Chris W

I lived in Mali for three years and I wouldn't want to live in Nigeria...

Unfortunately, a significant number of fraudulent applications originate in consulates throughout Africa. Therefore, USCIS (and the embassies/consulates themselves) tend to be a little more thorough with petitions and applications. Are there any, how should I put this, unusual factors about your relationship? Significant age difference, that kind of thing? Although we may not agree with the decision the consulate took, doubtless there is a reason that they made the decision they did. You need to find out that reason in order to figure out how to satisfy them that your relationship is genuine and that the application is legitimate.

I was in living in Mali at the time; packet 3 arrived by DHL I believe.

I'm sending mine in today...

Fixed formatting:

USCIS Lockbox Arizona

UserName.............Sent........NOA.....Biometrics..Int Letter..Interview....Oath......Office

Alyssa84............07/02/09...07/06/09...07/29/09....08/13/09...09/18/09...--/--/--...Saint Paul, MN

abyss ..............07/21/09...07/30/09...08/17/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Seattle, WA

big al .............07/21/09...07/28/09...08/19/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Sacramento CA

Leviathan23.........07/22/09...07/31/09...08/17/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Milwaukee, WI

Mooonika............07/23/09...07/28/09...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Honolulu, HI

ilto................08/04/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Salt Lake City, UT

walls1010...........08/05/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...San Bernardino, CA

Giss................08/08/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Alhambra ,CA

USCIS Lockbox Texas

UserName.............Sent........NOA.....Biometrics..Int Letter..Interview....Oath......Office

Fasi................07/06/09...07/10/09...08/04/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Detroit, MI

ahastop.............07/06/09...07/09/09...08/01/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Garden City, IL

java100us...........07/08/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Baltimore, MD

Tsup2...............07/10/09...07/17/09...07/30/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Fairfax, VA

Anya-D..............07/14/09...07/22/09...08/10/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Raleigh, NC

Collie..............07/15/09...07/22/09...08/11/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Dallas, TX

PrinceandPrincess...07/17/09...07/24/09...08/15/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Dallas, TX

CanAmCharlotte......07/17/09...07/22/09...08/11/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Charlotte, NC

Satyam..............07/17/09...07/23/09...08/12/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Jackson, MS

roi_aggie...........07/20/09...07/23/09...08/14/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Orlando, FL

SSharma.............07/20/09...08/04/09...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Dallas, TX

zombie2006..........07/21/09...07/30/09...08/13/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Charlotte, NC

amana1..............07/22/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Dover, DE

vtguy...............07/22/09...07/31/09...08/18/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Albany, NY

display name........07/22/09...08/03/09...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Puerto Rico

Italian_in_NYC......07/27/09...08/01/09...08/20/09....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...New York, NY

hrushka.............08/05/09...08/11/09...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Dallas, Texas

VjBj................08/06/09...08/10/09...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Raleigh, NC

Jesti...............08/10/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...San Antonio, TX

Chris W.............08/17/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Portland, ME

AntandD.............08/18/09...--/--/--...--/--/--....--/--/--...--/--/--...--/--/--...Buffalo, NY

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Hope all is going well for everyone!

Not meaning to muddy the waters, but...

Does anyone have first-hand experience on this issue? I.e., leaving the country for extended periods (but less than twelve months) and seeing the impact it has on their application?

I am an Australian citizen but my now-wife & I were living in Mali at the time we filed. I just had to submit police reports from both Mali and Australia at the time of my I-129F application, it wasn't a big deal at all.

Tracey & I are both natural-born English speakers, but can we join? After all Africa is where we met

Tracey: English, French (fluent), Bambara (fluent), Malinké (basic)

Me: English, French (intermediate), Bambara (basic)

A bunch of my friends are Australians that married Ghanaians, they all have Ghanaian passports now.

I'm trying to send a care package to a friend of mine who just got stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Chile. Does anyone have the postal address for them? As in the U.S. APO address, or the D.C. forwarding address? Thanks!

Morning,

Anyone sent out any letters to their SO to Russia? I was just wondering how much is the stamp and whether or not I can use few of the 39c stamps or they must be International stamps.

I want to send few pictures to Moscow and I am not sure how much the stamp should be, i am trying to avoid long lines in postal office and buy a stamp at their vending maching ( if it's working)

Thanks

Where are you now? I have never been in a country where I needed anything other than regular stamps to send international mail.

So, the FBI is telling me that USCIS is telling them that I left the country at some stage of this year, and returned on 10/19/06. Trouble is, I never went anywhere?

I've made an InfoPass to go to the local DHS office to see if they can clear it up for me...

I'm having some problems buying a handgun, specifically the NICS check that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms runs.

It's hard to get concrete information from them (as I have to go through my local gun dealer), but it seems that when the BATF asks USCIS to verify that I'm a law-abiding permanent resident, the USCIS is telling the BATF that I have left the country! My dealer, who is no visa expert, told me that he got the impression from BATF that it was because I filed for AP before I received my AOS was complete.

I did apply for (and was granted) AP, but I never used it -- I haven't left the country since I got here, not even to go to Canada or Mexico. So, I'm not sure how or why the USCIS thinks that I've left the country. Getting a hold of someone at the BATF directly is incredibly difficult, so has anyone been in this boat before? Care to share any info?

Thanks!

Chris

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I will check out all the sites mentioned, hopefully I can find a good deal! Airline pricing seems to be black magic, I for one have never understood it (and I like to think I'm a reasonably smart guy )

I'd like to avoid going Qantas if possible. For one, I hate their service; and secondly I think that they only fly from the West coast of the U.S. to the East coast of Australia... so I'd have to go Boston/LA/Sydney/Perth! Which I'd rather like to avoid.

I understand that Christmas is of course the busiest time, which is why I'm looking more than a year in advance!

I don't get the chance to check VJ much at work, so please PM me if you have questions (I have an email notification for when I get PMs).

Don't be nervous about going through Dakar. I have been all over West Africa, and Dakar is most developed & efficient place I've been!

I'd like to fly back home (to Perth, from Boston or New York) for Christmas, 2007... but the cheapest tickets I can find online are like $1800 each. Does anyone know where to look to find cheaper tickets? I'm looking at Expedia, and Emirates directly...

I can't believe it... but USCIS emailed me my I-485 approval notice this morning! OMG! I wish they approved all y'all as well

I am a little confused, if the divorce certificate( regardless of how u got it) is valid in tanzania, why would it not be valid in the US/UK.

I understand her concern.......It depends on the government agency you are presenting the form to, just because it is valid in the USA, doesn't mean it will be accepted.

Case in point - my Ghanaian marriage certificate is valid/recognized in the USA, BUT the California DMV refused to accept it to let me change my name. However, Social Security and the US Department of State (Passports), both Federal level, accepted it with no problems.

What grounds did the California DMV give to reject it?

Chris this is what I have gathered for you. Undoubtedly I have missed some good stuff, and there is also a few broken links posted. I really wanted to post the actual documents (pdf) but there is a limit.

Confirmng Prints received

1-304-625-2000

Select the option of Immigration on the auto-attendant, get a

switchboard operator, tell them you want to speak with someone

regarding immigration fingerprinting. A rep will answer and look

up your "A" number and confirm when/if prints were received and

returned.

Congressman Contact (provide your zipcode)

Senator Contact(provide your state)

Namecheck Expedite Criteria

Ombudsman

Articles

DAILY BULLETIN

VISA LAW

NAMECHECK

NAMECHECK 2

Msg Board Topic

Namecheck Primer

YAHOO GROUP

EAR Definition

Papertrails of attempts to reconcile this is important.

Build up your file with correspondences every so often

to *prove* your exhausting all resources. Its called exhaustion

of administrative remedies (EAR).

FOIPA

1. INSTRUCTIONS & FORM

2. Fill it

3. Get it notorized (not required)

4. Send it by snail mail.

5. Wait for 2-3 weeks. You will get a response (hopefully!!)

Processing Times

*If your local office is processing petitions filed 30 days after your file, Call

USCIS (800 375-5283 1,2,6,2,4) and advise them you are outside normal processing times.

You can do this every 30 days and they will provide you with a confirmation #

This information is great, thanks! I called them, they were very helpful and said that my prints were received March 10, 2006 and forwarded to USCIS on the same day. Unfortunately, that's all they could tell me; but like I said they were really helpful and understanding of the situation.

At least I know where I stand... sorta!

Chris - just my two cents for whatever its worth -

I think one can try many things to propel this process. There are some times where a file lays about on someones desk and making an infopass appointment can get it moving again.

However, by and large I now believe there is absolutely nothing that can be done to move most cases forward, and the best thing we all can do is TRY WHAT METHODS ARE AVAILABLE TO US and DOCUMENT DOING SO.

If there is indeed the tremendous backlog which we are learning about, how in the world can we expect our individual cases to be extracted from that food chain and somehow pushed ahead of the other hundreds of thousands in line ahead of us?

I'm not advocating complacency. Not by a long shot. I'm advocating taking responsibility for your file while at the same time collecting data which can be used to bring the root cause of the problem to the forefront.

You bring up an interesting point... and it's a complicated one, too

I remember reading, right here on VJ, about an alien who had applied for AOS. The person (I can't remember their gender!) had everything done correctly -- biometrics, forms etc. -- but her AOS was taking forever. The sponsor went back and forth with their Congressman, etc., and eventually it turns out that the FBI never received the name check request depite, I believe, USCIS/DHS saying that they had.

A couple of weeks ago I went down to my local DHS office to see if there had been any updates. There hadn't. The woman there wasn't exactly sure how to handle my (very polite) request, she just kept saying "What is it that you actually WANT?". I tried explaining to her that I was now in limbo, not a permanent resident of the U.S., and didn't want to settle for "It might be done in 1 month or 2 years" routine. It didn't really get me anywhere, though...

Chris W - if you would like to keep 2 threads alive, why not re-post all the information that has been buried in the namecheck tracker thread in here? Much is documented in there as things you can do, however, if you want to split the two, maybe make a FAQ listing in this thread?

I guess its gotten tot he point where our namecheck tracker is so long many people do not go through it all to see helpful information. Much stuff is getting re-posted.

That was my point for starting this thread off. I'm hopefully going to go through the old thread and extract the information (there IS some good stuff in there), but I wanted a separate place other than "My name is Foo and I'm from Bar and I've been waiting for N days". Let me work on it...

We already have this thread detailing the people that are waiting for their FBI name checks to go through, as well as how long they've been waiting and what country they're from, etc.

But I thought I'd start a new thread -- about those who have taken action to get their cases moving. So, if you've contacted your Congressman, Senator or other Representative (even if they haven't replied!), this thread is for you! It's also for people who have tried to contact the FBI, USCIS or the DHS about their cases, and even those that have tried a Writ of Mandamus.

I've been waiting 175 days for my name check, and I think it's time I took some action. I know some have waited less and some have waited more, but if we pool or resources we just might be able to figureout what works and what doesn't.

So who's first?

The line "so-called CPRs are PRs nonetheless" is the most important line in that information. I'll try re-writing it slightly to communicate that point...

Hello Chris W,

How was you interview at Dakar Embassy? What kind of questions you were asked for?

Thanks

I think I posted a review of the Consulate in the Reviews section here on VJ... see if you can find it. If not, PM me, I don't read the board as often anymore...

ChrisW, maybe you can help me now... can you please tell me how this information could be presented more clearly, or what would make it more compelling reading? Your questions are very common, but I don't know how to make it more obvious to folks that the answers are here.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=311

Thanks!

I sure can, meau -- my confusion stemmed from the fact that it didn't seem (at least to me) that CPRs are considered to be in the same boat as PRs for the purposes of naturalization. I have a paper to finish tonight for class, but let me give it a try tomorrow! How's that?

It does not matter how long you have been married to get citizenship.... you can apply to become a citizen 3 years after you became a PR or CPR so for me it would be:-

Approved at AOS - Nov 9th 2005 CPR

Lift conditions - Nov 9th 2007 PR (file forms Aug 11th 2007)

Citizenship - Nov 9th 2008 (file forms Aug 11th 2008)

The fact that I got married April 9th 2005 does not mean I can file before the above dates... it is the date you were approved for AOS or CR1

Kezzie

Thanks again Kezzie. For some reason, I had it in my mind that the 3 year period was only for 'full' permanent residents, not CPRs. So, that's good news, right?!

What's the general wait time from posting the N-400 to being sworn in as a citizen? Around 1 year? And, you can actually file the N-400 at 2 years and 9 months of successful AOS?

Yes it is good news.... I dont know the wait time from filing the N-400 but you could check the USCIS website for your service center for dates and yes you can apply at 2 years and 9 months...

Kezzie

Now all I need is for the FBI to hurry the hell up with my damn name check so I can become a CPR... Thanks again!