Andrew Defaria

MDUdall wrote:

    > While on the tour, our small group stopped to talk to an officer who adjudicates O
    > and P visas. I asked her, "If you have an extra thick case file to deal with, do
    > you sometimes grab a thinner one first and get it out of the way first"? Her reply,
    > "yes, and take a look at this one"! She pointed down to the floor, and sitting
    > there was a foot high (not kidding) stack of paper bundled together with large
    > thick rubber bands. She said this was the material for just one case that was sent
    > as a reply to an RFE! She was going to eventually get around to it.

Kinda kills the often stated theory that there is nothing that you can do to get
ahead in the "line", therefore implying a "line" with some sort of strict ordering,
always done in turn in a "fair" manner. Never believed that this was actually the
case. Your statement above proves that it isn't the case.

    > But I'll bet most K submissions are not as prone to wide variations in the amount
    > of documents submitted (thickness of case files), so I'll bet this picking and
    > choosing about which one to do first doesn't happen as often with the three
    > Division 3 officers assigned to process I-129f's. And remember, the officers are
    > brought "batches" of files (usually 25 in a batch, unless of course there is a
    > monster/thick file in there that would take up the space of a few files), so they
    > are picking from those 25 cases, "not" picking from all of the hundreds of cases
    > sitting on the file room's shelf.

These "batches" also kill the idea of any sort of a real ordered "line".

bba1vol

any information on msc approving k=3 visas lately........my husband and i filed on
july 11 and our receipt was dated july 15........and do you know about how long it
takes for a 130 to be approved...........thanks bballard

Folinskyiinla

[email protected] (MDUdall) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

    > While on the tour, our small group stopped to talk to an officer who adjudicates O
    > and P visas. I asked her, "If you have an extra thick case file to deal with, do
    > you sometimes grab a thinner one first and get it out of the way first"? Her reply,
    > "yes, and take a look at this one"! She pointed down to the floor, and sitting
    > there was a foot high (not kidding) stack of paper bundled together with large
    > thick rubber bands. She said this was the material for just one case that was sent
    > as a reply to an RFE! She was going to eventually get around to it.
An AILA friend of yours comments:

We once had an "over the top" RFE on an L-1 for a large Korean "Chaebol" where the
RFE asked for the original and two copies of voluminous corporate records. INS
promised to return the orignals. If we had complied with the letter of the RFE, the
documentation would have taken three, if not four of those shipping containers you
see at the San Pedro port. There was part of me that wanted so badly to comply
with the RFE!

Mdudall

    >Kinda kills the often stated theory that there is nothing that you can do to get
    >ahead in the "line", therefore implying a "line" with some sort of strict ordering,
    >always done in turn in a "fair" manner. Never believed that this was actually the
    >case. Your statement above proves that it isn't the case.

Actually, the huge volume of RFE materials sent to that officer helped that
particular case "get behind" in the line, not ahead in the line.

And in the RFE context, if an RFE is issued forget any line (actually, that case was
processed "in line" but for that particular case the officer felt an RFE was
needed). This case has now been sidetracked from the other cases that did not have
an RFE, and it will take longer because the RFE letter has to be generated, mailed
and received; and the petitioner has to gather, mail and have it arrive at the
Service Center and then processed. Other cases that did not have an RFE will still
be going through the pipeline even though one particular case had an RFE sent (and I
don't believe you would think it a good idea for them to discontinue working on any
other cases until that one RFE case was approved first... a strict adherence to the
first in, first out."

    >These "batches" also kill the idea of any sort of a real ordered "line".

It is a "line" that consists of moving 25 cases in batches.

As an officer gets 25 cases (usually 25 as that is the amount that is one of the bins
they use to carry them around in the Service Center), those 25 are done before
another batch of 25 are ordered by the officer. Sure, an officer might grab from the
front of the bin and work through, or grab in the middle and work out to the ends of
the bin, or close his or her eyes and simply pick one located anywhere in the bin (I
don't know if they have been instructed to do it any particular way). There might be
a case in that bin that arrived a day or two before another case in the bin, and the
other case in the bin is grabbed first; however that is a far cry from an officer
selecting from the hundreds or perhaps thousands of cases waiting on the shelf in the
file room (contract workers, not INS officers go pull those cases from the front of
the shelf).

And there might be a situation where officer A orders a bin of 25 cases on the same
day that officer B orders the next 25 cases that came off the shelf right officer A's
cases, however officer B works faster or perhaps officer A has a sick day or two. So
officer B's cases might come through a day or two sooner, but it would not make much
sense for officer B to have to check with officer A to make sure officer B does not
process any cases that arrived a day or two after officer A's cases.

Come-on, get real. This reminds me of your ridiculous explanation/justification for
shouting "FIRE" in a crowded movie theater :-)

There are 3 officers in division 3 (at the CSC) that process I-129f's. They will be
keeping the system they have in place where contract workers pull the 25 cases in the
file room that have made their way to the front of the shelf and bring them to the
officer. What would you suggest these 3 officers do to make sure every single one of
those 75 cases held by those 3 officers are processed in the most strict first in,
first out bases (and lets assume they do pull them from their bins in the order from
the oldest case to the newest of the cases)?

Andrew Defaria

MDUdall wrote:

    > It is a "line" that consists of moving 25 cases in batches.

[ snip ]

    > Come-on, get real.

I am real. Most real people would not use the word "line" to describe what is
essentially a batch process.

    > What would you suggest these 3 officers do to make sure every single one of those
    > 75 cases held by those 3 officers are processed in the most strict first in, first
    > out bases (and lets assume they do pull them from their bins in the order from the
    > oldest case to the newest of the cases)?

In a word - automate it!

Mdudall

    >> It is a "line" that consists of moving 25 cases in batches.
    >[ snip ]
    >> Come-on, get real.
    >I am real. Most real people would not use the word "line" to describe what is
    >essentially a batch process.

There are times in other parts of the real world where I will have to wait in a
"line" with everybody else. At the front of the line is a staff member waiting with
their velvet rope that keeps those in line from entering the "staging area". As
people are processed at the various windows in the "staging" area, the person removes
the velvet rope and lets 25 more people into the building to fill up the lines at the
few windows in the staging area. Sure, once I make it past the velvet rope I might
pick a window where that worker does not move as fast as the person working at the
window right next to mine (this happens to me all the time at the supermarket :-),
but I'm processed are "roughly" the same time, and I'm certainly getting processed
before those who are still "in line" on the other side of the velvet rope.

The waiting line at a service center is the shelf in the file room. The cases are
placed on the shelf in the order they depart the contract workers at Data Entry.

The person holding the velvet rope who lets in more people into the staging area is
actually two people; one is the INS officer who tells the contract worker to give him
or her some more cases, and the other is the Contract worker who goes and gets the
cases for the INS officer.

And even if officers A, B, and C at the CSC work at slightly different rates,
their cases will generally be processed before others still in the line on the
file room shelf.

Andrew, they are processing hundreds of thousands of cases, and I'm sorry the
procedures they have devised to try to accomplish that task don't quite meet your
standards.

    >> What would you suggest these 3 officers do to make sure every single one of those
    >> 75 cases held by those 3 officers are processed in the most strict first in, first
    >> out bases (and lets assume they do pull them from their bins in the order from the
    >> oldest case to the newest of the cases)?
    >In a word - automate it!

OK, lets do away with contract workers and instead build an industrial line where
each case is hung on a hook as it goes through the mailroom, presorting, sorting, and
data entry. This "line" of hooked cases goes by officer A B and C's desks (we'll have
to make sure the desks for each officer are within feet of each other and not a
single inch closer to the "line" of cases hanging on the hooks, otherwise it won't be
fair would it).

That way, each officer can pull the next case off of the front hook just as soon as
that officer finishes that last case.

Sounds good to me. They can eliminate the Contract workers altogether... oh wait a
minute, someone has to hang those cases on the hooks. Of course, the cost of
installing that type of hardware will be high, but that's OK, as we all know Congress
gives the INS any and all amounts of money INS asks for. So I agree that this will be
a much better way of doing things and will quite possible even save a day or two for
someone along the way.

You should be working for INS!