Processing Times and The Current Administration:

[Robert D 0]

I am noticing that some of the various visa assistant/processing consultants & services online saying that the because of the current (Trump) administration's "crackdown on immigrants" (not my words), that if there are errors on the forms a higher percentage of immediate denials will be issued by USCIS and they will not bother with sending any RFE (Request for Evidence) and NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny) notices to allow these corrections to be made.

My first thought is that this is merely a sales tactic to "scare" us into paying for their services; I actually had one of these consultants tell me this on the phone and they then made an me immediate offer & discount to "act before things get worse". Is this truly the case or am I right?

Please, I am not looking for comments about Trump or politics as this is not the place for that, only sincere replies to my question... Thanks!

Edited September 17, 2018 by Robert D

[Robert D 0]

17 minutes ago, Robert D said:

I am trying to edit this to add the comments but looks like I can't do that, so see below...

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Robert D
Add Posting

[Robert D 0]

15 minutes ago, Robert D said:

I am noticing that some of the various visa assistant/processing consultants & services online saying that the because of the current (Trump) administration's "crackdown on immigrants" (not my words), that if there are errors on the forms a higher percentage of immediate denials will be issued by USCIS and they will not bother with sending any RFE (Request for Evidence) and NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny) notices to allow these corrections to be made.

My first thought is that this is merely a sales tactic to "scare" us into paying for their services; I actually had one of these consultants tell me this on the phone and they then made an me immediate offer & discount to "act before things get worse". Is this truly the case or am I right?

Please, I am not looking for comments about Trump or politics as this is not the place for that, only sincere replies to my question... Thanks!

I have copied and pasted here a portion of one of these postings:

 

Tougher USCIS to Deny without RFE or NOID
USCIS, which was never that helpful, on September 11th 2018
will become less so.

In the past when applications for fiance visas, spouse visas, adjustment of status ran into trouble, because the applicant didn't quite know what he was doing, the reviewer at USCIS often, halted processing, then spent the time and effort to issue a RFE (Request for Evidence) that listed what was missing giving the opportunity to respond and correct the error. Or if a case was in risk of being denied due to missing materials, a NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny)
might be issued, also giving the application an opportunity to correct mistakes.

Now USCIS can skip the RFE, skip the NOID and go directly to denial, and in some cases directly to the start of deportation.

Under the Obama Administration USCIS reviewers were only
allowed to deny out right under the most obviously ineligible cases. Now Obama’s “friendly” USCIS is a thing of the past. Under President Trump, two new policies are now taking effect. First USCIS can now deny, without warning, without allowing an applicant to fix his problems. No longer is USCIS required to issue a warning describing what is needed. No longer required to issue an RFE and ask for more info, or even a NOID (notice of INTENT to deny) warning that an application is in jeopardy.

And second and even more troubling, is that if the immigrant is physically present in the U.S.A., once a decision to deny is made, USCIS can immediately start deportation proceedings. Many applicants will be put on track for deportation before they have a chance to clear bureaucratic glitches or misunderstandings.

Now is not the time to risk making mistakes when filing
applications to immigration.

 

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

14 minutes ago, Robert D said:

I am noticing that some of the various visa assistant/processing consultants & services online saying that the because of the current (Trump) administration's "crackdown on immigrants" (not my words), that if there are errors on the forms a higher percentage of immediate denials will be issued by USCIS and they will not bother with sending any RFE (Request for Evidence) and NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny) notices to allow these corrections to be made.

My first thought is that this is merely a sales tactic to "scare" us into paying for their services; I actually had one of these consultants tell me this on the phone and they then made an me immediate offer & discount to "act before things get worse". Is this truly the case or am I right?

Please, I am not looking for comments about Trump or politics as this is not the place for that, only sincere replies to my question... Thanks!

Yeah this has been discussed in nauseam here on VJ. The vast majority of them are hyping this to get more people to sign up for their services which "guarantee a visa".  When they can't guarantee anything but waste our money. 

 

The vast majority of people who have actually read the notice both on here and reddit including myself don't see a problem with this at all. Because some people send in just the documents and hardly anything else to hopefully try and bring those documents to the interview. When the vast majority of time it doesn't even make it there.

[Robert D 0]

4 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

Yeah this has been discussed in nauseam here on VJ. The vast majority of them are hyping this to get more people to sign up for their services which "guarantee a visa".  When they can't guarantee anything but waste our money. 

 

The vast majority of people who have actually read the notice both on here and reddit including myself don't see a problem with this at all. Because some people send in just the documents and hardly anything else to hopefully try and bring those documents to the interview. When the vast majority of time it doesn't even make it there.

Thanks- I'll search for these discussions here...

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

10 minutes ago, Robert D said:

Thanks- I'll search for these discussions here...

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/678488-uscis-updates-policy-guidance-for-certain-requests-for-evidence-and-notices-of-intent-to-denymerged/?page=21

[geowrian 22,337]

People will say anything to scare people into using their services. Search for the facts. If you read the instructions and guides, you can file a complete packet fine.

Edited September 17, 2018 by geowrian

[TM92 527]

2 hours ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

The vast majority of them are hyping this to get more people to sign up for their services which "guarantee a visa".  When they can't guarantee anything but waste our money.

The typical "cure all" sales technique:

[dcgood70462 23]

I do agree with the sales tactics and hype. But I must say, due to the amount of RFE's I have seen on this site, I would recommend at least considering a reputable firm to help with the package. I have been using a firm for several years for various things such as visa expedites, passport expedites and also the same firm for two K1 applications which were both approved with no RFE's. Unfortunately, the first one didn't work out. I have seen several lawyers even screw up applications on here. I chose to use the firm here recently because of todays environment with longer wait times higher scrutiny of the applications. Sure, I could have done it on my own, but I could afford to pay the couple hundred bucks and it gave me peace of mind that a third party reviewed it for errors and missing documents before it reached USCIS. They also organize the application in a way USCIS likes to see it. I am not saying everyone should do it, I am just providing another point of view. An RFE can add another one to two months to an already exacerbating seven month wait. My view is why chance it.  If you have potentially legal issues or criminal background problems, I would highly recommend a lawyer over a visa firm. Visa firms and coaches are not legal experts. They merely help put the package together.

 

Good luck!

[Daisy.Chain 317]

1 hour ago, dcgood70462 said:

I do agree with the sales tactics and hype. But I must say, due to the amount of RFE's I have seen on this site, I would recommend at least considering a reputable firm to help with the package. I have been using a firm for several years for various things such as visa expedites, passport expedites and also the same firm for two K1 applications which were both approved with no RFE's. Unfortunately, the first one didn't work out. I have seen several lawyers even screw up applications on here. I chose to use the firm here recently because of todays environment with longer wait times higher scrutiny of the applications. Sure, I could have done it on my own, but I could afford to pay the couple hundred bucks and it gave me peace of mind that a third party reviewed it for errors and missing documents before it reached USCIS. They also organize the application in a way USCIS likes to see it. I am not saying everyone should do it, I am just providing another point of view. An RFE can add another one to two months to an already exacerbating seven month wait. My view is why chance it.  If you have potentially legal issues or criminal background problems, I would highly recommend a lawyer over a visa firm. Visa firms and coaches are not legal experts. They merely help put the package together.

 

Good luck!

I have a friend who did the same, but I get greater piece of mind from having done it myself (with a fairly straightforward application.) I'd be afraid that come application is less important to a law firm and than it is to me and that they might miss something! My friend got two RFE's for some pretty obvious errors. It depends on the circumstances.

[Scandi 4,166]

2 hours ago, dcgood70462 said:

I do agree with the sales tactics and hype. But I must say, due to the amount of RFE's I have seen on this site, I would recommend at least considering a reputable firm to help with the package. I have been using a firm for several years for various things such as visa expedites, passport expedites and also the same firm for two K1 applications which were both approved with no RFE's. Unfortunately, the first one didn't work out. I have seen several lawyers even screw up applications on here. I chose to use the firm here recently because of todays environment with longer wait times higher scrutiny of the applications. Sure, I could have done it on my own, but I could afford to pay the couple hundred bucks and it gave me peace of mind that a third party reviewed it for errors and missing documents before it reached USCIS. They also organize the application in a way USCIS likes to see it. I am not saying everyone should do it, I am just providing another point of view. An RFE can add another one to two months to an already exacerbating seven month wait. My view is why chance it.  If you have potentially legal issues or criminal background problems, I would highly recommend a lawyer over a visa firm. Visa firms and coaches are not legal experts. They merely help put the package together.

 

Good luck!

Exactly, they don't do anything that you can't very easily do yourself with a little help from this website (for free).

 

Besides, USCIS will still keep issuing RFEs when needed, in that regard nothing has changed.