy promised to get it out in 2 weeks. How could he know FBI was able to get it done in 2 weeks? I almost got a feeling that someone forgot to do something and pending background check is the standard padded answer.
By the way, that your wife is from the former USSR alone should not place her in a special attention queue. My wife was born there too though she immigrated from Canada this time.
Have you thought if the way you filled out the I-485 created issues for you? For example, in the former USSR every kid by default was a member of the communist party pioneer or whatever you call it. You don't get to choose to be part of it or not. The reality is it's kid stuff. Who cares. However, we have friends who bothered to put this kind of stuff down and got more questions than necessary when going thru their AOS interview. That was before 9-11. I don't know how they do it today when they see something like this. If I were a CIS officer, and I saw something I don't understand in terms of foreign politics/ affiliations, I would turn it over to FBI for investigation. It's their job to tell me whether the applicant is ok or not. Agains, I'm just making a logical conjecture.
I got a feeling that your case is either lost somewhere that no one care to go find it or something alarmed them to put her on an investigation path. Personally I would start by double checking your copy of I-485 and asking her to think really hard if there is anything at all in the past that would trigger this alarm... Is her name similar to someone who may be in trouble... You need to know why the delay before you can figure out a solution.
My 2 cents...
Alex
Last edited by alex_lg; Apr 13th 2005 at 7:02 am.
Apr 13th 2005, 12:45 pm
#27
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 164
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Alex, I disagree. From what i understand if your name/biographics get a hit then your case goes into a backlog where it has to be cleared. Apparently the individuals who do get approved fairly quicky dont have that problem, where their name does not get a HIT. a HIT from what i can understand can come from your name, associations listed on the application, county of citizienship, countries of residencey etc. If the FBI did not come back with the reply that his name check is pending then i would agree with what you said, but at this point i would say his and a lot of other people waiting for clearance information is in that backlog which needs to be cleared.
Originally Posted by alex_lg
Richard,
I got a feeling that your case is either lost somewhere that no one care to go find it or something alarmed them to put her on an investigation path.
Alex
I got a feeling that your case is either lost somewhere that no one care to go find it or something alarmed them to put her on an investigation path.
Alex
Apr 13th 2005, 4:02 pm
#28
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Joined: Jul 2004
Location: Oregon
Posts: 1,084
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Originally Posted by alex_lg
If not, let's face it. They don't have the man power to investigate everyone. That means it's an electronic process for the majority of applicants. You know how fast the computer can crank out these things. So the bottle neck is from the time the order is placed to the time someone runs it thru the computer. Would it not make sense to think that everyone should move around the same pace since it's the same queue?
Alex
Alex
Yes, their pending checks are mysterious, but i was wondering if you had read this link where the FBI explains the name check part of it to congress:
http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress...rity021304.htm
Marnee
Apr 14th 2005, 4:22 am
#29
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Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 150
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Hi All,
As promised before here is our latest update.
Our time line:
I-485 filed: 8/15/04
finger print date: roughly a month later
Interim EAD: visited San Jose office after 90 days to get an interim EAD issued
regular EAD: arrived 4-5 months later after 8/15/04
AOS interview: 3/23/05, I-551 stamp was not issued pending background check
Approval letter: 4/2/05
10-year plastic Green Card: 4/13/05
Regards,
Alex
As promised before here is our latest update.
Our time line:
I-485 filed: 8/15/04
finger print date: roughly a month later
Interim EAD: visited San Jose office after 90 days to get an interim EAD issued
regular EAD: arrived 4-5 months later after 8/15/04
AOS interview: 3/23/05, I-551 stamp was not issued pending background check
Approval letter: 4/2/05
10-year plastic Green Card: 4/13/05
Regards,
Alex
Apr 14th 2005, 12:32 pm
#30
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 164
Re: Pending background check to approve @ AOS Interview
Congrats!
Originally Posted by alex_lg
Hi All,
As promised before here is our latest update.
Our time line:
I-485 filed: 8/15/04
finger print date: roughly a month later
Interim EAD: visited San Jose office after 90 days to get an interim EAD issued
regular EAD: arrived 4-5 months later after 8/15/04
AOS interview: 3/23/05, I-551 stamp was not issued pending background check
Approval letter: 4/2/05
10-year plastic Green Card: 4/13/05
Regards,
Alex
As promised before here is our latest update.
Our time line:
I-485 filed: 8/15/04
finger print date: roughly a month later
Interim EAD: visited San Jose office after 90 days to get an interim EAD issued
regular EAD: arrived 4-5 months later after 8/15/04
AOS interview: 3/23/05, I-551 stamp was not issued pending background check
Approval letter: 4/2/05
10-year plastic Green Card: 4/13/05
Regards,
Alex