Equality of processing times

[LvivLovers 39]

Having been through much of the immigration process, one of the things that frustrated me the most was the difference in processing times between the various processing centers, offices, etc. It seems like we always ended up with whoever was the slowest processor at the time.

It seems to me that it would be a much fairer and less frustrating system to have applications processed without regard to what state an individual lived in. I understand some things like interviews may need to take into account location, but to be honest, I would make an appointment and travel across the country to a lesser used facility if that option was available in order to cut a significant amount of wait time.

I suspect that a good amount of the waiting is for some sort of cost savings...for example batching up a large amount of applications/documents over a period of weeks in a bin before being shipped someplace else. If this really is the case, I think almost everyone would be willing to pay a little bit extra to have their case files mailed immediately.

Likewise, it seems like there are a lot of back and forth mailings that add a lot more delays to the process. I see these as completely unnecessary. I see no reason they can't put EVERYTHING needed in the instructions and let us do one big mailing rather than having a back and forth "dialog" that lasts several months in some cases to accomplish something simple. Is this just an intentional delay tactic on the part of the USCIS?

We've had about 4-5 biometric appointments in the last 3 years...isn't the idea that fingerprints don't change over time one of the things that makes them good for identifying folks? Is this just another delay? Another revenue stream that has nothing to do with actual process?

Curious to hear others thoughts.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Sure - it would eb nice if they would operate as profitable business instead of the government, but since they don't I do not give it much thought...just more wasting of my valuable time.

[NickD 203]

USCIS is kind of like the military, or the way it was, least they told you where to be and where you were going, military never told you that. But unlike the IRS where you can make a mutual appointment, USCIS doesn't do that.

Only expedient fees I have found is if you are a big fat corporation and want to bring a worker here and you already control the congress. Big corporations are immune to the IRS as well as the USCIS, but as an individual, you are screwed, get use to it.

With all the power the USCIS claims to have, don't believe they can control the weather, I leave that up to the Lord. Ironically in some ten visits to the USCIS, we never missed an appointment and were constantly bounced between Milwaukee and St. Paul. Never questioned that, just went where told. Even commented, if they did sent us to LA, would have gone there just to get it over with. Stepdaughters oath ceremony was a miracle, had a major snowstorm at that Wednesday before and the Friday afterwards. But had a clear day on that Thursday when she had her oath ceremony. We did leave three hours earlier, just in case, road conditions said roads were snow covered. Was wrong, roads were clear, so we got there three hours early.

So we killed time at the Mall of America, wife and stepdaughter were accommodating, said its time to leave, they wanted to try on one more dress, said no. We can come back later, after all, getting her certificate was the reason we came here, let's not blow that. As usual, they were running late, so sat there for 45 minutes. Was told they could try on one more dress, just replied, we didn't know that.

In my military days, just being five seconds late for roll call could end up with two weeks of hard labor, but if you were on time, would stand at attention seemingly for hours, this is the country I grew up on. Listening to politicians talking about freedom is all BS, we don't have any freedom in this country, just be late on paying your taxes and you will find yourself either on the street or in jail. And you sure learn about freedom if driving 25.5 mph in a 25 mph zone. We have more 500 HP cars on the road today than ever before in our history, can certainly hear about freedom on TV commercials, don't believe that.

We live close to an international small airport, for an international flight, have to show up three hours earlier, and just wait, only to have the plane have some kind of coffee machine problem and sit on the ground for another two hours while they play with it. This is freedom? If your car doesn't pass the emissions test due to a bad mix of government imposed ethanol and your NOx's are a couple of points high, can't drive it until you get it repaired, this is freedom? If you don't shovel your sidewalk within 24 hours can be in for a 50 buck fine, even though the city loaded your sidewalk with tons of snow and nobody ever uses it, this is freedom? Then everybody is force to be at the same place at the same time for major traffic jams where the school holds you responsible if your kid is a second late, this is freedom?

What freedom is in this country is to be the president of these United States, break over 600 laws of our US Constitution and get off scott free.

When we go through the POE, already guilty of being a terrorist, or to the USCIS, automatically guilty of fraud, until we prove ourselves innocent. This is our government supposingly run by the people. You have to know that, its on your civics test.

[LvivLovers 39]

I hear you on the freedom thing and agree completely. This government got out of hand a long time ago...they just sit around these days and think "What new laws can we create today?" or "How can we get some more revenue?"...maybe we'd have more revenue if there was less time spent waiting everyplace? Just out of curiosity, a few years ago they raised fees fairly drastically to improve processing speed....did anyone actually see a difference at all? (Well anyone besides massive corporations?) I see so many problems in USCIS, just because I happen to have the tiniest bit of knowledge about them from having to deal with them. I shudder to think that the whole government operates like this or probably even worse. How in the heck did we get to this point?

[NickD 203]

Forming over 1,500 new government agencies over the last 39 years didn't help, until then, agencies could only advise congress, today they are making laws congress has no knowledge of. Before Nixon got in office, every buck had to be backed up with gold, that changed, so the government can print money as fast as they feel like it leading to incredible inflation. That by the way is a hidden form of extra taxation. Millionaires were taxed at a 90% rate, today hardly pay any taxes, can buy a new Gulfstream to entertain their so-called customers with a 100% write off. Would be pretty good if we were all multi-millionaires, but some of us have to work for a living.

Emilio, the now defunct director of the USCIS, US board of immigration attorneys got rid of him, promised the senate committee a 10% improvement in processing dates if he could more than double the rates. Well, doing much better than that. Stepdaughter took four months from start to finish with her US citizenship, about 3-4 years ago, was averaging about two years. Our AOS took 14 months, but when we got the NOA, wife was legal to stay here, that is all I cared about at the time. I see they are still dragging their feet on that all important ROC stage.

Would be great if they returned this country back the way it was 40 years ago. Don't even have to write new laws, just look back in the history books.

[bradcanuck 1]

Try not to think about it. It won't ever change and the people ahead/behind us will have to deal with the same garbage we did. If anything it will get worse and more expensive. Imagine (gasp) not even HAVING the misinformation 1-800 number! LOL

If a PERSON was in charge of USCIS amazing things could be done. Unfortunately it's in the hands of a bureaucracy which is much different. Look at it this way... you're almost done the N-400 (along with me) and never have to deal with them again. Consider this worth the money/time we've invested... paying to never deal with them again.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Try not to think about it. It won't ever change and the people ahead/behind us will have to deal with the same garbage we did. If anything it will get worse and more expensive. Imagine (gasp) not even HAVING the misinformation 1-800 number! LOL

If a PERSON was in charge of USCIS amazing things could be done. Unfortunately it's in the hands of a bureaucracy which is much different. Look at it this way... you're almost done the N-400 (along with me) and never have to deal with them again. Consider this worth the money/time we've invested... paying to never deal with them again.

Amen brother!

[Anh map 2,098]

The point of the biometrics is to make sure that the same person is applying for the AOS/Removal of Conditions/Citizenship/etc. That one seems to make a lot of sense.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Having been through much of the immigration process, one of the things that frustrated me the most was the difference in processing times between the various processing centers, offices, etc. It seems like we always ended up with whoever was the slowest processor at the time.

It seems to me that it would be a much fairer and less frustrating system to have applications processed without regard to what state an individual lived in. I understand some things like interviews may need to take into account location, but to be honest, I would make an appointment and travel across the country to a lesser used facility if that option was available in order to cut a significant amount of wait time.

I suspect that a good amount of the waiting is for some sort of cost savings...for example batching up a large amount of applications/documents over a period of weeks in a bin before being shipped someplace else. If this really is the case, I think almost everyone would be willing to pay a little bit extra to have their case files mailed immediately.

Likewise, it seems like there are a lot of back and forth mailings that add a lot more delays to the process. I see these as completely unnecessary. I see no reason they can't put EVERYTHING needed in the instructions and let us do one big mailing rather than having a back and forth "dialog" that lasts several months in some cases to accomplish something simple. Is this just an intentional delay tactic on the part of the USCIS?

We've had about 4-5 biometric appointments in the last 3 years...isn't the idea that fingerprints don't change over time one of the things that makes them good for identifying folks? Is this just another delay? Another revenue stream that has nothing to do with actual process?

Curious to hear others thoughts.

Delays are usually the result of additional processing being sent to that center or some other unrelated thing...such as when VSC moved most of their operation in late 2008.

Fingerprints are used to determine that the person applying for benefits is the SAME person that applied before or was issued the visa and that you didn't do a "bait and switch" People marrying FSU women should be exempt from this (Dude...you think I would substitute someone else for HER???!!!!)

we just did the RoC and I mailed everything with the petition. We did the biometrics one month later. We waited 5 months and got the green cards in the mail.

[NickD 203]

The point of the biometrics is to make sure that the same person is applying for the AOS/Removal of Conditions/Citizenship/etc. That one seems to make a lot of sense.

Doesn't make any sense to me, in particular since my girls consistently had their fingerprints taken in Milwaukee, and interviews in St. Paul. To add to the confusion, Emilio Gonzales, the last full director of the USCIS, we only had acting directors since then told the senate committee, he can only store fingerprints for 15 months, could reuse them, but will still cost him 80 bucks to retrieve them. Only eleven months went by between my wifes' ROC and citizenship prints were taken, yet we had to make another long trip.

Guy at the Milwaukee office just glanced at her green card, then proceeded to take her prints, her only ID at St. Paul, again was her green card, but some want your drivers' ID as well, but your drivers' ID is based on yet another agent looking at your green card. So what are they doing with these fingerprints when both look at your green card for identification" Fingerprints are NOT on your US certificate! Also took a photo of my stepdaughter for her certificate, very poor quality, and I could barely recognize And her from that poor quality photograph, the one of provided for her they didn't use indubitably was her.

Then this carries on into getting your passport, they insist on taking your certificate, but one of their 9,000 agents can make that identification and that is from your certificate. Your certificate goes in an envelope, you go home. DOS only has your certificate to go by, but not you, only their agent can make that positive identification and there is NO fingerprint either on your US passport. So exactly what is the DOS doing with your certificate, that is only half of the picture.

DOS and USCIS can sure learn a lot about ID from our military, least the way it was, but all these agencies are far way to arrogant to ask for help. Today we have bank tellers and sporting good salesman making that identification, but more to find out if you are on the FBI hotlist, really not much of a identification process. And didn't it occur to anyone at the USCIS my stepdaughter was only 17 months old when she was accused of battery charges?

What a screwed up organization! And why didn't my wifes' IO want to meet me? I was there, my name was on all the evidence, felt I should have had a say in that phase, but she wouldn't even turn her head and return my hello. Just wanted to see my papers. Really a strange group of people in charge of our Homeland Security.

And why isn't our money traceable to the equivalent amount of gold like it was once? After that, anyone can print our money, not some kid in a basement, but nations can do that. Its because we have a bunch of idiots running this country. And any terrorist that did considerable damage to us, was here legally. Never seen such a system with so many holes in it. Oh and the Soviets had complete knowledge of our development of that A-bomb with now the Chinese walking out with our key technology.

[LvivLovers 39]

Look at it this way... you're almost done the N-400 (along with me) and never have to deal with them again. Consider this worth the money/time we've invested... paying to never deal with them again.

Oh how I wish that were the case! That is at least a small consolation! But as soon as we're done with naturalization for my wife, we will start the process all over of getting a visa/naturalization for her mother! 6 more years of USCIS fun for me!

Delays are usually the result of additional processing being sent to that center or some other unrelated thing...such as when VSC moved most of their operation in late 2008.

I still think that it's due to trying to save a few bucks here and there with complete disregard to the applicants inconvenience. I draw that conclusion from patterns I've seen in processing times on VJ. I also suspect that many large delays are due to giving business visas (aka money) higher priority.

The point of the biometrics is to make sure that the same person is applying for the AOS/Removal of Conditions/Citizenship/etc. That one seems to make a lot of sense.

Fingerprints are used to determine that the person applying for benefits is the SAME person that applied before or was issued the visa and that you didn't do a "bait and switch" People marrying FSU women should be exempt from this (Dude...you think I would substitute someone else for HER???!!!!)

On the surface, it might seem like doing fingerprints multiple times ensures it's the same person each time, but I don't really see how it makes a difference. It does show it's the same person doing the biometrics each time, I agree. But how is that any more help than doing it once and using the same A# each time? I mean we could do biometrics 7 days in a row and prove it's still the same person, but as a RUB wife might say "And what?" I don't know...I guess it might make sense to get a current photo, but I don't think it's really necessary if it's been less than a few years. I suspect again it's just another revenue stream.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I still think that it's due to trying to save a few bucks here and there with complete disregard to the applicants inconvenience. I draw that conclusion from patterns I've seen in processing times on VJ. I also suspect that many large delays are due to giving business visas (aka money) higher priority.

That is also true and the result of the government establishing a "need" for something ( a visa/green card/naturalization) AND being the only ones that issue said visa/green card/naturalization. It isn't like you can go to "Fedex Visa Service" and get your visa and tell the government to stuff it.

So that will always be a part of this. What happens to customer service when customers have no choice? Why should they give tracking numbers or reliable information? It would cost millions (maybe trillions)...for what? And what would htey get in return? They can raise revenue just by raising fees, they do not have to compete for customers.

All I can say is...so far it has been worth it.

Edited April 21, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

On the surface, it might seem like doing fingerprints multiple times ensures it's the same person each time, but I don't really see how it makes a difference. It does show it's the same person doing the biometrics each time, I agree. But how is that any more help than doing it once and using the same A# each time? I mean we could do biometrics 7 days in a row and prove it's still the same person, but as a RUB wife might say "And what?" I don't know...I guess it might make sense to get a current photo, but I don't think it's really necessary if it's been less than a few years. I suspect again it's just another revenue stream.

It always seemed to me that they were going to a lot of trouble to be sure they had ONLY the right person. The ONLY questions Alla was asked at our AOS interview were right off her G-325a. "What is your mothers name?" "Where was your mother born", etc. That was it. This is why I say we had a "no questions asked interview" because they did not ask questions regarding our marriage at all and asked for no evidence. None. But they were all over making sure she was the same woman that received the visa.

Maybe I am wrong. Also note that it s the biometrics photo that ends up on the Green card, at least it was for us, both times.

Edited April 21, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[LvivLovers 39]

All I can say is...so far it has been worth it.

That's the truth! And you're right...I think that's the real reason...the photo. Fingerprints make sure the photo is of the right person.

Edited April 21, 2011 by LvivLovers