Ned Brickley

(If you have sensitive eyes, move along now please. No foul language
but the heat may cause damage to the optical nerve)

Oh I don't believe this one. My wife and I were notified that we were
going to need to send in more evidence or information. (Per the web
site)

Well the letter arrived today and when I got home from work my wife
was in tears. She had opened the letter thinking it was going to be
the appointment letter. Nope. Not a chance of that!

Those meatheads managed to lose our marriage certificate! Oh yes, the
one document I made sure was in the envelope, and they have asked us
to send in another copy. How much would you care to wager said
certificate is probably stuck to the bottom of another page?

Well I have done two things. First I emailed my US Senator a follow-up
to my request for assistance, then I went to the post office with a
copy I had just in case a situation like this arose.

My wife is a wreck now which makes me steaming mad. I swear the USCIS
is out to destroy us. It has been one bureaucratic foul-up after
another. Last year it was a demand for more money for fingerprints. A
couple of weeks later the check is returned with an "Oops! We goofed.
You already paid. Sorry."

Before that the call/appointment center in Guangzhou China was closed
down by the local police for 6 weeks because the company handling all
this was overcharging people. Going back still further it took me
three tries to get them to send my wife the forms she needed to fill
out for her visa. And of course, the stupidity that started all this
was a request for evidence to the lawyer handling the K-1 forms.
Evidence that she said they had never asked for before, and should not
have asked for in the first place!

Has anyone else had to deal with this much bureaucratic bumbling? I
won't go into the Social Security mess. If it hadn't been for someone
in this group we would probably still be waiting for it. At least he
is having a happy ending.

*grumble*

We now return you to your regularly scheduled immigration questions.

--
Ned

Elenfair

Oh Ned.

That really, really, sucks. When you think about the number of petitions, applications and requests that they deal with, there are BOUND to be errors and mistakes sometimes. I think all of us can understand *that*... but when it all seems to happen to a couple of people, it's just SO frustrating!

Hoping you two get a break sometime soon, and that USCIS "spreads the love" when it comes to operator error...

E.

Matthew Udall

Of course. In fact, the ability to bat for the client to try to resolve CIS screw-ups is one of the nicest things an attorney brings to a case. They screw up the straightforward cases just as often as the complex cases.

janadeen

Sorry to hear the bad news Ned - how completely frustrating.

To answer your question - I think YES - many, many people have had to deal with this type of madness and worse.

I don't think they're out to personally destroy you though. It's just the nature of they're bureucracy - to be slow, unclear, redundant, confusing ... If you want, you can take comfort that you're not alone in the misery. There were many before you and sadly, there'll be many behind you )-:

Just keep the faith - you'll both get thru this eventually!

Best of luck!

Nila101

Hi Ned,

I can't imagine how frustrated you and your wife must be feeling - we
all feel affected by the USCIS and moan about how bad our situation is
but by the sounds of things you're having a particularly difficult time
- all I can say is that I hope that things start to go smoother for
you both - having a marriage is hard enough work without having to deal
with bull**** day in day out - if you remember I'm in NH too, so if you
ever feel like having some beers and a rant about how crazy this
process is let us know or thinking positively i hope that in the very
near future you'll look back on all of this with a wide grin and a
supressed expletive! stay in there and all the best, niall

Ned Brickley

On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 23:32:56 +0000, Matthew Udall
<member3997@british_expats.com> wrote:

    >Of course. In fact, the ability to bat for the client to try to
    >resolve CIS screw-ups is one of the nicest things an attorney brings
    >to a case. They screw up the straightforward cases just as often as
    >the complex cases.

I may be contacting one. The one I used for the original visa charges
to much for this type of work. Since I have everything already in and
completed most of what would be required would be follow ups.

--
Ned

Ned Brickley

On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 22:35:20 +0000, Elenfair
<member9538@british_expats.com> wrote:

<Scream of rage deleted>

    >> We now return you to your regularly scheduled immigration questions.
    >> --
    >> Ned
    >Oh Ned.
    >That really, really, sucks. :( When you think about the number of
    >petitions, applications and requests that they deal with, there are
    >BOUND to be errors and mistakes sometimes. I think all of us can
    >understand *that*... but when it all seems to happen to a couple of
    >people, it's just SO frustrating!

I could understand one or two small things, but with us it has been a
constant visit of what we in the technology field call the "F**kup
Fairy. I'm going to be posting a few things about this on my web site
later this weekend.

    >Hoping you two get a break sometime soon, and that USCIS "spreads the
    >love" when it comes to operator error... ;)

Thank you. I have already mailed the marriage certificate, and I'm
thinking of getting another copy and sending that one in as well.
(The first one went in US mail. If I do the second one I will send it
registered, signature required)

--
Ned

Ned Brickley

On Sat, 22 Apr 2006 02:01:44 +0000, janadeen <[email protected]>
wrote:

    >Sorry to hear the bad news Ned - how completely frustrating.

Thank you.

    >To answer your question - I think YES - many, many people have had to
    >deal with this type of madness and worse.

I've been reading about them here. I keep trying to explain to my wife
that we are not alone in this.

    >I don't think they're out to personally destroy you though. It's just
    >the nature of they're bureucracy - to be slow, unclear, redundant,
    >confusing ... If you want, you can take comfort that you're not alone
    >in the misery. There were many before you and sadly, there'll be many
    >behind you )-:

I was just letting my inner paraniod run rampant for a bit. ;)

    >Just keep the faith - you'll both get thru this eventually!

I will. I just need to keep my wife's spirits up. Hopefully she will
pass her road test this time and will have her license. I think that
will help her feel better. I know my insurance agent will feel much
better when I put my wife on the policy. <shudder>

    >Best of luck!

Thank you again.

--
Ned

Rete

So the marriage certificate submitted (if your memory is not faulty) has been lost in the shuffle. Not the end of the world nor is it a stumbling block. A mere inconvenience. Your wife's petition has not been delayed overmuch, if at all; it has not been denied or rejected. Nothing has occurred to cause a loss of hopefulness. My only suggestion to you both is to keep things in perspective. In the future make a duplicate copy in the very same order as you are mailing for yourself. Bind it securely and file it away. This way you always no 100% what you submitted in your package.

Good luck to your wife on her driver's test.

Rete

Ned Brickley

On Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:48:45 +0000, Rete <[email protected]>
wrote:

    >So the marriage certificate submitted (if your memory is not faulty) has
    >been lost in the shuffle. Not the end of the world nor is it a
    >stumbling block. A mere inconvenience. Your wife's petition has not
    >been delayed overmuch, if at all; it has not been denied or rejected.
    >Nothing has occurred to cause a loss of hopefulness. My only suggestion
    >to you both is to keep things in perspective. In the future make a
    >duplicate copy in the very same order as you are mailing for yourself.
    >Bind it securely and file it away. This way you always no 100% what you
    >submitted in your package.

Thanks, I have electronic copies of everything in multiple locations
with many backups. I also have everything indexed and dated.

I know it's "just one of those things" but it just seems to me that
fate is fingering me in a very unpleasent and fickle manner. ;)

    >Good luck to your wife on her driver's test.

She's trying again on Wednesday.

--
Ned