Extremely frustrated with USCIS and Senator's Office.

[spectheintro 18]

So this is halfway a rant, and halfway a solicitation for advice. Here's my situation.

Back in June, right when I got back from Iran, I tried to get my wife's case expedited because of the situation there. It was very dangerous for a while. The request was immediately denied. (What a great way to start my visa journey, right?) But luckily the situation in Iran settled down, so I was no longer concerned for her safety.

During the month of July I took steps to apply for exemption from military service in Iran. (I was born in the US but am considered an Iranian citizen by the Islamic Republic.) According to their laws, I am exempt, being that I am my father's only son, a student, and he is over 60. The Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy assured me there would be no problem.

Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case. To make a long story short, I am now unsure if I can ever enter Iran again--they told me (and the person who had power of attorney for me) that if I tried to enter the country again I would be arrested, unless I paid them $5000. As you can imagine, this was very upsetting to me. I am attempting to sort that situation out, since the bulk of my family and all of my wife's family are in Iran.

So, with this new development, I decided to contact my Senator's office. On my privacy release form I explained everything above, and then EXPLICITLY STATED that I wanted no action taken on my case until I had a chance to speak with them directly. The reason for this is that I had no idea if my situation mattered to USCIS--and if it did not, if this sort of thing was not grounds for expedition or special consideration, then I didn't want to apply for expedition again only to be denied. To put it bluntly, I didn't want to piss someone off and complicate my wife's I-130 processing.

So after sending the privacy release form and dropping off some additional documentation at the Senator's office (again making sure to emphasize that someone call me prior to doing anything), I waited to receive a phone call. Instead, on August 6th, I received a letter from the Senator's office stating that they sent a letter on my behalf to USCIS. I called the case worker and asked him what had happened. He replied that he'd sent a letter to USCIS "for more information," and that we would hear back in 30-40 business days. I told him I was worried because I did not want to do anything to jeopardize my wife's petition, and he assured me everything would be fine.

Today I received a letter from USCIS stating that my request for expedition had been "carefully reviewed" and summarily denied. Imagine my delight.

So, it's Saturday, and I can't call anyone. But I'm really not sure what to do. First and foremost, I am terrified that I'm pissing USCIS off and they're going to drag out my wife's petition as a result. Second, I'm furious with the Senator's office for doing exactly what I told them NOT to do. And finally, I'm frustrated with USCIS because there is absolutely no guidance on what DOES qualify for expedition, or how to assemble a compelling case for it, unless you're a service member. "Extreme emergent or humanitarian situation" has no qualifiers or examples, or guidelines on what to do when applying. I didn't think I qualified for expedition in the first case, which is why I went to my Senator's office, because I assumed the case worker there could speak with someone at USCIS for roughly 5 minutes and get a straight answer.

That's the end of the rant. I guess now I ask for advice? I'm going to call my Senator's office on Monday and express my extreme dissatisfaction with them, and then I want to call USCIS and find out exactly what happened to my wife's case. Do any of you have any better ideas? All I wanted to do was sit down with a case worker and see what they thought. I figured, since they do this sort of thing so often, they might have a good idea of what I should do. I now have 2 denied requests for expedition on my wife's case. I can't help but think someone in USCIS is going to look at my case and think I'm some kind of maniac.

Anyhow, thanks for reading.

[Dakine 26]

So after sending the privacy release form and dropping off some additional documentation at the Senator's office (again making sure to emphasize that someone call me prior to doing anything), I waited to receive a phone call. Instead, on August 6th, I received a letter from the Senator's office stating that they sent a letter on my behalf to USCIS. I called the case worker and asked him what had happened. He replied that he'd sent a letter to USCIS "for more information," and that we would hear back in 30-40 business days. I told him I was worried because I did not want to do anything to jeopardize my wife's petition, and he assured me everything would be fine.

Sounds like your senators immigration specialist doesn't have the good USCIS contacts. Mine has contacts and calls and gets results almost immediately.

Try your congressman. Maybe he'll have better contacts!

[spectheintro 18]

So after sending the privacy release form and dropping off some additional documentation at the Senator's office (again making sure to emphasize that someone call me prior to doing anything), I waited to receive a phone call. Instead, on August 6th, I received a letter from the Senator's office stating that they sent a letter on my behalf to USCIS. I called the case worker and asked him what had happened. He replied that he'd sent a letter to USCIS "for more information," and that we would hear back in 30-40 business days. I told him I was worried because I did not want to do anything to jeopardize my wife's petition, and he assured me everything would be fine.

Sounds like your senators immigration specialist doesn't have the good USCIS contacts. Mine has contacts and calls and gets results almost immediately.

Try your congressman. Maybe he'll have better contacts!

Honestly part of me is terrified to do anything else for fear that they'll bungle it up even more. Do you have any experience with USCIS and this sort of thing? Am I just pissing them off at this point?

[Dakine 26]

So after sending the privacy release form and dropping off some additional documentation at the Senator's office (again making sure to emphasize that someone call me prior to doing anything), I waited to receive a phone call. Instead, on August 6th, I received a letter from the Senator's office stating that they sent a letter on my behalf to USCIS. I called the case worker and asked him what had happened. He replied that he'd sent a letter to USCIS "for more information," and that we would hear back in 30-40 business days. I told him I was worried because I did not want to do anything to jeopardize my wife's petition, and he assured me everything would be fine.

Sounds like your senators immigration specialist doesn't have the good USCIS contacts. Mine has contacts and calls and gets results almost immediately.

Try your congressman. Maybe he'll have better contacts!

Honestly part of me is terrified to do anything else for fear that they'll bungle it up even more. Do you have any experience with USCIS and this sort of thing? Am I just pissing them off at this point?

I used my senator 2 different times. Not to expedite tho. Just to correct USCIS's fook ups. My senators office didn't ask for privacy BS. She got on the phone and called her USCIS contacts and got back to me in a 1/2 hour.

Edited August 29, 2009 by Haole

[amykathleen2005 441]

So, with this new development, I decided to contact my Senator's office. On my privacy release form I explained everything above, and then EXPLICITLY STATED that I wanted no action taken on my case until I had a chance to speak with them directly. The reason for this is that I had no idea if my situation mattered to USCIS--and if it did not, if this sort of thing was not grounds for expedition or special consideration, then I didn't want to apply for expedition again only to be denied. To put it bluntly, I didn't want to piss someone off and complicate my wife's I-130 processing.

So after sending the privacy release form and dropping off some additional documentation at the Senator's office (again making sure to emphasize that someone call me prior to doing anything), I waited to receive a phone call. Instead, on August 6th, I received a letter from the Senator's office stating that they sent a letter on my behalf to USCIS. I called the case worker and asked him what had happened. He replied that he'd sent a letter to USCIS "for more information," and that we would hear back in 30-40 business days. I told him I was worried because I did not want to do anything to jeopardize my wife's petition, and he assured me everything would be fine.

Today I received a letter from USCIS stating that my request for expedition had been "carefully reviewed" and summarily denied. Imagine my delight.

So, it's Saturday, and I can't call anyone. But I'm really not sure what to do. First and foremost, I am terrified that I'm pissing USCIS off and they're going to drag out my wife's petition as a result. Second, I'm furious with the Senator's office for doing exactly what I told them NOT to do. And finally, I'm frustrated with USCIS because there is absolutely no guidance on what DOES qualify for expedition, or how to assemble a compelling case for it, unless you're a service member. "Extreme emergent or humanitarian situation" has no qualifiers or examples, or guidelines on what to do when applying. I didn't think I qualified for expedition in the first case, which is why I went to my Senator's office, because I assumed the case worker there could speak with someone at USCIS for roughly 5 minutes and get a straight answer.

That's the end of the rant. I guess now I ask for advice? I'm going to call my Senator's office on Monday and express my extreme dissatisfaction with them, and then I want to call USCIS and find out exactly what happened to my wife's case. Do any of you have any better ideas? All I wanted to do was sit down with a case worker and see what they thought. I figured, since they do this sort of thing so often, they might have a good idea of what I should do. I now have 2 denied requests for expedition on my wife's case. I can't help but think someone in USCIS is going to look at my case and think I'm some kind of maniac.

Anyhow, thanks for reading.

This is terrible that the USCIS process is so unaccountable that people can feel that they may jeopardize their case by asking necessary questions.

Edited August 29, 2009 by amykathleen2005

[M_n_M 1]

Regardless of whether you're actually exempt from the military service or not in Iran, if you are a citizen of another country, (even if you also have an Iranian passport) and male, you are allowed I believe one entrance per year with a stay of up to 3 or 6 months (don't quote me on the months) in Iran, without any issues. And with the exemption, you are allowed exemption if you are your fathers only son and he's over 60, but I don't believe its free exemption... bayad bekhari. You're allowed to buy yourself out of service was my understanding under such circumstances. There was a period of time in which everyone could buy themselves out of service, but now it's only under certain conditions. But regardless, I believe you're still good to go to Iran as long as you have a stamp in your Iranian passport (mohre khorooj) which is given to all those with dual citizenship. So ask them about that, and check your passport and you should be fine. Also, did you try and get this done in Iran or through the embassy here? Because you are a US citizen, the best thing to do is work out all the stuff here, not in Iran...you can find the forms and guidelines for all this stuff on their website, www.daftar.org.

About your wife's case. I noticed that you received your NOA1 back in June, I waited about 3 months before my case was approved, you're almost there, so don't worry about anything! You should get an approval soon! In the time remaining the best thing to do is gather all the info you'll need for the NVC stage (see VJ wiki guides) so that you'll fly through NVC. Processing times for the whole visa thing now is 5 months total! Back when I applied it was 6 months. Look at the bright side of things, your case is still in the right place within the right time limit. Fill out the I864, the DS230, gather the proofs you'll need--you'll need to get some documents from your wife, some signed by your wife... so if you want things to go faster, best thing to do is gather those items. Good luck with everything, and stay strong, you're close.

Good luck!

~M

Edited August 29, 2009 by M_n_M

[canadian_wife 1,822]

WOW - Ok let's focus on the positives. There are so many people here on VJ that get nothing from their representatives. They hardly get a phone call back let alone having them actually DO something. So I know they didn't do what you asked them to but I really think they were doing something that THEY thought was positive. They didn't do it to hurt you or mess up your case, you asked them to help and they did what they thought was helping.

You just got your NOA-1 in June. I waited 178 days for my NOA-2. Good news is that they are adjudicating cases much quicker now. You really should be getting your NOA-2 soon and take MnM's advice, have all the NVC documents and evidence ready to send it in ASAP, it moves a lot quicker once the NOA-2 is in hand. And I promise you 2 things, USCIS does not care about your case. They are so swamped with cases, largely due to budget cuts, that they are doing their best (I honestly believe that). They will not delay your case out of spite. They probably reviewed your expedite request, denied it, and have moved on. I am really sorry that it was denied, but your wife seems safe so that is also good news. And I do not think you will ever get to a chance to talk to anyone other than the customer service rep who picks up the phone so calling to request to speak to a case worker to find out what they thought will just cause you more frustration. They denied it, you know what they thought.

There is an end to this daunting journey, I promise! Be patient and be prepared.

Good luck.

Edited August 29, 2009 by canadian_wife

[spectheintro 18]

You're allowed to buy yourself out of service was my understanding under such circumstances. There was a period of time in which everyone could buy themselves out of service, but now it's only under certain conditions. But regardless, I believe you're still good to go to Iran as long as you have a stamp in your Iranian passport (mohre khorooj) which is given to all those with dual citizenship. So ask them about that, and check your passport and you should be fine. Also, did you try and get this done in Iran or through the embassy here? Because you are a US citizen, the best thing to do is work out all the stuff here, not in Iran...you can find the forms and guidelines for all this stuff on their website, www.daftar.org.

MnM--

I did all of this in America. You are correct; I am supposed to be allowed one entrance per year, via my mohr-e-khoorooj. The problem is, once I applied for exemption, they denied it, and then told me that if I tried to enter again they would detain me. Now we're trying to find out if they meant this calendar year or ever, but they were very hostile towards my father-in-law. This is all after I went to daftar.org, went to the embassy, was assured MULTIPLE times that I was an open-and-shut case.

The money they are asking for is to purchase the sarbazi. But according to their law I am eligible for free exemption--and regardless of whether I am or not, like you noted, I should be allowed one entry per year. Vali faghad nagoftan "bayad bekhari." Be vakilam goftan: "farar karde; agar bargarde iran ma hatman migirimesh, ta sarbaziesh tamam mikone, ya mikharesh." So right now I honestly don't know if I can go back to Iran, period. I have a valid mohr-e-khoorooj, but frankly everyone in the government is giving me conflicting stories, and the embassy has been wrong about everything I've asked thus far, so I'm extremely hesitant to trust their advice.

[spectheintro 18]

And I promise you 2 things, USCIS does not care about your case. They are so swamped with cases, largely due to budget cuts, that they are doing their best (I honestly believe that). They will not delay your case out of spite. They probably reviewed your expedite request, denied it, and have moved on. I am really sorry that it was denied, but your wife seems safe so that is also good news.

I hope you're right. I really didn't want to even request the 2nd expedite.

And I do not think you will ever get to a chance to talk to anyone other than the customer service rep who picks up the phone so calling to request to speak to a case worker to find out what they thought will just cause you more frustration. They denied it, you know what they thought.

Sorry, this was unclear on my part. I meant Congressional case worker, not USCIS case worker. I figured I could speak to someone in the Senator's office to get their advice.

There is an end to this daunting journey, I promise! Be patient and be prepared.

Thanks. I don't mind the waiting so much as the constant confusion. It seems like at every turn something else goes wrong. I really just wanted to speak to someone in my Senator's office, maybe take 20 minutes of their time. Instead all of this happened.

[Old Dominion 26]

What state are you from? There isn't much point in following up with that senator's office. It'll just get contentious without result. Wait until USCIS acts on your petition, probably soon unless it is somehow messed up, too. If you can't afford an immigration attorney, the Catholic Charities in your area usually has access to a good one to help even if you are not Christian.

[misswhy 0]

Regardless of whether you're actually exempt from the military service or not in Iran, if you are a citizen of another country, (even if you also have an Iranian passport) and male, you are allowed I believe one entrance per year with a stay of up to 3 or 6 months (don't quote me on the months) in Iran, without any issues. And with the exemption, you are allowed exemption if you are your fathers only son and he's over 60, but I don't believe its free exemption... bayad bekhari. You're allowed to buy yourself out of service was my understanding under such circumstances. There was a period of time in which everyone could buy themselves out of service, but now it's only under certain conditions. But regardless, I believe you're still good to go to Iran as long as you have a stamp in your Iranian passport (mohre khorooj) which is given to all those with dual citizenship. So ask them about that, and check your passport and you should be fine. Also, did you try and get this done in Iran or through the embassy here? Because you are a US citizen, the best thing to do is work out all the stuff here, not in Iran...you can find the forms and guidelines for all this stuff on their website, www.daftar.org.

About your wife's case. I noticed that you received your NOA1 back in June, I waited about 3 months before my case was approved, you're almost there, so don't worry about anything! You should get an approval soon! In the time remaining the best thing to do is gather all the info you'll need for the NVC stage (see VJ wiki guides) so that you'll fly through NVC. Processing times for the whole visa thing now is 5 months total! Back when I applied it was 6 months. Look at the bright side of things, your case is still in the right place within the right time limit. Fill out the I864, the DS230, gather the proofs you'll need--you'll need to get some documents from your wife, some signed by your wife... so if you want things to go faster, best thing to do is gather those items. Good luck with everything, and stay strong, you're close.

Good luck!

~M

Is it really about 5 or 6 months in total for everything - assuming you don't delay in getting your documents in to them?

[misswhy 0]

So this is halfway a rant, and halfway a solicitation for advice. Here's my situation.

Back in June, right when I got back from Iran, I tried to get my wife's case expedited because of the situation there. It was very dangerous for a while. The request was immediately denied. (What a great way to start my visa journey, right?) But luckily the situation in Iran settled down, so I was no longer concerned for her safety.

During the month of July I took steps to apply for exemption from military service in Iran. (I was born in the US but am considered an Iranian citizen by the Islamic Republic.) According to their laws, I am exempt, being that I am my father's only son, a student, and he is over 60. The Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy assured me there would be no problem.

Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case. To make a long story short, I am now unsure if I can ever enter Iran again--they told me (and the person who had power of attorney for me) that if I tried to enter the country again I would be arrested, unless I paid them $5000. As you can imagine, this was very upsetting to me. I am attempting to sort that situation out, since the bulk of my family and all of my wife's family are in Iran.

So, with this new development, I decided to contact my Senator's office. On my privacy release form I explained everything above, and then EXPLICITLY STATED that I wanted no action taken on my case until I had a chance to speak with them directly. The reason for this is that I had no idea if my situation mattered to USCIS--and if it did not, if this sort of thing was not grounds for expedition or special consideration, then I didn't want to apply for expedition again only to be denied. To put it bluntly, I didn't want to piss someone off and complicate my wife's I-130 processing.

So after sending the privacy release form and dropping off some additional documentation at the Senator's office (again making sure to emphasize that someone call me prior to doing anything), I waited to receive a phone call. Instead, on August 6th, I received a letter from the Senator's office stating that they sent a letter on my behalf to USCIS. I called the case worker and asked him what had happened. He replied that he'd sent a letter to USCIS "for more information," and that we would hear back in 30-40 business days. I told him I was worried because I did not want to do anything to jeopardize my wife's petition, and he assured me everything would be fine.

Today I received a letter from USCIS stating that my request for expedition had been "carefully reviewed" and summarily denied. Imagine my delight.

So, it's Saturday, and I can't call anyone. But I'm really not sure what to do. First and foremost, I am terrified that I'm pissing USCIS off and they're going to drag out my wife's petition as a result. Second, I'm furious with the Senator's office for doing exactly what I told them NOT to do. And finally, I'm frustrated with USCIS because there is absolutely no guidance on what DOES qualify for expedition, or how to assemble a compelling case for it, unless you're a service member. "Extreme emergent or humanitarian situation" has no qualifiers or examples, or guidelines on what to do when applying. I didn't think I qualified for expedition in the first case, which is why I went to my Senator's office, because I assumed the case worker there could speak with someone at USCIS for roughly 5 minutes and get a straight answer.

That's the end of the rant. I guess now I ask for advice? I'm going to call my Senator's office on Monday and express my extreme dissatisfaction with them, and then I want to call USCIS and find out exactly what happened to my wife's case. Do any of you have any better ideas? All I wanted to do was sit down with a case worker and see what they thought. I figured, since they do this sort of thing so often, they might have a good idea of what I should do. I now have 2 denied requests for expedition on my wife's case. I can't help but think someone in USCIS is going to look at my case and think I'm some kind of maniac.

Anyhow, thanks for reading.

I don't think they will delay it if you piss them off, but I know someone who had a difficult time with this being very slow, and her congressman's office contacted them and it seemed to help.. I guess it brought attention to her file that had likely been backlogged or delayed for whatever reason, and it got brought back to the top of the pile I assume..good luck with everything.

[Shad and Dani 3]

Here is the " If I were you" reply

If I were you I would just sit back and wait. Don't worry about the USCIS, they absolutely don't care if you've been denied expedition twice, or if you call them everyday, or if you tell them your sob story a thousand times. Everything is black and white with these people. Whatever you do, don't piss off the rep at your Senator's office! They can be your only ally if your approval time goes past 6 months I wish you good luck and a fast process!

[M_n_M 1]

Well first off, I would make sure to contact the daftar again and clarify what they meant. Legally, if you enter and exit once per year, with your mohre khorooj (unless it allows multiple entrances and exits) you should be fine to go again next calendar year. (and I believe it works off of the iranian calendar year, but make sure on that). Because you're a citizen here, they can't detain you, unless you really did run away from service (meaning you came to this country via panahandegi or something) or if you violated the mohre khorooj concept and went to iran more than once per calendar year. Hala regardless, you should call daftar, tell them your situation, and see if you could apply for exemption with them, without having to pay for it. If not, the safest route would be to buy it (although I know how one would be reluctant to dish over 5000 to a bunch of...astaghforollah...) Paperwork and edari stuff in Iran is RIDICULOUS to say the least. I do know a couple people that work at the daftar--I guess I could provide you their names, I don't know how much that would help though.

Did the letter they send you stating that you shouldn't come back, does it recognize you as a iraniye moghime kharej az keshvar or not?

Good luck!

~m