California Service Center To Texas Service Center

[belinda63 2,993]

Yes Guns, but immigration background checks are low priority. The petitioner background checks are a piece of cake compared to some of the beneficiary checks and I agree, no one in the government seems to care.

[Val and Gary 29]

Holiday is over USCIS, let's have some approvals.

NOT holding hope out today. Today is the equivalent of a Monday (first day back at work). Has any one ever been approved on a Monday?

[fermat 32]

Are you folks planning to follow any "NVC Shortcuts" or just take it as it comes? I'm not sure what I will do but I think I will at least follow the tips given here: EZGuideSpouse. I have not looked into detail on this page: James's Shortcuts. And another: LingChe NVC ShortCut

[J e n n y 26]

Are you folks planning to follow any "NVC Shortcuts" or just take it as it comes? I'm not sure what I will do but I think I will at least follow the tips given here: EZGuideSpouse. I have not looked into detail on this page: James's Shortcuts. And another: LingChe NVC ShortCut

Def, I was planning on following this one even though it's a few years old, but I think they're all pretty much the same. Which one would you suggest, fermat?

[Val and Gary 29]

Well, it will be six months for us soon, and TWO months on expedite. I know it's been longer for a lot of you guys out there. I am SO PRAYING we get some approvals this week. I mean, it cannot be that difficult for them can it?

SqdGns - I know you were expedited before us also - it's pretty unbelievable really how they can put us through this.

Edited January 18, 2011 by Val and Gary

[SqdnGuns 21]

Well, it will be six months for us soon, and TWO months on expedite. I know it's been longer for a lot of you guys out there. I am SO PRAYING we get some approvals this week. I mean, it cannot be that difficult for them can it?

SqdGuns - I know you were expedited before us also - it's pretty unbelievable really how they can put us through this.

What's funny is when I lived in Sweden and I had to get my equivilent of their Green Card it was a piece of cake. Go down to the immigration office, fill out some forms, pick up my passport the next day with the appropriate stamps. For Sweden it was a the equivalent of a 1 year conditional.

In the Philippines, it was not as easy but still had it in less than a month, I just greased the palm of some guy at immigration with about 5,000 Pesos.

When I speak to many of my friends that live abroad, they are dumbfounded about how long this process has taken. It is really embarrassing that my Govt is so fvcked up, I used to think that regardless of it shortfalls, it was still the best.........................................I am seriously reconsidering that stance. Coming from someone that was a career Marine and served his country faithfully.

Yeah, I'm rambling on................just so goddamn frustrated!!

[Nile_Romance 5]

The US embassy in London is the place to work - the amount of holiday that they have is amazing. All US and all UK. NICE!!

I always thought the same of the US Embassy in Cairo. They too get all of the Egyptioan holidays plus all of the US holidays, 28 in total. That blows me away.

On top of that, they get the standard "US" weekend of 2 days per week while employees of the Egyptian government get 1 "weekend" day and most non-government Egyptians work 7 days a week.

Just like USCIS, when I we go to the US embassy in Cairo there is NEVER a sense of urgancy. They will get to it when they get to it and, if not, you can come back tomorrow. Unreal!

[Val and Gary 29]

What's funny is when I lived in Sweden and I had to get my equivilent of their Green Card it was a piece of cake. Go down to the immigration office, fill out some forms, pick up my passport the next day with the appropriate stamps. For Sweden it was a the equivalent of a 1 year conditional.

In the Philippines, it was not as easy but still had it in less than a month, I just greased the palm of some guy at immigration with about 5,000 Pesos.

When I speak to many of my friends that live abroad, they are dumbfounded about how long this process has taken. It is really embarrassing that my Govt is so fvcked up, I used to think that regardless of it shortfalls, it was still the best.........................................I am seriously reconsidering that stance. Coming from someone that was a career Marine and served his country faithfully.

Yeah, I'm rambling on................just so goddamn frustrated!!

Yeah, it's so much easier in the UK also. Not as easy as it used to be, but considerably easier than the land of the free....

[aviatorbill 10]

Yeah, it's so much easier in the UK also. Not as easy as it used to be, but considerably easier than the land of the free....

When a "free" people turn their backs on God, they are no longer free. We, the common people, are suffering from it.

[Nile_Romance 5]

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?

It is my understanding (from research, USCIS discussion, Lawyer discussions, etc) that USCIS does do both the petitioner and beneficiary background check before approving the I-130. On the benneficiary side, they are looking for any reason that the applicant might be a National security risk if he/she came to the US.

For beneficiary background checks, there are many variables that can affect the time line (ease of access to information, electronic data vs manual, timlieness of foreign government employees to respond to requests, if beneficiaries name is common and/or if there are people with a similar name that the US would not accept for security reasons, etc.)

I'm surprised that this would be an issue for the USCIS with UK citizens. My experience is that electronic people data in the UK is much better than the in the US. In our case, Egypt still has a lot of manual records that are kept ONLY in the towns where they were recorded. My husband was required to gather some of this info himself when he applied for his required military service. He spent months going from town to town and various govt agencies within a town to get the required documents. Even then, he had to pay a lot of bribes unless he wanted to wait several more months (and get drafted for 2 add'l years of military service while waiting for them).

Despite it being easier to gather data from some countries (such as the UK) over others. I doubt that USCIS uses good multi-tasking skills to speed up the petitions when the background checks are received sooner. They probably have a stack of petitions, do step 1 for all of them, wait until the results come back from all of them to start step 2 and so on. Just my cynical opion of course, but it is probably much more likely they do this "batch type" method than using a more effective process that would be requried if they had any accountability for the outcome.

Hang in there everyone. NOA2's and NVC ARE coming.

Edited January 18, 2011 by Nile_Romance

[TheSahlis 10]

a service request because my case was past the processing time...it was about 6 months at the time I put in the request. They expect me to wait another 9-12 months? I have terrible luck.

listen that letter is a bunch of #######, just a delay tactic, dont listen to it my SR told me exact same thing and stated 7-9 months......

[lucas_34 4]

Would wife being pregnant qualify for an expedite processing of I-130? Just thought I'd ask.

[J e n n y 26]

Would wife being pregnant qualify for an expedite processing of I-130? Just thought I'd ask.

I remember reading on another thread that no, it doesn't. But, then again, many of the people transferred have had an expedite but it's not helping.

[Val and Gary 29]

I remember reading on another thread that no, it doesn't. But, then again, many of the people transferred have had an expedite but it's not helping.

So right Jenny, expedites don't work at TSC. People could die and they aren't bothered. Unbelievable.

[rcube 0]

Mine also xfrd to Texas. I filed in July. CSC probably trying to get rid of their backlog.

We have the same faith, my daughters petition approved December 29, according to the letter received by my husband it will take 90 days? How true? My petition is also in the process of approval since TSC asked my husbands previous wife's death certificate.....how long will i wait?