Service center order of approval??

[siidman 1]

I've ben looking at Igor's list every day and see that the order of approvals jump all over the place. There doesn't seem to be any order involved as to the date of the NOA1 or date of filing. I see people getting approved with an NOA1 date of sept, then the next is Jan and the next is Nov. Anyone have any inisght into this?

Also, I think I remember seeing somewhere that you can call to check on your status 90 days after filing os something like that. Is this or something like this true?

[TabCat82 0]

Hi Siidman,

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any order of processing and I personally am starting to wonder if I should attached a colorful frilly doily to the front of our petition as it might get looked at quicker!!!

Just being patient is the key. I keep track of what number we are in the 'queue' on Igor's list and is always going down so makes me feel good

make sure you create a timeline so you are in the queue

[Pennycat 880]

There's no real order within service centers. No one really knows how they do it, but you can kind of picture it like any office. Basically, they have tons of files and several workers. Even if the "big pile" of incoming petitions are in 100% exact date order (which is unlikely), things will get out of order as soon as they get assigned to workers.

Most likely scenario, I think, is this: each worker picks up a pile of petitions to work on that day/week/month/whatever. So Sally grabbed January 1-7, Tom took January 8- through half of January 11, Joe has the other half of 11 through 25. So they all start working at the same time, so Sally will get Jan 1 done on the same day that Tom gets Jan 8 done, and Joe gets part of Jan 11 done.

Now imagine that some days have more petitions than others, each worker will be a little faster or slower than the next, and some petitions are more complicated/have more attachments/have worse handwriting than the others. Tom might have a dentist appointment on Wednesday, keeping him out of the office in the afternoon, Joe might have to stay home two days because his kid has pinkeye and isn't allowed in daycare, Sally might be on an "alternate work schedule" in which she works 9 hour days for two weeks and then gets ever/other Friday off (making her faster than the others for 9 work days and then nothing from her for the 10th day in a two week cycle).

It's all a total crapshoot which is why the margin for error is so high. I would HOPE that they plan around planned vacation time (as in, Sally doesn't leave January 6 and 7 sitting on her desk while she's away)....but I've also heard that someone on VJ's petition was found on the desk of a USCIS worker who had quit months ago. So....you never know.