Frustrated isn't the right word.

[jasal 0]

I wasn't going to call the 1-800-375-5283 number and go through all of those prompts to finally talk to a live person because deep down inside I just knew that it would totally frustrate me and that whoever finally answered the phone wouldn't give me any information other than the standard answers which I can find on www.uscis.com. But I did it anyway. I called the number. I went through the litany of prompts and recordings and finally got a live person. I asked about my pending I-129F. She said I was still outside the 6 month processing time for CSC and that I should wait until Feb. 2007 before I got concerned about my application. ( My N0A1 is 10 August 2006). She told me that all applications are worked in the order that they're received and when I protested this and told her that many were still waiting from March, April, May, June, and July ... and that many who had filed AFTER me had already been approved and gotten their N0A2's. She said that she didn't work at CSC, didn't know how many people worked there or how they processed the paperwork they received. She said if I had a problem with CSC then I should write them a letter. I asked if it might be possible to talk to someone who knew anything, an immigration officer? She said that no immigration officers worked there and that it was impossible to call CSC directly. She said to write them a letter or if I thought my case was being treated unfairly because of reasons of sex, race or religion then she could put me in touch with the investigative section of immigration. She said that I should be more patient and wait my turn and eventually my case would be processed and that I shouldn't call again until my case had reached the 6 month level. I just wanted to make sure that my petition wasn't lying in a crack between two filing cabinets because I've received no touches.. none.. since my petition was received and I got my N0A1. Yes, I should be more patient and I probably would be IF I hadn't witnessed so many approvals that were filed AFTER mine was received.... because remember, ALL petitions are worked in the order that they are received. Geez.. Give me a break. Anyway.. I agree.. my wait has been short compared to so many who have waited sooooo long... and for those who are still waiting. And I don't harbor any ill will towards those who've been approved already even though they submitted their applications after me. It's just frustrating. And how, how in the world have some of you been able to get actual honest answers about your case such as it's being worked now by an adjudicator, at the 1-800 phone number? The person I talked to acted as if she was reading from a script and she refused to help in any way at all. Everything she told me was almost exactly what the USCIC webpage says.

[kitkat1 5]

With an August NOA1 date, she told you all she could. She WAS reading from a script. She's a contractor, not associated with the CSC and she has no access to where your case actually is.

They don't respond until your NOA1 date is 30 days outside of their current processing date - which is now somewhere around April.

Those of us who have gotten more accurate case status updates begged and pleaded for assistance via our Senators and Congressmen because we had been waiting 5+ months.

[Yodrak 7]

jasal,

She was correct - applications are worked in the order received. That's quite different from saying that they will be completed in the order received - there are any number or reasons why some will require longer to complete than others.

As to why they set up the NCSC, they did it to stop people from calling the Service Centers so that Service Center staff could concentrate on processing cases rather than answering phones. A good idea poorly executed.

Yodrak

.....She told me that all applications are worked in the order that they're received and when I protested this and told her that many were still waiting from March, April, May, June, and July ... and that many who had filed AFTER me had already been approved and gotten their N0A2's. ......

Edited October 27, 2006 by Yodrak

[jasal 0]

With an August NOA1 date, she told you all she could. She WAS reading from a script. She's a contractor, not associated with the CSC and she has no access to where your case actually is.

They don't respond until your NOA1 date is 30 days outside of their current processing date - which is now somewhere around April.

Those of us who have gotten more accurate case status updates begged and pleaded for assistance via our Senators and Congressmen because we had been waiting 5+ months.

Thanks. I guess I'll sit back and be more patient. What got me riled up was, "all cases are processed in the order received", which we all know is a crock. And I do understand what you're saying about getting your congressman and reps involved and that's how you got answers. But I've read several inputs here from people in the past week that called to verify if their RFE's had been received and they were told whether or not they had been approved or not. Anyway.. back to waiting.

[Hornet 2]

Well if you wait as long as I had to. 234 days you'll be approved the end of March. And even once you're past the processing date. All you can do is have an inquiry done. It took 1 month from my inquiry to get my NOA2 today.

I very much doubt you'll take as long as some of us. We got screwed and wasted time becoz of IMBRA.

But be prepared, better to be surprised then expect it and wait in anguish like we did.

Good luck!! A lot of it is just that, luck.

[Ta Ta 1]

Then you get to do it all over again in part 2 of the race.......CSC to NVC !

Of course you may actualy bypass me and be in and out of NVC in a few days

while I still sit in the dark hole waiting to get in the system or out of the

CSC mailroom whatever the case may be.

[jasal 0]

Then you get to do it all over again in part 2 of the race.......CSC to NVC !

Of course you may actualy bypass me and be in and out of NVC in a few days

while I still sit in the dark hole waiting to get in the system or out of the

CSC mailroom whatever the case may be.

It makes no sense why your application hasn't been sent to NVC yet. Some get sent there and less than a week later they're already at the consulate or embassy... and then there are some like yours which seem to be in limbo. USCIS and DOS could make everything so much easier for everyone if they would only do things in some kind of order and would be willing to send out an email stating why something is delayed and when it might be fixed. They could hire a few low grade GS employees to do nothing but pump out emails and notices. It would relieve the stress, frustration and pain we all feel because of this very terrible "system".

[meauxna 15]

What got me riled up was, "all cases are processed in the order received", which we all know is a crock.

Thank the gods for kitkat and her patience. You want to know serenity? Read more from her and JerseyGirl. Didn't you read Yodrak's post? How can it be a crock? If they come to a puase or delay in one case, the whole line should stop until that one is done?

Have a little faith, sheesh. Millions of petitions and applications are processed through there every year. A very small percentage have real problems.

The Prez promised you results in 6 months. That IS your timeframe.

(and touches mean nothing! )

[Erichu 0]

What got me riled up was, "all cases are processed in the order received", which we all know is a crock.

Thank the gods for kitkat and her patience. You want to know serenity? Read more from her and JerseyGirl. Didn't you read Yodrak's post? How can it be a crock? If they come to a puase or delay in one case, the whole line should stop until that one is done?

Have a little faith, sheesh. Millions of petitions and applications are processed through there every year. A very small percentage have real problems.

The Prez promised you results in 6 months. That IS your timeframe.

(and touches mean nothing! )

I couldn't disagree more here. Hornet is absolutely right. The processing and approving of petitions is not first-come-first-served. His March application was complete - RFE returned in late July. He should have been approved within weeks as other petitions were after the RFE was returned. Instead his petition sat untouched for almost three months while countless petitions were approved that had RFE's returned after his.

It's not hard to see what is wrong. The computer systems that are essential to managing this massive volume of work are full of problems. We received our NOA2 letter weeks ago and the online systems still shows our petition as not approved. I never received the email notification that I signed up for. The "customer service" people also see our application status as not approved but said I shouldn't worry about as long as I have the NOA2 letter.

If the systems are inaccurate, the work cannot be properly managed. So work that ought to be processed based on date order may be ignored for months. The tracking systems essential to reminding somone to pick up the right petition at the right time up don't work. What happens instead is what we see - random processing that goes against CSC's own policies. And to make it worse, we aren't permitted to inquire about our petition to CSC, and so we have no way to let anyone know that our file is being ignored.

What the USCIS tells us is strictly worst possible case and represents the most pathetic level of service. Their promise is fair treatment and no preferences. Whether it takes one month or six, we have a right to be maintain our place in the long queue of petitions and to be able to let USCIS know when they may have misplaced our petition due to their massively unreliable tracking systems.

I agree that it's best to remain mostly calm about it since we are in a helpless position but the fact is that we are being mistreated here and CSC is an abysmal failure in the execution of their mission.

[limubai2000 0]

CSC is an abysmal failure in the execution of their mission.

Yep, total 100% failure top to bottom, as is most of the rest of UCIS except the guys who check passports at the borders.

The whole system needs to be scrapped and redone from top to bottom. The problem is no politicans have the guts to make that happen not to mention the lazy slackers waiting for retirement at the USCIS don't want to change because they might actually have to work and be productive like a private sector worker.

(Disclaimer - I work for TSA, we suck too, actually all of DHS sucks!)

[kitkat1 5]

I couldn't disagree more here. Hornet is absolutely right. The processing and approving of petitions is not first-come-first-served. His March application was complete - RFE returned in late July. He should have been approved within weeks as other petitions were after the RFE was returned. Instead his petition sat untouched for almost three months while countless petitions were approved that had RFE's returned after his.

The part you don't understand or may not be aware of is that the processing and approving of petitions in March/April/May was majorly affected by IMBRA. Hornet + 10,000 other applicants were affected. We all watched as people who filed in June got their approvals before us. It was a mess and obviously CSC is not a well run machine.

But the fact remains that Jasal's application was NOT affected by IMBRA. Others are not jumping past her petition - she filed in August. IMBRA fiascos aside, application are processed in the order received. But every case is different and some cases do get held up while others move along. Vermont filers usually speed through - but you can be sure that if there is a name hit or a criminal history even a Vermont filer will be held up. Does that mean their petition is not being processed in the order received? NO. I'm not disagreeing with all the other complaints - the "help" line, the email situation, etc. I'm still stuck in it and I will be for a long time to come. But Jasal's petition is moving along at normal speed, as it should.

[TucsonBill 0]

First off, if you want to actually talk to someone at the CSC, the way to do it is to call the main 800 number, and then follow the prompts as if you had received an RFE and don't understand what additional information they are requesting. BUT BEWARE! And read this post first:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39034

After you read this post, FYI, I just got an approval email last nite saying my case was approved on the 27th, and like someone else here did, I'll probably get a second NOA2!

Go figure...

Bottom line, as far as I can tell, it doesn't matter who you talk to, you probably will not get correct information, but there may be a chance you'll get someone who will do something that in some way effects the processing of your case - hehe. I think all my calling actually caused the second NOA2 approval It could also lead to a further delay, who knows with all this!

Bill

[Erichu 0]

I couldn't disagree more here. Hornet is absolutely right. The processing and approving of petitions is not first-come-first-served. His March application was complete - RFE returned in late July. He should have been approved within weeks as other petitions were after the RFE was returned. Instead his petition sat untouched for almost three months while countless petitions were approved that had RFE's returned after his.

The part you don't understand or may not be aware of is that the processing and approving of petitions in March/April/May was majorly affected by IMBRA. Hornet + 10,000 other applicants were affected. We all watched as people who filed in June got their approvals before us. It was a mess and obviously CSC is not a well run machine.

But the fact remains that Jasal's application was NOT affected by IMBRA. Others are not jumping past her petition - she filed in August. IMBRA fiascos aside, application are processed in the order received. But every case is different and some cases do get held up while others move along. Vermont filers usually speed through - but you can be sure that if there is a name hit or a criminal history even a Vermont filer will be held up. Does that mean their petition is not being processed in the order received? NO. I'm not disagreeing with all the other complaints - the "help" line, the email situation, etc. I'm still stuck in it and I will be for a long time to come. But Jasal's petition is moving along at normal speed, as it should.

Hi Kitkat,

I know from my own experience about the whole IMBRA mess. Our petition was sent in on June 8 using the old I-129F form. It arrived on the 12th and lay unopened until June 30 - NOA1 Date of July 3. We watched in VJ and saw RFE letters going out in July to most of the March-June people. Had they even opened our envelope the week it arrived, I have little doubt we would have been in that group. Instead, we waited and waited for an RFE without a word or a touch until late September. We watched petitions that were submitted in late June and July being approved before we even received our RFE. We also saw folks like yourself and Hornet who were waiting far longer than us and felt a lot of sympathy for your situation as well.

We don't pretend to be the worst impacted but we did experience all the abuse and frustration of waiting while other, later petitions moved, making futile attempts to get answers from USCIS, making an InfoPass apointment and getting nowhere with an immigration official, and finally preparing to make our case to our US Representative's office, when the RFE finally arrived.

Jasal's case isn't terrible compared to what the IMBRA folks had to endure. I can still understand their frustration in not knowing if their petition is misplaced, whether they have a week or 3 months of waiting left, and that the queue of petitions is being mismanaged while they have no way to even inquire about their own.

You counsel patience Kitkat and I agree there. We just have to find a way to be happy for those who get their approval, whether fast or slow, and understand what actions can be effective and when we can take them. How is your wait for interviews in Mexico looking? Is there decent info in VJ on wait times? We are looking at about four months in Manila.

Good luck to all!!! We need it!!

[Yodrak 7]

Erichu,

Again - the processing is, the approving is not. Processing and approving are two different things, stop equating them.

If approvals were required to be in queue order the backlog would be endless given that not all cases can be easily and quickly decided.

Get real.

Yodrak

What got me riled up was, "all cases are processed in the order received", which we all know is a crock.

..... How can it be a crock? If they come to a puase or delay in one case, the whole line should stop until that one is done?

.....

I couldn't disagree more here. Hornet is absolutely right. The processing and approving of petitions is not first-come-first-served. ......

Edited October 29, 2006 by Yodrak

[Erichu 0]

Erichu,

Again - the processing is, the approving is not. Processing and approving are two different things, stop equating them.

If approvals were required to be in queue order the backlog would be endless given that not all cases can be easily and quickly decided.

Yodrak,

You are making the simplest, most elementary point that any schoolkid in a lunchline understands. If you can look at Hornet's timeline or kitkat's or mine and explain how we were not left unprocessed for long periods of time when other, later petitions were being processed then do so. If you can explain how any large organization manages a complex processing pipeline with vastly unreliable systems and data, then do so.

Are you even reading this thread. or just skimming? You don't seem to grasp what is being said.