December 2009 Filers - CSC!

[Martyshk 137]

For everyone waiting to know if your case has shipped from NVC to Consulate these instructions work:

1. Go to: http://track.dhl-usa...?nav=TrackByRef

2. In Reference, enter the info as follows:

EXP DD MMM YYYYA

EXP is constant

DD is the date before the day the NVC said they shipped the case.

MMM is the three letters representing the month the NVC shipped the case

YYYY is the year the NVC shipped the case

A is constant

For example, if the NVC says they shipped the case on February 12 2009, this would be entered as "EXP 11 FEB 2009A"

3. Date range for shipment - From: Enter the date of the day NVC said they sent the case

4. Date range for shipment - To: Enter todays date

5. Keep the rest of the fields blank

7. Once you enter the info, press "Track"

8. After a while you will see a list of all of the packages that left the NVC today. You need to search for the specific consulate.

9. When you find the shipment the corresponds to your consulate, you will see the tracking number that you can record.

10. You can then track the shipment from the NVC to your specific Consulate

Remember the spaces in the reference because I tried without and it doesn't work. You might have to trawl through the pages to find your shipment but it's worth it for the peace of mind

This needs to be stickied, I swear

[TerriandEric 4]

This needs to be stickied, I swear

I totally agree Mapt an awesome tool. It looks like I found my package...fingers crossed.

[Y&E 12]

I think I'm all ready to go for the medical now. The doctors' surgery gave my Mum my vaccination records and I feel like such a dumby. I totally forgot about getting a tetanus booster in 2005 but I remembered my Hep B in 1990 and MMR in 1993. I must be beginning to suffer short-term memory loss already! So now I'm all boosted up with Tetanus having gone and got another one in Feb! Medical Exam is on 19th of April!

[TerriandEric 4]

Sydney Consulate received my package today.....bring on packet 3!! :dance: :thumbs:

[Casper&Diana 0]

:)As promised, I contacted my US Congressman's office here in the 2nd District of Oregon and asked what they could do re. my I-129f filing and at least find out what the status is (and possibly, why have the December filings apparently stalled). The woman I spoke with was friendly and said that she would send an inquiry to the USCIS with my case (receipt) number on it but not to get my hopes up as the USCIS often takes 30 DAYS(!) to respond even to a congressional enquiry. I’ll let you know how it goes but hopefully we’ll all have received our NOA 2 before then!

A couple things she did mention that I would be interesting to pass along:

1. She thought cases were handled in the order they were received. Uh, clearly not! I also mentioned that (at least in the sample set of VisaJourney) more January filers have received their NOA 2 than December filers.

2. She cautioned me and my fiancée to be over-prepared for the interview in the embassy. That’s probably old news for you pros but she said the calls the Congressman most often gets for visa help are after a failed interview. She said that once you fail it is harder to get approved. Expect detailed questions of the sort, What are the names of your fiancé’s children? What is his work? His birthday? And the like.

(My favorite story somewhere here in VJ is of the man who accompanied his fiancée to the interview wearing a sweater she had knitted for him. The interviewer asked the fiancée if she had in fact knitted the sweater and she said yes. She was approved on the spot with no further questions! I told that story to my fiancée and she said years ago she made a scarf but it didn’t turn out too well. I guess we’ll have to use photos and documents for our proof of relationship!

[Martyshk 137]

2. She cautioned me and my fiancée to be over-prepared for the interview in the embassy. That's probably old news for you pros but she said the calls the Congressman most often gets for visa help are after a failed interview. She said that once you fail it is harder to get approved. Expect detailed questions of the sort, What are the names of your fiancé's children? What is his work? His birthday? And the like.

(My favorite story somewhere here in VJ is of the man who accompanied his fiancée to the interview wearing a sweater she had knitted for him. The interviewer asked the fiancée if she had in fact knitted the sweater and she said yes. She was approved on the spot with no further questions! I told that story to my fiancée and she said years ago she made a scarf but it didn't turn out too well. I guess we'll have to use photos and documents for our proof of relationship!

Don't worry about Kiev too much. But yes, your fiancee should know every little detail about you.

Kiev seems to be easy if your paperwork is in order and you got nothing to hide. If it's an easy case, couple of general/specific questions will suffice there usually.

Check out RUB board and Kiev review (as you have already)

[MeggyMo 4]

:)As promised, I contacted my US Congressman's office here in the 2nd District of Oregon and asked what they could do re. my I-129f filing and at least find out what the status is (and possibly, why have the December filings apparently stalled). The woman I spoke with was friendly and said that she would send an inquiry to the USCIS with my case (receipt) number on it but not to get my hopes up as the USCIS often takes 30 DAYS(!) to respond even to a congressional enquiry. I’ll let you know how it goes but hopefully we’ll all have received our NOA 2 before then!

A couple things she did mention that I would be interesting to pass along:

1. She thought cases were handled in the order they were received. Uh, clearly not! I also mentioned that (at least in the sample set of VisaJourney) more January filers have received their NOA 2 than December filers.

2. She cautioned me and my fiancée to be over-prepared for the interview in the embassy. That’s probably old news for you pros but she said the calls the Congressman most often gets for visa help are after a failed interview. She said that once you fail it is harder to get approved. Expect detailed questions of the sort, What are the names of your fiancé’s children? What is his work? His birthday? And the like.

(My favorite story somewhere here in VJ is of the man who accompanied his fiancée to the interview wearing a sweater she had knitted for him. The interviewer asked the fiancée if she had in fact knitted the sweater and she said yes. She was approved on the spot with no further questions! I told that story to my fiancée and she said years ago she made a scarf but it didn’t turn out too well. I guess we’ll have to use photos and documents for our proof of relationship!

I am glad you at least got a hold of someone and they are looking into it for you!

Still no word from my lawyer yet I am going to send her another email tomorrow.

Wow 30 days for a reply! Jeeze fingers crossed that we all don't have to wait another 30 days.

Yea I was under the impression it was first come first serve for petitions but yes as we have found out definitely not.

Well I guess allwe can do is keep hoping that our turn is going to be really soon.

At least when April 10th rolls around I will be not worried about hearing about the petition since Angelo will be coming for a visit!

A week without having my mind on the CSC sounds like a nice vacation

[esperanza Ecuador 0]

Ditto on the no touch no movement on our case too. I should hope it´s not California stalling, but maybe extra background checks on our three possible k2 kids. Who knows... Hoping every day to get that NOA2. It is both exciting and a bit exhausting to see others doing medicals and awaiting Packet 3. Anyway, within the next two weeks I´ll be buying tickets to head down in June. One can only assume that with this long of a review of our case, we will get an approval and no RFE nor rejection, and with all likelihood, we should be on schedule for a June interview while I will be there. cross your fingers anyway.

[BriCar 0]

I am glad you at least got a hold of someone and they are looking into it for you!

Still no word from my lawyer yet I am going to send her another email tomorrow.

Wow 30 days for a reply! Jeeze fingers crossed that we all don't have to wait another 30 days.

Yea I was under the impression it was first come first serve for petitions but yes as we have found out definitely not.

Well I guess allwe can do is keep hoping that our turn is going to be really soon.

At least when April 10th rolls around I will be not worried about hearing about the petition since Angelo will be coming for a visit!

A week without having my mind on the CSC sounds like a nice vacation

I also contacted my District 4 California congressman and faxed him written permission to have his federal program caseworker inquire into my visa petition. The USCIS caseworker manual instructs processing to be done in the order that they are recieved, obviously something is out of order.

The congressmans office said they can get some kind of reply back in 6 working days!?

Fire all your guns at once...

[MeggyMo 4]

I also contacted my District 4 California congressman and faxed him written permission to have his federal program caseworker inquire into my visa petition. The USCIS caseworker manual instructs processing to be done in the order that they are recieved, obviously something is out of order.

The congressmans office said they can get some kind of reply back in 6 working days!?

Fire all your guns at once...

And with that being said I am going to ask Angelo to get a hold of his congressman.

I am unsure about how much our lawyer can do for us at this point.

Might as well attempt the same thing.

[Casper&Diana 0]

Interestingly, my Congressman got a reply back from the USCIS (actually it's really the Dept. of Homeland Security, isn't it?) in less than 1 business day. The news, as quoted below was disappointing in a way that only members of this site would understand:

The processing of the above case has been delayed. A check of our

records establishes that the above case is not yet ready for a decision,

as the required investigation into your constituent's background remains

open. Until the background investigation is completed, we cannot move

forward on your case. These background checks are required to be

completed on all applicants who apply for the immigration benefit your

constituent are seeking. We will make every effort to make a decision

on this case as soon as the background checks are complete. If your

constituent does not receive a decision or other notice of action from

us within 90 days of this email, please feel free to contact us again.

Thank you and have a nice day.

I love the last line! As you can imagine a 90 day delay for no stated reason other than they haven't finished is very unsatisfying. I did ask the congressional aide for more information but at this point she has washed her hands until the 90 days are up. I am holding out hope that, on rereading 7 times, they are only saying they haven't finished yet and not that there is a problem. Since we are all technically still within the 5 months for the I-129f approval that the USCIS website quotes maybe the liaison contact was just politely saying, 'don't bug us at least until the 5 months are up.' Dunno.

Anybody else ever seen this kind of response before? And if so, how did it ultimately resolve? Any suggestions as to a different VJ forum where the text of the USCIS response might have been dealt with?

As to contacting all your resepective congressional offices, I think, why not! If you do get a reply I would be interested to know if it is identical to mine which would indicate a canned response. And maybe if a number of Congressman/Senators start asking the USCIS why the December filers have slowed and, BTW, aren't the cases supposed to be handled in the order received, then maybe we will all see some progress!

I hope.

~Casper

[MeggyMo 4]

Interestingly, my Congressman got a reply back from the USCIS (actually it's really the Dept. of Homeland Security, isn't it?) in less than 1 business day. The news, as quoted below was disappointing in a way that only members of this site would understand:

The processing of the above case has been delayed. A check of our

records establishes that the above case is not yet ready for a decision,

as the required investigation into your constituent's background remains

open. Until the background investigation is completed, we cannot move

forward on your case. These background checks are required to be

completed on all applicants who apply for the immigration benefit your

constituent are seeking. We will make every effort to make a decision

on this case as soon as the background checks are complete. If your

constituent does not receive a decision or other notice of action from

us within 90 days of this email, please feel free to contact us again.

Thank you and have a nice day.

I love the last line! As you can imagine a 90 day delay for no stated reason other than they haven't finished is very unsatisfying. I did ask the congressional aide for more information but at this point she has washed her hands until the 90 days are up. I am holding out hope that, on rereading 7 times, they are only saying they haven't finished yet and not that there is a problem. Since we are all technically still within the 5 months for the I-129f approval that the USCIS website quotes maybe the liaison contact was just politely saying, 'don't bug us at least until the 5 months are up.' Dunno.

Anybody else ever seen this kind of response before? And if so, how did it ultimately resolve? Any suggestions as to a different VJ forum where the text of the USCIS response might have been dealt with?

As to contacting all your resepective congressional offices, I think, why not! If you do get a reply I would be interested to know if it is identical to mine which would indicate a canned response. And maybe if a number of Congressman/Senators start asking the USCIS why the December filers have slowed and, BTW, aren't the cases supposed to be handled in the order received, then maybe we will all see some progress!

I hope.

~Casper

That response sounds like it has been emailed to many different people. It has no information and just leaves it still up in the air. Which like you said does nothing to help.

On the up side your theory on still being within the 5month time frame and just receiving the standard response does sound very reasonable.

I was sort of under the impression that once you got your congressman involved you would get a more detailed answer but apparently I was mistaken

Well at least they gave you a date when you can contact them again..granted it is 90 days. Lets hope you hear the good news way before then!

Angelo is contacting his congressman tomorrow and I will for sure post the news as soon as they give it to us.

[ajoman84 0]

I am kind of growing impatient as well. It has been 89-90 days since my NOA1 date and I was/am definitely hoping to get a response by the end of this month.

Based on reading the time-lines and the fact that January people are getting approved before December, it is a little worrisome. Let's hope nothing is wrong.

[Casper&Diana 0]

That response sounds like it has been emailed to many different people. It has no information and just leaves it still up in the air. Which like you said does nothing to help.

On the up side your theory on still being within the 5month time frame and just receiving the standard response does sound very reasonable.

I was sort of under the impression that once you got your congressman involved you would get a more detailed answer but apparently I was mistaken

Well at least they gave you a date when you can contact them again..granted it is 90 days. Lets hope you hear the good news way before then!

Angelo is contacting his congressman tomorrow and I will for sure post the news as soon as they give it to us.

Yes, definitely curious to see what Angelo's Congressman finds out. Believe me, I'll be in touch with the USCIS again long before the 90 days are up. Even if I learn something new from others, I'll call the USCIS promptly on the 5 months date!

~Casper

P.S. Thought I'd add an avatar photo of Diana and me heading out to SCUBA dive last November in Puerto Vallarta, MX so you have an idea of who's writing.

[MeggyMo 4]

Yes, definitely curious to see what Angelo's Congressman finds out. Believe me, I'll be in touch with the USCIS again long before the 90 days are up. Even if I learn something new from others, I'll call the USCIS promptly on the 5 months date!

~Casper

P.S. Thought I'd add an avatar photo of Diana and me heading out to SCUBA dive last November in Puerto Vallarta, MX so you have an idea of who's writing.

He just spoke to Joy ( the lady who handles dealing with the USCIS) and she is getting a hold of the CSC for us today. She said we would hear something back in the next couple of days and that it would be a generic response. But she said she wasn't going to stop after she received the response so I am happy she is up for a challenge!

Oh of course yes. When the five month date hits I will be sure to also call.

Hopefully we both don't have to wait that long!!

Oh that is a great picture! Love Mexico never been scuba diving though kind have a fear of the ocean..well mainly things in the ocean...ok I am terrified of sharks lol