ourwildjourney

4 minutes ago, G&BN said:

Update: just got off the phone with an agent and she informed me that our appointment was generated on August 11 and we should be receiving a notice with when/where/time for the biometrics! Such good news! 🥳

This is awesome news!  Were they able to confirm the appointment is for August?  If the appointments comes in for September they are useless if the offices are closed as planned. 

12 minutes ago, Basil123 said:

Yikes, hopefully I'll be on the phone with someone who's actually trying to help... I guess if Tier 2 turns out useless, I might as well ask for a supervisor, and just be pleasantly surprised if they actually connect me haha.

Thanks for your advice!

@James120383is exactly right.  It's really a matter of how personable and fluid the customs officers are at reading the script.  Some clearly read word-for-word.  Others sound like they are saying something new, but then it's really them riffing off the script.  The real answer is they don't know.  Maybe some don't care.  Mostly, they are stuck in a cumbersome bureaucracy with anitiquated systems that don't make sense to them either.  Also, remember you are talking to a human who is looking at being furloughed from his or her job in two weeks, so they probably have other, more pressing concerns than worrying about us.  

7 minutes ago, mvasantos said:

Where did you see that the offices are gonna close on September 1st?

Unfortunately, it's reported everywhere.  Here's USA Today and Forbes. Congress recessed until after Labor Day without a stimulus deal.  The funding for USCIS was wrapped into that bill.  2/3 of customs is shutting down and furloughed on August 31st. There could be surprise on the stimulus bill in the next two weeks, so let's watch that closely and hope for the best . . .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2020/08/13/us-immigration-shutdown-imminent-as-congress-talks-collapse/#3327c56d3407

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/11/covid-19-stimulus-deal-us-immigration-services-plans-furloughs/3344178001/

15 minutes ago, James120383 said:

rules are all over the place. if she is filing from K1 most likely they need to complete biometrics 

Unfortunately, you might have wondered into the private Hell so many of us are experiencing.  The "approvals" do not have teeth without the card.  You can't get the card without biometrics.  Biometrics reschedules were skipping February filers because NEW schedules were being prioritized when the ASC offices opened (the ones where you get biometrics).  Now, Congress has recessed without a deal until after Labor Day.  As a result, customs offices will close again on September 1st.  It's hard to imagine getting a biometrics appointment in the next two weeks before they close again.  Hopefully this isn't the case for you, but it's the negative feedback loop many of us are stuck in here.

20 minutes ago, mvasantos said:

I don't think they're contractors in the ASC, if the furlough happens everything will stop. They're barely moving now with the furlough they'll stop for sure.

Exactly. Unfortunately even if Congress comes back after Labor Day and makes a deal that first week of September, the furloughs already will have been triggered. So everything closes down again. And, if this last shutdown and re-opening is any indication, the new appointments get scheduled fast by the computer and the rescheduled ones again go to the end of the line as humans reschedule at a snail’s pace. 
 

We don’t even have any movement on EAD or anything. Just crickets as we watch the May, June, and July filers speed through. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just a mess. 

4 minutes ago, Basil123 said:

I understand you're feeling that way, I can only imagine the pressure this puts on the petitioner as well. Just to give you some positive input on that, while I as the beneficiary am so frustrated, mad, financially stressed out, and depressed at times about USCIS & this country and the mess that is the government, I am also very grateful that I get to be here with my husband. Instead of being stuck in a different country from him, unsure of when we'd get to be together again. So don't feel too guilty, I'm sure your wife feels similarly.  

 

Oh also, one of my friends just found out she's scheduled for 8/28, and she has not received her appointment notice yet. So there's still a slim shimmer of hope

Thanks for this. And you are so right. It definitely has brought us closer as we go through this together as a team. 

3 minutes ago, Basil123 said:

I feel you and I am so sorry, you two are in this situation. I didn't walk in in March either because of a small cut in my thumb. I am still so mad at myself for not just trying. But also who thought they'd shut down in the middle of the week? 

 

I hope you will get appointment before the end of the month. But chances get slimmer by the day. It sucks

It’s Thursday. Even if an appointment comes in the mail tomorrow, it’s not going to be before the furlough. I feel so guilty even having her stuck in this mess of a country. This is an absolute mess. And totally preventable if they had just gone in order and used common sense. 

WELL, REALLY NOT SURE WHERE TO GO FROM HERE.  

I don't think I will ever forgive myself for not walking into every single ASC office in the area in March.  Our March biometrics apt was three days after we got the biometrics appointment in the mail. And I got lazy and didn't walk us into one in those three days before our scheduled appointment.  It's only a couple days, what could change?  And then the first shutdown.  TWO DAYS before our appointment.  So no appointment.  And then February filers get screwed because our "reschedules" are done after the "new schedules" of May, June July filers. 

And then every day talking to tier 2 or well-meaning tier 1 who reads from a script, or our Congressional office, or to the wall. 

Pavlovian dogs; we sprint to the mailbox at the first sound of the postman.  For weeks.  

And now, August 13.  Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  And Congress recesses for August without and agreement, so USCIS furloughs start in two weeks.  Even if her biometrics appoointment comes in the mail next week, it will be for a date AFTER the ASC offices shut down again. 

No job.  She can't see her only nephew who now is a year old.  No seeing her 76 year old dad.  

Forlorn.  Dejected.  Pounded to the earth and trampled.  Done fighting.  Crushed and just over it.  

2 hours ago, fromsweden said:

YES ! Thank god!

 

Edit: I hope that 2019 is a typo LOL

This is perhaps the biggest news most of us could hope for. A ton of people are getting EAD “approvals” that are giving false hope since biometrics are still necessary. Others are awaiting biometrics in general. It was about to be a matter of  getting biometrics next week or waiting another four months. A big sigh of relief as we now have another five weeks for biometrics to get taken and keep us moving along. Thanks for posting this!

10 minutes ago, MIBogdan said:

One more thing to add: it feels like the EAD/AP cases with related active AOS (excluding not current, retrogressed etc.)  have better chances for getting biometrics earlier. Standalone EADs (e.g. visa-related or inactive AOS) appear to be placed in the end of the que - this is my observation

Wow. Thank you for this research and putting it all together. Super concise and helpful. Basically we all need to be watching something totally different now: whether the ASCs close again from furlough. That’s all we really should care about now. If we get biometrics before they close, we are in the que. if we don’t make it (we already missed the first closing by two days) then probably expect nothing to happen in 2020. 
 

Let’s all watch the uscis funding and furloughs. 
 

Another note: Probably stop calling uscis. We will just get well meaning reps who don’t have the answers and probably don’t really care that much because they are about to be out of a job in a week😭

10 minutes ago, Amaterasu said:

Congratulations and welcome to the club! Glad to hear that they expect to send you the card and will get in touch if they need bio-metrics. I'll be having my chat with the tier 2 today so hopefully I'll gather some more info.

You have about 100 of us on that call with you😂. Eager to hear what you learn from 2nd tier. 

24 minutes ago, Ihatebaseboards said:

 I am contacting USCIS everyday since Monday. Today also I contacted USCIS and asked when I will receive my biometric letter. Guess what I learned - My EAD and AP is approved without biometrics on 22 July 2020. It will take up to 60 days to receive it and they will contact me if they need my biometrics. 

 

To note:  There is no status update to my EAD and AP in my uscis nor egov sites. 

Congratulations!  Please keep updating us. We really hope you get the biometrics appointment or the EAD card and we are pulling for you. Hopefully you break the “bypass curse” that @fromswedenand so many are experiencing. 

46 minutes ago, fromsweden said:

Thanks everyone for your input here.

@JoeIngles I'm not sure if a glimmer of hope because he's not approved yet, so he's getting a biometric appointment because of that (I think). I think the best glimmer of hope is this Reddit post which someone claims they are getting mailed an EAD card even though they have not gotten a biometric appointment. This is consistent with what my attourney said yesterday, which is that there can be a stamp that says "exempt" in lieu of biometrics. Have not seen any other examples of this, though, and it goes against what the Tier 2 agent said yesterday, which is that I should still be waiting on that biometrics appointment. This is all so disappointing that no one can really tell us what's really going on and many of us are out of work and can't visit loved ones. 

 

 

And then, just to make the game more exciting, let's say these biometrics all need to magically take place in a one week timeframe before he offices close down again for the rest of the year.  

3 minutes ago, Cornflake said:

I think they send the same generic letter to everyone. It states that "you will receive your card", but it doesn't say when. So it's more less accurate letter which works for everyone. 

 

USCIS has so many problems now, I don't think they have time and money to reprint the letter to make it more accurate. 

Agreed.  And now, thanks to everyone here being so open and helpful with each other, we actually know what the letter means when it arrives.  

Basically, be grateful you got your biometrics done.  A whole ton of us are about to have biometrics shut down again before we can get them done --probably dragging this process of hoping for biometrics into 2021.  

48 minutes ago, bodgie19 said:

Did you guys here about this....the Senate just found out the whole USCIS budget crisis is a lie. Apparently USCIS will be in excess of funds by the end of the year. They have enough money to function till 2021. 🤔 election year, this has Trump and his cronies all over it. They probably trying to slow down everything, not only naturalizations. So frustrating. FYI, they are apparently still going through with the furloughs on the Aug 3.

 

@JoeIngles good luck! Try to see how much information you can get us in those 10 min they are doing your biometrics. I think we would all appreciate it.

We all should plan on furloughs happening.  It's not really a "lie" though.  USCIS has to operate independently off of fees (our fees).  They have enough to operate through October or maybe end of year.  The problem with being fee-based is that when no fees come in (whether from Covid shutdown or from Trump administration decreasing Visa applications and immigration in general, they can't plan their fiscal year.  Also, this next week and a half will be a lot of back-and-forth between Congressional Republicans vs the White House and then Rebublicans vs Democrats.  

https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2020/07/homeland-security-moves-forward-13000-furloughs-despite-its-improving-financial-situation/167081/

12 hours ago, Letspaintcookies said:

Seems like y'all didn't heard about that USCIS ended the contract with the company in KY who printed the cards for them and is now solely doing everything in house in Lee Lee Sumit !? That's the reason why the card production is suddenly so backlogged. Many get approved but they simply can't print cards as fast as they would have too. 

It sounds like this could be the answer for people who are awaiting a card after biometrics.  However, it looks like people are being told they can "bypass" biometrics and that does not appear to be the case.  

5 minutes ago, JoeIngles said:

My biometrics have been rescheduled for today. I can get back to all of you once this has been completed. 

That's right!  You are our shining hope.  (And you didn't need to drive four states out of your way!)  Best of luck today.  We all are pulling for you (and living vicariously through you)  

7 minutes ago, Ads2865 said:

No I haven't called yet... I was going to wait until they were "open" to do so.

Unfortunately, as well meaning as they might be, whomever you talk to at USCIS isn't going to know the answer.  Sounds like we actually are not hoping for a "bypass biometrics" approval.  That seems to be the kiss of death that just sends people into a world of meaningless "approvals" without the meaningful tangible card.  

1 minute ago, Ayrton said:

You need to understand that every application is in a system. When the officer approves the form, it automatically generates an approval notice that's sent to the applicant. This notice is generic. It's the same for everybody. They won't customize the letter to say "oh, we approved your form, but you won't receive the card because you didn't have biometrics". This happens all the time with RFE letters, they are generic and doesn't specify the issue, so people need to figure out by themselves.

Correct.  And on top of that it appears that the generic "approval" in the system might be kicking people out of the que to be rescheduled for the biometrics they need for the card.  That's the troubling suspicion people like @fromswedenand others are identifying.  

1 minute ago, Ayrton said:

Expedite request approved back in May. The person requested for expedite, but didn't have biometrics. It was approved, but no card so far.

Yup.  Seems to be confirming what we are feeling so far.  Feels like inaccurate letters are being sent out saying biometrics and get a card.  It's just not the case.  Or maybe another way to say it would be 

"Dear applicant.  Your paperwork for EAD is approved without biometrics.  Now all you need is biometrics and we can print you the actual card."  

Let's keep sharing information to see if anyone actually gets a card without biometrics.  So far, that's not the case.  And then the real hamster wheel is that nobody has actually gone in for biometrics post July reopenings.  

2 hours ago, NKDL said:

I feel like those like myself who got approved without biometrics will receive a card. The approval notice I received for ead and AP states that card will be mailed separately and the delay perhaps is down to what someone said above in relation to all document production being delayed due to only one place producing them. At least I hope that's the case...trying to remain positive.

You are the case study here.  Please stay close and update us, as we are all pulling for you!

As far as I can tell we are still looking for a single person who 

1) Receives an actual tangible card based on bypassed biometrics instead of in-person biometrics

2) Actually has in-person biometrics done after the July reopenings.  

1 hour ago, Ayrton said:

The letter is the same for everyone. Some people are waiting since May with no card because they didn't do biometrics.

Sorry.  I hit send too fast.  This one confuses me.  If we look back to May approvals, weren't those applicants still getting biometrics done in March (pre-shutdown)?  Did USCIS start sending "bypass biometrics" letters before these July reopenings?  What we are trying to figure out is if a single person actually received a card without a. biometrics or b. fingerprints already on file.  The case study is @fromsweden and others who get a letter saying "congratulations you get to bypass biometrics and get your 765!"  BUT in reality NOT having biometrics means they never get the actual card (which is the only thing that matters).  They are stuck in an MC Escher-like of world of never-ending loops of contradictions. 

1 hour ago, Ayrton said:

The letter is the same for everyone. Some people are waiting since May with no card because they didn't do biometrics.

This one confuses me.  

8 hours ago, Cornflake said:

Yes, I did biometrics in March. 

 

That's great.  You are in good shape.  Biometrics is the key. What we are trying to figure out is if there is ANYONE at all who was told they could bypass biometrics and still received a card.  We think those don't exist.  And the second question is whether any biometrics have been scheduled in July since the reopenings.  If you did biometrics in march, you will be fine.  

4 minutes ago, fromsweden said:

And even more specifically, who has been "approved" (I agree, red herring), and gotten a new appointment. I am concerned we aren't getting new appointment because we're approved.

I fear you are right.  It's like the computer says "bypass biometrics and approve X."  And then the computer says "Cannot process card for X without biometrics."  And finally the computer tells itself "Do not schedule X for biometrics as they have been bypassed."  It's a hamster wheel.  And people are getting excited about an "approval" that is meaningless and quite possibly even harming chances of getting the card.  

5 minutes ago, Ayrton said:

You need the employment authorization document (EAD) to start working. The approval letter just means your form was approved. To start working you need your EAD card. The card can't be produced without biometrics.

That's what I thought. So the important info is who has had biometrics rescheduled?  The "approval" is just a red herring and irrelevant. We need to share who gets actual biometrics reschedule letters.  Aside from @JoeIngleshas anyone else been rescheduled for biometrics post Covid shutdown?