California Service Center To Texas Service Center

[RichiJenny 14]

I am mate yes, nice early hours trip down to Heathrow!! Got a morning flight and managed to check in online so got a window/exit seat so will have plenty of leg room!! Didnt realise rules had changed and its only 1 free check in bag per person now. As Im taking 2, its cost me 32 quid!

[Val and Gary 29]

I am mate yes, nice early hours trip down to Heathrow!! Got a morning flight and managed to check in online so got a window/exit seat so will have plenty of leg room!! Didnt realise rules had changed and its only 1 free check in bag per person now. As Im taking 2, its cost me 32 quid!

Yep, rules changes around November last year I think. RIP OFF!

Anyhow, best of luck - looking forward to that day I board Virgin Atlantic from Manchester to Orlando. We're well on top of the I-601 now, with two, level ones, and around three, level two reasons for hardship.

Question for you: All the letters we get from doctors and citizens - I assume they need to be notarised? Or would that just be for letters from individuals?

All we really need is to get out of TSC.

Have a good flight, and good luck and best wishes to ya!

Edited January 17, 2011 by Val and Gary

[RichiJenny 14]

Cheers mate!

No, nothing needs to be notarized, not as far as Im aware. I had affidavitts of support in my waiver packet - probably about 5 or 6 of them. ALL were printed off my end, some were not signed either, just name address, statement etc. they went through fine.

Although the 10yr bar is slightly more enforced than the 3 - (from what ive been told) it seems you're well on top of it. I would advise getting your HSL critiqued on i2us. That helped me massively - re the waiver i2us saved my bacon big time.

2 level ones and some level two's is an excellent position to be in (as far as filing a waiver goes anyway lol)

[CaliforniaGuy 2]

Although I haven't posted for a while now, I have been reading all the posts everyday and am trying not to build up anger. Wouldn't it be nice to gather a thousand people and rally on the doorsteps of TSC to get our voices heard? I'm just dreaming nevermind My 5 month mark ends tomorrow so a letter goes out to my senator tomorrow. I will request for an expedite for an emerging reason most likely won't be accepted. I am guessing most of the letters and e-mails don't do much. If you are one of the lucky ones than your case will be found and put on the top of the pile. One thing I don't get is that how hard is it to run background checks? USCIS is a government agency. Shouldn't they have all the info at their fingertips instead of waiting for background checks from several different places??? Just put all the info infront of the adjudicator so that he or she can do the work quickly and go on to the next file. I would love to get an inside tour of TSC. Might be one of te funniest tours ever

[Val and Gary 29]

Although I haven't posted for a while now, I have been reading all the posts everyday and am trying not to build up anger. Wouldn't it be nice to gather a thousand people and rally on the doorsteps of TSC to get our voices heard? I'm just dreaming nevermind My 5 month mark ends tomorrow so a letter goes out to my senator tomorrow. I will request for an expedite for an emerging reason most likely won't be accepted. I am guessing most of the letters and e-mails don't do much. If you are one of the lucky ones than your case will be found and put on the top of the pile. One thing I don't get is that how hard is it to run background checks? USCIS is a government agency. Shouldn't they have all the info at their fingertips instead of waiting for background checks from several different places??? Just put all the info infront of the adjudicator so that he or she can do the work quickly and go on to the next file. I would love to get an inside tour of TSC. Might be one of te funniest tours ever

I would just LOVE to know what exactly these background checks are. I mean the beneficiary has to provide a police report, so what exactly ARE these checks, and why does it take so long?

Edited January 17, 2011 by Val and Gary

[Norwood 6]

It would be my luck to have my background check slow me down. My last name is in Top 10 most common US surnames. And worse, I worked for the US Govt for 13 years. I bought a gun once while employed with the feds and the guy at the shop told me the background check takes longer for federal employees!

[Val and Gary 29]

It would be my luck to have my background check slow me down. My last name is in Top 10 most common US surnames. And worse, I worked for the US Govt for 13 years. I bought a gun once while employed with the feds and the guy at the shop told me the background check takes longer for federal employees!

It would be a good time to be called Higginbottom....

[nab 74]

It would be a good time to be called Higginbottom....

we're at both ends of the spectrum... his is very common there (not a good thing in a city of like 20 million!!) and mine is so rare when i did a search on one of those sitesthey say they search the entire usa it says i am only one with my name

[nab 74]

I would just LOVE to know what exactly these background checks are. I mean the beneficiary has to provide a police report, so what exactly ARE these checks, and why does it take so long?

at this stage i thought it was petitioner background check, and i have all mine done and those come back in less than a day... local, state, federal... so not sure what more they do.

[DanTes 21]

From what I understand, background checks at this stage are for the petitioner. Background checks do not normally take more than a couple of weeks. I recently had to have a TSA background check for my job, and that only took two weeks from start to finish. In the meantime,TSC is doing a background check on my I-130 petition. TSA is an agency within DHS as is USCIS. The simple fact is that TSA mishandled our petitions. We will probably never know by whom or why this happened. I saw that GNASHER finally received their NVC case number, so hope is still alive that we will see some movement starting tomorrow. It has been 55 days today since my petition was APPROVED by TSC on 11/23/2010. 174 days from my NOA1.

[Val and Gary 29]

From what I understand, background checks at this stage are for the petitioner. Background checks do not normally take more than a couple of weeks. I recently had to have a TSA background check for my job, and that only took two weeks from start to finish. In the meantime,TSC is doing a background check on my I-130 petition. TSA is an agency within DHS as is USCIS. The simple fact is that TSA mishandled our petitions. We will probably never know by whom or why this happened. I saw that GNASHER finally received their NVC case number, so hope is still alive that we will see some movement starting tomorrow. It has been 55 days today since my petition was APPROVED by TSC on 11/23/2010. 174 days from my NOA1.

I've said before DanTes, I think yours and others in that position, have had it worse than the rest of us. I'd be tearing my hair out totally!

With regard to background checks, if they only take two weeks, then I am happy, because on December 28th we were told that they were just waiting for the background checks to come through.....I'm getting optimistic for ALL of us!!

[Val and Gary 29]

we're at both ends of the spectrum... his is very common there (not a good thing in a city of like 20 million!!) and mine is so rare when i did a search on one of those sitesthey say they search the entire usa it says i am only one with my name

Just checked my wife's name and there are only 30 of her, so not too bad I'd say!

[DanTes 21]

It is getting harder and harder with each day that passes. I knew the process would be lengthy at best, but when you factor in the incompetence of USCIS, the process becomes almost unbearable. In my above post I meant to say TSC mishandled our cases; not TSA. Too many abbreviations to keep straight. Even my wife in the Philippines is starting to ask why this is taking so long, and she has the patience of JOB (from the Bible). I know that when we all are finally re-united with our families here in the States, most will probably forget this nightmare, but I feel we should never forget how we have been treated. I don't know how, but I will eventually find someone with clout who will listen, and shine a light on the unresponsive, uncooperative and downright arrogant way the civil servants at USCIS are (not) performing their jobs. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, if I had performed my duties in the U.S. Navy in the manner in which TSC has performed theirs, I would have been discharged for "Dereliction of Duty" instead of retiring honorably after 23 years of service.

[SqdnGuns 21]

Regarding background checks, when I got my Top Secret (retired Jarhead), I had it in 3 months..................just saying.

[Val and Gary 29]

It is getting harder and harder with each day that passes. I knew the process would be lengthy at best, but when you factor in the incompetence of USCIS, the process becomes almost unbearable. In my above post I meant to say TSC mishandled our cases; not TSA. Too many abbreviations to keep straight. Even my wife in the Philippines is starting to ask why this is taking so long, and she has the patience of JOB (from the Bible). I know that when we all are finally re-united with our families here in the States, most will probably forget this nightmare, but I feel we should never forget how we have been treated. I don't know how, but I will eventually find someone with clout who will listen, and shine a light on the unresponsive, uncooperative and downright arrogant way the civil servants at USCIS are (not) performing their jobs. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, if I had performed my duties in the U.S. Navy in the manner in which TSC has performed theirs, I would have been discharged for "Dereliction of Duty" instead of retiring honorably after 23 years of service.

Amen to that. And as I keep saying, this is not a FREE service they offer - we have actually paid good money for this incompetence. At any other consumer based outlet, there would be some recourse of action, but this is just pay the money, and we'll do as we like. Shameful really.