Matthew Udall

I was reading some postings today from another place on the net, and I actually see people saying how good it is to have their case delayed by receiving an RFE. Of course, many who say this (to others) also received RFEs in their own case.

I always thought most people where interested in having their petition approved as quickly as possible, and we do see examples where RFE's are not processed quickly at any given service center.

Yes, an RFE means an officer looked at the case (and found it lacking). An approval would also mean an officer looked at the case. RFE issuance or petition approval happens at the exact same stage (period of time) in the process. For the approved cases, that is the "last" stage at the Service Center. Not so for RFE cases.

So, would you be happy to receive an RFE? Just curious, as I'm trying to understand the joy some seem to find in having their case delayed.

Hypertweeky

It is not that I get happy when people get RFE's, many people are paranoid about their cases (myself included), we tend to think something terrible is going to happen with our case so when we receive an RFE we feel "relieved" that all we need to do is send whatever they want back and await processing.
My first I-765 took 6 months to get approved, USCIS never sent me an RFE, I learned thru my congressman that they were missing my I-130 approval's notice, in this kind of situation I wished they'd send me an RFE, I rather have some kind of update you know?
If someone doesn't agree with me, post your side of the story

Matthew Udall

Hello Hyper,
Thanks for the reply. Couple of points:
When someone sends in a reply to an RFE, this does not mean the CIS officer won’t issue “another” RFE once the first RFE reply is received. It’s pretty rare (multiple RFEs) but it can and does happen. So, sending in a reply to an RFE does not mean they will process it “quickly” or that a second RFE is not going to be issued.

The thing I see the joyous RFE recipients always say is that, “at least you know an officer has looked at the case”. True, but as I mentioned before, the RFE or approval (or denial) happens at the same stage in the process….. it’s very late in the process that a CIS officer first looks at the case. All that waiting to get to an officer, only to have it unnecessarily delayed due to the RFE instead of getting an approval. Also, if they want to know if their case is likely with an officer yet, all they have to do is look at the processing time reports (Assuming they don’t get an IBIS hit). They don’t need an RFE to tell them that.

Hypertweeky

I have heard of people getting multiple RFE's, even when the right paperwork was sent out but that doesn't surprise me.
I don't believe people think of RFE's as joyous, I understand approvals or RFE's happens at the same stage but an RFE is much better than rejecting the whole application, just because one is married to a US citizen doesn't mean an RFE or approval is guaranteed!

Matthew Udall

Correct you are about there being no guarantee of petition approval.

Maybe we are just using different terminology, but I’d much rather have my petition “rejected” than receive an RFE. By using the term “rejected” I’m referring to the situation where they receive the case in the mailroom, then immediately send it back to the petitioner for some reason (and an “officer” is not sending it back as it never made it to the officer part of the process… its rejected by a contract worker who spots an obvious mistake such as forgetting to include the filing fee).

A rejected case comes back immediately and can be fixed and resubmitted immediately, while a “denied” case would have to make its way from the back of the shelf to the front of the shelf (reflected by the processing time reports), be given to an officer who then has up to 30 more business days to look at the case, and “then” its denied (or an RFE sent or approval sent). I’m shooting for approvals with my cases and royally hate RFEs! But hey, that’s just me I guess. I find no joy in submitting a sub-par submission.

Maybe there are some that really are not in that much of a hurry to be reunited with their fiancée and start their life together. Who knows (there “could” be legitimate reasons to want to delay a case).

Well, I'm done for the day. Just put the finishing touches on a K-1 submission that I'm sending to the CSC. Visa will process in Bangkok. Looks very complete and came in slightly over 1 pound. Well documented, but no overkill and no beginner mistakes.

Good night and have a nice Sunday everyone.

Hypertweeky

Good Night

Noorah101

Hi Matt,

Just wondering if you could post the link to the people that actually said "I am so glad to see my case delayed by my receiving an RFE."

As Hyper pointed out, they are probably just relieved to see someone looked at their case, instead of it still sitting on a shelf. Of course having it approved is much better, but to those people, having an RFE is a sign of progress - better than still having it sit on a shelf somewhere, but not as good as an approval.

I can't really imagine anyone saying "I'm glad my case is delayed...." no matter what the reason might be. I'd be curious to see someone actually say that. I can see someone saying "I'm glad I got the RFE, now I know someone looked at my case." But not verbatim "I'm glad it's delayed due to the RFE."

Best Wishes and Happy Sunday!
Rene

Matthew Udall

Don’t want to get in trouble with the wickeds of the east and west.

Oh, I think you are correct, but all they need to do is watch the reports to see if their case is with an officer (assuming no IBIS hit). Yes, they are glad to at least get an RFE, which also means their case just got delayed. But I suppose some are so desperate to know every detail about where their case is, they are happy for the RFE (which again, I wouldn’t be happy for that).

I think one I recall is “the RFE is no big deal”. I guess case delay is no big deal.

bguy1954

We did not get a offical official when went in for the interview the officer wanted more information " I would like to get this case done before I have to go back to California, so just bring the information the next day." We went back the next day with what he wanted and he just came out of the office, saw what we had brought and said "approved" and shook our hands. We were so surprised. He did not want us to mail anything in because he said even with express mail things get lost in the shuffle.
It would of been bad to get an"RFE" though because I believe we would have been put in line again.
Just for the record. We had our AOS interview in West Palm Beach,in this office there were many desk set up with just the names of the officers printed on paper. No phones on the desk but they did have computers. Our officer as well as the others (10) Had been sent to West Palm Beach from California to clear up backlogs in Florida. So to some degree the service is taking a real effort to speed things up. I just hope that the people in California being forced to wait longer because of this. Our interviewer really had the desire to get our case off the list and approve or disapprove, but in our case he did not want to RFE us because he knew we would get in the waiting game again.
Good luck to all, as we are through here except for the passport in 3 more years. Thanks for all the advice from all in getting this done ourselves and not having to use the services of very worthy people like yourself Matt.
Many people do use the service of fine attorneys and if there was not a board like this I believe it would be impossible to do alone.
SO THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HAVE ASSISTED IN ALL QUESTION DURING THIS PROCESS. A BIG MAHALO!!!!!!!!

Rete

The only scenario that comes to my mind and I've seen it posted here on more than one occasion is that the delay will put them over the 2 year anniversary of their wedding date and thus give them a LPR rather than CPR status. Of course, that, too, depends on whether they entered with a K-1 and if the DAO is the type to grant LPR after the second anniversary or hold with the "all K-1s are to be adjusted to CPR status regardless of length of marriage."

Matt, I'm glad to see that you are trying to understand what goes through the minds of those who are the petitioners and beneficiaries of CIS petitions. The mindset is very different from that of the attorney practicing immigration law or even the general public who has never had to petition the CIS for a benefit.

In my opinion and from having been there and done that, I believe it is the "not knowing" that is the underlying issue. You mail out a petition and are in the dark as to where it is at any particular moment. You get a glimpse into its travel when you see your check cashed or your notice of action is received or even if a referral for evidence is sent out. The online status check only tells you when it is 'touched' but no details on what type of touching has been down.

Even if you have an attorney of record, unless they actually take the time to call an insider only number, they are no clearer on where your petition is and what is happening to it at any particular moment in time.

It is the uncertainty that plays havoc with the emotions of the actual participants of the CIS process. To an attorney, there is no personal involvement. Their lives or rather future lives are not at stake regardless of how humane they want to come across in person or online. The rejection, denial, RFE or whatever has absolutely no affect on their lives unless they are responsible for said rejection, denial or RFE. Hence the difference: empathy or sympathy. Unless you have personally been there, done that, and have suffered emotionally, physically and monetarily at the hands of the CIS you cannot speak from experience and the display of various emotions by participants will always be something you cannot quite understand.


Personally, I feel it might be beneficial to understand that the emotions included in all aspects of the CIS processing is tanamount to being suspended on a high wire over the Grand Canyon wearing a blindfold.

Rete
Snowbound in the middle of the blizzard of '06
10 inches on the ground already and 10 inches more to follow.

Hypertweeky

There you go Rete!, That's what I meant!, Thanks for your post.
Send us pictures of the blizzard and don't drive!!

jeffreyhy

Rene,

I don't think that people are saying, 'I'm glad to see delay'. I think that people are saying, 'I'm glad to finally see some action', equating action with progress. The point being made is that the action correctly equates with delay, not progress, but the people are not appreciating the difference.

I also think that Rete identified the source of the gladness correctly - people want to know what is happening, and consequently prefer bad news to no news at all. If they apprciated the fact that the act of giving the bad news could alternatively been an act of giving good news they might not be so happy about it.

Regards, JEff

Noorah101

I agree. That's why I thought it was odd that Matt was quoting someone as saying they were happy to have their cased delayed by an RFE.

Rene

jeninifer

Our RFE arrived with extreme disappointment, but at the same time we were glad to know that something was being done.

We had a previous experience where one of our applications was transferred, but when it got to its destination, no one knew what to do with it. It was archived and we waited for months before discovering this through our congressperson's liaison.

I'd much rather know that IS NOT happening to me again and have a little more work to do!

ian-mstm

Yes, I agree. As usual, you have cut through the BS to get to the heart of the issue! Well done.

Ian