Matthew Udall

I've been saying for years now that they should remove the projected processing times (wild guesses that "USCIS HQ" determines and makes a service center publish on its receipt notice) listed on receipt notices, and that they should instead tell people where to find the Service Center reports and how to use those reports. After all, history has shown that the reality of processing times at any given service center usually do not fall in line with the wild guess, non-binding, projected processing times written on a receipt notice. It is often said by petitioners (when contacting their representatives to complain), "It's not the wait, but instead the fact that I don't know what's going on… see, they have not met the projected processing time on my receipt notice".

For years now, I've been telling people that the projected processing times written on the receipt notice are just wild guesses that are usually not even close to reality, that the projected processing time is "not" a promise by the USCIS and not binding on the USCIS, and that one should instead use the processing reports that actually "do" come from the Service Centers and which contain accurate "and contradictory" processing information, in order to determine if a case is likely with an officer yet (I can only say "likely" due to the IBIS wrinkle), and if so, how to calculate a realistic overdue date. Relying on the wild guess projected processing time listed on a receipt notice is a sure fire way for someone to have "unrealistic expectations", while using the Service Center's own reports leads to realistic expectations.

The fact is that they "cannot" tell you at the time of filing how long any given case will take, and instead can only give you the next best thing… where they are at right now (after all, the Service Centers can and do speed up and slow down for a wide variety of reasons, and some of those reasons are outside of the control of the Service Center and/or USCIS itself). But I have found over the years that no matter how many times I share that information, there are those who refuse to accept the truth and instead cling to the processing times written on a receipt notice and use that as justification to complain and say, "It's really not the waiting, but rather that I just want to know what is going on".

Well the days of projected processing times listed on receipt notices are "FINALLY" coming to an end.

I received word from AILA today (Thank you AILA) that the USCIS has finally decided to change the format of the I-797 receipt notice. Rather than listing a "wild guess" projected processing time (again, that didn't even originate from the service center in question), petitioners will now be directed to the processing time reports on the USCIS' website.

I wonder if this will cut down on the "I don't mind waiting my turn, but I just want to know where they are at" types of complaints. Eliminating the wild guesses on the receipt notices is definitely a step in the right direction.

scrubbedexpat099

"I wonder if this will cut down on the "I don't mind waiting my turn, but I just want to know where they are at" types of complaints. Eliminating the wild guesses on the receipt notices is definitely a step in the right direction."

Unlikely unless they process in the future at the same pace.

There have been such variances in the past that if you worked on the assumption that your processing will take the same as someone just coming to an end, you could be in for a rude shock

What would be nice is if they caught up with the backlog so you knew that current processing times would be the worst case scenario.

And of course if they processed sequentially, which does not appear to be the case.

jeffreyhy

Boiler,

I think they do process sequentially, to the extent that is possible. There are any number of reasons why a particular petition or application might get held up. If that were to preclude work on all subsequent petitions or applications of the same type today's backlog would look insignificant.

Taken to the extreme, a truly sequential process would mean one person processes everything and doesn't move on to the next until the one he's working on has been completed. Obviously rediculous, so compromises must be made to get the work done. It's hard to argue with having multiple people work on multiple petitions, and with having a 'problem' petition put to the side with work continuing on other petitions until the problem - whatever it might be - is resolved.

Such a procedure gets more petitions processed in less time. It also means that some petitions don't get finished until after other petitions that were submitted before them.

Do you really want to change that?

Regards, JEff

scrubbedexpat099

I does not appear that Missouri does.

I have been following others postings and there are people who have there AP and EAD who had a NoA before me and others who are still waiting having applied months before me. And no indication of any issues, just bog standard applications. OK I can not be certain.

I am guessing here but I have this picture of incoming applications being doled out to teams without any consideration of their workloads, if you get into a slow team, tough.

If you get a RFE, well that is going to delay things but you seem to keep your place. Not sure about this.

We are not with EAD's and AP's talking about anything that require much investigation, it is clerical processing.

Rete

Glad to hear they did away with the time estimations on the NOA but it will not stop the questions from people wanting to know where they are in the process. Why? Because realistically you never know where you are in the process. You have no way of knowing that because the USCIS does not allow the general public a way of finding out, i.e. workable phone numbers to people who actually know what they are talking about.

And let's face it, instead of people whining about how long it is taking from the time given on the NOA, you are going to have complaints and whines from people on not having that timeline. It is a no-win situation no matter what happens.

Just so glad we are finished with the processing and the only timelines I have to deal with these days are the ones from my doctors.

Rete

jeffreyhy

Boiler,

Exactly.

Regards, JEff

Roong_Rob

Can anyone shed some light on, What is the IBIS wrinkle?"

Thanks

inquisitive40

I wonder how computerized the whole processing is, if everything was inputted into a computer system which is networked back to a main database, the people on the phone answering questions could EASILY see where an applicant is. That is how all the main insurance companies etc process claims which is quite similar in a lot of respects to processing AOS forms. Even a simple input from the clerk who processes the file at each stage, then mark it if there are issues, would be VERY simple to do.

My thought though may be more a case that they do a lot of this manually (considering up until 9/11 so much was totally uncomputerized) and so literally the paperwork sits in piles on peoples desks and this is also how so much stuff gets lost and missing due to just stacks of paperwork on desks.

I also agree with the comments that some people (teams) are just slower OR don't care and so slow down everything. Maybe the slow ones are due to their geography, think about it Missouri and Texas both NOTORIOUSLY slow, Texas as a state has always not been a very friendly state to outsiders and in my experience neither is Missouri, could it be simply a case that these workers take the attitude of "screw them damn foreigners?"

I am sure I am gonna get blasted by the last comment but it would not surprise me in the least if that is the real reason for how slow these service centers are.

Patrick

Rete

International border informational system

It is the mandatory name check done on the foreigner. If you have a common name that gets a "hit" it takes time to uncover whether it is really you or someone else.

Hypertweeky

If they don't speed up the process.. the complains will persist.. not about the projected time on the NOA.. but don't worry applicants and beneficiaries will find a way ro rant (included me lol)
Thanks for the info Mr Udall

Rete

Use logic. Slow means too many cases to process and too few workers to process them. Texas - high percentage of Mexican immigrants. Nebraska - high percentage of immigrations for the farm industry. Vermont - too cold for many immigrations (only kidding) but agriculture in NYS and New England not a big industry. Most would be very very seasonal, i.e. corn and apples, and most likely the bulk of them from the Virginia/Maryland states. California - need I say more?

Missouri/National Benefit Center - give them all the caseloads of 90 percent of the entire country and increase their employees by 10% and what do you get? Mass confusion and low productivity.

Up to 9/11 (04?) was NOT computerized? And where did you find that gem of a thought? Not true. For instance take the year(s) 1998/1999. Vermont is behind on naturalization petitions. So far behind that they are told to give some of those applications to New York City to do. NYC was computerized but WHOA the computer has a glitch in it and the entire system goes down and won't come back up. So guess what? New York City does it all by hand and processes them faster and efficiently than was possibly by computer. So much so that they took more from Vermont and cleared the backlog of several years in a few short months.

As for team work. What team work? How do you know the services work in teams? How do you know how the centes work period. You (the collective you btw) are assuming based on what you assume to be a method of dealing with this type of workload.

Also how many low income earners o you know who love their job; who take pride in their jobs; that want to excel in their job? Does a MacDonald worker feel that way? How about the retail store clerk? The doorman at your Hilton? Look on the USCIS and see what they earn. Nothing. Just barely enough to feed a family of 4 and live in a city with a low cost of living. What does a mail clerk make, this is the guy that sorts the USCIS mail and delivers it to the appropriate desk for processing. Do you really think his job is anything other than punching a timeclock in and out? And the clerk that inputs your information on the system? How much does a data processor make? $16,000, possibly $21,000? How accurate is their typing skills?

I ask all of you to look at the big picture; it is not like the televisions were you get the little screen in the corner to see what is on another channel. That is what you guys are doing. Looking at that little screen.

I understand because you want and need information. But you ain't going to be getting it in your USCIS lifetime. Perhaps in two or three generations from today's filers but definitely not in yours.

Rete

Hypertweeky

Man Rete you scare me sometimes!!

inquisitive40

Is California Main service center as slow as Texas? ( I don't know) every 2nd person here is Mexican.

As far as computers go, every new system has glitches, BUT if they have decent engineers doing their job properly they will work all the problems out over a couple of months and then there would be actual communication between ALL the centers and so the applicant would have the big picture.

As far as pre 9/11, was from my experience at POE in Ireland, I was TOTALLY shocked when I went through the POE in Ireland, I was expecting a check on my passport etc via the computer (like anywhere else would do in Ireland, even the police had gotten themselves up to speed in Ireland at that point LOL) and yet when I went through, they asked me a couple of questions, no processing at all was done on the computer, so that is why I said there seemed to be little computer processing pre 9/11 ,,,

I TOTALLY agree with low paid workers having no interest in their work, are the clerks that badly paid? Would think it would be a decent job considering the work and responsibility invloved.

One positive thing about this change though is that over the last couple of months there actually does seem to be a change happening, InfoPass, new passport pics, etc.

Patrick

Rete

Programmers who work for the US Government are not top of the line professionals for the most part. They are the ones that got a one or two year degree for a computer technical school or they had one of those phony degrees from a mail order college. Do you think a four year college graduate would work for the US government for $40,000 or less when the corporate world was paying from $70,000 and upwards for IT employees?

USCIS, f/k/a INS, still uses the bulk of the monies given to it for security and not for petition processing. First priority before and after September 11, 2001 was the border.

And how do you know that your information was not brought up on a computer? Did you know that your passport, many countries such as the UK, have bar codes on their passports and just placing that bar under the scanner, out of sight of you, will bring up your information. Perhaps not on the screen of the agent interrogating you but to someone in the back office. If there were a problem with the answers you gave and the information online don't think you would not have been taken aside.

I see this both entering and exiting Canada via automobile and plane. The scanner is below the counter. If you ever drive to Canada and use your passport watch how your passport disappears for a 1/2 a minute. Just enough time for a scan.


And change is needed. It is unfortunate that they cannot stop all processing for one year and revamp the entire method of processing and the retrain all present employees to the new processing. Throw out the old methods, forms, software and start fresh with up-to-the-minute technology. They can't do that. Imagine what an uproar there would be from every USC with a foreign love interest, or those seeking true asylum, or much needed workers for fields that can't find qualified US citizens or present Permanent Residents to do the job <tongue in cheek>.

Perhaps they need to keep one district office in every state during that shut down year to deal with the presently filed petitions. Clear the paperwork and when the doors reopen in a year everyone starts at day one.

They need to sit down with someone like me, a do-it-yourselfer, who can take them step by step through what our processing from the K-1 through naturalization was like for us to really see the repetitiveness of the processing. I don't think an immigration attorney telling them would have the same impact as someone whose life or the life of their loved ones depended on the inefficient and wasteful method of processing from beginning to end. An IA deals with daily but it does not touch their lives as it touches ours and therefore has less of a impact on them as for us.

Ain't going to happen.

Rete

inquisitive40

My passport never left the officers hand, was like a checkout at Walmart , he held it in his hand, checked it for any stamps (and even at that the second time did not see the stamp I had from my first US visit) and it was the same in Shannon when we stopped on the way to Newark. All the officers did the same thing, again I was VERY surprised that there was no real check done at the time, just basically asked the nature of my trip and that was that, second visit I was asked what I worked at and I told him professional musician and he chatted a little about how cool that was.

Patrick