Waiting for I-601 Waivers in London US Embassy

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi everyone

I thought I would share some facts and figures with you calculated from my spreadsheet, USCIS give out a timescale of 15 Weeks or 105 days from start to finish.

USCIS at the London Embassy have completed an average of 1.3 Cases per week since I started collecting data back in October 2009 until today 12th April 2010.

40 cases go to under review in this timeframe with an average timescale from under review to complete in 22 days.

40 Cases go from Pending/Under review to Completed in this same timeframe which averages 52 days from start to finish.

Please note though that the above figures are averages for a rough rule of thumb guide, however some cases are a going to take a lot longer than others and once under review they can be completed anytime between 0 days & 114 Days.

I hope this helps some of you.

Regards

Andrew

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi Everybody

My wife Traci came across a very imformative PDF file whilst searching the web for more I-601 information.

This is the official PDF file from the USCIS sent out to Adjudication Officers in remote offices like the London US embassy

You can find this form here > I-601 Adjudication Officer Guide PDF

This handbook enables you to see exactly what they are looking out for as well as all the paperwork processes they have to follow, it is long but rather interesting and my guess would be that after reading this you would have a greater idea of what the adjudicator does his his/her time.

If it manages to help anyone then great, it will have been worthwhile posting.

Take care

Andrew

[Kathryn41 3,205]

A duplicate post of a post that has its own thread has been removed. It is not necessary to post the same information in more than one place.

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi Everyone

The USCIS has decided that we have been good and furnished us with an update today 19th April 2010

So the highlights of todays update is:

4 Cases added to the "Pending" pile making a total of 19 UK cases in total now !!

6 Cases added to the "Under Review" pile from the Pending pile, this brings the total UK based Under Review cases to a massive total of 11

1 Case was removed from the list, this may be completed but they failed to tell us or it was cancelled, anyway the case was Under Review and then disappeared

Well this was a mixed bag update, many people will have enjoyed being added and moved from Pending to Under Review at last, however there was NONE COMPLETED but as they now have so many Under Review they must start to complete some soon... hopefully by this Friday (23/04/2010) I hope, this is my prediction anyway.

As usual you can see these changes in my updated spreadsheet here > I-601 Status Update Spreadsheet 19th April 2010

Well done and congratulations to JustJ who was one of those cases that went from Pending to Under Review

Well my Website monitoring software worked well, it enabled me to be the first to announce the update and work on the spreadsheet far earlier with my Wife Traci.

Wishing you all the best on the next update.

Take care all..

Andrew

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi everyone

My wife Traci came across this interesting article published by an Immigration Lawyer who used to work as as USCIS Adjudicator in the London US Embassy !!

He has an email address and link to his website in the article, he may be able to answer some of the burning question you may have, however I don't know how busy he is, but he is based in Brighton in the UK, If I had known this information before submitting my I-601, I would have engaged him for our case, as not only does he know all about I-601 cases being a former Adjudicator but he knows all about the process and the people who work in the I-601 section.

The document can be downloaded here > UK Based Lawer/USCIS Adjudicator Document

Take care

Andrew

Hi me again...

Sorry but my eagle eyed wife Traci also found this following information from the Rome US Embassy.

Not only do they show the results of the cases, which London does not, they also explain in more detail the meaning of "Pending" which is not what we thought the word Pending meant... we believed as do many others that the case has been received but then sat in a pile awaiting an officer from the USCIS to pick it up and work on it only then would it be considered as Under Review.. However from the Rome I-601 status info we can see quite clearly that Pending actually means that they are gathering all the documentation and working on the case, only after they have finished the checks and finalized gathering information and documents do you progress to Under Review, this is when the case is handed over to the Adjudicator to make the decision... I wish that London did the same thing as it would make people who are Pending less stressed as they think that their case is sitting in an in-box somewhere doing nothing for months.

This is an extract from the Rome US Embassy I-601 Status PDF:

Rome Waiver Status - December 2, 2009

Status definitions:

Pending - Case is awaiting documentation or completion of background checks prior to completion

Ready for Adjudication - Case is ready for review by an adjudications officer

Approved or Closed - Case has been completed and has been shipped to the respective embassy or consulate. Please contact the embassy or consulate where you filed the waiver for more information.

Denied - Please contact our office if you have not received your denial notice.

Immigrant Visa Number..........Status

ADD-2009AF00279782............DENIED

CSB-2004 757 002.................PENDING

CSB-2008 606 004.................READY FOR ADJUDICATION

CSB-2009 138 021.................DENIED

CSB-2009522011...................APPROVED

DMS2002822003....................PENDING

KIN-2005636001.....................DENIED

LSB-2005 822 003.................DENIED

LSB-2009 572 001.................DENIED

MDD-2008 347 025.................PENDING

MDD-2008 353 004.................DENIED

MDD-2009 084 024.................CLOSED

MDD-2009120001...................DENIED

MDD-2009575003...................CLOSED

NPL-2007 749 002.................APPROVED

NPL-2008 359 001.................CLOSED

NPL-2008 542 001.................PENDING

NPL-2008 682 001.................I-601 CLOSED, I-212 APPROVED

NPL-2008 760 002.................READY FOR ADJUDICATION

NPL-2008 797 002.................DENIED

NPL-2009 618 004.................READY FOR ADJUDICATION

NPL-2009541006...................DENIED

TNS-2008 846 001.................READY FOR ADJUDICATION

TNS-2008 859 001.................DENIED

TNS-2009 689 005.................READY FOR ADJUDICATION

Regards

Andrew

[Traci - Andrew 14]

I-601 UPDATED TODAY (FRIDAY 7TH MAY 2010)

I will update you all with the latest changes shortly.

Only one new addition to Pending, no other movements

Regards

Andrew

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi Guys

OK here is the latest after digesting the update today (Friday 7th May 2010)

USCIS have added 1 case to the "Pending" pile, this is case number LND2008 301 001

That is it... They have done absolutley nothing else, no more movement from Pending to Under Review or any cases to completed.. in fact they have only completed 2 cases over the last 36 days on the 21st April 2010.

Even with the Bank Holiday you would have thought that they could have completed some more of the 9 London cases that are still Under Review or even if they were waiting on paperwork or other information then why not bring forward some more Pending cases to work on in the meantime?

Well I have written to the USCIS Ombudsman but have not yet received any response to my email, they do have however now have access to my spreadsheet, which hopefully will open their eyes to the long periods of time that we are all having to wait whilst appantently USCIS sit on their backsides doing nothing.

Do I sound a bit negative or pissed off... yes I am.. I am sorry but we will have been waiting for 26 weeks for our case to go to completed when we were told 15-16 weeks, add the extra 2 years that we have also been going through the other K1/K3 processes and you can see why this delay is not welcome and gets us upset.

I am going to contact a lawyer that used to work for the USCIS adjudication dept in the London US Embassy to see if he can enlighten us as to why there are periods of time when nothing happens to any cases for months? also I will be asking him about the best way to get someone to investigate the slow service of these cases.

Anyway my rant is over for this week, I hope you all have a good one and will be in touch soon.

As always my updated spreadsheet can be found here > I-601 Update Spreadsheet 7th May 2010

Regards

Andrew

[Andrea G-C 0]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks so much for compiling and updating that spreadsheet. It provides exactly the sort of info that my husband & I have been craving but were (possibly) too lazy and (certainly) too inept at Excel programming to produce ourselves! Many mysteries remain re: USCIS and the whole I-601 process, but we now know the mean and variance of waiting times, thanks to you.

Here's hoping your long wait is soon over, and with a very happy outcome!

All best wishes,

Andrea

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks so much for compiling and updating that spreadsheet. It provides exactly the sort of info that my husband & I have been craving but were (possibly) too lazy and (certainly) too inept at Excel programming to produce ourselves! Many mysteries remain re: USCIS and the whole I-601 process, but we now know the mean and variance of waiting times, thanks to you.

Here's hoping your long wait is soon over, and with a very happy outcome!

All best wishes,

Andrea

Thanks Andrea

It is nice to be appreciated my wife (Traci ) and I feel good by helping other by our experiences that we have gained during our journey and my I.T skills for the spreadsheet and other statistical information.

I wish we could have found someone like us to have produced this as it gives a far clearer view from the outset what you are in for.

Thanks again for the comment and welcome.. I hope you post many more comments and become one of the VJ family.

Take Care

Andrew

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi Everyone

Just a quick hello from me to let you all know that I am still alive and waiting for my software application to tell me when the next USCIS update happens...

It has been 12 days so far since our last update (Friday May 7th), it looks like the USCIS may be falling back in to their bad old ways of updating us sometimes on a 2 weekly cycle, I hope I am wrong about this, but the lack of an update so far has indicated that they may only update us this Friday which will be 14 days since the last one.

Considering that the last update on the 7th May only added one new case, and the one previous to that on the 30th April only added 2 new cases, this would indicate that they should have a Sh!t load of movements and completions to post on this next update.. after all they have only completed 2 cases over the last 50 days !!!

So no completions since the 22nd April which by Friday will be one month with NO completed cases? what the hell are they doing?

My poor wife is getting rather tired of this whole process now, as you can see by her last post.. So to try and cheer her up I explained that this waiver process is like traveling in a car and needing to go to the toilet, whilst you know you have a long way to go you can put up with the discomfort and manage to hold it in, but the closer you get to the end of your journey the body realizes this and you suffer pain and may lose control at the last few moments because your brain knows you are within minutes of a toilet.. This is similar to the whole Waiver process, whilst you know that you have weeks or months ahead of you, you can cope with the stress of waiting, but as soon as you pass what is considered the normal timescale, your body tells you it must be in the next update and each time you get disappointed you know you have to wait a week or two for the next update and surely you will be on this one...

I hate this process, I think that it can destroy the weaker relationships amongst us, lucky for me that my wife Traci is strong enough to get through this with my help, but I am sure that many other relationships fail after such a long wait, I do not know if it is what the USCIS hope for or not, but I am sure it does the USCIS some good when applicants fall apart and pull out as it will be another immigrant less in the USA. "So much for trying to reunite families"

I wish they knew how much this whole process impacted all our lives and the lives of our partners, children and relatives.. maybe then they would find a better way on dealing with these matters and offer faster processing or more information regarding the whole process with lots of updates along the way.

Anyway folks, I will let you know when the I-601 Status PDF gets updated, my software is checking every 5 minutes between the hours of 8am to 8pm every working day, this will then update me and Traci and I will update everyone on here with my usual stats and comments.

Well take care everyone and keep your chins up.. hopefully the USCIS will have to get around to completing all of our cases soon if not in this next update.. which I predict will be Friday 21st May.

Take Care

Andrew

[Traci - Andrew 14]

OK here are the highlights, details & stats of this USCIS I-601 update for 19th May 2010

NO COMPLETED CASES

1 x London case (LND2009 691 006) and 1 x Scandinavian case (STK2009 650 003) moved from Pending to Under Review

4 x London cases added to the Pending pile (LND2010 036 001 - LND2009 621 008 - LND2009 577 023 - LND2009 563 019)

1 x Scandinavian case Removed from the Pending pile (STK2009 640 003)

So this is a very disappointing update for everyone, except for the cases that were added and moved above

The details of all the changes have been recorded on the spreadsheet which you can download from here: > I-601 Status Spreadsheet 19th May 2010

Ok here are some stats for those of you who like to know how uncle Sam's USCIS are performing with your hard earned tax dollars...

Number of cases completed since October 2009 = 35

Number of cases on average completed per week = 1.2

Number of cases on average completed per month = 5

Number of days since last completed case = 27 days

Number of cases completed this last quarter (Last 3 months) = 10

The above figures show a slowdown of cases being completed, as the average over the last 7 months is 5 cases per month, however the average over the last 3 months has only been 3.33 cases per month, showing that they have slowed down the completion rate by 1.7 cases per month.

I noticed that we have our first 2010 case now showing up so I certainly hope that they will start to pickup speed again as this slowdown is very upsetting for all involved, yes there are people in AP and this is also very bad indeed, however if you look at some of the entire timescales that some people have been waiting, including their K1/K3/Waiver applications this is many years of waiting not just the average waiver time period.

We are all hurting both in the I-601 waiver and AP sections of this site, I do not think it is in anyones interest to compare waiting times or hardship, as every case is different and we never know all the facts behind each cases, we only know what people are prepared to disclose on VJ, I do not think anyone will want to say that their partner to be was a former junkie or rapist etc etc.. so I think we should just focus on our own cases, and moan to each other as needed... but the one we all have in common is that the good old USCIS and the US government are the ones to blame for keeping us apart from our loved ones.

Anyway sermon over... I hope everyone looks forward to the next update which may be Friday but is looking like the following Friday 28th May 2010.

Take care everyone

Andrew

[Andrea G-C 0]

Hi Andrew & Traci,

Thank you yet again for the update and summary, distressing though today's news is! All of your rants/sermons heartily seconded here!

All best,

Andrea & Billy

[Traci - Andrew 14]

Hi everybody...

I have emailed some questions to an Immigration Lawyer (Steven D. Heller) whom is based in Brighton in the UK, he is a US Citizen and has previously worked as an adjudicator for the USCIS at the London US Embassy. So this will be as close as we can get to an insiders view of what happens behind the scenes by someone who held an adjudicators position

These are the Questions I asked along with his responses:

1. Could you please explain the process behind the scenes for “Pending”, “Under Review” & “Completed”, i.e. what happens from the time the file is recorded on the waiver list until it is completed and what is carried out at what stage in the process?

A1. As you probably know, the processing of a 601 waiver application starts with the assembly and review of the application by the Immigrant Visa Unit in the Consular Section. This can take some time. The application is then presented to USCIS. Once it is received by USCIS, it is identified as "pending."

If there is an A-file associated with a case USCIS will request to file from the US. Generally, the application will not be adjudicated whilst the A-file request is pending.

Cases are not necessarily adjudicated in the order they are received because there may be cause for delay or cause to expedite (see below). Once a case is assigned to an adjudicator, it is listed as "under review." This can take some time as some cases may required legal or factual research or additional information from the applicant.

After a final decision is made it is identified as "completed."

2. How many adjudicators work in the US London Embassy and do they do all the work or do they have other staff working for them?

A2. Currently, there are two USCIS adjudicating officers (one of whom is also the office director). They handle everything themselves (no small task, really; when I worked there we had 4).

3. Why can there be several weeks without any cases completing and yet at other times lots of cases completing in a short period, why does this occur?

A3. As every case is different, the adjudication process can vary. Some cases are easier than others. Staffing obligations, such as performing military naturalisations, addressing other pending applications, liaison activities, or the well-earned holiday can affect processing times.

4. Is there anything an applicant can do to check on the status of their case other than call the £1.50 per/min line in Scotland?

A4. Not really. See 1.

5. Is there anything an applicant can do to try to escalate a timescale issue? And if so will it prejudice their case?

A5. As with other types of applications, cases can be expedited for good cause (e.g. Health reasons). When requesting an expedite, one should be able to document the cause for special handling. There is no prejudice for requesting an expedite, but if it were based on fraud, that would be a negative discretionary factor (see my article).

6. What is the normal I-601 waiver timescale for a case with a few minor and over 25 years old CIMT’s and a immigration fraud charge for not ticking the yes box on the Visa Waiver form for CIMT’s?

A6. There's really no baseline. A simple CIMT that occurred 25 years ago could be handled quite quickly. Once you need to establish extreme hardship, it really depends on the totality of the circumstance--and, most importantly, the hardship.

7. Are there any special dates or holidays when processing speeds up or slows down and why?

A7. Unofficially, I think there is always a desire to identify approvable cases for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

8. Is an average of 3.3 to 5 completed cases a month considered a good or bad average, and what should the average be? Is there any targets?

A8. I don't recall having any targets. Because of the unique nature of each case, and the various staff responsibilities (see 3) I think it is impossible to suggest an average.

9. Once a case is completed what reasons could there be for it to be put in to AP?

A9. AP?

10. What information does the adjudicator have to gather that takes all this time, considering that all original police records, court records and police certificate were handed over with the waiver documentation?

A10. See 1. It's really case-by-case. It could be for corroboration of a stated hardship (e.g. Availability of needed medical treatment; child custody order for previous marriage; financial information). Such delays can often be avoided if you have a decent US immigration lawyer working on your behalf. The key is the hardship to the US spouse.

I would like to backup what Steven said in his answer to question 10, If you are going to go through this waiver process, then this is probably one of the most important decisions that is life changing, therefore I would highly recommend a immigration lawyer to make sure everything is ticked, crossed and dotted in the right place otherwise it costs you time and maybe a relationship.

I can not personally recommend Steven Heller or his Immigration law practice as I have my own Lawyer based in the USA, however from first impressions Steven is someone whom communicates quickly, which is more than my lawyer does, I have to send several emails before I get an answer, he has also been a USCIS adjudicator at the London US Embassy, so whom better to represent you than someone whom knows how the USCIS adjudicators tick? anyway that is my opinion, and if you find yourself requiring a waiver then you could do a lot lot worse than use Steven Heller.. here is his details for contacting him about waivers or visa work, please do not abuse the email address for asking a whole lot of questions as his time is money and he will get fed up very quickly if everyone starts to bombard him with questions.

Steven D. Heller

US Immigration Lawyer in the UK

The Brighton Forum

95 Ditchling Road

Brighton BN1 4ST

Tel. 01273 409550

Fax. 01273 371063

Email. sheller@us-visa.co.uk

US-Visa Website

Anyway I hope the above helps answer some of your questions, these were the points that come to mind and I even tried an AP one just in case he knew.. but he did not have an answer for that.

Here is a link to the email that I sent: Questions Email

And here is the reply I received: Answers Email

Take Care

Andrew

[Traci - Andrew 14]

OK people... Here are the highlights, details & stats of this USCIS I-601 update for 26th May 2010

6 UK & Ireland COMPLETED CASES (5 cases from Under Review to Completed and 1 case from Pending direct to Completed) also 1 x Scandinavian case Completed,

The 6 x London cases are: (LND2009 624 005 / LND2009 549 015 / LND2009 529 043 / LND2009 605 022 / LND2009 779 011 / LND2009 633 007)

The 1 x Scandinavian case (STK2009 640 003)

1 x London case added to the "Under Review" pile (LND2008 843 014)

And 9.. yes 9 cases added to the Pending pile making it 35 UK & Ireland cases Pending and 5 Scandinavian cases Pending, which now totals a whopping 40 cases and only 2 people to deal with them all...

This was a very exciting update for the 16 people involved that were being added, moved or completed however it was a very disappointing update for most of us on the Visa Journey website as we were the non movers, in fact one of the oldest cases that had been waiting for 219 days was at last completed, this now makes our case the second oldest at 196 days with the number one spot at 220 days so far.

The details of all the changes have been recorded on the spreadsheet which you can download from here: > I-601 Status Spreadsheet 26th May 2010

Well I guess that is it for this week, I hope I am wrong and that they still try and update us one more time on Friday before the Bank Holiday.

Anyway congratulations to all those people that managed to get a completed status today and a big welcome to all the 9 new cases that were also added.

Take care

Andrew

[Summer75 16]

This is a very interesting thread. Is the first time I read it, but I will follow your process. This process is so stressful, and more if u have to apply a waiver. I´m surprised and glad u r usually on good attitude. Good luck to u both, I´m sure lots of people in your situation r learning more.

Hope u have good updates next week. :star: :star: