Chris&Ale

So, I'm seeing folks post on Facebook where they applied on the 17th, got approved the next day, and have their loved ones here in the US already. What the #^%÷ are they doing taking on new cases just received while leaving others sitting on a virtual shelf someplace? I urge all of us who applied early and who are still waiting to call and complain to our congresspeople this week.

I spoke with an agent the other day who said that cases are assigned to individual agents and some of them have heavier caseloads than others. That doesn't make sense to do it that way. It's like giving a waitress 15 tables and give another one just 2 tables to service. Of course, I think our cases from the first days might have been assigned to an agent who is on vacation for the last 2 weeks. Grr....

Anyone see any progress on their I-134a case(s) today? I applied for my Cuban brother-in-law early morning of the 7th but nothing yet. Meanwhile, a friend of his who submitted on Sunday, the 8th has been approved and is already here in the US. How the heck is USCIS prioritizing these applications? Time to call and complain to my congressman.

Hi, first of all, congrats on getting the 134a in for your fiance so quickly! It took my spouse and I almost a year for the fiance visa to get through the system and then we both had to fly down to Guyana for the 10 minute interview (at a cost of around $4,000 in travel expenses). May I ask you, how can one find that Whatsapp group that discusses the I-134a? We have a pending app for my brother-in-law in Cuba. Also, may I ask, for the one section where it asks for dates when you want your beneficiary to be here, did you put an end date or just click the No End Date checkbox? There seems to be confusion amongst a lot of folks on how to mark the end date vs. the checkbox. Thanks, man and good luck to you and your fiance!

Hi, can you tell us when you submitted the I-134a application for them? Date and approximate time would be really helpful. Thanks!!

You didn't mention if you have an attorney assisting you. If not, I'd say you definitely need to retain a good immigration attorney. You should look to them to see what your options are moving forward. Good luck!

It reminds me of that saying (paraphrasing), "I'd rather see 1 guilty person go free than to imprison 99 innocent men."

I know I'm preaching to the choir but it seems moronic that they'd have someone go through the citizenship interview and then make them wait another year or more for the 751 interview. Sounds like some of our elected representatives need to be pushed to force a change in agency policy.

No request for an interview? If not, wow!! Awesome!

If I may give my two cents' worth of advice... learning English can be very hard, especially for older folks. HOWEVER, to pass the English writing, reading, and civics portions of the exam, one only needs to know and understand the words listed on the USCIS reading and writing study guides as well as memorizing the 100 Civics questions and answers. Learning the couple of dozen words USCIS has listed to know for the exam is a lot less of a lift than becoming fluent in English. If you haven't already, I'd recommend enrolling your dad in a local citizenship test prep program with live instructors as well as buying some flash cards for both the reading/writing and civics portions. I would also do some mockup interviews to help him get used to reading and writing words from the USCIS study guides. I used to be a director over a citizenship test prep program and would regularly see folks in their 70s and 80s enroll into the program. After studying the key terms and questions a few weeks, they all passed. Good luck!! 😀

One would think with USCIS having so-called rigid processes that we would all be treated the same and yet it seems like a big cluster-$,÷ck from one center to the next. Hopefully, you will receive an update within tye next couple of weeks saying the 751 interview has been waived and given a date for the naturalization ceremony. If it were me and say 2 weeks were to go by with no update, I'd contact your local congress person's office and ask for them to get involved. Nothing like the bright light of a congressional inquiry to get the ball rolling.

Hi all, Just a heads up... my Cuban LPR spouse was set to return back from Cuba today after having visited with his family for a week. Turns out, he left his expired green card here at the house because he thought the 2 year extension letter from USCIS would suffice. Nope. The airline called border and customs at the airport in Fort Lauderdale (his destination) and they refused to let him into the country without both the expired green card and the extension letter. He even had a photo of his green card but they refused him entry. So, he has to go to the American Embassy in Havana and submit a I-131A form with a $575 processing fee to get a travel document to come back home. Even worse, a lady at the embassy said it could take two weeks or even longer to process the request. I'm going to fax a letter of concern to the embassy and send a copy to my congressperson. Thankfully, he has family he can stay with but could you imagine losing your passport while in another country and then having to wait for weeks while our government processes the travel document? I think something like that should have a 1-2 day turnaround time. Anyways, wanted to share so that everyone knows that even though the green card might have expired and you have the extension letter, you still need to show the green card AND the extension letter.