bob&hazel

Welcome to the Journey.

In my personal opinion a lawyer isn't really necessary unless there is something really out of the ordinary like a crimianl record or other issues that might arise. If you take a look at the guides section above and look at the K3 part that can really help. I found the hardest part was finding this website, once I was here it got a lot easier. If you do have a problem with anything you can always ask and somebody has usually been through that before and will help you.

As I said, thats my opinion, it's probably best if you look at the guide and give it a try. You haven't wasted any money by doing that. A lawyer won't help to speed the process up or guarantee a visa, they can only really help by filling out papers with you.

Also the USCIS isn't trying to catch people out, if you do fill out something incorrectly they will get in contact with you let you know. Sometimes they don't even do that and everything gets processed, I'm not sure how many mistakes were on ours but I'm sure there were a few

Hope this helps and good luck on your Journey

Bob

Hi,

I got one thumb cut before the interview. Is it a big problem? It seems that they need to scan 10 fingers. I'm quite worried about that.

It shouldn't be a problem, when they scan it it looks for certain markers on your finger. The cut shouldn't affect this. I usually mangle my hands pretty bad with cuts and blisters, I have never had a problem with the scanners.

Is this still required for the I-130? I thought I saw on here that it wasn't but it is still listed in the checklist here. Thanks!

We didn't send anything in except our marriage certificate and we were approved with no RFE's. That may be because they were trying to reach a quota and rushing or that they didn't really need it. Err on the side of caution unless you really don't have anything. We knew that we would have joint bank accounts by the time they came around to asking for it, but they never did.

hi VJS, we just received our NOA1 for the I130 we sent 12 days ago , and we will be dealing with Vermont ( may allah help us with that ), we simply want to know how we can track our case on the system now and where exactly, we r really thankful for ur help

Click here for the login page. You will need to register with them, then enter the EAC number from the NOA1. That will tell you when the case was last touhed. You can also get email updates.

I'm new here, but I was under the impression that this was a forum to exchange information about processing times, RFEs, denials etc.

Starting to seem like it might be an emotional support group for people that are waiting for approvals, which is fine. If that's the case, can someone point me to the forum that relates to serious conversation related to cases being processed, or not processed. Delayed or not delayed etc.

All the information you require can be found here with no emotional baggage.

There is no real information about the visas anywhere. What works for one person won't work for everyone. Why one person get approved in 40 days and why another waits a whole year is anyones guess. We tried the RFE trick and still got nowhere. If you are looking for a way to speed up your case then your looking in the wrong place.

When I started I thought I would get information out of this place, instead I found hope. Knowing that I wasn't the only one not to get a NOA1 for 5 months was a relief. Seeing other people get mad when someone was approved in 2 months was assuring. Seeing some approvals from people around my time showed me there was still hope.

In time you will realize its not whats happening that matters, its that you're not alone.

My valuable addition to the conversation is, "If you say you will, do."

I missed yours. What was it again?

It helps if you read what a person writes before accusing them.

Paris put the main details in her second post, the stuff that everyone wanted to know, the real details she got. A few post later she put up the details of the conversation. 90% of this was personal talk. To you this may not be useful information. To me it was. Someone has actually taken the time to really talk about this. Not just "Wait another 90 days" as everyone else who called has got. I don't know what happened when you called when you went through this process, but hearing someone does actually care at the VSC is a big thing. Probably 1 in every 100 phone calls gets someone who is a little bit helpful. The guy who provided the information is probably 1 in a million.

It may not provide any new information to someone looking in from the outside, but for those of us going through it right now it was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Please don't jump on someones back because they didn't help you, think about the people who they did help.

Bob,

Well Im glad it end well for you today since you told your wife of the news I reported the other day. For a while I was expecting some VJ posters to show up at my house this weekend with axes, torches and sticks, yelling "Burn the lieing Witch" oh well.

Now breath and relax, its all down hill from here.

Paris Heart

You mean that wasn't your house I was at? I got some explaining to do!

holy shnickies! 2 approvals. this is good news. CONGRATS!!

well, guys i hope they start moving through the backlog. this is definitely promising news.

however, not to be a sour puss but what if they are just approving 2 or 3 petitions just to make us believe that they have started working on the I-130s and I-129fs? just started thinking earlier that perhaps they that know we are all waiting and have been waiting for a long time and by doing one or two it may restore our faith in vsc, but in actuality, the will still let the I-129fs and I-130s sit in the back room collecting dust.

i don't know, maybe it's just paranoia, but i'm just having awful thoughts and not to mention, driving my wife crazy by running through these scenarios with her over the phone.

anyhow, i hope i am dead wrong and we start seeing some approvals come our way.

I know how you are feeling. I was getting the same way. I even considered applying for a position at my work that would require me to stay until March 2009. I was honestly thinking it would take that long for this visa. Even tonight in the car home I was thinking it could be another year at least.

We went through all the scenarios as well right from the beginning waiting for our NOA1, thinking that it might be lost, then when we were giving up hope my wife got it in the mail on New years eve. Then we didn't know what was happening with the NOA2, I was expecting a RFE as we didn't send and supporting evidence (Joint bank account etc), but we got approval anyway.

Hang in there, it will happen. Actually looking at what I just said, give up hope and they will surprise you!

Congratulations Bob & Hazel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad they are finally moving, now people wont think I was kidding about what VSC officer said to me the other day on phone, ha ha.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best wishes.

Paris Heart

Strangely enough I sent my wife those details last night trying to give her hope, she didn't believe it as it didn't say when changes were going to be made, it could be within the next year for all we knew. But then tonight it all happened. Talking to other staff they said it could be 4-6 months on Tuesday. Just as everything seemed lost a glimmer of hope has been restored. Our case was touched yesterday for the first time since Feb, and that was only the I129f that was touched. At 1pm this afternoon the I130 still had no activity since Feb, then 2 hours later we were approved.

Good luck to everyone!

Just when I was about to give up looking for a week or so 2 emails came into my inbox about 15 mins ago from CRIS. It was the approval notice for both the I-129f and I-130. I cant believe they actually approved both after all we have heard recently about K-3's not going through. So this is good news for all of us at VSC as something has finally happened!

I'm just scared I'm gonna wake up in a minute and it was a dream! I was getting really stressed and down about the whole thing.

It has also been updated on the case status online.

Cheers

Dave

Congratulations! We were also approved today on both forms. It came at the right time when both of us were starting to think we wouldn't get approved for another 6 months. Fortunately she was home for lunch when I found out so I could tell her right away. I'm on cloud 9 at the moment.

Maybe VSC were told they would get Memorial day off if they approved x amount of cases today!

Ok, I'll throw in my tuppence worth. (This is by no means judging your parenting skills, I have no idea about what techniques you have used, I'm just going with some common reasons for teens to act in this way)

Shouting at him and making him do it will only the the reverse action. I have worked with hundreds of kids about this age and never have I seen that technique work. I have seen this type of behavior lots of times.

At 16 he is feeling like he is a full grown up and should be treated as such. Sitting down as a family and listening to each other might help. He is probably scared about moving and leaving all his friends behind. He probably has some really good friends he doesn't want to leave. Another factor might be the lack of control. This can be scary for anyone at anytime. Moving is one of the most stressful things you can do, if you are just told "You are moving, suck it up" about 90% of people (adults as well) will fight this. Regardless of where or why, its an instinct, you want choice in the matter. Most of the time teens just want to be asked their opinions. They feel like nobody listens

My best advice is talk about how he is feeling, about his hopes and fears. Tell him you feelings, about what you want for the future. This can be pretty painful to do with a 16 year old boy, his immediate reaction will be to clam up and not talk, so it may involve you talking a lot first, but he will soon open up. Really listen to his input and see how much you can accommodate for him.

If that fails striking a deal is the second option (aka bribery but not as obvious as "Here, have a playstation and come with us")

Finally if all else fails he is still a minor in the eyes of the USCIS, which means he can pretty much say what he wants but I'm pretty sure it won't make a difference. Not 100% sure what will happen when he goes to the interview but I'm sure taht because he is still seen as a child they won't refuse his visa because of a tantrum.

As I said, I am in no way commenting on your parenting, you may have tried all this already. I some experience with this but everybody is different and its a case of finding what makes someone tick. Everyone reacts differently.

Good luck with the interview, I hope it all goes well

I don't know how much wieght the Ombudsman office carries with USCIS, but every bit helps.

In the organizational chart the USCIS is on the very bottom level and the Ombudsman is two levels above them (found here). Basically if the ombudsman say the uscis has done something wrong then they're in big trouble. However the ombudsman will usually not get involved unless it is something major. In a case like this they where the employee name/number is unknown they will probably just send a memo. I worked in the financial sector for a while and we had ombudsman above us, we were investigating complaints. People who were complaining usually threatened us with ombudsman action if we didn't resolve the complaint quickly. The ombudsman wouldn't even consider looking at their complaint if it hadn't been with us for at least 8 weeks. Even then most of the time they would just send us a letter asking us to look into it. it was only cases where it was really bad that they stepped in and took action, usually fines. This rarely happened. Going to the ombudsman can help, but don't look at it as a golden ticket. It may not be of immediate help, but the ombudsman could help the USCIS develop the process.

As far as the rude member of staff is concerned is was out of order. However, as I said I worked in the financial sector with complaints, it was my job to answer the phones, pretty much like the mis-information line. Sometime you just get those days when every phone call makes your blood boil because everyone just wants to shout at you. I know it's no excuse, but it happens. Unfortunately it can be really hard if you've just put the phone down on one of these calls and have to calm down straight away for the next call. Unfortunately I'm guessing your husband just happened to be the next call. As I say it's no excuse, but these things happen. Unfortunately the people that you call can't really do that much for you, people seem to think that if they shout loud enough the world will move.

that kind of helps... i didn't know what RFE ment, but what I ment was... exactly what numbers do I press or what menus do I want to select? *shrugs* but another question I would like to ask is... how much longer do I have to wait before I can check my case status online? I got my NOA1 on the 28th, and they cashed my check on the 25th, so I figured I would be in the system already, but online it tells me it can't find it, and using the 800 number I'm told to check it again to make sure it is correct.... which.... yea I can understand getting in wrong once, but I didn't get it wrong, on the phone or online..... so, how long does it take to get in the system? I thought that once they send me my receipt notice, that I'm in the system.

Normally I wouldn't mind so much, because I can understand that they aren't very organized, but since I sent my I-129F with a copy of the receipt notice, I don't want it to be delayed because the number on the notice doesn't work for the system... know what i mean?

Longer Technical Answer:

I had the same situation when I got my NOA1. It would appear that the online system is a different system to the one they use to put the case on and get a receipt number. Because all the cases are now getting logged onto the system in chicago they are not being put on the online system straight away. Give it a couple of weeks and it will be on. Mine took 2-3 weeks. I'm assuming the online system gets reports from the other system periodically.

Short Answer:

Give it a few weeks.

Ok, here's my 2 cents on the whole using lawyers.

Yes, lawyers can offer piece of mind when doing something like this. The paperwork can seem like a nightmare, but in truth most of it is pretty straight forward. You still have to fill in all the paperwork, often all the lawyer will do is clarify the questions. Lawyers can be really good at this, if they know what they are doing.

If you think a lawyer will help with your case and get it approved quicker, then you're wrong. After the paperwork is sent to the Service center it is out of anyones hands except the people at the service center.

I know this from a previous job, i worked at a company that was receiving complaints for something that could result in compensation. A lot of people went to lawyers to help them get compensation as they believed it would help them. There were companies dedicated to claiming compensation about this issue. All the lawyers would do is send the application to us and we would handle the case and issue compensation. The lawyers would then take 25% of this compensation.

I spoke to a lot of people who went through these lawyers and explained that all they had to do was fill in a few basic questions (name....etc) and if they could provide us with the answers to the harder question then that was great, but using a lawyer made no difference, except at the end you got 100% of the compensation rather than 75%. The information the lawyers gave was usually inaccurate and designed to scare the client into believing that the lawyer will help. Majority of the people I spoke to wished they hadn't used a lawyer as they felt cheated.

Some of the time the use of a lawyer would slow the process down as we would send paperwork that had to be filled in by the client otherwise we couldn't look into the case and the lawyers would lose them, or refuse to send them onto the client as the client had already filled in a different piece of paper that was no use to us but the lawyer didn't want to make it look like he didn't have a clue what he was doing.

In the end with or without a lawyer you fill in the paperwork and your case gets reviewed, just with a lawyer you pay a lot more for the privilege!

Before going to a lawyer I would suggest looking through the paperwork and the guides on here (I found them very useful and straight forward) and decide if you can fill them in yourself or not. Most of it is basic information you already know.