K1 September 2014 Filers (TSC)

[zwang 3]

Hi guys ! By NOA1 do you all mean the receipt you received where they officially state that your case has been received and you're given a case number? Cause that happened to me on September the 4th, since then nothing has changed, it's almost a 4 months wait with no news to share.

You are exactly right. I also have the date on Sept. 4th and still waiting ...

[av8or1 246]

You are exactly right. I also have the date on Sept. 4th and still waiting ...

Well....he's correct except that it's almost been 5 months, not 4.

[av8or1 246]

Ok so I received a pretty lame-azz reply from Senator John Cornyn's office today. They basically just accepted the answer that they were given when they inquired with the USCIS. And that answer is that each service center is responsible for determining its own adjudication priorities, and sometimes one service center (due to having different priorities) will process a given petition faster than another. You're in the slow center right now, so just suck on it...that's basically what they said. All of that is a load of BS because it is the USCIS who determines which petitions get sent to which service center. And they could do something about the difference in processing times by switching to a workload-based priority scheme. But they won't do that, for any of a number of reasons. Ah don't get me started...so, April and msbau764 and any other TEXAS filers, don't waste your time writing to senator Cornyn's office. They're full of horseapples.

Here's the remarkably poor letter:

Dear Mr. Adair:

In response to your recent request, I have contacted the appropriate officials at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They have informed me that while the Service Centers are organized along similar lines, workload at each Service Center must be locally managed in an endeavor to maintain balance, based on case volume and priorities. The goal of each Service Center is to continually reduce the processing time on all petitions; however, there are times when adjudication priorities require a Service Center to shift their limited resources to other petition priorities. All Service Centers attempt to ensure petitions are adjudicated in an expeditious manner, but there will always be times when one Center is able to adjudicate a petition type more quickly.

Unfortunately, there are no provisions under the law to modify or change legal requirements to benefit a particular case. If your case was filed at a USCIS Service Center you may wish to check your status online at:

http://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard.do

I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in the United States Senate. If I can be of assistance to you with other matters, please contact me.

And that's it. The last section was particularly angering because it seems like they think that telling me to just eat it and check my status online is an acceptable way to satisfy my complaint.

I dunno, I'm just quite hacked off at the moment. So I think it best to end the post with a big UP YOURS to senator John Cornyn's office for their horribly weak attempt at addressing the issue that I raised with them.

Ok I'm gonna stop now.

Edited January 31, 2015 by av8or1

[msbau764 245]

Ok so I received a pretty lame-azz reply from Senator John Cornyn's office today. They basically just accepted the answer that they were given when they inquired with the USCIS. And that answer is that each service center is responsible for determining its own adjudication priorities, and sometimes one service center (due to having different priorities) will process a given petition faster than another. You're in the slow center right now, so just suck on it...that's basically what they said. All of that is a load of BS because it is the USCIS who determines which petitions get sent to which service center. And they could do something about the difference in processing times by switching to a workload-based priority scheme. But they won't do that, for any of a number of reasons. Ah don't get me started...so, April and msbau764 and any other TEXAS filers, don't waste your time writing to senator Cornyn's office. They're full of horseapples.

Here's the remarkably poor letter:

Dear Mr. Adair:

In response to your recent request, I have contacted the appropriate officials at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They have informed me that while the Service Centers are organized along similar lines, workload at each Service Center must be locally managed in an endeavor to maintain balance, based on case volume and priorities. The goal of each Service Center is to continually reduce the processing time on all petitions; however, there are times when adjudication priorities require a Service Center to shift their limited resources to other petition priorities. All Service Centers attempt to ensure petitions are adjudicated in an expeditious manner, but there will always be times when one Center is able to adjudicate a petition type more quickly.

Unfortunately, there are no provisions under the law to modify or change legal requirements to benefit a particular case. If your case was filed at a USCIS Service Center you may wish to check your status online at:

http://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard.do

I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in the United States Senate. If I can be of assistance to you with other matters, please contact me.

And that's it. The last section was particularly angering because it seems like they think that telling me to just eat it and check my status online is an acceptable way to satisfy my complaint.

I dunno, I'm just quite hacked off at the moment. So I think it best to end the post with a big UP YOURS to senator John Cornyn's office for their horribly weak attempt at addressing the issue that I raised with them.

Ok I'm gonna stop now.

To be honest, this is exactly the reason I have refrained from making any contact with USCIS or any representative until my petition passes the normal processing time. No one cares about us and we are powerless to change anything. Hopefully we are nearer to the end than the beginning of this mess.

[av8or1 246]

To be honest, this is exactly the reason I have refrained from making any contact with USCIS or any representative until my petition passes the normal processing time. No one cares about us and we are powerless to change anything. Hopefully we are nearer to the end than the beginning of this mess.

Yeah I understand that. Agree with it too. To be clear, I didn't ask them to do anything about my case in particular. In fact I specifically requested that they NOT do anything with my petition. Instead, I made a formal statement of complaint regarding the processing time difference, and asked for help with that.

Once I am outside the normal processing times window BS I plan to reach out again, but this time I'll make note that I'm outside the window and request help with my case in particular. For what good that would do. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Gheez but I hope not. For any of us.

[wbeem 568]

Yeah I understand that. Agree with it too. To be clear, I didn't ask them to do anything about my case in particular. In fact I specifically requested that they NOT do anything with my petition. Instead, I made a formal statement of complaint regarding the processing time difference, and asked for help with that.

Once I am outside the normal processing times window BS I plan to reach out again, but this time I'll make note that I'm outside the window and request help with my case in particular. For what good that would do. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Gheez but I hope not. For any of us.

The frustrating part about it is that they keep changing the rules while you play their game. We were told all along, every time we called, to wait for our 5 month mark. On our five month mark, my fiance called and was told that we are still within normal processing times. When he challenged that statement, they told us that we have to wait for their annoyingly outdated current posted processing date to change to one where our NOA1 falls after said posted date. That would take us to around mid March. We filed August 2nd. Go figure.

Every time I type something about this experience with TSC, I feel like hitting out the laptop keys with my middle finger.

[av8or1 246]

The frustrating part about it is that they keep changing the rules while you play their game. We were told all along, every time we called, to wait for our 5 month mark. On our five month mark, my fiance called and was told that we are still within normal processing times. When he challenged that statement, they told us that we have to wait for their annoyingly outdated current posted processing date to change to one where our NOA1 falls after said posted date. That would take us to around mid March. We filed August 2nd. Go figure.

Every time I type something about this experience with TSC, I feel like hitting out the laptop keys with my middle finger.

BWahahahahahaha! Thank you for the laugh this morning. I could use it. Excellent post! You are indeed correct. In my conversations with Congressman Carter's office I mentioned the fact that the "currently processing date" always has an "effective date" that is woefully out-of-date. (sorry for all of the dates in that sentence!) During her research she noted that and called bunk on them when she spoke with TSC. Their answer was that it was the best they could do, something about not having the numbers for the processing results that took place after November 30th, therefore they couldn't draw any conclusions beyond that point. Wha-? Made absolutely no sense to me. I called bunk on that, but was told that it is what it is. I added "so this delay tactic isn't likely to change is it?" And of course "no" was the answer.

So yeah, maybe I'll adopt your middle finger approach when I compose a post about the goings-on in the TSC...love it! :D

[SincerelyMeike 52]

I'm waiting till my 6 month period is over so I can contact congressman Kevin Brady in Texas. He's always been extremely helpful to me and my parents with other things, hopefully he'll care about us this time! Anyways, happy 5 months everyone! ? 135 for me and counting!

[Wooderz 314]

I'm waiting till my 6 month period is over so I can contact congressman Kevin Brady in Texas. He's always been extremely helpful to me and my parents with other things, hopefully he'll care about us this time! Anyways, happy 5 months everyone! ? 135 for me and counting!

I contacted Brady's office last week to ask them to get behind Congressman Carter's initiative to do a transfer. We'll see what happens. If I don't hear back in a few weeks, I may just make an effort to talk to him in person. There are some off session days and weeks. Brady lives in the neighborhood next to my parents. Sometimes my mom and I jog together. I've seen him out running several times. I've seen him in the grocery store and dry cleaners. He uses the same one as me lol

[av8or1 246]

I'm waiting till my 6 month period is over so I can contact congressman Kevin Brady in Texas. He's always been extremely helpful to me and my parents with other things, hopefully he'll care about us this time! Anyways, happy 5 months everyone! ? 135 for me and counting!

Wait, I'm confused about this 6 month thing. I mean, with a September NOA1 we will all most likely (almost 100%) still be outside the currently-processing date window, so what good would it do to call at that point? Seems rather random and arbitrary to me. It seems like it wouldn't matter if you were at your 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or whatever month mark, you'd get the same response that wbeem received, which is that you need to wait until your NOA1 date is outside the window, which it won't be at your 6 month point.

So I dunno....am I missing something here?

Edited February 1, 2015 by av8or1

[SincerelyMeike 52]

Wait, I'm confused about this 6 month thing. I mean, with a September NOA1 we will all most likely (almost 100%) still be outside the currently-processing date window, so what good would it do to call at that point? Seems rather random and arbitrary to me. It seems like it wouldn't matter if you were at your 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or whatever month mark, you'd get the same response that wbeem received, which is that you need to wait until your NOA1 date is outside the window, which it won't be at your 6 month point.

So I dunno....am I missing something here?

To be honest it's more of a courtesy thing rather than anything. At first they kept telling everyone six months, so that's what I'm going by although I'm fully aware if I get in touch at 6 months of 8 months it won't make a difference.

I contacted Brady's office last week to ask them to get behind Congressman Carter's initiative to do a transfer. We'll see what happens. If I don't hear back in a few weeks, I may just make an effort to talk to him in person. There are some off session days and weeks. Brady lives in the neighborhood next to my parents. Sometimes my mom and I jog together. I've seen him out running several times. I've seen him in the grocery store and dry cleaners. He uses the same one as me lol

Haha that's funny maybe you should jog along side him one day and be like "soooo uhhh I filed my case.." LOL!

[av8or1 246]

To be honest it's more of a courtesy thing rather than anything. At first they kept telling everyone six months, so that's what I'm going by although I'm fully aware if I get in touch at 6 months of 8 months it won't make a difference.

Haha that's funny maybe you should jog along side him one day and be like "soooo uhhh I filed my case.." LOL!

Ah ok, I see. Well, realize that if you play your congressman card too early, you probably won't be able to use it once you're outside the window. Or so I've read. But it certainly doesn't hurt to raise awareness with a representative. I plan on calling congressman Carter's office in the morning just to see where things are...

[SincerelyMeike 52]

Ah ok, I see. Well, realize that if you play your congressman card too early, you probably won't be able to use it once you're outside the window. Or so I've read. But it certainly doesn't hurt to raise awareness with a representative. I plan on calling congressman Carter's office in the morning just to see where things are...

Oh true? I haven't heard that yet.

[av8or1 246]

Oh true? I haven't heard that yet.

Yuppers. I don't have any first-hand experience with doing that, but talk to most anyone on the forum and I suspect they'd agree (mostly, not everyone will agree with anything is the applicable caveat). I know that I specifically told all three of my representatives NOT to make an inquiry on my behalf for this very reason. I also didn't send in a privacy agreement for this reason. I'm waiting until I'm outside the window (again, hopefully it doesn't come to that) and then I plan to play every card I have:

1) All three federal representatives

2) Omsbudsman

3) Phone calls to make direct inquiries

4) Infopass (possibly)

I want to hit them hard at that point and not have stolen any thunder along the way. If that makes any sense......

ps-I think that the general thought here is that if you complain to a rep's office too much they're disinclined to continue helping you with the same problem. It seems unlikely that this is always true, but it makes sense to me. Friggin' lame-azz Cornyn's office made it clear at the end of their letter that if I had anything *ELSE* that I wanted to discuss with them that I was free to do so. See what I mean?

Edited February 1, 2015 by av8or1

[sandra3711 52]

Emailed Senator Kaine and Warner about the backlog hell that is TCS. Let's see what they have to say.