1st post former NSC adjudicator now petitioner

[The Molinas 0]

Welcome and good luck on your journey!

[HUSKERKIEV 8]

how long did u work there? if u dont mind me asking? just curious

All told, 'bout a year. Then I got a better offer from another agency. It was enlightning.

[misa 2]

What types of things are "red flags" in someone's file?

Why types of things would someone be put on "additional review" for during the petition review process?

Does country of birth and residence for the beneficiary (and country of birth for the petitioner) play into this?

[flutter95 4]

Welcome to VJ!

It's interesting to have an insider (well, ex-insider) on board, however kinda scary too! Perhaps we will learn things we don't wanna know

[HUSKERKIEV 8]

Funny thing I forgot to mention, today I got an email from a very good friend's friend

who used to work in the Fraud Prevention Unit at several foreign posts and that is

where our case is now.......and here you are ..... I was hoping to get some help

like that on VJ ! Maybe there are more lurking ?

Marraige fraud is a big issue and it seemd like it was getting bigger. At the Service Center we seldom saw the benificaries because this was more of a District office function. We did have a small public waiting area for people dropping off things etc...

I did hear a lot of the marriage fraud horror stories from heartbroken petitioners though (via our trainers and other district office staff) during the course of my stay. It was truly sad some of the things that happened to some good sincere people. Unfortunately, by the time they called us there was little we could do at that point given the circumstances.

I alos hope there are some more folks like me out there. If you'd have asked me back in '03 if I'd be submitting my own I-129 petition, I think I wouldn't know what to say. funny how life takes its different twists and turns...

[JenT 0]

Welcome to the other side of the fence!! Brace yourself... you may become besieged by pm's.

Glad to have you join us!!

Best wishes,

Jen

(former petioner to NSC, transferee to CSC)

[lisaf 0]

wow.

Welcome! You poor thing, barely in the door and we are at you! Im sorry to do this to you, but my burning question is:

with regard to RFE's , why do different officers seem to have different protocols on when they will issue one? For example what one petitioner doesn't get one for,, another will.?

thanks and good luck.

[Augustajim 0]

Welcome Aboard. I hope you don't get run off by all of the questions your going to get swamped with.

Jim

[Moonie 0]

Welcome and good luck in your journey.

[Michaela_Hassan 1]

Welcome!

[davort 0]

Welcome and good luck in your journey.

Hi HUSKERKIEV I have a question for you...I filed a I-129F with a request fro waiver of meeting requirement due to a hardship. I had a car accident when I was 17 years old and my fiancee lives in Indonesia I live in california and I used a wheelchair to move around. I got some letters from my doctores staying that I cannot fly for long hours due to I can suffers bedsores and they can get infect it...Also it will hurt my back badly because traveling there is almost like 20hours and I think it will be not fun for me traveling long and having a hard time to used restroom. Do you KNow if my case will be review by CIS manager or any worker will make the decision weaather my application is approve or denie? Also if my case is denie is there any think I can still do or my case will be closed and can not do anything about it.......Thank you....

[Cassie 8]

seriously HuskerKiev, I'd run now while you can!

(BTW Welcome )

[HUSKERKIEV 8]

What types of things are "red flags" in someone's file?

Why types of things would someone be put on "additional review" for during the petition review process?

Does country of birth and residence for the beneficiary (and country of birth for the petitioner) play into this?

Well lets see how much I remember...

Maybe it might be easier if I just described what I would do to approve a petition - my process.

First, I would select a case file/folder. All petitions/files are kept in folders that a have a scanable bar code identifier. This folder has everything that a person submits on the left side of the folder and all the agency generated documents on the right side. They should be in date order, Petition and then most recent from top to bottom. The left side has the pictures on top.

You begin by looking at the petition for correctness by checking the information via several databases depending upon what type of petition you are adjudicating. Also if the form was complete and everything was in order. Descrepancies in peoples names from what the database had vs. what the petition said, birth dates, things like that all had to be resolved and could generate a RFE if the adjudicator couldn't figure it out with the tools he had.

There were some standard criminal and background type databases that were required for all petitions. A "hit" in any of these databases would flag the petition and it would be sent to a special group who worked to resolve why the "hit" occurred. Sometimes it could be something simple as a similar name of a bad guy, but every hit had to be resolved.

I remember that certain surnames would invariably cause a hit, but they could be resolved rather quickly by comparing the applicants background information with those of the "hit" name. There were various ways to do this of course, and it took time. Thats why some applications take longer to process because there are stumbling blocks along the way that must be worked through before approval. Consequently, all the other petitions that the officer was working get set to the side. or, the adjudicator/officer might set the difficult one to the side and work on less complicated ones. Remember it was a production environment where you had to be accurate but fast. Getting a petition kicked back for mistakes to be re-worked hurt your overall stats, so, you tried to be a thorough as you could, but also as quick as you could.

After clearing a applicant through the various mandatory database searches, then you could begin to review the various information on the petition. Sometimes there would be stupid mistakes like forgetting to sign it, or using a copy when an original signature was required etc... Kinda careless mistakes or from not really understanding the instructions type of thing. Anyway, these would generate an RFE, and the file's staus would be update in the computer as awaiting repsonse to RFE or something like that, I don't recall the exact terminology.

Anyway, instead of sending the newly RFE'd file back to the large file storage area, it would be kept at the officers desk in a holding cue. Then when an RFE reply would come in, I wpuld pull it (the file) off the shelf and rework it. I tried to clear all my answered RFE's out first thing every morning because it was "old" work as compared to the dates I was working at the time. If the RFE had the required information, it would continue to be processed and/or approved and sent on its way. If the RFE did not address the item, then another RFE would be generated and back on the shelf it would go.

A word about RFE's. It was my experience that no two officers would always see eye to eye on if an RFE was required. Some officers could or would spend some more time digging around the file or a database to find the information (if they thought it could be found) and others would just as soon rip off an RFE. So it varied. Then there were some times that an RFE was required because of the situation. Again, it depends a lot on who was looking at your case and what the question was / what information was needed. No hard and fast rule.

Also, each adjudicator/officer had a master list of RFE "phrases that they could pull off thier computer and plug into a standard RFE form depending upon the situation. Each of these "phrases" could be further "wordsmithed" to suit a particular situation. Again depends on the officer. Thats why you may see some RFE's that are similar but not exact. We would borrow each others RFE phrases to add to our list as we came across one that fit a particular situation.

It would be like "Hey, cube mate. I've got this situation, do you have anything in your RFE library that might fit?" answer "Sure, try this one. I'll email it to you". And thats how that worked.

You asked about country of birth etc.. Yes and no. There were "watch lists" of certain countries that meant that certain procedures had to be followed when processing petitions from these countries, but it was just a couple more things to check/verify along the approval process. It didn't slow things down dramatically. So, I wouldn't worry about that being a big factor.

Additional review. Mainly if you came up as a "hit" for a surname of a bad guy (or gal) that would have to be resolved. Marriage Fraud. Overstaying your visit. Lying. Criminal activity/organized crime, police reports, things that would be outside of a "normal" person's life you might say.

So back to the approval process. So if no RFE was needed then i would "approve' the petition, affix my stamp with my identifier # , sign and date it. I would then scan the file, update the status and send it on its wayto the next stop wherever that was. Actually, all the approved petitions/files were placed in a separate box and those were collected as you went along and taken for final disposition/processing.

Then you start all over again with the next case...

[~Chad~ 0]

WOW

[misa 2]

Thanks so much for your detailed info regarding how a petition gets processed. That post alone should definitely be pinned!

Welcome and good luck on your journey.