I mean why can't we talk to a "case worker?" The best we get is a "Customer Service Rep" at a 1-800-number! It's our petitions and our tax dollars that pay for it all, so why can't we find out the status of our own damn case! Why can't we reach a Service Center directly? These people are so untouchable that we cant' talk with them? We should be treated as individuals like the Department of State website claims! The best we get is a short, vaguely written Public Notice! It has taken 10 weeks for my case to be "reopened" after the "recall." It's beyond me why it needed to take that much time! I think I should be able to talk to the person (if it is a single person) handling my case. Why are they and the process they take so hidden?

sjordan,

A good idea poorly implemented. Up until a few years ago there were public phone lines to the Service Centers. In an effort to improve efficiency the NCSC was created and the SC phone lines were shut down so that the SCs could concentrate on the job of processing petitions and applications without constant interruption.

It might have been a good idea had they provided the NCSC with better access to more information. After all, while you might want to be pestering the case officer handling your case, I expect that the other applicants whose cases that person is handling would prefer the person stick to processing cases and not be talking with you. Wouldn't you, if everyone else was doing what you're doing? They'd never get any work done.

Yodrak

Because a well informed citizenry threatens the stability of the regime. If you tightly control the message, you control perceived reality. Info is the enemy of the state. Keep 'em in the dark so you an control what they see. Do not look behind the curtain, because you will lose faith in your government...and you will see a bumbling wizard, pulling all the levers of smoke and mirrors. You will oust said wizard and send his a#s back down the yellow brick road.

I know, I know, this is SOOO circa 1983 Yuri Andropov, or 2000 Taliban.