Checklist for leaving not Applicable questions Blank.

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

Hello everyone.

Quick question, how many of you got a checklist for leaving not applicable questions Blank? we got a checklist on the I-864A my our co-sponsor physical and postal address are the same, so where it says your postal address (if different) she left it blank instead of putting N/A and we got a checklist for that.

We re-submit the forms, and this will put us back at the bottom of the work queue, which costs us an additional month and a half of separation (which is a very significant amount when one has already been forced to live apart from one’s own spouse for almost a year).


We have also noticed that they have sent us a checklist for only one of the I-864A's but not for the other that also had the place of residency part Blank instead of n/a, would this have meant that we would have received another checklist after re-submitting the updated form ? Costing us more time apart? we however updated both I-1864A's just in case cause we want to avoid any other checklists.


The NVC could of at least informed us on their website that their requirements are different and not to follow the published instructions. When we asked a supervisor at the NVC if at we could have our application put at the top of the work queue once it arrived (since it was hardly our fault the NVC did not inform us of their requirements), We were informed that they “don’t do that.”

How ridiculous is that ? no we are wondering how many got checklists for this very reason, cause this little thing will cost us and extra 40-45 days apart

Izzy

Edited July 31, 2014 by Jamie & Izzy

[BOS_LHR 829]

So sorry this happened to you Unfortunately it's an extremely common checklist, although most people get it on the I-864EZ, which has that same "leave blank if address is the same" section that they secretly don't actually want blank. I've never seen anyone get NVC to remove the checklist, but one person did report they complained to their embassy and the embassy contacted NVC to fix it. It's definitely worth a shot.

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

So sorry this happened to you Unfortunately it's an extremely common checklist, although most people get it on the I-864EZ, which has that same "leave blank if address is the same" section that they secretly don't actually want blank. I've never seen anyone get NVC to remove the checklist, but one person did report they complained to their embassy and the embassy contacted NVC to fix it. It's definitely worth a shot.

Already contacted the Embassy this is what they said :

Thank you for your email inquiry. This office has not yet received the petition you filed on behalf of your spouse. Usually immigrant visa cases are scheduled by the National Visa Center (NVC) in the United States. We only receive files at this office after the interview has been scheduled and a packet mailed to the applicant. Please direct your inquiry to NVC

Regards,

Immigrant Visa Unit, U.S. Consulate General

8, Bd Moulay Youssef, Casablanca, Morocco

[ysunshine14 6]

Hello everyone.

Quick question, how many of you got a checklist for leaving not applicable questions Blank? we got a checklist on the I-864A my our co-sponsor physical and postal address are the same, so where it says your postal address (if different) she left it blank instead of putting N/A and we got a checklist for that.

We re-submit the forms, and this will put us back at the bottom of the work queue, which costs us an additional month and a half of separation (which is a very significant amount when one has already been forced to live apart from ones own spouse for almost a year).

We have also noticed that they have sent us a checklist for only one of the I-864A's but not for the other that also had the place of residency part Blank instead of n/a, would this have meant that we would have received another checklist after re-submitting the updated form ? Costing us more time apart? we however updated both I-1864A's just in case cause we want to avoid any other checklists.

The NVC could of at least informed us on their website that their requirements are different and not to follow the published instructions. When we asked a supervisor at the NVC if at we could have our application put at the top of the work queue once it arrived (since it was hardly our fault the NVC did not inform us of their requirements), We were informed that they dont do that.

How ridiculous is that ? no we are wondering how many got checklists for this very reason, cause this little thing will cost us and extra 40-45 days apart

Izzy

Oh man it's terrible how they do that to people . We had a similar situation we got a checklist because I forgot to put the amount I made throught the year of 2013 even though I sent my taxes they needed for me to redo and resend my taxes, it's crazy how they work and it's sad because they had everything they just waiting on that but they still need 30 days to review. Uggghhhh so frustrating :'( haven't seen my husband since January ?

[destiny64 222]

They are terrible about that, leave no question blank. I received it for sending taxes but not writing in the amount in the box. I was so intent on getting it back to them that I neglected to write it in , even though they had the answers for amount they won't write in on the form for you. I'm sorry this is happening to you!

[J_d_Petitioner 17]

Oh no! I just looked at my I-864A and I left that portion BLANK. I'd flip if I get a checklist for that. Checklist isn't too bad if it doesn't take them 30 days for EACH update. It's just plain ridiculous.

[NikLR 13,220]

This comes up time and time again and yes it will get you a checklist. Hopefully others learn from yours, and many other's mistake, and not make it themselves.

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

Oh man it's terrible how they do that to people . We had a similar situation we got a checklist because I forgot to put the amount I made throught the year of 2013 even though I sent my taxes they needed for me to redo and resend my taxes, it's crazy how they work and it's sad because they had everything they just waiting on that but they still need 30 days to review. Uggghhhh so frustrating :'( haven't seen my husband since January ?

It just sucks!

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

This comes up time and time again and yes it will get you a checklist. Hopefully others learn from yours, and many other's mistake, and not make it themselves.

Yup, Well i have seen some get checklist for this some do not, it was our co sponsor who left it Blank, but getting a checklist for following the instructions is really not fair .

Oh no! I just looked at my I-864A and I left that portion BLANK. I'd flip if I get a checklist for that. Checklist isn't too bad if it doesn't take them 30 days for EACH update. It's just plain ridiculous.

I hate to say this but it take the full 30 Business days to review a checklist

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

We contacted our senators, they said they will see what they can do and they contacted the NVC already .

This is what one of them said

It was nice to speak with you earlier and Congressman Pocan appreciates you bringing this matter to our attention. If you would kindly fill out, sign, and send back the attached privacy release form, I will open an inquiry with the National Visa Center.

Please include as many details in the privacy waiver as possible and attach any additional pertinent documents.

With kind regards,

Margaret McInnis

Casework Manager

Congressman Mark Pocan (WI-02)

10 East Doty Street Room 405

Madison, WI 53703

It was nice to speak with you earlier and Congressman Pocan appreciates you bringing this matter to our attention. If you would kindly fill out, sign, and send back the attached privacy release form, I will open an inquiry with the National Visa Center.

Please include as many details in the privacy waiver as possible and attach any additional pertinent documents.

With kind regards,

Margaret McInnis

Casework Manager

Congressman Mark Pocan (WI-02)

10 East Doty Street Room 405

Madison, WI 53703

And this is what my husband wrote to one of the congress people.

Dear Mrs. McInnis,

Please forgive the length of this letter, however I would like to first discuss the particular problem my wife and I are having with the National Visa Center at the moment, and then address the many problems with the legal immigration system as it currently stands, an area that I think is ripe – indeed, over-ripe – for reform.

When my co-sponsors filled out their Affidavit of Support form I-864As (see attached), they filled in their address under “Mailing Address” and left the “Place of Residence” section blank as it says “if different from the mailing address” and because the I-864/I-864A instructions published on the USCIS website clearly state that when something does not apply, leave it blank. (see attached page from instructions).

The National Visa Center, however, sent us a checklist for this, stating that these fields must be filled in with “n/a”. The NVC directions do not mention this vital information anywhere. In fact, The NVC website specifically states that the instructions on the USCIS website should be used and that “it is important to carefully follow the instructions included with each form.” (see attached website printout).

The NVC has known about this vital omission for over a year (the latest forms were updated 3/22/2013) and yet have done nothing whatsoever to address the problem even though it affects the majority of applicants. The result of receiving a checklist for this is that you must re-submit the form, and this puts you back at the bottom of the work queue, which costs all affected families an additional month and a half of separation (which is a very significant amount when one has already been forced to live apart from one’s own spouse for a year). The NVC apparently regards this additional separation as nothing more than an “inconvenience,” and they disclaim all responsibility for their gross negligence in failing to inform applicants of the requirements for filling out their forms. One supervisor said they update their forms every year or two, and they just have not gotten around to it and another supervisor said that they do not have any control over it as it is a Homeland Security form that the Dept. of State decided to adopt.

Even assuming the NVC or Dept. of State cannot modify the published I-864 instructions, they could at least conspicuously inform applicants on their own website that their requirements are different and not to follow the published instructions. Yet the NVC seems to think that applicants should somehow know of their requirements without being informed of them anywhere. Thus, we applicants are effectively entrapped into incorrectly filling out our forms and thus being issued a checklist and enduring the additional separation that results. When I asked a supervisor at the NVC if at least we could have our application put at the top of the work queue once it arrived (since it was hardly our fault the NVC did not inform us of their requirements), I was tartly informed that they “don’t do that.”

I would appreciate it if you would contact the NVC and inquire into our case and the reason for the delays. They will likely give you a canned response, citing their “30 business day” processing time (they appear to adjust their official processing times to whatever is convenient for their operations). However, the real issue (which they will certainly try to talk around) is why they have failed to inform applicants of the correct requirements for filling out their applications despite, 1) it affecting a very large number of applicants, 2) the NVC knowing of the problem for over a year, and 3) the fact that they would only have to change one single sentence in the instructions to correct it. Surely their editing process cannot be that slow… Also, why must people who fall afoul of this requirement forced to wait the full month and a half processing time when they could not possibly have known of the rule due to the NVC’s own negligence?

If possible, I strongly encourage you to ask the NVC: 1) precisely when the new form with the misleading instructions began to be used, 2) how many checklists have been sent because of this issue, and 3) what proportion of the total number of applications is this (ideally broken down by month). Not only will this help to embarrass them into actually doing their job, but it may also help to determine whether this and other trivial reasons for sending out checklists are deliberately used by the NVC (and the USCIS as well) in order to make their processing times look marginally better by rejecting applications at the first error found, no matter how minimal.

In general terms, this issue is representative of the general lack of accountability, transparency and oversight in the legal immigration process. The system, as it currently stands, appears very much to have been cobbled together with little regard to efficiency and none at all for minimizing the separation of families. And most families must remain apart for the duration of the process, no matter how long it is. Beneficiaries are officially allowed to visit the US during the application process, but in practice this is extremely difficult and there is a high probability of being turned away at the border, merely on the whim of the border guard. This means that the only way families can stay together is for the US citizen to abandon his or her life and career in the US and live in the spouse’s country, which is impossible or impractical in many cases (Morocco, for example, does not recognize my marriage to my wife as it was not a Muslim ceremony), nor should any free country force its own citizens to leave simply so they can be with their own spouses and families.

Some of the general issues that are in dire need of being addressed are:

- Unclear or unstated requirements for applicants (e.g. the “n/a” issue).

- Frivolous or irrational checklists from the NVC or Requests for Evidence from the USCIS, all of which cost applicants weeks or months of additional separation. Many examples can be provided, such as the USCIS requesting documentation that you have already submitted (which they have lost or sometimes which they have and paradoxically return to you along with the RFE…), etc. Many of us applicants speculate that these are issued in order to make processing times appear better than they actually are.

- Duplication of effort: at all three steps in the process (USCIS, NVC, embassy), applicants must prove who they are and that they have a genuine relationship. Surely this need only be done once. In fact, everything the USCIS does appears to be duplicated by the NVC/embassy – are they part of the process merely because of bureaucratic inertia? Do they (and their lengthy delays) really need to be part of this process?

- An apparent complete lack of accountability. Rules are applied very inconsistently (e.g. a number of applicants we know of also did not fill in “n/a” yet had their applications approved without checklists). The issuing of checklists/RFEs and final approval/denial seem to be far more contingent on the whim of the reviewing staff member than is quite right for a legal process. Are there any processes at all to ensure consistency?

Politically speaking, I believe reform of the legal immigration process represents some genuine “low-hanging fruit” – fairly minimal changes to the process could dramatically reduce the amount of time families are forced to be separated and dramatically increase the transparency, simplicity and efficiency of the process (for example, simultaneous rather than sequential USCIS and NVC processing, re-introducing the K-3 visa but making it obtainable with 2 or 3 months, etc.). What is more, legal immigration reform would be non-controversial (it harms no one and costs taxpayers nothing) and could help defuse right-wing arguments against other immigration reform, especially that directed towards refugees from Central America. Furthermore, while we US citizens with foreign spouses and families do not represent the largest group of voters, we do span all demographic groups in this country. Therefore, reform that makes the legal immigration of the spouses/families of US citizens a shorter and more humane process will be highly visible to a considerable portion of the population, not just to those who are directly affected. It would benefit many while harming none, thus representing a clear win-win situation. It is my sincere hope that Representative Pocan may take this issue up and address it formally, as not only will it enormously help the families suffering under the current system, but it will also provide an easy political victory for the Democrats. And in the current political climate, with the extreme radicalization of the Republican party, I and all other sensible Americans wish to see as many Democratic victories as possible!

Sincerely,

[J_d_Petitioner 17]

Yup, Well i have seen some get checklist for this some do not, it was our co sponsor who left it Blank, but getting a checklist for following the instructions is really not fair .

I hate to say this but it take the full 30 Business days to review a checklist

And sometimes more.

That's a good letter your husband sent to the senators. Hopefully NVC will budge. Good luck to you and US!

[pjm109 1]

I just got email from NVC saying that it will take 60 days to review the documents after a checklist ( see my other post for email http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/508278-cr1-nvc-delay-just-got-this-email-from-nvc/)

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

I just got email from NVC saying that it will take 60 days to review the documents after a checklist ( see my other post for email http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/508278-cr1-nvc-delay-just-got-this-email-from-nvc/)

Ridiculous !!