FOIA Response from USCIS - Re Transfers of I-130

[Ivy. 113]

My case was transferred to California on January 31st. That's the last I hear.

Did your case get transferred ?

How long did you wait after it being transferred ?

I am sorry to hear about your slow progress, especially since California is supposed to be the speedy service center! My file was transfered right after Christmas to Nebraska and it took a little bit under three months to get NOA2. It took cca 2.5 months to get their RFE. You can see more details about my case in the profile or my timeline.

Best of luck to you! I this week brings you good news!

[bdrew612 1,071]

Very glad to do it!

Ok, time for my rant.

I haven't had a chance until now to do any kind of thorough review of they sent me. I am really upset at the redactions. Right at the end of document around May there was already discussion about workloads and issues. They've redacted everything in those areas! Really upsetting.

I should have posted this earlier for those who are reviewing this entire doc. The following are the exemptions claimed when they redact or withhold information. b4 and b6 are perfectly reasonable. However, they sure as hell have abused the b5!! If you go through the doc each redaction has the associated reason for it. All of the important stuff that could be damning to them have been redacted using b5. If i understand correctly they are withholding this info due to potential pending litigation or current litigation? Anybody here with a law background? Am I understanding correctly?

I wasn't planning to, but I might appeal some of the redactions.

Exemption (b)(4) protects trade secrets and commercial or financial information that is privileged or

confidential. The types of documents and/or information we have withheld may consist of unit pricing,

business sales statistics; research data; technical designs; customer and supplier lists; profit and loss data;

overhead and operating costs; and information on financial condition.

Exemption (b)(5) provides protection for inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters, which

would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency. The types of

documents and/or information that we have withheld under this exemption may consist of documents

containing pre-decisional information, documents or other memoranda prepared in contemplation of

litigation, or confidential communications between attorney and client.

Exemption (b)(6) permits the government to withhold all information about individuals in personnel,

medical and similar files where the disclosure of such information would constitute a clearly unwarranted

invasion of personal privacy. The types of documents and/or information that we have withheld may

consist of birth certificates, naturalization certificates, drivers’ licenses, social security numbers, home

addresses, dates of birth, or various other documents and/or information belonging to a third party that are

considered personal.

I work with an attorney. She is in no way shape or form an immigration attorney, but I'll see what her thoughts are about this....

[waiting_______ 92]

Spiteful implies malice, whereas I had none. Jealous, perhaps, but definitely not spiteful.

I do apologize for mistaking your file as September to February, when it was August to February. I am used to the European way so that was an honest mistake. As for belittling you, I really don't think telling someone to "Be happy" is belittling them.

Anyways, kudos for posting the file. I am sure many people will find it interesting.

The amusing comments were condescending and belittling to me. I was writing about my mindset during Sept-Nov where the expectation were 13 months, so yes telling me to be happy after the fact didn't feel good. I sure as hell know how lucky I have been compared to so many others, especially the Mar-Jun filers.

In any case, no hard feelings.

Good luck to you on your progress through the NVC.

[bdrew612 1,071]

In retrospect, it's funny they have time to share links from this website but not time to label the boxes when they're transferring files. Things that make you go #######

[BOS_LHR 829]

I just became aware of this today, and I just want to say I think it's AWESOME that the first thing I see is an excerpt from the letter writing campaign that we organized here on VJ. Proof positive that they were taking note all along (even if their "it is what it is" response was utter douchebaggery). Way to go everyone.

[Avery Cates 1,141]

In addition to DACA, you can also see where Philippines expedites put those from everywhere else further backlogged.

[JayBabay 29]

Wow, this is really something. I'm very proud of everyone here for managing to pull this source of information. Even though many of us have moved on to the NVC, the mindset we had in the past 5,6,7,8 months is because of the uncertainty that is finally explained in many of these documents. Good find!

Edited April 17, 2014 by JayBabay

[jayjayj 571]

In addition to DACA, you can also see where Philippines expedites put those from everywhere else further backlogged.

I'm not sure if that giant batch of approved Phillipine expedites would have had much of an impact.

Unless I am wrong, the expedite at the NVC is actually processed and approved/rejected at the local Embassy. The request is submitted to the NVC, but the NVC then forwards that request to the Embassy for approval/rejection - someone please correct this if it is wrong.

If the expedite is approved, the petition is immediately forwarded to the local Embassy for processing and the interview. This could possibly slow down other people processing at that particular Embassy, but not necessarily others who's petitions are at the NVC.

[bdrew612 1,071]

I'm not sure if that giant batch of approved Phillipine expedites would have had much of an impact.

Unless I am wrong, the expedite at the NVC is actually processed and approved/rejected at the local Embassy. The request is submitted to the NVC, but the NVC then forwards that request to the Embassy for approval/rejection - someone please correct this if it is wrong.

If the expedite is approved, the petition is immediately forwarded to the local Embassy for processing and the interview. This could possibly slow down other people processing at that particular Embassy, but not necessarily others who's petitions are at the NVC.

The expedite requests are first made at USCIS so it very well could have had an impact.

[jayjayj 571]

The expedite requests are first made at USCIS so it very well could have had an impact.

In some cases an initial expedite request is made at the USCIS, but in other cases circumstances might appear after the USCIS process, which might warrant an initial expedite being submitted at the NVC.

But even if the initial request was submitted to the USCIC, the time it took for them to process and approve the expedite request would have been minimal. The petition would then have been immediately shipped to the local Embassy for everything else. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if there is a separate division of the USCIS for processing expedite requests. I doubt the people working the I-130 processing desks are the same people processing the expedite requests. Which would mean, the only added delay would have been to other people waiting for an expedite to be processed.

[lucybelle 453]

Lots of great info, thanks for all this!

[Kaylara 814]

Not familiar with how FOI works in the US but can you actually request their info on VJ? That would be awesome if someone did it!

I'm pretty sure we could. I'll look into it. We might need the owner of Visajourney to request it, as we need a signature that represents the subject.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Kaylara

[benjicher 26]

The tone in the 3-page excerpt ("It is what it is") got me so fed up that I emailed it to the assistant at my Congressman's office I've been in contact with and asked for help. He said the Congressman would request a congressional expedite, so I'm hopeful about that.

I would advise anyone over 5 months between NOA1 and NOA2 to put pressure on reps and senators to haul USCIS' butts before Congressional committees and flood them with expedite requests. No one is going to do this advocacy for us, so it's time to scream a bit.

[Kaylara 814]

We've been screaming for months. We need to gather information showing proof of what we claim, and tell our representatives "look, this is what has happened, we want A. B. C. Action to clear up the problems for anyone who is still waiting, and A. B. C. Action to make sure that this doesn't happen again. We need to make sure that we continue to work for those who are still waiting, or who will petition in the future, even after we get our NOA2's or even visas in hand. If people don't just disappear after they get those thing, but continue to support the newer petitioners, we stand a chance of being a force that the USCIS and our government representatives will have to at least pay attention to. I'm in this for the long haul. I want this ####### fixed.

[bdrew612 1,071]

We've been screaming for months. We need to gather information showing proof of what we claim, and tell our representatives "look, this is what has happened, we want A. B. C. Action to clear up the problems for anyone who is still waiting, and A. B. C. Action to make sure that this doesn't happen again. We need to make sure that we continue to work for those who are still waiting, or who will petition in the future, even after we get our NOA2's or even visas in hand. If people don't just disappear after they get those thing, but continue to support the newer petitioners, we stand a chance of being a force that the USCIS and our government representatives will have to at least pay attention to. I'm in this for the long haul. I want this ####### fixed.

The Senators representing waiting_____ seem to be the only ones listening (I'm not sure which one sent the FOIA request, though). Should we reach out to them even though we are not constituents? Do we know any others who would be supportive? The people representing me are useless and I've completely given up on them.