Is no one else bothered by the CSC - NVC black hole?

[penguin3d 0]

I am not an alarmist. I don't like to complain, but when things don't smell right I am not one to shrug my shoulders and say, "Oh well, that's life."

We received our NOA2 on September 3rd and NVC still hasn't "received" it. I know, I know, it is taking up to eight weeks. Everybody seems to accept it as a "part of the process". In my dealings with CSC, NVC, and DOS I have been increasingly asking the question "I don't understand, why?" "Where is our application?" Of course, always being polite and respectful.

There are many theories running around this site, but let me state the "facts" as they have come to me from the above agencies.

1. CSC "mailed" our application to NVC on September 3rd, a claim repeated to me by both the USCIS customer service reps and the reps I have spoken to at DOS. I pressed and they are quite insistent on this point.
2. NVC has not "received" our application nearly six weeks later. This has been repeated to me many many times by NVC and DOS reps.

So, the million dollar question is, "They have told me where it isn't, but where is it?" I has to be somewhere and someone in one of the above agencies has to know. Looking at it logically it can be :

1. Still at CSC waiting to be dispatched. But I have to rule this out, or call the customer service reps liars. They have emphatically said it was sent.
2. Sitting in a broken down delivery truck somewhere. Nope, can't be there either.
3. Sitting in an NVC mail room waiting to be unboxed to be counted as "received".

For (3) to be true, I don't have to call anyone a liar, maybe creative with the truth? If they play with the definition of received they could convince themselves they are being truthful in saying they haven't received it. Thinking about the reasons to do that get me a little hot under the collar (not that I am saying this is going on). It seems that this is a way to save face, the implications are that:

1. CSC gets to report that their backlog is cleared, "Processing times are under 100 days!"
2. NVC keeps their low processing times, "Processing time is still 10 days!"

and the extra 4 - 6 weeks is accounted for as transit time. Nobody gets dinged for that. Again, I am not saying that is the case. No accusations, but these facts stack up to paint an odd picture.

We will wait, we have to. But I am not going to smile and say that it is OK. I would be more forgiving if I could get a straight answer. If it is sitting in NVC waiting to get processed, fine, mark it received and tell me it is pending processing. I can respect that. Not knowing where it is leaves and having the feeling that they aren't shooting straight leads my imagination to conjure images of, "I thought you said eight weeks!" "Sir, it is now taking 16, no we haven't received it yet." I really hope it wont come to that, but hey, when we got our NOA2 we were lead to believe 2 - 4 weeks . . .

[cdneh 3,112]

The service centers typically send approved cases to the NVC in batches. I'm not sure how frequent those are for CSC, but they are physically sent, not electronically. Sometimes when they say sent, they mean will be sent.

A simple search, found on the top right of your screen in this window, will show you a lot of people are bothered. They are in fact upset and angry. But all they can do is wait, just as many of us have done before, and will continue to do so in future.The process is not transparent, it is not answerable to anyone, including your elected officials. Try not to take it as a personal insult. No one at USCIS is out to get you.

Perhaps instead, use the time to make sure you have your ducks lined up for the rest of the steps along the way. Getting a case number and having your petition forwarded to the consulate isn't even the beginning of the end.

[2018JourneyDone 77]

I am completely with you on this. Especially watching TSC and VSC case numbers being handed out left and right. The only thing that is giving me a tiny bit if peace is that CSC is seemingly handing out a tremendous amount of NOA2 approvals in record time and therefore causing the NVC to be overloaded with incoming petitions. (Whereas the other service centers are much much slower at the NOA2 stage) I'm thinking ur theory #3 is about exactly what's happening there at the moment.

I am in total agreement that petitions SHOULD be tracked at least and noted as received just for the sake of transparency. Frustrating no matter the reason though and I'm with u, I wanna know where the heck my case is!! As they say, this journey is not for the faint of heart. I am just thankful that with each day that passes we are one day closer to ending this journey apart. In the mean time, just hoping for some sort of of miracle to happen over the weekend at NVC and have a darn case # SOOOOONNNNN!!!! ;-)

[penguin3d 0]

The service centers typically send approved cases to the NVC in batches. I'm not sure how frequent those are for CSC, but they are physically sent, not electronically. Sometimes when they say sent, they mean will be sent.

A simple search, found on the top right of your screen in this window, will show you a lot of people are bothered. They are in fact upset and angry. But all they can do is wait, just as many of us have done before, and will continue to do so in future.The process is not transparent, it is not answerable to anyone, including your elected officials. Try not to take it as a personal insult. No one at USCIS is out to get you.

Perhaps instead, use the time to make sure you have your ducks lined up for the rest of the steps along the way. Getting a case number and having your petition forwarded to the consulate isn't even the beginning of the end.

I understand that they are physically sent, however, it would NEVER take more than 2 weeks to send by any physical means we deploy today. Anything more than that means the package is physically sitting somewhere. But that location is not disclosed. When we sent our application, I took the NOA1 as a receipt confirmation and understood completely that part of the 100+ days we waited there was waiting our turn to be processed. But we knew where it was and what to expect.

I have to admit, I only saw a few posts where people were taking it as a fact of life. I will look more into it. I am not taking this as a personal affront. I am looking at this as an American Citizen. There must be transparency in governmental processes to keep everyone honest. Yes, there are exceptions, but this process doesn't fall into one of those IMHO. Things have continued this way, and will continue this way, because nobody has spoken up. If there are enough of us that speak up, using the facts not emotion, we might have a chance to make things a little better for those that come after us :-)

As for ducks, they are standing all in a row and getting tired. The only things she and I have left to work on is her medical(that is really just her ), which cannot be set until after this stage, and continuing to collect evidence of our continuing relationship.

Edited October 12, 2013 by penguin3d

[TBoneTX 46,426]

*** Thread moved from K-1 Process forum to the K-1 Case Progress subforum. ***

[Susan53011 14]

I totally understand your frustration. I waited 47 days for a case number and if I am reading my case number correctly, the NVC might have had my app since 10/04...case number given 10/08. but I could be wrong on how the numbers read in the case number. Anyways, I even received a letter via regular mail from an inquirey I did sith the california service center at 5 weeks and it said they mailed to the NVC so who knows. Its a big finger pointing contest as to where your app really is, Just have faith that soon you will receive your case number

[Steve&Ema 25]

Hey penguin3d I think I found the missing applications.

But seriously if you think about it, I am sure the NVC gets a lot of applications in big batches. And until someone actually goes through them and opens them up and enters them into the computer they would have no idea if they had yours yet or not.

[Susan53011 14]

lol that is an awesome pic!!! definitely how i pictured it in my head as I waited day after day

[cdneh 3,112]

And that's just the basement

[Steve&Ema 25]

Yeah that's our government for you, too big, too slow and inefficient. But I guess we have to appreciate them since our love lives are in their hands.

[penguin3d 0]

Hey penguin3d I think I found the missing applications.

But seriously if you think about it, I am sure the NVC gets a lot of applications in big batches. And until someone actually goes through them and opens them up and enters them into the computer they would have no idea if they had yours yet or not.

Hey, great pic, very appropriate, thanks

Yeah, I have thought a lot about it and it doesn't make sense. The state of affairs may very well be such that there is no way of knowing until a human opens the box and types into the computer. But, in this day and age, there is no excuse for it to be that way. Hell, with tech from the 80's we could do better. It would be a trivial task to design an inventory system that attaches an RFID to the box who's tag is associated with all application numbers contained in it with a system that detects when the box left CSC, marking them as sent, and detects when they arrive at NVC marking them as received --- all without human intervention other than by the person packing the box. It would be their job to use a bar code reader to scan the box for its RFID tag number, and all applications for their numbers, which would be sent to the computers. With today's tech, it wouldn't be too expensive to implement, even with govt contractors. Here's the rub -- it would add too much transparency, or so it would seem to me.

Oh, well. People, unexpectedly, have to wait for their gold iPhones and its big news. Have an unexpected delay in uniting with your soulmate, well hey suck it up . . .

Edited October 12, 2013 by penguin3d

[rshree 16]

I understand that they are physically sent, however, it would NEVER take more than 2 weeks to send by any physical means we deploy today. Anything more than that means the package is physically sitting somewhere. But that location is not disclosed. When we sent our application, I took the NOA1 as a receipt confirmation and understood completely that part of the 100+ days we waited there was waiting our turn to be processed. But we knew where it was and what to expect.

I have to admit, I only saw a few posts where people were taking it as a fact of life. I will look more into it. I am not taking this as a personal affront. I am looking at this as an American Citizen. There must be transparency in governmental processes to keep everyone honest. Yes, there are exceptions, but this process doesn't fall into one of those IMHO. Things have continued this way, and will continue this way, because nobody has spoken up. If there are enough of us that speak up, using the facts not emotion, we might have a chance to make things a little better for those that come after us :-)

As for ducks, they are standing all in a row and getting tired. The only things she and I have left to work on is her medical(that is really just her ), which cannot be set until after this stage, and continuing to collect evidence of our continuing relationship.

We are in same situation. Got NOA2 on29th Aug, Got hard copy on 3-sep.

DoS & USCIS say they confirmedly sent it to NVC on 29th Aug

NVC keep saying they have not "received' ... In one of the emails, NVC replied asking us to send scanned copy of our NOA1 or NOA2 so that they will "inquire" USCIS about the where application is etc...

I get more pissed when NVC treat us as if its our fault calling or expecting our case number before 8 weeks..and they find it unreasonable esply b'se we got NOA2 in 37days.. come on..

Our question is when an "approval" itself can take only 4-8 weeks, why on earth transferring a file from USCIS to NVC has to take sooo long.... I know no one can answer.. sad truth is none of them USCIS/DoS/NVC is answerable/accountable.. nor want to be accountable.. that's why the whole process is kept non-transparent..

From our side, we have everything ready except my medicals that can be set only after case #/packet 3/4.. and continue to collecting evidence of our continuing relationship...

[penguin3d 0]

Hurray! The poor beast of burden that USCIS set off six weeks ago must have just collapsed in the NVC offices yesterday, because we received our case number today! I have briefed the little ducks, "Not much longer."

I still don't like the radio silence between CSC and NVC but I will stop my whining and get back to business

[Steve&Ema 25]

Congrats. That seems to be the average time now - 6 weeks.

[Phreedom 0]

yea, this is frustrating. I got my NOA2 on 9/27 and I'm irritated that it may take until 11/27 for NVC to process. As many have mentioned earlier, this is government in all its glory. Oh how I'd like to rant. But I won't.