Hypertweeky

Sure it has I love how sunny Colorado is
As for NBC come on!!!!
You should smile more oftenly, It is a very good therapy

tmushen

Yes your right Matt what everyone is their approval. Information would be nice but an approval is the answer at the end of the day. The problem I had and I think all these people who have RFE"s is let's say someone forgot a form and gets an RFE after 75 days. They proceed to answer to answer the RFE with the simple form that was missing, missing a signature or a form that an officer just feels like being picky about. Once the RFE is answered I don't see why these cases have to wait 90 days again especially after the supposed initial processing was done. If there is any bullshit involved it's to say that intital processing was done. I guess looking at the application after it has been sitting on the shelf for 75 days to finally see that a form is missing is considered initial processing.

The frustration comes to a boling point when an RFE person is waiting another 90+ days while new apllications are being processed in anywhere from 75 to 90 days. Even though I am not saying to do this one might say to themselves why answer the RFE when I could just file a new application. At least you know that you should get a response in 60 to 90 days. Yes I again know that's not the solution because who says you won't get another RFE but common sense says that if intial processing has been done and I answer the RFE then I should receive a decision at least at the same time as the people who have filed new applications from the time I received my RFE.

Mtravelkay

utopiacowboy wrote:

    > OK, Matt. And what if you received a letter on January 22, 2004 from the
    > NVC saying that they had sent the petition to the embassy in Bogota and
    > to this day, your wife has heard nothing from the embassy. Nada! Of
    > course they do not answer either their telephones or their email so what
    > would you suggest? Waiting patiently?

I would check the timelines of other people that went through Bogota to
compare. I think a month is probably not long enough to go rushing to
your congressman. However, if you can't get a response for the visa
staff, you might try to contact the Consulate General in Bogota.

Matthew Udall

Hi Rene,
I'm not an expert on administrative review and I have no idea what it is that they might be looking into in any given case, however if they are doing an "investigation" I don't think it would make much sense to tip off the person being investigated about the subject matter of the investigation. Plus, their job is to approve an application of a foreigner who is asking for a benefit from the U.S. government, not to appease your sense of curiosity.

And if it takes months to do that work, that would be because that is how long it took to get someone to do that work. The Embassies run the Consulates, and they have certain priorities as far as carrying out their duties are concerned. I believe top priority is dealing with the protection of U.S. citizens and the property of U.S. citizens located in that country.

For example, the Embassy will send someone to the jail to check up on a U.S. citizen who might be in jail, visit and assist a U.S. citizen who might be in the hospital, help claim and ship back to the U.S. the body of a U.S. citizen who might have died in that country, etc. Then there is lower priority work of varying degrees. When they have any time left over, I believe they do the administrative review work for foreigners applying for a benefit from the U.S. government.

Plus there is the issue of rotating in new staff into the Embassy each year (I think they rotate them every year, but I could be wrong about that), and of course it will take the new staff time to get to speed at any given post. I think (and again I could be wrong) the rotations usually happen in one of the summer months (think it's July).

And please don't get mad at me for relaying this information (not saying you will get mad, and hoping you won't). I'm just a messenger and I don't set policy.

Andy Platt

"Matthew Udall" <member3997@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by Khadija
    > > However, if they would
    > share more timely, relevant information in the first place, some of the
    > anxiety would be alleviated and the petitioner would relax.
    > >
    > I have to call bullshit on this one! Petitioners are not interested in
    > information, they want an approval of their case and they want it

And I'm going to call you on it! Many many studies have shown that people
get more stressed out by the unknown than the known - even if the known is
pretty bad. If they could predict reliable timescales, even if they are very
long, that would be better than not predicting them - or worse, predicting a
short timescale that can't be met.

Andy.

--
I'm not really here, it's just your warped imagination

Matthew Udall

Yes, I suggest you wait patiently for a while longer. January 22nd is only one month ago, and I can tell you from experience with hundreds of fiancée cases that it sometimes takes 2 or 3 months for packet 3 to arrive once the case has been approved at a Service Center (and that is why I do what "I" do for my client's cases to try to get the consulate on board as quickly as possible and shake lose packet 3 from them "before" they ever receive the case file from the USCIS/NVC).

There is nothing in your post to suggest the case is lost, or that you have waited an amount of time where alarm bells would start to go off. These things take time, and I would not put much stock in a template letter sent from the NVC any more that I'd put stock in a wild guess processing time estimate printed on a receipt notice.

Matthew Udall

Yup, that is right and that is how I describe it as well. It used to be that from the moment the case was approved at the service center to the point the beneficiary received packet 3, it was like a big black hole and there was absolutely no way to track where the case was.

"Now" they have put boilerplate language on the approval notices about the involvement of the NVC in the shipping of the case to the Consulate, so now everybody is fixated on the NVC (even though cases used to go through the NVC even before they put that language on the approval notices) but there is still no way to track where the case is exactly.

One might even call a consulate to ask, but the odds are that low level consular employee is not going to put you on hold and go rummage around the shipping dock or mailroom to see if he or she can spot your case.

And you are complaining about them not giving you any "information"? Sounds to me like they are communicating vital things to you… what it is they want your fiancée to supply!

Maybe not, but their job is to adjudicate his case, not teach you the minutia about what it is they do or how they do it.

I understand your statement about anxiety; however again, their job is to process cases, not to teach you how and why they do their jobs. Now if you want to get a job at a Consulate and do that work yourself, "then" they will spend time training you to do their work.

I believe they were correct in characterizing this as "routine". And I'm happy to hear they answered your question and provided you with information that reduced your anxiety.

Another point is that they have a lot of work to do and their job is carrying out that work, not hand holding or teaching you the minutia of Consular processing.

Matthew Udall

I don't think any given service center "wants" to have it take 90 more days, however as the OP stated, his own rep told him that his service center is reporting that this delay is due to being swamped with work.

Yes, you are correct in your last sentence. The case arrives at the mail room, goes through an irradiation process to sterilize any biological agents that might be in the package, goes to presorting (commonly referred to as "slit and peek"), then the sorting section, then to Data Entry where a contract worker enters some data in the computer. The claims software system then automatically prints out a receipt notice and it is folded by machine and stuffed into an envelope (and that machine sometimes malfunctions and more than one notice gets stuffed into an envelope so some poor sucker out there never received his or her receipt or approval notice).

After data entry, it is taken to a shelf in the file room. The fiancée cases are all put together on the same shelf or shelves. And there it waits it turn, making its way from the back of the shelf to the front of the shelf.

As officers finish up with the cases they have been working, they ask a contract worker to go get a bin or a few bins of new cases from the fiancée shelf. Usually around 25 cases fit into a bin (however I recall an officer showing me one case he was working on that was literally 2 feet thick) and the worker might bring more than one bin to the officer.

The officer then starts working those cases, and if he or she feels the need to send out an RFE (which by the way is just "more" work for the officer) than that order goes out to clerical and they send out the RFE (and this is actually detailed work, after all, the RFE letter has to reflect what it is that the officer wants).

Everything up to this point is what is referred to as initial processing, and yes, the case has to wait its turn in order to make it to an officer.

If they are backlogged and can't do the RFE's as quickly as they usually do, than all the more reason to put together a well documented submission and avoid beginner mistakes. No one is required to hire an attorney with experience to put together their case and act as their advocate with the USCIS and Consulate, and some instead decide to chose an advocate with absolutely no experience whatsoever (themselves) when it comes to preparing and submitting this important submission for their loved one. They are certainly free to do this, but have no one but themselves to blame if they get an RFE due to doing shoddy work (but not to blame if the RFE is a USCIS screw up… for example, they lose something already provided).

One could withdraw their submission, then submit a new one all over again and pay the fee again. But the current speed in which they seem to be doing RFE work (according to stories in this group) is unusually long right now. From what I can tell (I don't get many RFE's) the typical RFE processing time is usually within a week or two after the RFE materials arrive to the Service Center, however if they are backlogged, they are backlogged. We can "wish" they were faster now, but wishing it to be so does not make it so.

Matthew Udall

Petitioner's know they will have to go through the immigration process to bring in a loved one and that this will take some time, and unfortunately, the very nature of this work is such that it will always be an unknown as far as when the case will be approved and a visa issued. Each case is different and each case requires an application of a body of complex law to a petitioner's and beneficiary's unique situation, and judgment calls to be made by officers applying the law to the couple's unique situation.

And if Monkeys flew out of your ass, you could likely replace Roy and you and Sigfreid could live happily ever after ;-). But seriously, someone at USCIS HQ tells the Service Center what to put as far as the wild guesses are concerned, but we all know how accurate that has been.

And that is probably why they are now using the net to deliver the ability to check one's case status, and provide reports showing where they are at in processing cases. I think they should do away with all projected processing times listed on notices and stress this other way to see where the case is in the system.

And even now that they have vastly improved one's ability to check on the case and to see where they are in processing, that is "still" not good enough for some. Some prefer to put their heads in the sand and rely on the wild guess, then whip themselves (and everyone around them) into a frenzy when the wild guess is not met.

I'll bet if they took off their wild guesses on the receipt notices, people would cry holly hell and demand to be given a wild guess anyway. The USCIS is never going to be able to please everybody no matter what system they put into place. It’s a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation. I just wish we Americans did not come off looking like such spoiled brats who have to have instant gratification in everything we do.

Folinskyinla

The uncertainity of length of time of separation from a loved one does induce stress. It really hurts when you can see and touch the person, but there is no communication -- and just educated uncertainty as to time and ultimate result.

You've got phones and e-mail and the ability to communicate. Make use of it -- you don't know what tommorrow will bring.

Matthew Udall

This is especially true when the separation could be permanent. I am glad to see you back to the group, and I am hoping for the best as far as the recovery of your loved one.

Words of wisdom my friend.

Noorah101

Hi Matt! I could never shoot the messenger! Thank you, as always, for your posts. The time you take to respond to our questions, vents, and woes is much appreciated.

Rene

utopiacowboy

Well, it's coming up on 2 months from the USCIS approval. I thought waiting for that was bad but this is worse. In Bogota you can go as soon as you have the packet, your documents and the medical so it's frustrating to be so close and "stuck". I guess I have another month's worth of patience left.

Hypertweeky

Go utopiacowboy go!!!

Andrew Defaria

Matthew Udall wrote:

    > Originally posted by Khadija
    >> However, if they would share more timely, relevant information in the
    >> first place, some of the
    >> anxiety would be alleviated and the petitioner would relax.
    > I have to call bullshit on this one!

I'll see your bullshit and raise you a bullshit!

    > Petitioners are not interested in information, they want an approval
    > of their case and they want it
    > yesterday.

Petitioners are very much interested in information and with information
comes understanding and a lessening of tension producing more
relaxation, well about as much relaxation as you can get WRT the
immigration process. People just want to be treated fairly and to be
aware of what's going on. Nothing kills that more than not knowing
what's going on. People are not stupid and realize that there is a
process, when they are aware that there is a process, and given a
reasonable expectation of how long the process will take and can measure
progress. This is not unlike any other frustrating and worrisome process
that any human being goes through and studies show that information is
very beneficial to the person going through such a process. I find it
amazing that you, an intelligent person, do not already know this!

And yes, they'd rather have an approval than just another excuse and
more wait time but if you give them the information, as opposed to hide
it, it goes a long, long way toward making the process better for all
involved.

And yes, they want an approval yesterday many times because they've
already been told, incorrectly, that the process would be finished many
yesterdays before or that they have been waiting 1/2, 1, 2 years for
something that just should not be taking that long!

    > Theirs is the most important case the government is processing, and to
    > hell with slowing down everybody else's cases due to wasting the time
    > of the agencies having to deal with multiple inquiries.

The agencies would not have to be dealing with multiple inquires if they
would be giving out information instead of hoarding it!

    > Who said the consulate is frustrated with an inability to process
    > cases in a timely fashion? They do process cases in a timely fashion
    > (as fast as they can).

That depends largely on your definitions of "timely fashion" and "as
fast as they can". For example, if they were paramedics and were
processing "as fast as they can" but fail to get the patient to the
hospital in time and they die then I'd still call it "not in a timely
fashion". I *understand* they are working with what they have but I also
understand that the patient is still dead.

    > Sure, use them for information and assistance, but know that using
    > them won't get your case put in front of someone else's that filed
    > before you

Often people are not looking to be placed in front of anybody else -
they just want information.

    > and know that you are slowing everybody's case down at that post.
    > Every minute they spend replying to your rep is one less minute they
    > have to actually work on cases.
    > If the USCIS or Consulate screws up, sure bring in the reps for help,
    > but if its just to nag the USCIS or Consulate about them being too
    > slow, than your nagging them just slowed them down even more.

Again, often people are just looking for information to understand what
the hold up is and when they can expect to see some progress (and it
would be nice to see progress being made or being alerted that progress
is being made).

--
(A)bort, (R)etry, (G)et a beer?