AOS June 2016 Filers

[simonschus 58]

I'm actually quite lucky at the moment as I'm not getting too bored!

I'm a scientist so I'm spending most of my time reading research papers, writing up things that needed writing. I've got a nice little place that I can use as a make-shift office just to get out the house which is handy. Mustn't grumble as it doesn't feel like too much has changed apart from time differences- I still text and call the same people throughout the day both her and in the UK, I still have the same television and radio channels on in the background during the day. The main difference is that I am actually with my wife so I'm already winning!

Just as with moving anywhere, sometimes things get to me like different social norms, different cultural practices, different product choices, being dependent on different things even though I've always been aware that those things would be the case... Just part of the adjustment process and my wife is great as she lets me vent when I am devastated that I can't find a particular product in the grocery store after a bad day of realising the village we're living in is entirely dependent on having a car. The experience is humbling though as it helps tease apart things that one takes for granted and allows one to get to know less obvious parts of their own home culture as well as their new culture.

As mentioned, the main difficulty is getting around because my wife uses her car all day on weekdays for work and there are only two buses a day for me with pick up locations quite far away where it is also hot hot hot out. Getting into a routine though but that is sometimes disrupted as I'm still looking after things in the UK that need looking after so every so often I find myself covering two timezones with an 8 hour difference and can get in the way of a good nights sleep. The immigration forums are almost a nice distraction from time-to-time haha!

We are also right in the centre of the Californian wine country so that is nice for food and wine which we do every so often! We are only here for three months on my wife's current assignment before heading back to the East coast when a routine will be a bit easier to establish.

I wonder how many yarns of wool you'll use...

And gaming? That's exciting!! I've never gotten into online gaming much though did some research into it a few years back. I'm enjoying the Olympics as a good way of just switching off, though it makes me feel embarrassed not to have gone to the gym much this week haha.

How is everybody else keeping going? (Or feel free to shut this part of the conversation down for going off-topic!)

Edited August 12, 2016 by simonschus

[simonschus 58]

Also, if anybody ever gets really bored then here is a the latest annual report from the USCIS Ombudsman (June 2016). The report discusses the current challenges, issues and progress at the USCIS.

On page 35, there is a section dedicated to background check delays entitled "The Challenges of Background Checks and Clearances on Case Adjudication". An interesting enough read.

Edited August 12, 2016 by simonschus

[Ischnura 285]

What do you research?

It really does take time to settle in. I've heard plenty of people complain that everything's so so different now they're living here but they forget that all of their visits had only ever been visits. There's so much more to living over here beyond the vacation spots, the tourist attractions and even the people change. But places like VJ help tremendously, I feel, for both information and finding a sense of relief. I've met some lovely people on here

Your schedule sounds like it's right up the wall. I used to work in health care back in England and I don't miss the manic schedule of 100 hours a week in creepy houses out in the middle of no place. Where abouts will you go when you move again? So far we've lived in ID, PA and WA and my husband was stationed in NY for 8 years. You'll be moving right in the middle of Winter, are you partial to snow?

Haha none actually. My box of wool is in storage but hubby got me a sexy new sewing machine so I'm prepping to open an Etsy store with quilts and blankets. If it'll let me attach a picture or two I'll shrink some down and add them. My little boy is only 1 and he loves being my guinea pig for new blankies

Yeah, bit of a geek lol I've just traded World of Warcraft in for a little bit of Tera and a bunch of Aion until the new WoW expansion is bug free and the population settles down. How're the US and the UK fairing in the Olympics?

Have you been to sites like Poppy's Pantry and the Pork Pie Company? The shipping can get a bit crazy but there are some okay shops online that sell British food items if you need a taste of home now and then.

Welp if this part of the conversation is too much for some I'll happily start a new thread in the off topic section. It's nice to see how other people manage the process from an extracurricular aspect. Might give some people who are a bit more lost a little idea of what they could do with themselves.

[simonschus 58]

I've messaged so as to avoid drowning the thread in my thoughts

[JamnSol 35]

I've been watching this exchange- Simon, I hope you'll post some of your answers here, I'm curious as well, to find out what you research!

Don't take it offline, there's a huge silent majority that reads this for fun and reassurance!

Best of luck to all,

James C

[Ischnura 285]

The replies get a tad long winded lol we'd be 70 pages in after 4 replies to one another. But inboxes are always open ^.^

[simonschus 58]

I'm a psychologist haha.

On a lighter note, a Tier 2 agent called me today and confirmed the same thing I was told yesterday- that I'm pending background namecheck still. They called in request for a callback request that I made on Monday that I thought was cancelled yesterday.

Also, I got bored and ran some stats yesterday. On the 1000 cases surrounding mine in early June, there was not much movement in I485 cases other than responses to RFIEs being received by the USCIS. Still the same number of cases scheduled for interview, ready to be scheduled, fingerprint fee received, or RFIE'd. The implication of this over a few days is that it really is just a waiting game to move off "Fingerprint fee received" just like Moslund suggested. Hopefully, that waiting game shall change to something positive in the next month or two.

Have a lovely weekend all. Do post if you happen to have updates or news!

Simon

Edited August 13, 2016 by simonschus

[chrisete 55]

oh no...dreaded rfie today. Can only wait now to find out what that is....am worried but not too stressed as I suspect it is an income requirement and my spouse is semi retired but with all out assests combined, I thought we thought it would be fine...waiting till I get that notice and find out what it is will be worse that the 6 weeks since the first NOA...urgh....

[simonschus 58]

oh no...dreaded rfie today. Can only wait now to find out what that is....am worried but not too stressed as I suspect it is an income requirement and my spouse is semi retired but with all out assests combined, I thought we thought it would be fine...waiting till I get that notice and find out what it is will be worse that the 6 weeks since the first NOA...urgh....

Hopefully it is an easy fix; I'm sure people around here will be able to give you some guidance if you need any help, and we'll all have you back up and running in no time at all

Let us know what comes up, and keep your head up! You're here now and that is all that matters in the long run :)

Simon.

[buzzz223 13]

I'm a psychologist haha.

On a lighter note, a Tier 2 agent called me today and confirmed the same thing I was told yesterday- that I'm pending background namecheck still. They called in request for a callback request that I made on Monday that I thought was cancelled yesterday.

Also, I got bored and ran some stats yesterday. On the 1000 cases surrounding mine in early June, there was not much movement in I485 cases other than responses to RFIEs being received by the USCIS. Still the same number of cases scheduled for interview, ready to be scheduled, fingerprint fee received, or RFIE'd. The implication of this over a few days is that it really is just a waiting game to move off "Fingerprint fee received" just like Moslund suggested. Hopefully, that waiting game shall change to something positive in the next month or two.

Have a lovely weekend all. Do post if you happen to have updates or news!

Simon

You're giving me a little hope since my status is stuck on 'fingerprint fee received' too. I will hit the 62 day mark next week and although I'm really trying to be patient I wonder if I should call them sometime on Tuesday as well and just ask what's up.

Did you ask to speak with a tier 2 or did you just inquire information about your case?

[simonschus 58]

You're giving me a little hope since my status is stuck on 'fingerprint fee received' too. I will hit the 62 day mark next week and although I'm really trying to be patient I wonder if I should call them sometime on Tuesday as well and just ask what's up.

Did you ask to speak with a tier 2 or did you just inquire information about your case?

I spoke to a Tier 2 agent.

Tier 1 agents can't see much more about my case beyond what I could see on the case tracker. As such, I spoke to a Tier 2 agent as they have access to an enhanced system to look up the case. I had to ask to the Tier 1 agent to do this but it is important to be polite because everybody is trying to do their job, and we don't want to be rude to anybody just because they aren't given access to the information we are after.

I justified calling because it had been more than 60 days since the last status change on my case as per here where it says " We are actively processing your case if, in the past 60 days, you: Received a notice from us about your case, Responded to a request for evidence, OR Received an online update to your case status.". However, you can probably just insist without providing much justification.

There are three things that could happen when they transfer you:

1) They take your details and tell you that you'll get a call back soon. This could be anytime between 1 hour or 5 days, and this happens when I phone a little later in the day or by the end of the day. In the afternoon, I've been told before that "We aren't transferring any more calls for the day but we can arrange a call back for you which could come anytime between 1 to 5 days from now" (or words to that effect).

2) They transfer you straight away, or put you on a hold. This is what happened to me when I found at 8am East Coast time (I was on the West Coast so it was 5am but I wanted to be one of the first callers for the day)

3) They refuse to transfer you. You should explicitly ask for a Tier 2 agent. If they still refuse after you push it a little bit more than you could hang up and call again... assuming you have a legitimate reason to call.

When I do eventually speak to a Tier 2 agent, they typically has put me on hold to look up my case and then get back to me which they did within a minute or two.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Simon.

P.S. It is fun to note that the USCIS has opening/closing times for their customer service centre. For mainland USA, that is 8-6pm local time. I have an East Coast cell phone number, and I *think* that the USCIS telephone system recognises this so it blocks me from calling after 6pm Eastern. This is annoying because I'm on the West Coast so 6pm is actually 3pm where I am haha. To get around this, I just call from Skype (it is a freephone number and you can make free calls to freephone telephone numbers on Skype; plus I have my Skype account associated with a UK telephone number so the USCIS telephone system is probably picking up on an international number). Equally, I could just be wrong.

Edited August 14, 2016 by simonschus

[chrisete 55]

Hopefully it is an easy fix; I'm sure people around here will be able to give you some guidance if you need any help, and we'll all have you back up and running in no time at all

Let us know what comes up, and keep your head up! You're here now and that is all that matters in the long run :)

Simon.

Thank you so much...you have no idea how much I appreciate it! This seems to be one big rollercoaster ride

PS. I hate roller coaster rides

[buzzz223 13]

I spoke to a Tier 2 agent.

Tier 1 agents can't see much more about my case beyond what I could see on the case tracker. As such, I spoke to a Tier 2 agent as they have access to an enhanced system to look up the case. I had to ask to the Tier 1 agent to do this but it is important to be polite because everybody is trying to do their job, and we don't want to be rude to anybody just because they aren't given access to the information we are after.

I justified calling because it had been more than 60 days since the last status change on my case as per here where it says " We are actively processing your case if, in the past 60 days, you: Received a notice from us about your case, Responded to a request for evidence, OR Received an online update to your case status.". However, you can probably just insist without providing much justification.

There are three things that could happen when they transfer you:

1) They take your details and tell you that you'll get a call back soon. This could be anytime between 1 hour or 5 days, and this happens when I phone a little later in the day or by the end of the day. In the afternoon, I've been told before that "We aren't transferring any more calls for the day but we can arrange a call back for you which could come anytime between 1 to 5 days from now" (or words to that effect).

2) They transfer you straight away, or put you on a hold. This is what happened to me when I found at 8am East Coast time (I was on the West Coast so it was 5am but I wanted to be one of the first callers for the day)

3) They refuse to transfer you. You should explicitly ask for a Tier 2 agent. If they still refuse after you push it a little bit more than you could hang up and call again... assuming you have a legitimate reason to call.

When I do eventually speak to a Tier 2 agent, they typically has put me on hold to look up my case and then get back to me which they did within a minute or two.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Simon.

P.S. It is fun to note that the USCIS has opening/closing times for their customer service centre. For mainland USA, that is 8-6pm local time. I have an East Coast cell phone number, and I *think* that the USCIS telephone system recognises this so it blocks me from calling after 6pm Eastern. This is annoying because I'm on the West Coast so 6pm is actually 3pm where I am haha. To get around this, I just call from Skype (it is a freephone number and you can make free calls to freephone telephone numbers on Skype; plus I have my Skype account associated with a UK telephone number so the USCIS telephone system is probably picking up on an international number). Equally, I could just be wrong.

Oh wow, thanks so much for this info! I didn't even know about the website you just shared.

In that case looks like I shouldn't really call yet. It has not been 60 days since the last status update (if I understand this whole thing correctly). I mean, the status says 'fingerprint fee received', but it looked like something happened on 07/25. Though only the date has changed. Does this mean something?

Can/should I still fill out the info on the website you shared or is it for those '60 days and later' cases only?

I'm so confused now. I was almost about to submit the form, but now I just don't know which date I should focus on..

Edited August 14, 2016 by buzzz223

[simonschus 58]

Oh wow, thanks so much for this info! I didn't even know about the website you just shared.

In that case looks like I shouldn't really call yet. It has not been 60 days since the last status update (if I understand this whole thing correctly). I mean, the status says 'fingerprint fee received', but it looked like something happened on 07/25. Though only the date has changed. Does this mean something?

Can/should I still fill out the info on the website you shared or is it for those '60 days and later' cases only?

I'm so confused now. I was almost about to submit the form, but now I just don't know which date I should focus on..

Whoops, I'm sorry as I can understand how I was confusing in that last message.

Ignore the form in that link entirely. The link was only for the quote that I included relating to cases being considered 'active' if they had been updated in the last 60 days. The rest of the page, everything else, i.e. the form and rest of the wording, is entirely unrelated for the purpose of your question. I just wanted to include the link to highlight the '60 day since last update' justification. I didn't appropriately signpost that the rest of the webpage including the form was irrelevant so that is my fault!

Returning to your question, you can actually call USCIS whenever you want and whenever they're open. I just cited '60 day' to try to justify to why I felt it was 100% legitimate for me to speak to a Tier 2 agent in case anybody thought I was wasting their resources haha and because I got a hard time from them once. You probably don't even need to justify it to them at all. If I was you, I'd just give them a call... and I'd do that as early as possible in the day so you can minimise having to wait to speak to a Tier 2 agent

The last updated date you saw on 07/25 is probably what a *lot* of us saw on our own cases, specifically that our cases were uploaded to the case tracker system. A lot of this happened around 07/25 and 07/26, as well as a week previous too. This update wouldn't count on action for the 60 days anyway as USCIS didn't communicate anything to you in the form of an email, a NOA or an RF(I)E. For the purpose of the 60 days, it'll be the date on the last change in status message that you had for you I-485 (e.g. the date that is associated with your 'filing fee received'... "On 30th June, we received your filing fee..." etc). Even if that date is less than 60 days from today, you can give the USCIS a call and ask to be transferred to a Tier 2 agent It might make you feel better or at least llke you know a bit more about what is going on.

Again, the '60 day' was me just trying to strengthen my own argument to the Tier 1 agent because they decided that they wanted to give me a hard time about being transferred. In other cases, they've not given me a hard time and so I didn't even need to mention it. I just said "it's been quite a long time and I'm starting to get worried about progress... is there any chance you might be able to transfer me to a Tier 2 agent because I know they have access to a bit more detail about my case processing...?".

I hope that has cleared things up a bit! Sorry again!

Simon.

P.S. The form I linked to is for submitting when you're outside the normal processing time for your application. You can't even submit the form at the moment on that website because the form can only be sent when your application/petition is well-within 'normal processing times'. Normal processing times differs based on the form in question and the location of that form, i.e. NBC, your Local Case Office, etc. The form does a date check against the date that you put into the form to see if that date is within normal processing time or not,. Like me, you're going to be a long way away from that on the I-485 so you'll be given an error message when you try to submit it (unless, of course, you choose an incorrect date but that isn't advisable). As for any other forms relating to K1, I think the EAD and Advance Parole normal processing times for a K1 is 90 days. You might be able to submit the EAD at 75 days online due to the EAD approaching the regulatory timeframe policy though. Even if you can't, you can phone up and ask a Tier 1 agent to do it which is the advised route in that link anyway.

Edited August 14, 2016 by simonschus

[buzzz223 13]

Whoops, I'm sorry as I can understand how I was confusing in that last message.

Ignore the form in that link entirely. The link was only for the quote that I included relating to cases being considered 'active' if they had been updated in the last 60 days. The rest of the page, everything else, i.e. the form and rest of the wording, is entirely unrelated for the purpose of your question. I just wanted to include the link to highlight the '60 day since last update' justification. I didn't appropriately signpost that the rest of the webpage including the form was irrelevant so that is my fault!

Returning to your question, you can actually call USCIS whenever you want and whenever they're open. I just cited '60 day' to try to justify to why I felt it was 100% legitimate for me to speak to a Tier 2 agent in case anybody thought I was wasting their resources haha and because I got a hard time from them once. You probably don't even need to justify it to them at all. If I was you, I'd just give them a call... and I'd do that as early as possible in the day so you can minimise having to wait to speak to a Tier 2 agent

The last updated date you saw on 07/25 is probably what a *lot* of us saw on our own cases, specifically that our cases were uploaded to the case tracker system. A lot of this happened around 07/25 and 07/26, as well as a week previous too. This update wouldn't count on action for the 60 days anyway as USCIS didn't communicate anything to you in the form of an email, a NOA or an RF(I)E. For the purpose of the 60 days, it'll be the date on the last change in status message that you had for you I-485 (e.g. the date that is associated with your 'filing fee received'... "On 30th June, we received your filing fee..." etc). Even if that date is less than 60 days from today, you can give the USCIS a call and ask to be transferred to a Tier 2 agent It might make you feel better or at least llke you know a bit more about what is going on.

Again, the '60 day' was me just trying to strengthen my own argument to the Tier 1 agent because they decided that they wanted to give me a hard time about being transferred. In other cases, they've not given me a hard time and so I didn't even need to mention it. I just said "it's been quite a long time and I'm starting to get worried about progress... is there any chance you might be able to transfer me to a Tier 2 agent because I know they have access to a bit more detail about my case processing...?".

I hope that has cleared things up a bit! Sorry again!

Simon.

P.S. The form I linked to is for submitting when you're outside the normal processing time for your application. You can't even submit the form at the moment on that website because the form can only be sent when your application/petition is well-within 'normal processing times'. Normal processing times differs based on the form in question and the location of that form, i.e. NBC, your Local Case Office, etc. The form does a date check against the date that you put into the form to see if that date is within normal processing time or not,. Like me, you're going to be a long way away from that on the I-485 so you'll be given an error message when you try to submit it (unless, of course, you choose an incorrect date but that isn't advisable). As for any other forms relating to K1, I think the EAD and Advance Parole normal processing times for a K1 is 90 days. You might be able to submit the EAD at 75 days online due to the EAD approaching the regulatory timeframe policy though. Even if you can't, you can phone up and ask a Tier 1 agent to do it which is the advised route in that link anyway.

Great! Thanks so much for the detailed info and clarification. This really helps!

I was already able to see all 3 of my cases on 06/21. When everyone got an update between 07/24 and 07/26 I thought that meant something and is a good sign (even though there was no update on the status itself). The date of my 'filing received fee' is 06/17 which will hit day 63 this coming Friday. Since I'll be gone for a few days anyway, I decided to call the week after next and find out what's going on.

I was really hoping this process would be just as smooth and quick as the K1 visa.

We send out the paperwork on the last day of March 2015. I thought I had more than enough time to do and take care of everything. In the end I actually had to drag out the whole visa process and get another extension because I didn't want to leave before April 2016. However, I messed up the dates for my medical and had to leave in March anyway

Anyway, thanks again for your inside and help! Can't wait to call and find out what's up!