U&S

thanks I am at 53 votes now thanks to all of you. It sucks that they have a character limit on the question, but it makes sense. I tried to make it as universal as possible with a nice personal touch hahaha.

+1 vote. thx for posting!

6 months and 29 days since priority date of 6.28.10.

1 month 17 days since approval on 12.09.10.

Letters and phone calls to Congresswoman, both Senators, Ombudsman, 6 national media outlets, AILA advocacy, AILA TSC liaison, NVC, TSC, USCIS, plus visits to local USCIS office...you name it, I've done it.

No NVC case number yet.

So sad almost 2 months waiting for a visa number

I know, buddy. 6 months and 25 days since we filed. 44 days waiting for a case number. Hope Mother Nature is kinder to the NE next week.

Fyi: NVC was closed Mon, closed half day Tues, and is closed today. Tues and today due to weather. Hopefully next week will have less snow and mail will be delivered.

She doesnt offer free advice as such, only a 1 hr free chat, and also as a poster on another website.

If you read it properly, she has said she will try and find out. Guarantees were not made, nothing set in stone.

Money did not change hands.

But, if you do not explore avenues in this world, you dont get anywhere.

Without doubt if you want second to none service, employ someone such as her to represent you, but you will pay a lot of money. And its unlikely she would be able to push you quicker through the sc as it stands.

What she has ADVISED is that she will endeavour to find out the reasons behind this, and also, if anyone has a lawyer, have them contact TSC AILA liaison. maybe she will do that herself. After all, its more new knowledge on her part.

As I said, from the information I read today, I would have written to the ombudsman some time ago.

Thank you very much for all of the information you have provided. The Laurel Scott forum is invaluable and I have contacted the AILA liaison which I did not know of before I read the transcript. I had already contacted the AILA advocacy director, but hoping the AILA TSC liaison will be more receptive to the issues we are experiencing.

I have also bombarded TSC (NVC says they cannot help me) with emails and the NCSC with calls. Second Infopass appointment next Tues and second Ombudsman letter in the works. I even wrote to President Obama tonight. Running out of ideas. None of the 6 national news organizations I've contacted have responded yet. Congresswoman has not responded yet. Senators wrote back punting me to Congresswoman's office, but I am going to contact all of them again.

6 months and 16 days for me...out of patience. If anyone else has new ideas on who to contact, please post.

Timeline:

June 28, 2010 Priority date

July 1, 2010 NOA1

Nov 2, 2010 Transfer from CSC to TSC

Nov 23, 2010 Post-decision activity (error)

Dec 9, 2010 NOA2 - Approval (Congresswoman intervened)

????? NVC case number?

I just received a text and an e-mail our case was approved...I am so very happy...I really feel the approvals are going to start rolling in from TSC...Now lets see if it will be forwarded to NVC in a timely manner....

congrats - very happy for you!

I just got off the phone with USCIS. First man had no clue what I was talking about and had to transfer (no surprise). After waiting 30 minutes on hold I got the same BS of the July 16th. I told him that I was aware that many cases that were filed in September and October had been adjucated. He said they were probably military files. hmmmm? ALL OF THEM?! Then he said that I couldn't do a service request because I must wait 90 days from NOV 24 the day that TSC entered me into the system. The conversation ended wtih:

Officer:Can I do anything else for you?

Me: No, just give me my husband, but you can't seem to do that.

OFficer: Ma'am we don't have a magic wands and I can only tell you what I see on the screen. This is a national call center, I don't work for TSC. I'm sorry but everything will work out, I promise.

Me: okay thank you bye.

He was rather nice and understanding. But I just feel so discouraged right now. Eh.

I know exactly how you feel right now. I just called NVC and still no case number. I'm glad you said the line about wanting your husband. How do these people not understand the consequences of their actions/negligence? We will be spending our first anniversary apart because of USCIS errors. Do these people even care? I will go crazy if I just sit here and wait as I am quite sure my file is gathering dust in Texas somewhere when it should have been sent to New Hampshire over a month ago.

The fact that we are routed to a national call center further highlights the importance of the media attention we need to gain. We have no proof that the National Call Center is relaying our concerns to TSC. TSC may have no idea that there are thousands of complaints regarding their misconduct. The media will communicate our grievances to TSC. I implore everyone to write to the media outlets and appropriate government officials.

For everyone asking about what they should write when contacting media and government officials, here is a suggested structure and talking points.

I do not recommend creating a form letter which is merely signed by everyone as it would not convey the varied hardships we are experiencing. Those hardships are the meat of the story if this makes it to press. Only providing this as starting point for those who need one. Recommend you tailor this for your purposes.

Intro/hook: Major errors made by USCIS resulting in significant delays for 72000 people - 36000 cases.

USCIS not admitting errors, not proactively resolving errors, and providing conflicting information on status and next steps.

Whole process is opaque making it difficult and time-consuming to navigate.

Forcing us to pursue alternate avenues such as contacting Congressional reps and Senators. Indicates system is failing and someone needs to draw attention to this failure.

You story: Tell your story beginning with the fact that it is typical of others in the same situation.

Conclusion: Immigration reform is not only about border control.

36000 hard-working American citizens are having their families destroyed by USCIS errors, disregard and negligence.

Please help us have a voice so that we can initiate change and reunite our families.

Re-posting links to media outlets:

Let's all send letters to the following media outlets calling attention to our situation. Power in numbers. I recommend the following:

AP: info@ap.org (no attachments)

AP News Features Editors

New York:

Jerry Schwartz - Editor

Chris Sullivan - Deputy Editor

David Crary - National Writer, Family and Relationships

Adam Geller - National Writer

Helen O'Neill - National Writer

Reuters: http://reuters.zende...us_requests/new

NY Times: The Newsroom news-tips@nytimes.com; national@nytimes.com

CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/

I already wrote a letter to the Advocacy Director of AILA detailing our collective situation and inquiring into the possibility of a class action suit. I will let everyone know if/when I hear back.

Let's all send letters to the following media outlets calling attention to our situation. Power in numbers. I recommend the following:

AP: info@ap.org (no attachments)

AP News Features Editors

New York:

Jerry Schwartz - Editor

Chris Sullivan - Deputy Editor

David Crary - National Writer, Family and Relationships

Adam Geller - National Writer

Helen O'Neill - National Writer

Reuters: http://reuters.zende...us_requests/new

NY Times: The Newsroomnews-tips@nytimes.com; national@nytimes.com

CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/

Thoughts/comments?

Hey, guys,

So I received another letter from my congressman and it reads as follows:

"According to the Texas Service Center, the Western Service Center transferred 36,000 I-130 petitions to their office and they are all falling in that same time frame and they are processing these as fast as they can which involves a 5 month turn around to complete all of these applications.

The Texas Service Center's Congressional Unit has ordered your file to be sent to the EXAMS Unit in which it will be then assigned to an examiner. You should receive a decision or other Notice of Action within 45 to 60 days."

So, yeah.

Thoughts?

So they've screwed up 72,000 lives. That's nice.

Update on my end: TSC emailed me in response to my inquiry about where my file is saying all approved files are sent to NVC within one business day. Uh - that doesn't answer my question and you just proved something went wrong with mine.

NVC emailed me saying they definitely do not have my file as they should by now (I've been approved for 30 days) so they are following up with USCIS.

And again I'm off to the Congresswoman, local USCIS office, anyone else that may be able to help. It's been 195 days since I filed. Round 2 of this mess continues.

Meanwhile, a friend of a friend filed a 130 after me - in July - and her husband had his green card by Thanksgiving. Nebraska Service Center.

It's been nearly a month since we were approved, but no NVC case number. I just spoke with an officer at NCSC. He said that due to the holidays, I should wait another 2 weeks for my case to be sent to NVC. I asked for the officer adjudicating my case to contact me when my file was sent, but no cigar. Goes to show...approval does not necessarily mean your case goes anywhere for quite some time. I asked what determined timing for when files were sent (are they sent in batches?). Timing seems to be at the discretion of the officer adjudicating your case. On 12/24, I sent an email to an officer at TSC regarding the location of my file that I'm hoping will receive a clearer response.

I've also been calling the NVC all day and getting a busy signal. Bizarre.

My husband found the following contacts that may be helpful to all of you who are beyond your 5 months and waiting for approval. I feel like my frustration multiplied by 100 once my 5 months were up and I had no approval so feel for all of you.

USCIS leadership

Joe Moore is in charge of performance and quality so he may be worth contacting regarding TSC's performance.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=c0fbab0a43b5d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=c0fbab0a43b5d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD

Office of Inspector General

Some of you have written about NCSC reps being everything from unhelpful and rude to downright abusive. You can report them to the OIG.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=4a6e0b89284a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=4a6e0b89284a3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD

When my petition was transferred from CSC to TSC, I then received an email stating that my case had been transferred to a USCIS office for processing. When I received my NOA2, it came from TSC. Looks like it never left TSC. Just hanging on til the first of the year. I will give it some more time........don't know how much longer I can wait before I blow my top!! Wouldn't be the "smart" thing to do though. Anyway, God Bless Us ALL. May we all have a VERY Happy New Year as we are re-united with our families.

It has been 15 business days since our 130 was approved (Dec 9). Still no NVC case number. NVC says they do not have our file. I emailed TSC Dec 24 asking for the exact date that our 130 was sent to NVC. No response yet.

Dan - Given TSC said they never sent your file to NVC, I am pretty confident they did not send mine either. I will call NCSC Monday and demand an answer on the location of the file and why it has not been sent to NVC. Total waste of a month. What do they care?

I am completely on board with filing a class action lawsuit against USCIS. Let's seriously look into this and post about what we find.

Does anyone on VJ work in PR and know the best way to garner media attention for this issue?

Hi guys - Update on me is that I'm in the same boat as the others from TSC who have been approved. NOA2 of Dec 9 and still waiting for NVC to assign me a case number. I'm not confident that TSC even sent my approved file to NVC. Lord knows where that thing is right now. So again...waiting, calling, trying not to be mad as hell. TSC is a joke.

glimmer of hope for everyone in here. congrats. here's to a quick journey through NVC.

Thank you.

I hope anyone who filed in June or July has an NOA2 coming by end of this month. Crossing my fingers for all of you.

Congrats!!!!!!!!were you transferred to TSC or were you one of the lucky ones that stayed at CSC? My NOA1 date is one day after yours

Thanks. I was transferred to TSC. Definitely not one of the lucky ones. Here's my timeline:

Priority date: June 28

NOA1: July 1

Transfer from CSC to TSC: Nov 2

Post-decision activity: Nov 23

NOA2: Dec 9

Yours could be in the mail too...good luck.

Received hard copy of NOA2 approval today. Dated Dec 9. Only words to describe how I feel: enormous relief.

No online case status update. No text or email notification. No touches since November. No word of approval when I called NCSC on Monday, Dec 15.

I hear hard copy of NOA2 is the real deal so not too nervous about this being a false positive. But I am also not 100% confident given what a mess this process has been thus far.

Hope all of you receive your NOA2s shortly. My priority date was June 28 so I've been past my 5 months for quite some time.

Let's see how efficient NVC is now...

I knew that this wasnt good news when we were sent to TSC... being the guinea pig group sucks really bad. Oh thats right, we were sent to TSC so we would be within the 5 month timeframe hahaha..yeah thats why it has been 5 months and 1 week for me and still no NOA2 while some September CSC filers have theirs already. What a f'ing joke.

Joke indeed - TSC cannot approve our cases because they have not looked at them. No one has looked at these cases in the entire 5 months. No officer has even been assigned to mine according to the response they provided my Congresswoman's case worker. I'm beside myself.

After having read what some of you guys have written, I thought I'd call our friends up at the USCIS to have a chat.

I specifically inquired about my I130 being in the "Post-Decision" phase. The tier 1 representative was nice enough to escalate me to tier 2 after I thoroughly and petiently explained my concerns. The operative word here is "patient"- you should at least sound patient. Remember folks, these people don't have to escalate your call unless your specific case necessitates it- so being outwardly polite will, without a doubt, get you farther along in this conversation, as opposed to verbally expressing whatever anger you may be experiencing.

Mr. Tier 2 explained that workload can be moved around from one service center to another- as we all are well aware of by now. In our case, our files had obviously been transferred to TSC.

Mr. Tier 2 then mentioned that TSC, for the past few years, has been used to processing only employment and refugee-related submissions. They had stopped, for whatever reason, processing I130s some time ago, at least for the past 3 or 4 years. With that in mind, TSC then received our batch of I130 applications (hundreds, thousands?).

So Mr. Tier 2, in an indirect manner, basically said that those of us who received emails/texts/snail mail letters stating that we were in the "Post Decision" phase were in all likelihood victims of some peoples' incompetence- also euphemistically referred to as there being a "training issue" with some folks. This is an issue they are "looking into".

Even though my I130 status on the USCIS website states that I am in the "Post Decision" phase, I was clearly told by Mr. Tier 2 that my application had never left TSC, and furthermore, still hadn't been looked at! -Which is fine, I suppose, since I haven't hit the 5 month mark. It just sucks that I had unnecessarily- and apparently needlessly- gotten excited thinking some sort of decision had been made in regards to my I130. Wishful thinking.

In sum, Mr. Tier 2 suggested to call back 90 days after the CSC-TSC transfer date- for all of us, that would be early-February. He did add however, without offering any substantial proof, that my application, just like the rest of yours, may be looked at sooner than the 90 day period ends. I suppose that there may be some truth to that because, if I were in their shoes, and I had hundreds to thousands of applications to go through, I would deliberately give a very lengthy grace period (like say, 90 days), as opposed to giving a more "realistic" yet shorter grace period, knowing it really wouldn't take me that long to do the processing, simply to avoid getting irate phone calls from people saying they hadn't heard anything within their allotted timeframe.

I didn't get around to inquiring about the reason(s) behind other August/September filers getting approved- I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten any specific coherent answer.

That's all the news I have for now.

Great that you succeeded in pumping so much info out of them. They basically admitted their error. Fuel to the fire...thx for sharing.

Your handle leads me to believe you fix mobile phones or are an incarcerated physician.

We are at 5 months and 1 week. Last touch was Nov 23 post-decision activity. Heard back from my Congresswoman's office today.

Summary of Response

[*]My file is at TSC, not at the National Visa Center.

[*]Based upon my NOA1 date (July 1), my petition is close to being ready to be pulled for adjudication.

[*]The Congresswoman's contact will pull my file to have a supervisor assign my case to an officer for adjudication.

[*]I should receive either a decision or an RFE in 45 to 60 days.

[*]If I have not heard from TSC by the end of February 2011, I should contact Congresswoman again and they will check for me

When I asked why it was taking longer than the 5 months, the answer was that processing times expand and contract according to workload. Which begs the question: why were August filers approved before July filers?

Would like to know how others who are past their 5 months are taking action and what they have heard about their case status. Does anyone have confirmation on what is going on at TSC?

NOA1 - July 1

Transfer from CSC to TSC - Nov 2

Post decision activity notice stating file was transferred from NVC back to USCIS. (Except it wasn't) - Nov 23

What a fair service to US Citizens....

We are the lucky fellows who got transferred to TSC and now we are supposed to wait for another month or so for getting a decision,,, let me mention one more time here that all late june filers and some of July filers are already out of 5 months. USCIS says us to wait another 60 days for these applicaitons.

AND CSC STARTED TO APPROVE SEPTEMBER FILES,,,, (THEY TRANSFERRED JUNE, JULY AND AUGUST FILES TO TSC, I GUESS TO TEACH TSC HOW TO WORK ON THE FILES,,, WE ARE THE TEST SPECIMENS HERE)

check this out

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/285465-got-approval/

Mr Er. Thanks for posting this. I would not have known otherwise. While this is horribly unfair, it will serve as more evidence as I write to my Congresswoman tonight explaining how inequitable the process has been.

Someone asked earlier about what to do to stay positive. Having faith that the process was fair made me stay positive before. I believed that no matter what, at 5 months I would have my approval. That is not how it turned out.

So at this point, I will say taking action to try and manage this process the best I can helps. Calling the TSC, calling and writing to my Congresswoman, getting advice from others like you who are going through the process all help. Positive thoughts/prayers do not do anything because we are not talking about mother nature or acts of God. These are human beings who are making (or not making) decisions that affect our lives. May sound harsh, but I am over 5 months still waiting for an approval and have been apart from my husband for nearly a year. I'm going to do everything I can to take control of this situation in order to stay positive.

I got the same email notice last week just like you, but no hard copy in the snail mail yet. I am very confused also about the NOA2 though... are we or aren't we aproved yet

Mrs. T - Your NOA1 date is a few days after mine meaning your 5 months is up in a few days. So I think you actually did get approved and they failed to send you the NOA2. Your file is probably at the State Dept, not with USCIS as the email indicated. Most likely same deal as mine.

If I were you, I would call TSC to find out. Would recommend having your call escalated since the first person I spoke with told me to wait 120 more days and provided some incorrect information. The second person you speak with should put in the service request to find out why you did not receive your NOA2. Good luck!

U&S - thank you very much for the update! I was on the phone with TSC as well myself just minutes ago. Got escalated to level-2 person who said exactly the same thing and did file a service request on my case now as well. Hopefully, they will act upon it now. I am having slightly a better feeling after this now. Thanks for sharing. I was just going to write the same stuff myself. Good luck everyone and let us learn how to be more patient, I guess.

That's awesome news, Lucas_34! Can't wait for us to get these NOA2 hard copies. I will be celebrating with a drink or three

New Information for Filers transferred from CSC to TSC and then to "USCIS Office"

Hey everyone, we were one of those couples who's petition moved to TSC and then got the notice that our case had been moved to a "USCIS Office". I just called USCIS to inquire where my petition was and the "officer" told me it was still at TSC and is being processed there. It never went anywhere.

I think these TSC agents haven't been processing I-130's for a while and are a little green on how to update the system correctly.

PS - This was my first time calling USCIS. I got through right away, the first guy was very nice and helpful, he escalated my call, it went right through and then the 2nd guy was very nice and helpful too. For this part, it must be my lucky day. I don't know if my nerves could have taken the long waits and the negative responses from USCIS personnel that some of you have experienced.

I just got off phone with TSC. Same as Nile_Romance, this was my first time calling and the two people I spoke to were very helpful. My call was also escalated.

My NOA1 date is July 1 so my 5 month deadline was Dec 1. My most recent activity was the Nov 23 email and Dec 1 regular mail saying "post-decision activity" and that my case was transferred from the State Dept back to the USCIS.

The 2nd person I spoke to said she is more than 90% positive that I was approved, but that they failed to send me my NOA2. She said almost always if your file goes to the State Dept, then that means you are approved. She put in a service request to see why I did not receive my NOA2. Said to expect it within 30 days and that the other forms and interview schedule would follow.

If I don't receive something by Dec 16, I will put in another friendly call to TSC to see where things are at.

Hope this helps - esp. those of you who received the "post-decision activity" notification.

New Information for Filers transferred from CSC to TSC and then to "USCIS Office"

Hey everyone, we were one of those couples who's petition moved to TSC and then got the notice that our case had been moved to a "USCIS Office". I just called USCIS to inquire where my petition was and the "officer" told me it was still at TSC and is being processed there. It never went anywhere.

I think these TSC agents haven't been processing I-130's for a while and are a little green on how to update the system correctly.

PS - This was my first time calling USCIS. I got through right away, the first guy was very nice and helpful, he escalated my call, it went right through and then the 2nd guy was very nice and helpful too. For this part, it must be my lucky day. I don't know if my nerves could have taken the long waits and the negative responses from USCIS personnel that some of you have experienced.

Awesome - thank you SO much for this update. Did you also get the post-decision activity email/mail?

I'm calling soon and if I hear anything regarding timing, I will let everyone know. If they tell me they are just running behind, I will feel so much better at least knowing it's being looked at.

Has anyone who received the Post Decision Activity automated email that dept of state transferred their case back to USCIS for a review received anything else in regular mail???

I am on the same boat and was wondering if you had received anything in the meantime. Thanks!

Hi there - I received the post-decision activity email last week and got a hard copy last night via regular mail (same content as email).