Listen up folks, I have a ton of answers on all our questions with VSC. Im on the phone NOW with the best officer, for now over 35 minutes!!!!

in for answers. cant wait.

Can't wait to hear what he's got to say .....

Hi, Paris Heart! We, VSC filers do have a lot to ask those guys... Why they are taking so long to process our cases? I wanna know what he told you.

Yes, I'd like to know if they still have our files .... and haven't just thrown them in the garbage

Ask him when it's our turn???

the anxiety is killing me. if you've got alll this time on the phone with one, you must be getting some good info.

i hope there is hope!

Okay gang, I can only post for a minute, I got a officer waiting for me, "and no its not immigration," its work related.
#1 Things are going to change in processing, our time is coming very, very very soon.
#2 They are told to process what they are told to They too are not happy about K1 all the time either.
#3 Files such as mine and a few other favorites on this forum have not been transfered, as rumor had it. None have been transfered.
#4 TOUCHES ARE A GOOD THING, means processing has began on file. And even if no touches seen, does not mean the case has not been
looked at, touches last update means nothing. "For example he pulled up my cases, and it shows no touches for today." NO LIE!!!
#5 K3 petitions such as mine are adjudicated by dates. "He could not expound any further on this one."
I have to go now, but listen folks its coming, very very soon. I will post more this evening when I return home. DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE!!!!! LISTEN,
I almost cancelled my petitions today cause of a rising situation, now I have the hope my cases will be on way or passed the NVC by July. I lost all hope earlier, now I know things will be okay for myself and my husband. Please dont give up , its coming. these are the things that stick out in my mind with the conservation . Im sorry I must go now.
Paris

These are good news because if they are working on our files it means approvals are coming soon!You cheered me up, thank u Beth!

why must you leave us?! nooo.. NEED TO KNOW MORE!! MORE I TELL YOU... WHERE IS MY CASE!!

Thank you Paris .... this is brilliant news!
So, guys .... the time is coming .... at bloody last!!!!

Am I the only one to already have heard all these "promises"?

Thank you, Paris! I know you guys have been waiting for at least 2 months longer than I have. But I was getting scared about those long waiting periods. Because I'm trying to guess when my case is going to be processed so I can organize my life! Now I have a little more hope that my wait is not going to be thaaaat long! Hope they approve you guys quick, so they can move on and process my case too!!!!

Listen guys, for some reason after being on the phone with this man, who took almost 50 minutes with me 50 minutes, I trust what he told me, and I do not trust many people in my life. I have hope again, and there is one of you guys out there that understands me of losing hope that I lost it, and now its renewed. Please guys its coming.

I do sure hope that something will happen soon. I was so depressed today when I looked at the VSC processing time and almost ran out of work and drive to Vermont. I called the service center to get some answers and all I got was more frustration and no answer. Please let something come soon. I have already contacted both my senator and congressman (again) to get help and answer to the situation. I don't know if I will hear anything from them but your news give some hope that progress may come soon.

I'm sorry but i lost hope a long time ago. One officers word means nothing to me.
I'm glad that this brings hope to some of you, but for me(waiting over 310 days) it will take much more to restore my hope.
My congressman calls Vermont 2 times a week for me only to be told the same thing.
"the case is awaiting a decision"
well great!! then approve it already!!

HOPEfully soon.

Also, if you ask the wrong question, then misapply the answer, you learn nothing. So far, the short answers you've given seem to be meaningless gibberish.

Just why do you think you were talking to an "officer" and that he was at VSC?

When you provide more details, please accurately report both the questions and the answers rather than just your conclusions. You've concluded dead wrong before.

Folks,
Look, I know my reporting is not professional, but all I can say. someone who I.D. himslef as a officer, was kind enough to take his time and speak to me and to help me. This gave me a world of hope, something which I lost and was ready to forget it all and make a new life in a strange country and give up my life as I knew it. I can not explain it, but to me this hope, is almost as good to me as a approval. I was lucky enough to find a human who understood my frustrations, and answered my questions without bird dogging around . To me this give me hope, Im sorry this does ot help or give anyone else hope. Im sorry. So as long as this feeling last, I feel like Im alive again, and I will live with that for now. Maybe is was all garbage, to me, someone was nice enough to at least talk to me like a human and treat me with respect, and from what Ive heard, most who have talked to USCIS was not treated very nice. I feel like I was lucky, and if Im living in my own little world, well then fine, cause I feel alive for a change and not depressed anymore. I will take this feeling while it lasts, cause the way I was going, it was not healthy. I feel like I can move forward, cause all I was doing was stepping backwards. To each their own. Hope means a lot to a person who has lost all hope. I wish everyone the very best. I need a break from all of this, while I still have some bit of hope and happiness inside of me. Just dont give up hope. Good evening and good bye.

Come on now. You reported that you were going to have some good information for people. You feeling good and hopeful is wonderful but what you promised was information.

You can say a lot more if you're willing to do so.

What did you do to get through to this person? Please be specific.

What questions did you ask? Please be as specific as you can.

What answers did you get in return? Please be as specific as you can.

Yeah Im dying for some info

Paris, from what you heard the officer say... do you think that when he said something about "#2 They are told to process what they are told to They too are not happy about K1 all the time either." he meant to say that his boss told all the officers to work on k1 only for now?
Oh! That's so not fair! I hope this is not a rule or something. Come on! I think marriage should be more important than engagement if you know what I mean... Of course the engaged couples love their fiances too... but... Well... who cares?! We're all on the same boat.

when you get a chance, can you go into a little more detail as to what was said? i'm still anxious to hear more..

thanks Paris
Lets keep hope alive
Pecky

I know what you mean by being relieved just by talking to a human there Paris. It is difficult being helpless and basically ignored while separated from the loved ones, and sometime a kind word can make the wait at least feel much shorter and easier. This process felt to me as a second 'growing up' and discovering that the world around me isn't that concerned with me, and accepting the fact that there is no justice or happy end guaranteed. What we have is a constant fight, and only in our happy moments we might feel some kind of brotherhood that's worth something. I realized that the government will do whatever it (thinks) can get away with, regardless what the social/economical model of the society is. We have a bunch of very smart and important people in Vermont or higher up deciding that our applications, families, and lives are not that important. That has to change and emailing some complaints won't cut it, what we need is media attention, look how they squealed when New York Times told it as it is. Imagine ABC News showing it primetime. There wouldn't be any July/September/October filers still waiting for approval within a few days.

By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.
Albert Camus

For those who wanted to know how to get ahold of an officer at VSC... here it goes... i encourage all of you to do the same thing Paris did. but PLEASE!!!

GET THE DAMN OFFICER ID and NAME and just in case 2-3 months from now, people can come back to this website and write a "Officer## told me this, officer # told me this, officer # told me this... etc and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED! So what is the truth" letter to their congressmen, Ombudsman, whoever... When all of us VSC filers write letters like that people start thinking a little differently, you're no longer a distressed, frustrated SO, now you have proof, dates and facts that match up with what your're claiming.

Just in case...
Please use these steps to get connected directly to an immigration officer at the VERMONT SERVICE CENTER. call after 10am and before 4:30pm

Call the 1-800 number.

Option 1,
Option 2,
Option 2,
Option 6,
Option 1,
ENTER I129F (K3) receipt number
Option 1,
Option 3, Wait for "If our system"
Option 4,

this will connect you to an officer at VSC

Then grill them for information AND POST!

Did he look up your SPECIFIC case? Did that generate a touch?? ;-)

Paris, thanks for taking the time to call and get information for all of us. I am glad to see that you are feeling hopeful and have a positive demeanor once more. However, fact of the matter is that VSC has turned several us very sour and I, myself, am of those. I am skeptic by nature and although your information has provided some, minute hope, I will believe the words of this particular officer once I receive my approval. Till then I will be praying and counting the days, till I can actually escalate this damn issue - I am very close to the 180 day mark.

Sorry for being so sour and such a skeptic, but I will believe once I see results. I really hope they are coming soon!

Thanks for the post.

-Fahad

Paris, thanks for sharing your information about your call. Since I cannot call from abroad, this is interesting.

If I may ask, since our case got touched on the exact same dates as yours, what did he say specifically about the touches? What are they processing exactly?
Did he say anything about touches on the 129F for K-3 and the rumor that these petitions are no longer handled at VCS (I cannot figure out why touch them if they are dead paperweight)?

And also, when this person said things are going to change in processing, and our time is coming very soon, what did he mean precisely?
Did they get instructions to (finally) start working on the spousal visas again?
Did he give a more precise timeframe (is it a matter of weeks or months)?

Thanks for clarifying this and do hope you are right.

Cat

Paris Heart, thank you for taking time and effort to post. Regardless of what one may think, you are providing us some hope and for that I appreciate your effort. Understandably, anyone that is still waiting in this crazy game is in a state of mind filled frustration; but at least you have given us an avenue to temporarily relieve that frustration. This forum was designed to share information and that's what you did! God forbid that USCIS will ever provide concrete information. It is through people like you and others that are able to contribute pieces and bits of data you've gathered and shared among the community are we able to piece some of the puzzle together and form some sort of information that we can decide on. If there were credible information provided by USCIS, we won't have a need for a community such as this. For now, hats off to all the contributors out there willing to share what little data they have with everyone!!

Good luck (and I emphasize this word because that's what it is at the moment) everyone!! I am hoping for some luck!!

Thank you, Thank you paris, YOU ARE THE BESST!!!

I agree, thanks Paris. I was in such a foul mood the past week because of this visastuff. Reading this at least lifted my spirits some.

Though i'm still dying to hear some more about the conversation, if that's possible

Paris, I think your conversation was wonderful and I thank you.

From what I see is that you considered everyone on here by mentioning the K1's .... it's very nice to hear that they too don't like working on them, but we all know that what we're told to do in our jobs is just that ..... what we're told to do in our jobs.
I can imagine a lot of the conversation was taken up with discussing the why's and wherefore's of the K1's alone.

The fact that someone at USCIS was in a position to actually state that Vermont will start working on spousal petitions soon is brilliant news! That's quite a commitment in itself .... and one that I truly believe .... as it's very obvious that CSC and VSC work in cycles. Last year Vermont was the dream place to have your I-130 sent to (4-8 week approvals) .... and California was exactly where you 'didn't' want be .... this year it's arse about face.

Just look at the complaints on the K1 forum for those who are at CSC at the moment .... VSC like I reported a couple of weeks ago are not pumping out so many K1's anymore .... infact they're at a third of what they were 6 weeks ago.

The end of May is not here yet, and I really think things will turn around about that time.

The touches, well, it's good to actually have someone confirm that touches 'do' mean something .... the fact that there's been so many K3 touches in the last few weeks, means they're probably preparing to start turning the K3 situation around afterall.

Vermont 'are' approving, it's just a little slower than California .... we're about 6 or so weeks behind on the I-130's, and that's all (please look at the NOA1 dates). Once the Dec/Jan 2008 NOA1's are all finished, the wheels will be more obviously moving.

Hang in there guys .... Paris did a great job! Most people just get told to look at the website processing dates .... she didn't, please don't shoot the messenger.

Merci beacoup, Paris, I feel a little bit better but don't understand the bit about the touches - if the case isn't touched does that necessarily mean nobody has been looking at it? That is depressing me, that I haven't even had a touch yet - who knows where my file is...

I think the reason why K1 are approved so fast is because K1s bring a lot of much needed revenue to USCIS. They can always deny those applicants at a later date if they choose to do so also, all the k1 visa is is just a visa, close to a tourist visa. Its $455 for the 129f then they have to file the I 130 and I 485 later. Nice chunk of change for all of that. They have tons of overtime to take care of the people who are filing for citizenship since election time is near. K1s have to go through the background checks and other things later when adjusting status. Granted it is the same for K3 almost but its just not the same amount of money coming in. Right now they want money, if you look at the work visas they are going really fast too, they can be expedited for a very hefty fee as well. I 130 petitions really bring no money if they are stand alone, 355 and Im not sure of how much it is to remove the conditions of a CR1 but no where near the amount of money for those that need to adjust status. Those that are adjusting status have to pay for everything, EAD, adjustment of status, I 130, and many other fees. It makes sense for their budget to take care of the K1's because they are faster and more expensive. Its a shame that they just dont allow expedites on K3 and CR1 for an extra fee, I am sure we would all be happy to pay it, even if we dont have a lot of money we would come up with it some way or another.

K1 visa holders never need an I-130 but they do file AOS. So do K3's.

The total fees to USCIS are $100 more for a K1 than a K3, not $455 more. Costs after US arrival are the same for both.

not 455 more, that is the cost of the I129f, but i did not know they did not need to file the I130 with their I485 , thats good to know, I guess that throws my thoughts out the window.

This problem is far beyond trying to squeeze an extra few hundred dollars out of one visa over another. This is another classic example of government employees taking their sweet ### time to work like they always do. If they were given performance incentives do you really think it would take this long to do our petitions? They would work day and night if they knew that if they met a certain quota they would get bonus’s throughout the chain of command. If it was really about money they would have a $1000 or $2000 PREMIUM processing fee for ALL petitions. It’s simply USCIS’ fault and no one else’s. How is it that the IRS reviews over 100 million tax returns in less than 1 year yet USCIS cant’ get their #### together AFTER charging fees to review our “tax returns” ? BECAUSE their employees are a piece of ####! There’s no excuse, there’s no solution other than a REAL leader taking charge of USCIS and just going on a firing rampage firing all the heads and leaders of unproductive units and putting new one’s in charge and setting quotas that the PETITIONERS agree to, not DHS, DHS doesn’t care about us until we get to NVC then they get THEIR chunk of the change. Until then we are potential investments for them. These service center unit heads need to be forced to make a press release every month explaining how many of each petition was approved and the NOA1 dates of those petitions. Not simply a vague piece of #### ESTIMATED date of petitions that they are SHITING / WORKING on.

I disagree.
On a personal level, I'd be extremely glad if this were possible, I don't care about paying the extra cash and we can afford it.
But I believe the principle of it is wrong.
If you allow expedites based on extra fees here also, you basically create two groups of cases (namely the ones that can afford to pay extra and then ones that can't), where the group of people with low financial means are yet again screwed.
Plus, if the extra cash to be paid weren't substantial, then I assume we all would just pay extra and then you end up in the same pool of (expedited) cases and you do not gain alot of time.
Spousal visas (and kids visas along) in general should be given priority, because of what the type of visas they are and the relationships involved, I'd say.

Pattu,
On the touches for example, the officer yesterday, "which I got his name and badge number" pullled up both my petitions, and as of this morning the date never changed from the last touches in April and May. I think the touches of "Updated date" are by the officers own hand, "at their descretion" to show or not to show. Like I said he pulled both up, and went over with me the information I submitted in both, and still to now no date changes.
We have seen many petitons approved with no touches at all. I would not worry about no touches.

And for a personal note, today is the best day Ive had in many weeks, I actually feel human, not a walking shell anymore. I dont know what will be my outcome or how soon, but for this minute I will take this feeling of hope and feeling like my old self again.
I dont know why he took the time, maybe it was cause I was calm, and interested in what he had to say, maybe cause Im use to delaing with Gov. employees on a daily basics, but I was polite, and he was more then polite and caring, he took the time. I was just lucky.Anyways back to work, Im taking a extra long weekend, and Im not going to sit by computer all weekend in my PJ's and feel sorry for myself anymore.
Happy Memorial Day everyone, be safe.
One last thing, I did not do RFE trick, I asked customer service to transfer me to a officer, and they did immediately.

Would be nice but the visa's that they seem to stay on top of are work visas. I cant think of any other reason why k1 and work visas get more attention. With more money they could hire more people, well that was their plan in the first place i guess. If people can afford to file a K3 or K1 visa it is pretty obvious money is not an issue to them. Just my opinion. The cost of an expedited work visa is almost the same as AOS.

fee to remove the conditional residence is $465 plus 80 biometrics fee. This was one of the biggest increases.

Amen. The VSC was approving more VJ K-1's in ONE week in Jan./Feb. than they have in the last month. It is simply not accurate to say that VSC is approving K-1's at the expense of K-3's.

Premium, bah. As someone posted, a premium would only have a tendency to divide the petitions into different social classes. Those who can afford it, and those who cannot. If the fee was to low, then basically everybody would pay it and then you would have the same number of cars in the fast lane as your would the slow lane. It's like I tell people at work, if you label every document as "URGENT", then nothing is urgent.

Brian

Thanks for the clarification, Paris! I'm glad you are feeling better about this whole process. I am just going to take a 6 week vacation from it(besides bringing all the evidence and forms to Govi of course) and enjoy being with my husband - any time together is so precious now since it may be yet another year before we can see each other again. I am not planning on even checking my status between now and then - if I get an email then yippee!! I probably won't be on the net for a while anyway - better ways to spend my time... . If I were not going to see him and you did not clarify the issue then I would proably be a Turbo B#tch From Hell because this has been getting to me and I am still in pain from oral surgery last week - I have griped about the VSC situation to two people at work so far today - a co-worker who teaches a class on immigration and my boss, whose son is an immigration attorney.

[quote name='mrc1330' date='May 21 2008, 10:02 PM' post='1861578']
For those who wanted to know how to get ahold of an officer at VSC... here it goes... i encourage all of you to do the same thing Paris did. but PLEASE!!!

GET THE DAMN OFFICER ID and NAME and just in case 2-3 months from now, people can come back to this website and write a "Officer## told me this, officer # told me this, officer # told me this... etc and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED! So what is the truth" letter to their congressmen, Ombudsman, whoever... When all of us VSC filers write letters like that people start thinking a little differently, you're no longer a distressed, frustrated SO, now you have proof, dates and facts that match up with what your're claiming.

Just in case...
Please use these steps to get connected directly to an immigration officer at the VERMONT SERVICE CENTER. call after 10am and before 4:30pm

Call the 1-800 number.

Option 1,
Option 2,
Option 2,
Option 6,
Option 1,
ENTER I129F (K3) receipt number
Option 1,
Option 3, Wait for "If our system"
Option 4,

this will connect you to an officer at VSC

Then grill them for information AND POST!


I called right now at 1:33 Dominican Republic time and talked to Jessy Official G649391, she didn´t tell me anything new. She said that I have to wait the 60 days for the approval since I got a RFE. I knew that.

Sadly it's already like this ... split into classes due to money.
If we were all millionaires, do you honestly think any of us would even be on this website ???? ..... NO!!!

All governments are the same, if you've got $500,000 to donate to their cause then I'm pretty sure your spouse would not only have their visa in 24 hours, but they'd probably deliver the spouse to you in the US by private jet too.

Sad, but true.

The rich and famous bypass the immigration system all the time .... I haven't seen a lot of film stars on this website

This whole situation is so depressing and stressful. We will never give up because something has to happen soon, take a look at our timeline! And we are not the longest out there waiting by some way! But seriously, how bloody much longer do we have to wait?! The way VSC is currently operating makes me sick. How can K-1 take priority over K-3? Even if they were the same that would be ok, but the K-3 is months behind! We are f*****g married! I think I need to try and stay away from it all for a while, try to anyway but checking my computer has become obsessive. Sorry to rant but the waiting with no knowledge of knowing what the f**K is going on is now totally pathetic on the part of the USCIS. Thanks for treating us like s**t!

That would be funny though.
I can already imagine the posts: "Hey 123visahelldude how is your K-3 moving along? Great new movie out btw!".

Furthermore, I do not think posters in this thread were "shooting the messenger". The way I read it, more specifics were only being asked about the questions she posed and the answers she received.
Which is only normal.
It's not often someone actually gets to have a decent convo with an immigration officer at our service center, so we are all curious.

HAhaha
Exactly, they've devided us up long time ago!

note :
if you speak to vemont, and you get Lorenda ID: IS026
hang up right away, the most useless person eva