Ohio Senator response from CSC

[William33 110]

Well, one cannot get to the mailbox first if it is empty....

No food was thrown into the "cage" I was in, for 11 days after the first RFE's went out.

KEEP US POSTED - you are one of the first for sure.

I think if i am not mistaken, there are four of us that i know of who have received the RFE on the 28th and mailed it back on the same day...

CSC has turned getting to be with your loved one into a race of who got to the mailbox first.

This is pathetic.

[Yodrak 7]

Alex+R,

What's not fair about it? It would be more 'fair' to sit on petitions that are ready to continue processing to wait for other petitions that are not yet ready because the others had an earlier Receipt Date?

Processing begins in accordance with Receipt Date. From then on, when processing will finish depends on the fact of the case and what needs to be done to complete the case. That's the way it's always been done, that's what's being done now.

What's different now, due to IMBRA affecting all petitions, is that every case is getting an RFE. And that's a lot of RFEs. USCIS is struggling to get them out as fast as possible. Going strictly by Receipt Date might preserve the queue order, but it would also slow down the overall processing of the queue. Processing as quickly as possible as cases become ready for processing may mean that B moves ahead of A, but that does not mean that A would get processed more quickly if B were put on hold to maintain tha A-B order. It only means that B would be unnecessarily delayed waiting on A to be ready. Nothing 'fair' about that.

It's an unfortunate situation, but what's the most fair to all concerned is that the most cases get processed in the shortest amount of time, no matter what the order that the cases complete processing.

Yodrak

....

They also said they are processing by RFE rec'd dates, which is not great for early filers. I checked the VSC NOA2/RFE dates to see if that held true & it doesn't seem to. But we all know CSC & VSC are run differently anyhow.

Time will tell.

Uh, they are processing by RFE received dates? That's not fair! Although I guess the word "fair" really doesn't apply to this process in any way shape or form.

.....

Edited July 21, 2006 by Yodrak

[vartan 0]

It's an unfortunate situation, but what's the most fair to all concerned is that the most cases get processed in the shortest amount of time, no matter what the order that the cases complete processing.

Too True.. this is the country we live in. I am for what ever process as long as it is efficient.. Who knows how their filing system is.. maybe they put our cases in stacks of RFE date.. easier for them to manage .. who knows. Plus I think the country of petition makes a huge difference too .. I am sure there is alot more involved in the processing times then we really know.

[joseph22 0]

Processing begins in accordance with Receipt Date. From then on, when processing will finish depends on the fact of the case and what needs to be done to complete the case. That's the way it's always been done, that's what's being done now.

What's different now, due to IMBRA affecting all petitions, is that every case is getting an RFE. And that's a lot of RFEs. USCIS is struggling to get them out as fast as possible. Going strictly by Receipt Date might preserve the queue order, but it would also slow down the overall processing of the queue. Processing as quickly as possible as cases become ready for processing may mean that B moves ahead of A, but that does not mean that A would get processed more quickly if B were put on hold to maintain tha A-B order. It only means that B would be unnecessarily delayed waiting on A to be ready. Nothing 'fair' about that.

....

...this is true, but this isnt the discrepancies in the Senators' responses. Obviously if an RFE for an April petition came in before a March petition, by all means, the April petition should be worked on. HOWEVER, what this thread has implied is that RFE reciept date is the new definitive receipt date. As in....My July 5th RFE is now underneath a stack of May petitions who's RFE's reached the office on July 4th. THAT is unfair.

We are talking about the que changing based on DAYS differences..not the months that separated actually sending in your petition. HUGE difference.

What SHOULD be happeing is petitions get processed in order of NOA1 date IF there RFE comes in. If not, it sits aside. If the RFE comes in, it gets put in the pile according to the correct original receipt date. That would restack everything properly and not slow down the process in any way.

Not expecting CSC to consider fairness...i guess we'll find out huh?

Edited July 21, 2006 by joseph22

[vartan 0]

See but that doesn't work Joseph.. consider my scenario... So they are say working on Petitions with March 8th NOA1, well there are a few petitions where the RFE's have not came back yet for whatever reason, ok we set aside March 8 and begin working on March 9th... Now what would happen to the extra people from the 8th, they would be put in the back again.. so by going by RFE date you know FOR SURE that you have all the petitions from that receipt date with acceptable RFE's ..

This is just how I imagine it..

[William33 110]

Yodrak,

With the case files being barcoded, you would at least agree that RFE's for March filers should have gone out first, then April and so forth? In reality, they were sent out in a completely random fashion.

I agree that they should not sit around until all the March RFE's were returned, if they had indeed sent them out that way. FIFO, had they been sent out in conjunction with NOA-1's.

To now process May or June cases, simply because they sent out the RFE's that way is probable, but completely unfair. Why perpetuate a huge mistake?

Alex+R,

What's not fair about it? It would be more 'fair' to sit on petitions that are ready to continue processing to wait for other petitions that are not yet ready because the others had an earlier Receipt Date?

Processing begins in accordance with Receipt Date. From then on, when processing will finish depends on the fact of the case and what needs to be done to complete the case. That's the way it's always been done, that's what's being done now.

What's different now, due to IMBRA affecting all petitions, is that every case is getting an RFE. And that's a lot of RFEs. USCIS is struggling to get them out as fast as possible. Going strictly by Receipt Date might preserve the queue order, but it would also slow down the overall processing of the queue. Processing as quickly as possible as cases become ready for processing may mean that B moves ahead of A, but that does not mean that A would get processed more quickly if B were put on hold to maintain tha A-B order. It only means that B would be unnecessarily delayed waiting on A to be ready. Nothing 'fair' about that.

It's an unfortunate situation, but what's the most fair to all concerned is that the most cases get processed in the shortest amount of time, no matter what the order that the cases complete processing.

Yodrak

....

They also said they are processing by RFE rec'd dates, which is not great for early filers. I checked the VSC NOA2/RFE dates to see if that held true & it doesn't seem to. But we all know CSC & VSC are run differently anyhow.

Time will tell.

Uh, they are processing by RFE received dates? That's not fair! Although I guess the word "fair" really doesn't apply to this process in any way shape or form.

.....

[joseph22 0]

See but that doesn't work Joseph.. consider my scenario... So they are say working on Petitions with March 8th NOA1, well there are a few petitions where the RFE's have not came back yet for whatever reason, ok we set aside March 8 and begin working on March 9th... Now what would happen to the extra people from the 8th, they would be put in the back again.. so by going by RFE date you know FOR SURE that you have all the petitions from that receipt date with acceptable RFE's ..

This is just how I imagine it..

You are assuming that petitions move in batches by the day.

All petitions from March 8th WITH returned RFE's could easily be on an adjucator's desk ABOVE March 9th petitions with returned RFE's....while those who havent are somewhere else waiting for the document to be returned.

Petitions WITH RFE's on the desk in the correct order.

Petitions WITHOUT RFE's somewhere else.

Easy.

Edited July 21, 2006 by joseph22

[vartan 0]

You are assuming that petitions move in batches by the day.

All petitions from March 8th WITH returned RFE's could easily be on an adjucator's desk ABOVE March 9th petitions with returned RFE's....while those who havent are somewhere else waiting for the document to be returned.

I tell ya what I wouldnt want to be the person to keep track of that system .. or even the one I stated.. but eh.. who knows what its like

[Yodrak 7]

joseph,

....My July 5th RFE is now underneath a stack of May petitions who's RFE's reached the office on July 4th. THAT is unfair.

I disagree. The petitions began processing in the order that they were received. That's all the Receipt Date promises you. RFE's were found to be required. Those that came back first and were ready to continue processing first should get back into processing first. There's no reason why the cases that were ready to resume processing on July 4 (you picked the holiday date, not me) should not resume processing on July 4. They should not have to be left aside and wait to resume processing in anticipation that your case, with an earlier Receipt Date, would come the next day. They're ready today, get started on them today or as soon as possible.

Beyond that, the time and resources that would be lost if the cases had to be continuously re-ordered as the RFEs come in to put them back into the original Receipt Date order, as you propose, would be enormous. Again, we are not talking about a relative few RFEs - we are talking about every case that came in over a period of months being an RFE case. Every time a new batch of RFEs came out of the mail room the case order would have to be re-shuffled. That time and effort would be much better spent processing the cases. Again, to get the most cases processed in the least amount of time they need to be processed in the order that they become ready to be processed.

Yodrak

[Yodrak 7]

William,

To be honest I don't know what information the bar codes contain. My understanding is that they contain some basic information, such as perhaps names, A#, and receipt number, that allow the information to be put into the appropriate data bases without having to be re-entered manually thus saving time and reducing errors. Don't know if the bar code information includes Receipt Number, and if it does if that information being in the bar code can be used to physically move and sort the case files.

I also don't know that the earliest filers could or should necesssarily have been the earliest RFEs sent out once the issuance of RFEs began. Certainly in the case of the VSC it could not have been done this way since many of the early filers had already been approved and gone to the consulates. Those cases had to be retrieved first. Other cases may have been in various locations - some on the waiting shelves, some on adjudicators desks. My guess is that once the USCIS was ready to issue the RFEs teams of people went to work simultaneously pulling cases from the various physical locations, depending on what stage the cases had made it to based on the Receipt Date, without taking the time that would have been required to retain the Receipt Date order. Yes, that makes the order of sending out the RFEs random. It also gets the most RFEs - in the end all the RFEs - out the door in the shortest period of time.

And the sooner the RFEs get out the sooner the responses will start coming back. And the sooner the responses get back into processing the sooner the backlog can be worked off.

I don't see how that perpetuates a mistake. I do see how it gets the work to overcome the problem underway as quickly as is possible.

Yodrak

Yodrak,

With the case files being barcoded, you would at least agree that RFE's for March filers should have gone out first, then April and so forth? In reality, they were sent out in a completely random fashion.

I agree that they should not sit around until all the March RFE's were returned, if they had indeed sent them out that way. FIFO, had they been sent out in conjunction with NOA-1's.

To now process May or June cases, simply because they sent out the RFE's that way is probable, but completely unfair. Why perpetuate a huge mistake?

vartan,

Me either. Regardless of how or why the mess was created, the mess exists and it is massive.

Yodrak

You are assuming that petitions move in batches by the day.

All petitions from March 8th WITH returned RFE's could easily be on an adjucator's desk ABOVE March 9th petitions with returned RFE's....while those who havent are somewhere else waiting for the document to be returned.

I tell ya what I wouldnt want to be the person to keep track of that system .. or even the one I stated.. but eh.. who knows what its like

[amwo 0]

Hi All,

Just read through this and thought I would offer up some perspective.

We are one of the recalled cases. His interview should have been July 18th. I do not have an RFE yet.

Can I trade with one of you RFE'd NOA1's?

[William33 110]

If that were even possible, I would surely do it, based upon principle alone.

For the folks like you that have had this kind of disservice from USCIS, I sympathize, this is simply deplorable treatment. I really hope you get squared away soon.

Hi All,

Just read through this and thought I would offer up some perspective.

We are one of the recalled cases. His interview should have been July 18th. I do not have an RFE yet.

Can I trade with one of you RFE'd NOA1's?

Edited July 21, 2006 by William33

[amwo 0]

If that were even possible, I would surely do it, based upon principle alone.

For the folks like you that have had this kind of disservice from USCIS, I sympathize, this is simply deplorable treatment. I really hope you get squared away soon.

Hi All,

Just read through this and thought I would offer up some perspective.

We are one of the recalled cases. His interview should have been July 18th. I do not have an RFE yet.

Can I trade with one of you RFE'd NOA1's?

Thank you, William.

It is tough reading through threads with people complaining about their case when they just filed in May/June. Sometimes I want to say "How about a nice tall glass of Shut-the-F**k-Up" but that wouldn't be very nice, now would it?

[William33 110]

With respect to your situation, I have to admit you have a pretty good attitude about it.

As I read your post, I had just taken a sip of my drink, which then sprayed all over the computer!!!

Thank you, William.

It is tough reading through threads with people complaining about their case when they just filed in May/June. Sometimes I want to say "How about a nice tall glass of Shut-the-F**k-Up" but that wouldn't be very nice, now would it?

[joseph22 0]

joseph,

....My July 5th RFE is now underneath a stack of May petitions who's RFE's reached the office on July 4th. THAT is unfair.

I disagree. The petitions began processing in the order that they were received. That's all the Receipt Date promises you. RFE's were found to be required. Those that came back first and were ready to continue processing first should get back into processing first. There's no reason why the cases that were ready to resume processing on July 4 (you picked the holiday date, not me) should not resume processing on July 4. They should not have to be left aside and wait to resume processing in anticipation that your case, with an earlier Receipt Date, would come the next day. They're ready today, get started on them today or as soon as possible.

Beyond that, the time and resources that would be lost if the cases had to be continuously re-ordered as the RFEs come in to put them back into the original Receipt Date order, as you propose, would be enormous. Again, we are not talking about a relative few RFEs - we are talking about every case that came in over a period of months being an RFE case. Every time a new batch of RFEs came out of the mail room the case order would have to be re-shuffled. That time and effort would be much better spent processing the cases. Again, to get the most cases processed in the least amount of time they need to be processed in the order that they become ready to be processed.

Yodrak

You are implying that the most EFFECTIVE and FAIR way to handle this is to put everyone, March/April/May/June NOA1's back at the same starting point for processing when their RFE returns are literally days apart! Do you think they started processing them the first day they got one back? I highly doubt it. Of course no petition should be waiting for processing when they sent their RFE in just because someone before them did not.

That is not the point. The point is that many RFE's were sent in within a few days of each other, 1000's perhaps, then it DOESNT make sense to do anything but retain the original NOA1's for that lot. If they got it on July 4th, sure, start the processing before the July 5th. But when you are done with it, you shouldnt go to a July 4th that was a June NOA1, when there is March NOA1 right underneath with a July 5th RFE return. The organization of this is very very simple. This is the message that Senator's continuously conveyed when RFE's first started pouring out in mass numbers.

You dont solve a giant problem by putting everything in one basket again. Just because every case that came in over the course of several months became an RFE case at the same time does not imply that they now be considered equals in the processing timeline. Whats so difficult about putting a petition with an earlier reciept date on top of another in the que if neither have yet been processed.

It almost feels to me that people who havent been waiting a full 120 days or more already are suddenly starting to think this is some sort of free for all because they were lucky enough to get an RFE issued a day or two before others. ....well....unfortunately perhaps it is. These are my opinions and for sake of argument. Truth be told, none of us know at all until some NOA2's come out. I think we've been proven to many times that CSC doesnt operate the way one may or may not expect. I appreciate the debate though, and hope i can laugh about a few months from now.