k84

So you think they should punished as if it were their fault/choice?

I love how people think they should just be "sent home" ... as if that would be easy. But hey, people rarely care about what happens to others if it doesn't directly impact them.

I never said they should be sent home. Personally I don't know how the Government should resolve this. It's a tricky situation.

All I said is that these people broke the law when they arrived (even though it wasn't their choice) and they have continued to break the law every morning they woke up in this country. Intentional or not, they are breaking the law.

I don't know how to fix that (aside from stopping it from happening again), but all Obama has done today is said "Hey, bring your kids here and hide for a few years... we won't do anything to them". That is not a good message to put out.

A mother brings her baby into the United States illegaly, and you still think the child broke the law?!

If they don't have any documentation that says they can be here then they are breaking the law.

It may not have been their choice or their fault, but that doesn't change the fact that they are breaking the law just by being here.

It is what it is.

So we should punish innocent people to prevent other people from being guilty. Thank goodness you're not in charge of anything.

I wouldn't exactly say they are "innocent". They may not have known what was going on, but they still broke the law regardless.

I feel for people in this situation but I would never support any action that allows any person to break the law (whether they had a choice or not) and then be allowed to get away with it.

This just makes my blood boil. It makes a mockery of the entire system.

Honestly, we're all stupid. We did things the legal way. We should have just walked in like everyone else is doing.

It is sad that VSC is still so far behind. I was hoping to see more approvals by now. Hopefully they will decide to give you all a great Christmas surprise.... a green card!

It does amuse me that the new cards are actually green. They are much better looking than the old and boring white ones we received for AOS.

Commonwealth Bank will send replacement debit and credit cards to an overseas address (as long as you set it as your new account address) but you have to call them and request it - it wont be sent automatically like they do when you live in Australia. They charge $20 AUD for the privilege too.

I called a couple of weeks ago to request a new MasterCard debit card because mine was a week from expiring and it arrived here on Thursday. I don't use it for much these days (having been here for 3 years) but it is nice to have and very useful whenever I'm able to go home to visit.

BankWest sent me a replacement credit card to my US address when that expired. I didn't have to call them or pay anything extra for it - it just arrived shortly after the previous one expired.

I just received my GC in the mail

The new cards are so much nicer than the old ones.

Thanks everyone and congrats ivancicas

It's good to know that your delayed biometrics appointment didn't affect the time it took to approve you

I had worried about that but maybe going early for the biometrics helped? I have no idea.

I did not receive any emails about status update which is weird but I do not care anymore after everything. :D :D

I have seen a lot of people on VJ say the online system doesn't get updated in every case. I think it depends on which officer processes your case and whether they update the online status.

9% of of VSC april filers! hope it gathers momentum!

Hopefully that means everyone will be approved within the next month (or at least before Christmas)

I received the I-797C today confirming my application was approved. It says the decision date was October 14 2011. The website still says card production was ordered on October 21 2011.

Hopefully we see some more VSC approvals this week!!

I know I've been bagging USCIS and VSC lately but they just completely surprised me...

I just received this email:

"Your Case Status: Card/ Document Production. On October 21, 2011, we ordered production of your new card."

Finally!! The wait is over.

Hopefully everyone else starts getting their approvals soon!

I thought I would try my luck calling Customer Service again today and they still won't put in a service request. However the CSR was able to tell me that VSC is currently processing I-751 cases received on February 28 and that it could still be another 30 - 60 days before I heard anything.

I love how they tell me that based on the website date the case is outside of the normal processing times but the internal processing date means the case isn't outside of those times

It looks like we were right when some of us said earlier that we would get our 10 year GCs for Christmas

Great news! Just got the approval email today..

Congratulations

When i posted i was actually talking about those filers outside of the Timeline and not justified in calling. In your position i would call again, if no joy ask for a level 2 officer.

The woman on the phone was nice about it but still had that "it is only 2 days over, why are you calling?" sound in her voice. I could have called back and got someone else but I figured I'll just wait it out a bit longer.

I was wondering the same thing. Service Centers would no doubt get things done much faster if they weren't having to field calls from people asking why their case wasn't approved yesterday.

While I agree that there is no urgent rush to have these cases approved (because we have had our status extended for 12 months), it doesn't help that USCIS publish a 6 month processing time for these cases. By saying 6 months they are giving us a date by which we should expect to hear something.

When that 6 months has passed (as is now the case for me) I don't believe it is unreasonable to call and expect to have it looked in to. If they can't meet their processing timeframes then they should update those times with more accurate information. It's not like this is a recent thing... those of us on VJ can see that VSC is about 7-8 months behind at the moment - and have been for quite a while - so they shouldn't continue to publish 6 months when that is not the case.

With that being said, I called today and asked for a service request to be placed regarding my application and they wouldn't do it. I wasn't expecting them to (because others have posted here saying they wouldn't either) but I was told that if I don't hear anything within the next 30 days to call back and by that time they would put in a service request.

So I guess the general rule for a case to be considered "outside of the published processing times" is the published information plus 1 or 2 months.

Sorry to tell you, but... March VSC approval rate is still 3%... So, I guess you need to wait little longer...

Congratulations to all CSC applicants who have been approved

I am thinking that we may see our Green cards, if granted, during October.

I'm less optimistic. I'm thinking most of us will be lucky to see anything by Christmas at this rate.

Looking at the topics for February and March shows that VSC approvals are not happening as fast as we would like

Congratulations Shend!

So glad to hear about Rocks finally getting an appointment too. That wait would have been torture I'm sure

Did your letter give you a time frame to hear a response from them?

They told me on the phone that I would hear from them within 30 days. I ended up received my bio appointment letter before getting their response to my call.

The response was I already had an appointment scheduled and had a copy of the notice with it. Coincidence or not, my bio appointment letter was dated the same day I called them.

It's weird that they took everyones email address but not mine, I don't understand why that happened.

I wouldn't worry about that. I gave them my email address but they didn't send anything there... the letter I received was sent via snail mail.

Well folks, I just got a text and email to let me know that we had a status update....CARD PRODUCTION ORDERED!! :D

Wow! Congratulations! I'm sure you're extremely relieved at that.

That's a fantastic start for CSC. Hopefully we start seeing move approvals soon, then we will wait for VSC to play catch up

Excellent! Went to the ASC and there was not a single person there. In and out in 5 minutes

We did the early walk-in Bio today. This is the first time I see the staff waiting for people to take'm in. we were done in less than 10 min.

I was considering going early. My appointment is next Friday but if I can get in earlier that would be wonderful.

Not many people seem to have any issues with going early so perhaps I'll give it a try.

I received a follow up to my call in the mail yesterday (no idea why they didn't email me) saying that my case is "in suspense" until I get biometrics done (obviously) and included a copy of the biometrics letter I had already received.

I guess it was just coincidence that the biometrics letter was dated the same day I called them.

To those who haven't received anything yet: it must be that they're so backed up at Vermont that it's taking a lot longer than normal to schedule biometric appointments. Not that it helps, but it's happening to most of us so you can feel calmer knowing it's not just you. Call them if you feel uneasy about waiting, but otherwise just have some extra patience and the appointment letter will come when it's ready.

Personally I think whoever is in charge at Vermont needs a kick up the butt. They should transfer some cases to California if they're that backed up at Vermont.

Same here K84, mine was dated 05/20/11 same day i called. my appt is for 06/08/11 in Charleston SC, Service center on my form was noted as ESC not VSC ? mistake ?

My notice said ESC too. What rocks said about ESC is what I read too.

I can now see my case online so I'm happy. I love the email and text option. Saves me having to go look there all the time.

Getting the email last time that my I-485 was approved was such a relief. Looking forward to getting that again this time

The notice was dated 5/20/2011

Which, ironically, is the day I called. Probably just coincidence but my phone call may have done it