I-751 Filers (September 2018)

[Pennycat 880]

42 minutes ago, Alimanu said:

Guys relax... Some of you are freaking out already.

 

4 minutes ago, desiring_dream18 said:

@Alimanu is correct. I see so many tensed folks here. Its just a Government process. USCIS is not a machine, they are humans just like us and they dont have any personal grudge against immigrants that they'll deny without a cause. So please go on with your regular schedule , in the end you'll end up worrying for absolutely nothing and wont get your daily job done

I fail to see how my helping someone understand what the process IS is "freaking out". Not everyone realizes that the cases aren't being looked at right now or how it all works. 

 

And in terms of Goldfish's anxiety, we all have different thresholds for stress and different triggers for what makes us stressed. You are here on a support site, which is completely optional part of this process for you. You don't have to give support/ answer questions but if you're here to get support and get YOUR questions answered, I don't think it's particularly fair of you to be annoyed by others doing the same for themselves at their level of need simply because it is greater than yours.

 

And as for USCIS, no they don't have personal grudges against immigrants (or not all of them do, there was a USCIS employee on here years ago threatening to make people's petitions take even longer because they were on Visajourney complaining about the wait time discrepancy between CSC and TSC) but they do have a high workload, low morale (annually the bottom 5 agency in the US government for morale), poor training, and clear incentive to get cases off their desks as quickly as possible. With this combination of factors, it is not an if but a when someone gets a NOID that should have been an RFE (that is not one of these "placeholder" abusers of the system). Either error, laziness or "eh, they'll be denied anyway, make it someone else's problem" (which is what I meant by '"personal feelings"). They are only human after all. 

 

Good news is that a NOID isn't the end of the world, and if you get a lawyer they should be able to sort it out quickly (USCIS lives in fear of being sued and a wrongful NOID when it should have been an RFE is a pretty Class A reason to sue them). 

[bariki 71]

On 9/24/2018 at 4:19 PM, worm said:

What are '9/11 changes in processing'. Could you please share a link to this information? I submitted my ROC on August 29th, 2018 at California center.

https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-updates-policy-guidance-certain-requests-evidence-and-notices-intent-deny

[bariki 71]

On 9/24/2018 at 2:50 PM, USC4SPOUSE said:

How about sending tax transcripts instead and including all W2s, 1099s etc.

It doesn't matter now. That ship sailed weeks ago now. :)

[bariki 71]

On 9/24/2018 at 4:16 PM, worm said:

How do you know when to file N-400? Is it exactly 3 years after the date conditional green card is issued?

90 days before the end of your third year of lawful permanent residency. Here's USCIS' handy tool to calculate it for you. ^^

 

https://www.uscis.gov/forms/uscis-early-filing-calculator

Edited September 26, 2018 by bariki

[Pennycat 880]

And in case anyone is interested in seeing the type of individual/ the mindset that can exist (or at least be hired by) USCIS, here's the thread and the quotes. The user "sgtdjusmc" came onto the thread and identified themselves as knowing that TSC was hiring up because he was one of the new hires. This was confirmed by finding that username on a federal hiring board and Twitter.

 

I have to link only to other users (and myself) replying to his objectionable posts because he or the moderators deleted them.

 

 

"All of you bashing TSC have no idea what you are talking about. Every time the president grants a new program such as DACA we have to process millions of new applications with the same amount of people. Then when we do hire have to train up. Immigration law is complicated after all. You are the ones trying to immigrate and will always have complaints. Instead of having your fiances come here why don't you go there?"

 

 

"I understand . However other services centers may be doing less forms or concentrate on other things. We have a large humanitarian staff here as well as employment based applications. I am the first to bash the government but take exception to being called incompetent. Those who want to bash are not making a good impression on the country they would like to join."

 

 

"Mart, so if things suck so bad there maybe you should be thankful you have an opportunity to come to the U.S. instead of complaining about our process."

 

"It is about me when people say we are incompetent. I have been waiting for four years for my Va benefits but just understand there is a huge backlog.By the time a file gets given to me to make a decision on months have passed and I try to have a 1 day turn around if there is no rfe needed.There are also security investigations as well as marriage fraud. Sometimes they take awhile. TSC just got nailed for letting in a Gang member who then killed four people so there are some extra steps being taken so it doesn't happen again.Should things go quicker? Yup, but does anything go quickly in the government? I am just saying give us a break.I shouldn't have joined the forum. Thought it would have been constructive.I would like to know how you are being treated unequally unless you mean the presidents exec actions"

 

Then there's one that is deleted but not quoted (but I have/had a screenshot of it somewhere I think) that says "I hope your petition waits, stef" (you can see Stef's reaction to that here) followed by asking another user in the conversation for their A-number, the context was clear that he hoped that we'd/they'd have to wait longer and asking for the A- number implied that he could make it happen.

 

"What's your A number dereck"

 

 

I remember this clearly because I happened to be in a private chat with Stef and a few other people who filed around the same time as me and I also happen to be intimately familiar with federal employment issues (processes, rules, morale etc) and we took screen shots and handled it through the proper channels. 

 

While I don't think that this person is representative of USCIS employees on the whole, I am positive that he is not the only one with this general attitude toward the immigrants whose cases he's processing. There are just too many of them, from too many walks of life and frankly, the bar to being an ISO is really pretty low (moving up takes some work). There's bound to be more than just one bad apple. This one just happened to talk about it publicly. I wouldn't be surprised if I were told that this attitude was pervasive, but I wouldn't assume that. But seriously, if someone who had reason to know would tell me that this is a common attitude, I would not be shocked.

 

Read the whole thread, too, NO ONE was rude to him directly until he flipped out and the only thing that was really negative directed at USCIS was saying "who knows what the problem is, lazy workers, incompetent management, apathy" which is first-- not even saying what the problem IS in the first place, but is all likely to be true in come combination (the incompenent management seems to be the winner with this particular issue between the I-129fs between TSC and CSC at that point and is even what this worker was complaing about anyway!) and even if it was a screed abouit how terrible USCIS is and how they all suck etc....it's a free country, right? And while claims of "first amendment rights" on internet forums are usually really stupid (the first amendment isn't protecting you from being banned for arguing or saying bad words, it is protecting you from the government forbidding or punishing you for exercising free speech)-- this is the rare case where it would come into play! This was "the government" threatening negative action because of something people were saying!

So anyway. Give someone like this the opportunity to NOID when they used to be required to RFE and I think there's bound to be some problems. Maybe because of his feelings toward immigrants/ applicants, maybe the dislike of how long RFEs take him (there's mention of that somewhere in there), maybe lack of training, extra stress, whatever. They're human. So that means that (1) yes, they aren't robots doing things quickly and in perfect order as you said but (2) they are prone to mistakes and all have their own personal bias.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by Pennycat

[bariki 71]

25 minutes ago, Pennycat said:

And in case anyone is interested in seeing the type of individual/ the mindset that can exist (or at least be hired by) USCIS, here's the thread and the quotes. The user "sgtdjusmc" came onto the thread and identified themselves as knowing that TSC was hiring up because he was one of the new hires. This was confirmed by finding that username on a federal hiring board and Twitter.

 

I have to link only to other users (and myself) replying to his objectionable posts because he or the moderators deleted them.

 

 

"All of you bashing TSC have no idea what you are talking about. Every time the president grants a new program such as DACA we have to process millions of new applications with the same amount of people. Then when we do hire have to train up. Immigration law is complicated after all. You are the ones trying to immigrate and will always have complaints. Instead of having your fiances come here why don't you go there?"

 

 

"I understand . However other services centers may be doing less forms or concentrate on other things. We have a large humanitarian staff here as well as employment based applications. I am the first to bash the government but take exception to being called incompetent. Those who want to bash are not making a good impression on the country they would like to join."

 

 

"Mart, so if things suck so bad there maybe you should be thankful you have an opportunity to come to the U.S. instead of complaining about our process."

 

"It is about me when people say we are incompetent. I have been waiting for four years for my Va benefits but just understand there is a huge backlog.By the time a file gets given to me to make a decision on months have passed and I try to have a 1 day turn around if there is no rfe needed.There are also security investigations as well as marriage fraud. Sometimes they take awhile. TSC just got nailed for letting in a Gang member who then killed four people so there are some extra steps being taken so it doesn't happen again.Should things go quicker? Yup, but does anything go quickly in the government? I am just saying give us a break.I shouldn't have joined the forum. Thought it would have been constructive.I would like to know how you are being treated unequally unless you mean the presidents exec actions"

 

Then there's one that is deleted but not quoted (but I have/had a screenshot of it somewhere I think) that says "I hope your petition waits, stef" (you can see Stef's reaction to that here) followed by asking another user in the conversation for their A-number, the context was clear that he hoped that we'd/they'd have to wait longer and asking for the A- number implied that he could make it happen.

 

"What's your A number dereck"

 

 

I remember this clearly because I happened to be in a private chat with Stef and a few other people who filed around the same time as me and I also happen to be intimately familiar with federal employment issues (processes, rules, morale etc) and we took screen shots and handled it through the proper channels. 

 

While I don't think that this person is representative of USCIS employees on the whole, I am positive that he is not the only one with this general attitude toward the immigrants whose cases he's processing. There are just too many of them, from too many walks of life and frankly, the bar to being an ISO is really pretty low (moving up takes some work). There's bound to be more than just one bad apple. This one just happened to talk about it publicly. I wouldn't be surprised if I were told that this attitude was pervasive, but I wouldn't assume that. But seriously, if someone who had reason to know would tell me that this is a common attitude, I would not be shocked.

 

Read the whole thread, too, NO ONE was rude to him directly until he flipped out and the only thing that was really negative directed at USCIS was saying "who knows what the problem is, lazy workers, incompetent management, apathy" which is first-- not even saying what the problem IS in the first place, but is all likely to be true in come combination (the incompenent management seems to be the winner with this particular issue between the I-129fs between TSC and CSC at that point and is even what this worker was complaing about anyway!) and even if it was a screed abouit how terrible USCIS is and how they all suck etc....it's a free country, right? And while claims of "first amendment rights" on internet forums are usually really stupid (the first amendment isn't protecting you from being banned for arguing or saying bad words, it is protecting you from the government forbidding or punishing you for exercising free speech)-- this is the rare case where it would come into play! This was "the government" threatening negative action because of something people were saying!

So anyway. Give someone like this the opportunity to NOID when they used to be required to RFE and I think there's bound to be some problems. Maybe because of his feelings toward immigrants/ applicants, maybe the dislike of how long RFEs take him (there's mention of that somewhere in there), maybe lack of training, extra stress, whatever. They're human. So that means that (1) yes, they aren't robots doing things quickly and in perfect order as you said but (2) they are prone to mistakes and all have their own personal bias.

All of this is way beyond our control as filers. As long as they don't lose parts of my submission (like when they lost of my medical records during AOS), I'll be happy.

[Pennycat 880]

1 minute ago, bariki said:

All of this is way beyond our control as filers. As long as they don't lose parts of my submission (like when they lost of my medical records during AOS), I'll be happy.

Exactly, I am just replying to  desiring_dream18's statement "USCIS is not a machine, they are humans just like us and they dont have any personal grudge against immigrants that they'll deny without a cause. " I'm not saying that they'll like see your photo or name or whatever and say "nope, no more Colombians this week" or whatever but that yes they ARE humans and some of them aren't going to like immigrants too much. Add that with poor training (like the medical exam issue-- we had the same one), low morale, the huge workload, and incentive to NOID instead RFE (time saving, making it someone else's problem) and there WILL be people unjustly denied instead of RFE'd.

 

Like, this guy, this attitude, if he's in a hurry and he's got his supervisor breathing down his neck and he already doesn't like the applicants in general, if he sees a "missing" medical (that he doesn't remember the applicant doesn't need because they're a K1 and that he is supposed to request from CBP), what's he going to do? Take his time to research the issue to figure out the problem? Take the time to go through the steps to RFE (and keeping this file in his inbox, making his numbers look bad) or just NOID and someone else will figure it out?  I'm not trying to scare people and I'm not down on USCIS employees on the whole. But as with any large organization, there are going to be some bad ones. And now they've been given greater ability to make an even bigger mistake.

[bariki 71]

4 minutes ago, Pennycat said:

Exactly, I am just replying to  desiring_dream18's statement "USCIS is not a machine, they are humans just like us and they dont have any personal grudge against immigrants that they'll deny without a cause. " I'm not saying that they'll like see your photo or name or whatever and say "nope, no more Colombians this week" or whatever but that yes they ARE humans and some of them aren't going to like immigrants too much. Add that with poor training (like the medical exam issue-- we had the same one), low morale, the huge workload, and incentive to NOID instead RFE (time saving, making it someone else's problem) and there WILL be people unjustly denied instead of RFE'd.

 

Like, this guy, this attitude, if he's in a hurry and he's got his supervisor breathing down his neck and he already doesn't like the applicants in general, if he sees a "missing" medical (that he doesn't remember the applicant doesn't need because they're a K1 and that he is supposed to request from CBP), what's he going to do? Take his time to research the issue to figure out the problem? Take the time to go through the steps to RFE (and keeping this file in his inbox, making his numbers look bad) or just NOID and someone else will figure it out?  I'm not trying to scare people and I'm not down on USCIS employees on the whole. But as with any large organization, there are going to be some bad ones. And now they've been given greater ability to make an even bigger mistake.

Which, as I forgot to include photocopies of the front and back of my green card, is not a prospect I relish...

[Pennycat 880]

3 minutes ago, bariki said:

Which, as I forgot to include photocopies of the front and back of my green card, is not a prospect I relish...

Oof yeah. I would hope that they RFE that. Actually, maybe that's one of the first-step checks (like making sure you've signed it and paid them) and it'll be sent back now? I'd hope for that scenario myself.

[Texas2016 18]

I send my package on September 11th and I lost my USPS tracking number 😞 I have not heard back yet and I called USCIS last week and they said that it could take up to 30 days to hear back from them. I guess I will have to wait for two more weeks or so... Getting worried.

[desiring_dream18 18]

@Texas2016 Did you get your checks cashed? or moneyorder?

 

@Pennycat I understand, you are correct, all I am saying is if someone is confident about the paper they sent, they shouldnt be very nervous, because thats the best someone can do and hope for the best

Edited September 26, 2018 by desiring_dream18

[Texas2016 18]

2 minutes ago, desiring_dream18 said:

@Texas2016 Did you get your checks cashed? or moneyorder?

 

@Pennycat I understand, you are correct, all I am saying is if someone is confident about the paper they sent, they shouldnt be very nervous

Hi!

Well, it was a cashier's check from the bank, so it was already taken out of my account before I send it. Can I check this with the bank?

[desiring_dream18 18]

@Texas2016 Yes you can from the issuing bank.Contact the bank, you have the reciept for the cashier's check i believe

[happiestoflives 17]

4 minutes ago, Texas2016 said:

Hi!

Well, it was a cashier's check from the bank, so it was already taken out of my account before I send it. Can I check this with the bank?

If you have the Information on the check, they should be able to tell you. Thats how I tracked our payment 

Edited September 26, 2018 by happiestoflives

[bariki 71]

52 minutes ago, Pennycat said:

Oof yeah. I would hope that they RFE that. Actually, maybe that's one of the first-step checks (like making sure you've signed it and paid them) and it'll be sent back now? I'd hope for that scenario myself.

Tragically, it’ll be an RFE according to USCIS. If I had filed after the rule change, it would have been rejected.