NOA2 approval - How to speed up the process

[jetlagged 3]

We received our NOA2 at 2:15am today! I waited until we received the confirmation to share with all of you how we did it. I didn't want to offer up anything until I knew for sure. We filed on August 20, 2012 and waited patiently for 5 months and then began to get involved. Here is what we did and my opinion about each, now that I can look back on each step I took.

1. Calls to USCIS: At 5 months, like many others, I called USCIS customer support and was amazed at the low quality of their call center personnel. I learned later that the people at the call center are required to read from a script. The script they read from is what you will find at the USCIS website when you enter your WAC number. Verbatim, they read from the screen, the last correspondence they sent to you. Interrupt them at your own peril. Having any discussion with Tier 1 (frontline) people is a waste of time.

2. Call to USCIS (Tier 2): I read on VJ that it is best to insist on speaking with a Tier 2 support person and so I did that. The first time I did this, they told me that they agreed that the Tier 1 people can't do much for me as they are required to read from a script. Then they proceeded to tell me that they were within their stated timelines and couldn't do much for me and it was too early to ask for an expedite, so all I could do is wait for our case to go past the stated timeline. When I told them they had left their timeline at July 18th since December, they told me that they had no control over that at the Tier 2 level and that they could not deal with my specific case as it was within the stated timeline. In other words, more articulate, yet just as useless.

3. I went to USCIS website and filled out an INFOPASS for an appointment with the local USCIS office. I highly recommend this step as it was the first time I received any real help from them. The case officer I met, found out that my fiance's application had been somehow connected to another application from another country for someone else seeking employment and that case had been closed and put in storage. She was able to get it out of storage by making a phone call and filling out some online form. If I hadn't gone in to see her through INFOPASS, we would be waiting still, because our case was dead in the water and never to be seen again. She told me to come back to her in 2 weeks to see what progress had been made and the result of her inquiry was a letter from USCIS telling me that they are working on our case and not to contact them again for 4 more months.

4. I contacted a Senator from my home state by email and received a letter telling me who to call at his office to get help with a government agency. I called and spoke with a nice lady and she told me that I needed to fill out a form which she provided to me via email, giving them written permission to act on my behalf with USCIS to make an official inquiry.

5. After filling out the form, I made it a point to be pleasant, friendly, accommodating yet persistent until I got an answer I liked. I became the nicest person in the world but would call every other day if I hadn't gotten in touch with my contact at the Senator's office.

(The Senator assigns someone in his/her office to handle USCIS inquiries. This person is not a highly paid specialist, in my case, she makes $18,000 a year working for the Senator. I realized that she works for him because she believes in him, she is very sharp and ambitious, yet I needed to remember that she is working for very little money and that I needed to treat her with more respect and kindness, because I needed desperately for her to help me. What I found from USCIS is that the only way to get an application looked at is to have the request come from a Senator or a Congressman. USCIS assigns a Liaison from their office to the Senator/Congressman's office and the two become quite familiar with each other.)

In spite of the fact that I now had a "new friend" helping, I learned here at VJ that it is better to provide the Senator's office with ammunition to overcome the excuses that are so readily made by USCIS when inquiries are made.

The ACE up my sleeve came from the research done by another VJ member who put some amazing charts and graphs together. I copied them, put them together as a PDF file and sent them to my contact.

She had been working on our case for about 3 weeks up to that point and was probably sick of hearing from me, but I was so darn nice, she couldn't get mad at me.

When I sent the pdf file to her, she forwarded it to her contact and amazingly, she was told that our case was now being reviewed by a case officer and we would have our decision within 30 days.

My advice is to wait patiently for 5 months from the date of your application, then make an INFOPASS appointment to make sure your files are where they are supposed to be and then contact either your Senator or your Congressman to get their help.

Thanks to everyone at VJ for all the input you have provided which helps the rest of us on this journey.

Thank you God for helping us to get through the past 8 months of agony and anticipation.

I commend you for all the extra effort you've done instead of just sitting and waiting.. congratulations and I know it's all worth it.

I hope for all service centers to just do their thing efficiently and somehow stick to the 5 or 6-month max waiting time. We will wait, everyone will wait as we all do not have a choice. No more tedious calling to follow up and getting Senators' help.. waiting alone is tiresome not to mention the hardship you have to endure from being away from your loved ones.

[StephAnn2012 50]

<br />Hi there, would you mind sharing the PDF with us as well?<br />I will message you my email address.<br /><br />Also, do you or anyone else on here have tips for things to include in our letter to the senator?<br />We filed in September, 2012 and we cautiously set a wedding date that we were hoping to be able to meet, so any bit of advice helps.<br /><br />Thanks for sharing,<br />Markie and Mark<br />

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I have seen a lot of people set wedding dates before knowing and I think that is a very stressful way to approach this. - My advice is to wait until you get your NOA2 then plan 4 months out from there for your big wedding - When she gets here - go to City Hall and get legally married by a Justice of the Peace - then have your big wedding anytime you want -

[evoria 19]

Congratulations, that is why I love this site for information just like this. Good Job for taking the time to post this.

[Kat&M 0]

why wont you share the pdf's

[StephAnn2012 50]

<br /><img src='http://static-forums.visajourney.com/public/style_emoticons/default/devil.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> why wont you share the pdf's  <img src='http://static-forums.visajourney.com/public/style_emoticons/default/headbonk.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /><br />

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I have been sharing them - as the author shared them on VJ before me - send me a pm with your email and I'll get them out to you - IF ANYONE CAN TELL ME HOW TO UPLOAD THE PDF HERE - I WOULD BE HAPPY TO DO SO!

[Inky 1,110]

Progress report moved to progress reports.