Interesting

[AndyMisiu 0]

At some point during one of my internet information hunts, I found this. I don't remember where I got this information from but whatever! I cut and pasted it to a word document. I think it may be old and might not offer much, they still refer to USCIS as INS, but it's interesting. It kind of helped me to understand why the process takes so long. I don't know how accurate it is, so don't hang me for presenting it. I don't even think I have all of it copied, whatever! read it if you want. Here ya go:

THE PROCESS AT INS

· Mail Room: Your Petition will arrive at the INS Service Center's mail room with hundreds of other Petitions.

· Intake: Your Petition will be taken to an Intake Clerk from the Mail Room. This Clerk will look it over for all of the proper forms. They will not examine any paperwork, but simply take the form checklist (that they have memorized by now). For example, the checklist will say "(1) Form I-129F, yes here; (2) G-325A's, yes here, (1) Birth Certificate, yes here, etc." Your Petition could sit on the Intake Clerk's desk for days, especially if the INS Service Center is busy.

· Processing: Your Petition will be sent on to the Processor from the Intake Clerk. This person assigns your case to a specific Examiner.

· Examination: Your Petition will be sent on to the Examiner from the Processor. This is the actual person that inspects your Petition to verify that your relationship is valid, that you are an American Citizen and so on.

· Central Processing: Once approved, your Petition moves to Central Processing, where a Divisional Director separates your Petition by region, Asian, Central America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, etc. This task is only for categorizing your Petition.

· Outtake: After being classified by region, your Petition is sent to an Outtake Clerk. The Outtake Clerk assigns your Petition an "A number" depending on your region.

· Distribution: After being assigned a reference number, the "A number", a Distribution Clerk will carry out any special acts, such as cabling the Embassy. The acts are a result of notes made by the Examiner, not you by you.

· Information: If you call INS, you will speak to an Information Officer. This is a glorified term for "INS Secretary." The only access they have is the INS Service Center's computer network, which will not tell you anything more about your Petition's status than you hear on the INS telephone voice message. They do not interface with Examiners, who are much too busy examining than to cater to specific requests.

EXPLANATIONS

· Non-sequential examinations: Approval is happening to other K-1 applicants who submitted their Petition after I did (according to the I-797 notice date). At the INS Service Center, various Petitions are randomly pulled from the files to train new Examiners. Most likely, an experienced Examiner grabbed a Petition out of the stack to train a new recruit right there at his/her desk. They then subsequently approved the Petition (lucky Petitioner!). The Petition the Examiner grabbed may have been anywhere and hence explaining why it was "out of order" or why the approval date is earlier than other Petitions with earlier I-797 notice dates. This is happening everyday, Examiners are training new recruits everyday. If your Petition was approved in a very quick timeframe, say within 10 days, it was most likely pulled for training purposes.

· Request for more information: There are no rules here, just based off of the Examiner's judgement. If the Examiner requests additional information, it will delay your Petition from about 1 week to as long as 1 month, typically. Your Petition will most likely be sent to the "back of the line." Possible reasons for a request for more information include:

o Your fiance(e)'s last name matches another last name of a Beneficiary from a previously fraudulent marriage. Supposedly, INS holds a list containing the names of previously fraudulent K-1 marriages.

o You or your fiance(e) did not sign the I-129F or G-325A form

· Examination is 15 minutes: The actual examination process typically takes 15 minutes, that's it. On to another Petition.

· Priority given to most paperwork: If an influx of non-I-129F paperwork arrives at the INS Service Center, your K-1 Petition could be sitting for a very long time, until the backlog of other paperwork is examined.

· K-1 decision legally set at 30 days: No, nothing legally binds the INS Service Center to process your K-1 case within 30-days. Unfortunately, the goal of within 30 day processing is stated in most of the INS Service Center guides, but may not necessarily be followed.

· G-325A carbon copies: The duplicate G-325A carbon copies are not used anymore, the INS Service Center actually will throw these away. Your whole Petition will eventually be filed electronically, once the Outtake Clerk assigns it an "A number." Still, you should definitely submit your Petition with the carbon copies, but no need to worry if not every carbon copy is legible.

· NSC: The Nebraska Service Center typically processes as much paperwork than all three other INS Service Centers combined. This may help to explain longer waiting times.

· File cabinets: Petition paperwork is held in file cabinets before the Intake Clerk pulls it for examination.

Edited August 10, 2006 by AndyMisiu

[kitkat1 5]

"Examination is 15 minutes: The actual examination process typically takes 15 minutes, that's it. On to another Petition"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

1 = 15 minutes

4 = 1 hour

32 = 8 hour workday

What the #### are they doing over there?

that's all I want to know

[AndyMisiu 0]

Right!!!! it's everything else that takes so F*#king long!!

[sbgwolf1 0]

leaves me to wonder....137 days waiting on a 15 min process....can I send my adjunctor like $25 or something to stay over for 15 min and look at my file. Come on, four files = $100 and I am sure many of us would be willing to pay a lot more than that.....hell, I would pay a lot more than that and SAVE money because of calls, ect.

Edited August 10, 2006 by sbgwolf1

[andy_k1 0]

Andy: Good information. Thanks.

[William33 110]

Evidently not doing too much.

Maybe they are all in training this week??

"Examination is 15 minutes: The actual examination process typically takes 15 minutes, that's it. On to another Petition"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

1 = 15 minutes

4 = 1 hour

32 = 8 hour workday

What the #### are they doing over there?

that's all I want to know

[andy_k1 0]

Yes, they are in training for how to make coffee.

[AndyMisiu 0]

Maybe there all touching each other , because they haven't touched anyone on VJ, except for one or two!!

[sbgwolf1 0]

Yes, they are in training for how to make coffee.

Maybe they are looking to an english comp class. Learning to write clear, precise, responses to cases....Oh, I must be daydreaming again.

Edited August 10, 2006 by sbgwolf1

[kitkat1 5]

Yes, they are in training for how to make coffee.

Maybe they are looking to an english comp class. Learning to write clear, precise, responses to cases....Oh, I must be daydreaming again.

More likely they are attending basket weaving classes - english comp is a bit too much for them I think.

[Ladylethal 12]

I think it has much to do with the fact there´s thousand of us, plus other immigration petitions, plus employment visa petitions, plus citizenship petitions, etc.

[sbgwolf1 0]

I think it has much to do with the fact there´s thousand of us, plus other immigration petitions, plus employment visa petitions, plus citizenship petitions, etc.

Hey there...dont give us real logic. It dont work. We all have to assume they at the CSC are there snickering saying 'I go home to my wife, but how long can I make this petitioner wait for his'.....someone else on the other side of the room has his feet up on his desk saying 'the over/under of how long you can keep that on your desk is 5 months'.

[Spartacus 0]

What you have are a bunch of affirmative action hires, who cannot be fired except for gross incompetence or criminal behavior on the job (crack convictions on their own time is ok, they get a LOA, I know, folks at the IRS in Ogden don't get fired for felony drug convictions). You also have these offices run by folks who think CYA is Job 1, 2, 3, and 4. They report to a career feminist who wonders why anyone would want to marry a foreigner anyway. Besides, they are too busy granting visas to Saudi men, and to Mexicans that they can hire to maintain their yards.

The result is typical govt incompetence.

[BJZags 17]

The typical government "incompetence" comes from the mechanism that exists, not so much in those who work these jobs. The easiest example of the mechanism slowing things down is the fact that once the I-129F is approved at the service center, it has to be mailed to the NVC who's only job evidently is to read what embassy gets it and mail it out again. Why the service center can't read that my petition needs to be in Manila, I will never understand.

[mrsushi66 0]

If I could pay $500-$1000 and have a decision within a week I would do it and I am willing to bet there are enough of us that would be willing to do that the government could fund a small section to process things much more quickly. As long as there were a money back garuntee if they did not keep up their end of the bargin.

My only problem is that history has proven that the government tends to screw up a process no matter how poorly or well it is funded.

Paul/Anna