AOS Outside Normal Processing Time and No Reposnse From Service Request

[Inna & Brian 11]

Here's the situation in a nutshell. We filed for AOS in August. In February the application was beyond normal processing time. We filed a Service Request. There has been no repsonse to the service request. We talked to a CSR Tier 2 today. He stated the AOS is still in NBC and not at the local office. He said there was nothing more customer service can do to help. He suggested we contact the Ombudsman and/or Congressional Rep. We just did those two things tonight. He said an Infopass appointment would be a waste of time since the local office does not have the file and they would not be able to answer any questions. BUT he said the local office can request a file to be transferred from the NBC to the local office. So our questions are:

1. Would it be a mistake to ask the local office to transfer the file from NBC? Would this possibly cause more delays? Has anyone else done that (I searched but did not see any threads about this topic) and if so was it helpful?

2. Is there anything else we can do? I don't understand how they can be outside the normal processing times and then be well outside the Service Request time and there is no next step to take within USCIS?

[William2011 1]

Good Evening,

First off, I am not an expert, but I can relate to my own dealings with USCIS since I first filed for my wife’s K1 visa over two years ago.

My experience is this. There is absolutely nothing you can do. You can file a service request from the USCIS website now, call the USCIS customer support line, call and write your federal government officials. You can do all these things but does it really help? In my experience it is all a complete waste of time. It makes me feel like I am doing something. That is about all it does.

You can request that your application be transferred out of the NBC to your local USCIS office. I think only the ones who are deemed necessary to have an interview are sent there. Will they transfer your case? I think the answer is no. There is no oversight into this organization at all. I think you and everyone else is completely at their mercy. They make the decisions and they work at their own pace not yours or mine.

You asked what the next step is outside of contacting your government officials and putting in a service request. The answer is simply to wait. I would advise to keep talking to your government officials and put in a service request again has soon has the online tool will let you. I had to wait 45 days to put in another one myself. I would tell everyone you can to not get a K1 visa and go the spouse visa route. This is just my opinion. I did have a higher level IO tell me that the family based I-485 (especially the ones transferred to the CSC like mine) can and probably will take up to 12 months to process. I would start thinking about filing for another EAD/AP card four months from the expiration date.

I wish you and everyone else the best of luck, and we should remember that this will all end sooner or later. We can get on with our lives without worrying about the next step.

[bigdog 377]

Looks like you are at 7 months, not too bad considering how slow every thing is across the board. We contacted the USCIS Ombudsman office for assistance and was 8 months to receive the GC.