September 2017 AOS Filers

[Mr Geminian 691]

27 minutes ago, Gemma said:

Hi guys,

 

As several of you are considering to file SR I wanted to hand some general advice. Take it for what it is, just my personal experience.

 

Before submitting a Service Request consider the following:

 

- You need a reason as Aviinashh explained:

 

- Them taking too long is not a valid reason. They would not consider anything short of 90 days as too long. If nevertheless you still want to SR, you need to provide a reason (see above).

- A service request does not guarantees you will get it granted or your application will be processed faster (not necessarily). 

 

As an example, I asked to have it expedited due to financial loss because I have a job offer. It's been over two weeks and I still have no news on what they have decided (or if they have decided). In the meantime other people who filed for AOS/EAD on the same dates as myself has already received their EAD, without filing any service request (happy for them!). Also, I called and they told me they cannot provide any further information, and that it may take 30 days to process the expedite.

 

What I mean is that I get it is frustrating, and I understand it's way too long. But, before putting in a SR check if you really have a way of justifying it and understand that even if you are right, they may still not process it faster. It'll go to a different pile, and that pile may be faster or slower.

Thanks and yes all those won't help..oh forgot to mention that2 weeks ago I have even contacted my local congressman and asked for his help...haven't heard anything from him...i believe that when the right time comes things will fall into place no matter how much you want things to happen it just won't happen because they are destined to happen on said date and time.

[Path24 75]

11 minutes ago, Aviinashh said:

Thanks and yes all those won't help..oh forgot to mention that2 weeks ago I have even contacted my local congressman and asked for his help...haven't heard anything from him...i believe that when the right time comes things will fall into place no matter how much you want things to happen it just won't happen because they are destined to happen on said date and time.

So in conclusion I should not do SR or anything let the things go in the flow

and funny thing I tried to SR and wifi wasn't working so I guess God doesn't want me to do SR either. /so I decided I ll go with flow and wait for it  

[PR&PR 325]

2 hours ago, Gemma said:

Hi guys,

 

As several of you are considering to file SR I wanted to hand some general advice. Take it for what it is, just my personal experience.

 

Before submitting a Service Request consider the following:

 

- You need a reason as Aviinashh explained:

 

- Them taking too long is not a valid reason. They would not consider anything short of 90 days as too long. If nevertheless you still want to SR, you need to provide a reason (see above).

- A service request does not guarantees you will get it granted or your application will be processed faster (not necessarily). 

 

As an example, I asked to have it expedited due to financial loss because I have a job offer. It's been over two weeks and I still have no news on what they have decided (or if they have decided). In the meantime other people who filed for AOS/EAD on the same dates as myself has already received their EAD, without filing any service request (happy for them!). Also, I called and they told me they cannot provide any further information, and that it may take 30 days to process the expedite.

 

What I mean is that I get it is frustrating, and I understand it's way too long. But, before putting in a SR check if you really have a way of justifying it and understand that even if you are right, they may still not process it faster. It'll go to a different pile, and that pile may be faster or slower.

You are confusing SR and expedite...What you are talking is expedite...SR are if you haven't received anything you can place one after 75 days, but they take time before being assigned and don't do much it seems...Given that they are now between 90-120 days...I don't know what SR do but if they are backlogged, sending more inquiries just seem like it si going to make it worse.

[JeffJZuk 64]

14 minutes ago, PR&PR said:

You are confusing SR and expedite...What you are talking is expedite...SR are if you haven't received anything you can place one after 75 days, but they take time before being assigned and don't do much it seems...Given that they are now between 90-120 days...I don't know what SR do but if they are backlogged, sending more inquiries just seem like it si going to make it worse.

It was noted to me today by an officer that SR absolutely do not slow your application down by any means. It is simply a check in on your application as to where is in line and to give a nudge to the officers looking over it so they can justify whether or not your application should move ahead in the line or not. 

[Path24 75]

36 minutes ago, JeffJZuk said:

It was noted to me today by an officer that SR absolutely do not slow your application down by any means. It is simply a check in on your application as to where is in line and to give a nudge to the officers looking over it so they can justify whether or not your application should move ahead in the line or not. 

Did you do SR yet. ?

Edited November 30, 2017 by Path24
Correction

[PR&PR 325]

3 hours ago, JeffJZuk said:

It was noted to me today by an officer that SR absolutely do not slow your application down by any means. It is simply a check in on your application as to where is in line and to give a nudge to the officers looking over it so they can justify whether or not your application should move ahead in the line or not. 

It won't slow down your application per say, but it still require resources to handle those, so I'd be curious to know what those people could be doing instead of inquiring. And if the officer who is working on your case (and others), keeps getting inquiries, it means he's being distracted from actually doing his job...so in my opinion it does create a whole issue of slowing down the whole process. I mean, if we have ground for SR definitely, but as it seems the deadlines are more 90-120 days...why do it when it won't get assigned and won'T do much. 

[JeffJZuk 64]

39 minutes ago, PR&PR said:

It won't slow down your application per say, but it still require resources to handle those, so I'd be curious to know what those people could be doing instead of inquiring. And if the officer who is working on your case (and others), keeps getting inquiries, it means he's being distracted from actually doing his job...so in my opinion it does create a whole issue of slowing down the whole process. I mean, if we have ground for SR definitely, but as it seems the deadlines are more 90-120 days...why do it when it won't get assigned and won'T do much. 

The fact of the matter is if an officer is working on an November filer on their 29th day and I send in a SR the time the officer gets a notification about my SR is when my application is close to the 90 day mark which makes sense. And isn’t a waste of time in anyway.  While the 90 day mark is not mandated it’s a measurable point of efficiency and probably a key metric in understanding how many applications they currently have on location as well as to ensure that the application makes its way back into the proper spot in line if it lost its spot in the thousands  of other applications or if it is on track and just slow due to high demand. 

 

Let’s say you have a scenario where there is a large demand for EAD’s comparative to another slower month if you don’t raise an SR when you are able to you are missing out on potentially decreasing the probability for your application to be lost, potential errors not being brought up until a much later date, and slow your chances even more because of human error. I assume USCIS wants to process you in the shortest possible time whilst gaining the most amount of information on you to make a safe decision. 

 

Also most deadlines are all over the place. This website may create a “guesstimate” on EAD approval however the variables when dealing with something like this are to great to accurately predict or portray an “absolute” for anyone frankly. 

 

I think for some Filers in August that Haven’t received there EAD yet could possibly have someone looking extra careful into it. Some times the simplest answers are the ones that our own minds seem to never want to justify. 

 

[Saturnalia 11]

I’m not sure if I should bother either expediting or sending in my service request. 

 

I sent in my AOS (but not my I-765) in July and did my biometrics in the middle of August. In the middle of September, I realized I hadn’t filed for my EAD and sent in the I-765 on September 18th. They sent the NOA for that on Sept. 20th, then sent an NOA on Sept. 22nd stating that they could reuse my biometrics from my AOS. 

In October, my husband petitioned our congressman to try to expedite it based on the fact that my biometrics has been done for months and that we would not be able to pay all our bills if we had to wait until December for my EAD. We gave them our bank statements and all of our bills and told the caseworker that Geico wanted to hire me but couldn’t give me a written offer without authorization. The caseworker pretty much tried to talk us out of expediting even though it was our only hope, but my husband told her to do it. She came back a few days later saying that basically USCIS thought we had “more money than most people” and that they would usually only expedite if we were about to get foreclosed on or something to that degree - so we’d have to wait until December when we were about to lose everything, then wait for them to give me my authorization, then find a job... sure. She told us to call back if I get a job offer. 

 

We didn’t really feel positive that she did all that she could on her end, so I filed to expedite the case with USCIS directly in the beginning of November. They assigned me a case officer and sent me an RFE for it, but I didn’t really feel like it would do anything so I never faxed anything. Will this affect my timeline at all?

 

Now, I’m about to get a written job offer tomorrow that will have January 3rd as my start date. I’m just unsure if I should even bother trying to expedite it, as USCIS’ website says they’re processing cases as of Sept. 15th - I’m not even sure what date my case is of (first NOA dated Sept 20th but case received on 18th, biometrics NOA dated Sept 22nd, expedite RFE dated Nov 1st but I never sent anything). I don’t want to prolong the process by expediting it or sending in a SR, but I’m also not sure if my unanswered RFE is going to cause any problems. Anyone have any advice for me?

[Gemma 41]

11 hours ago, PR&PR said:

You are confusing SR and expedite...What you are talking is expedite...SR are if you haven't received anything you can place one after 75 days, but they take time before being assigned and don't do much it seems...Given that they are now between 90-120 days...I don't know what SR do but if they are backlogged, sending more inquiries just seem like it si going to make it worse.

 

Hi @PR&PR,

 

Thanks, I agree it's confusing by the names USCIS uses. Truly the list I mentioned was about a type of service request to Expedite, as you very well noticed.

 

As for the other types of service requests (there are several), this may be helpful: https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume1-PartA-Chapter8.html

 

For those of you interested in the "Approaching Regulatory Timeframe" look at this:

 

Good luck!

[Gemma 41]

Hi @Saturnalia

 

I have not been in that situation, so I do not talk from experience. But it seems to me that maybe you should call USCIS and figure out if they are still waiting on you to reply to RFE. It looks like the clock stops when they send you a RFE. 

 

Hope someone in the forum may help you better!

[Saturnalia 11]

38 minutes ago, Gemma said:

Hi @Saturnalia

 

I have not been in that situation, so I do not talk from experience. But it seems to me that maybe you should call USCIS and figure out if they are still waiting on you to reply to RFE. It looks like the clock stops when they send you a RFE. 

 

Hope someone in the forum may help you better!

I just called and asked to speak to a tier 2 officer. He said that basically if the USCIS office sent me an RFE to expedite and I didn’t answer it, then the case goes back to being processed normally since the officer assigned to my case can’t continue with it. But after seeing what you just posted, I’m not entirely sure if I believe he knows what he’s talking about... I asked if I could just cancel the request and he said there is no way to cancel it once I’ve requested it. I think I may call back and try to talk to another person for a second opinion. Even with customer service reps at USCIS, I always get a different answer depending on who I’m talking to. 

[Gemma 41]

9 minutes ago, Saturnalia said:

I just called and asked to speak to a tier 2 officer. He said that basically if the USCIS office sent me an RFE to expedite and I didn’t answer it, then the case goes back to being processed normally since the officer assigned to my case can’t continue with it. But after seeing what you just posted, I’m not entirely sure if I believe he knows what he’s talking about... I asked if I could just cancel the request and he said there is no way to cancel it once I’ve requested it. I think I may call back and try to talk to another person for a second opinion. Even with customer service reps at USCIS, I always get a different answer depending on who I’m talking to. 

That sounds great! Again, I have no experience and if the Tier 2 officer clarified that's good. He knows 100% better than I do. A second opinion never hurts, but I hope they both agree and you don't have to worry about it.

[Saturnalia 11]

11 minutes ago, Gemma said:

That sounds great! Again, I have no experience and if the Tier 2 officer clarified that's good. He knows 100% better than I do. A second opinion never hurts, but I hope they both agree and you don't have to worry about it.

Thank you! I talked to another tier 2 officer, explained the situation again as well as what the policy manual says, and she said “those are two different RFEs”. So my case is still being processed as normal. I asked both officers whether it’s worthwhile for me to send in the job offer once I get it tomorrow since they’re processing as of the 15th and I’m the 18th (the first officer confirmed they go by received date as filing date, yay), and they both told me “that’s your decision”... I don’t want to add on another week just for them to process the expedite evidence so I think I’ll wait. Thanks for posting the manual, though, Gemma!

[Alexia TL 123]

Hey guys, little update, I got my EAD/AP combo card in the mail today! 

 

Hope you all get yours soon ! 😘

[Chelleyandaaron 528]

1 hour ago, Saturnalia said:

I asked both officers whether it’s worthwhile for me to send in the job offer once I get it tomorrow since they’re processing as of the 15th and I’m the 18th (the first officer confirmed they go by received date as filing date, yay), and they both told me “that’s your decision”...

 

I have been running checks on the case tracker app to see how many i-1765 cases are actually approved from the first half of September and it is VERY few - I can find two approved from the 15th September so I am highly sceptical that they are actually processing large numbers of cases as of this date (my date is 15th September).

 

I was delighted to see people posting here to say that they have their EAD because it proves that

a) September cases are being processed

b) USCIS is not always updating its case tracker

 

Of the case numbers from to there are 568 i-765 cases.  Of these I can find five approvals. (these have dates of between 11th and 15th September - but are not all cases in this date range as some early cases are in earlier case number batches - case numbers have not always been assigned chronologically so this makes sorting out the figures more complicated)

 

in random batches of case numbers going back to august 24th, I found another 747 i-765 cases (these are a sample - not all cases) of which only two had approvals,