CaseTracker app

[tootiespookie 67]

Hello fellow applicants,

 

I was wondering if anyone here knows more about the CaseTracker app and ways to "extract" the data of any given query into workable text. Or any other tool or app out there that would accomplish this. I'm a big time nerd who loves to work with numbers and that combined with impatience and USCIS... well, it leads tons and tons of manually entered spreadsheets....

 

Right now I would love to get an idea of how cases are advancing numbers-wise rather than the occasional approval announcement posts here and there. I know there's no reason or rhyme to how USCIS works and right now it's all a big black box for all of us, but for now, getting the hard numbers and studying their statistics would ease my anxious little brain. Even if we all know USCIS' system sometimes doesn't update statuses or sends out glitchy messages, I'm still dying to get these numbers.

 

So far, I've tried taking long screenshots and putting them through an OCR but the images are either too large for any OCR or the data I get is pure gibberish and the image wasn't properly "read".

 

So if anyone out there knows a way to get this raw data, please let me know. Would most definitely be updating anyone/everyone interested in these statistics on a regular basis if I manage to get this in plain text.

 

Thanks!

[NikV 44]

I don't think there is a raw API that you can call. You may be able to make a web request and parse the content returned for collecting this data. I think this is why casetracker app is slow to pull data.

 

If you can script away something using javascript, you can use this package 

https://www.npmjs.com/package/req-uscis-status

Edited September 19, 2018 by NikV

[tootiespookie 67]

1 minute ago, NikV said:

I don't think there is a raw API that you can call. You may be able to make a web request and parse the content returned for collecting this data. I think this is why casetracker app is slow to pull data.

Ah yes. I need to do some more research.... not sure how to go about this yet. Thanks for the tip

[geowrian 22,337]

13 minutes ago, NikV said:

I don't think there is a raw API that you can call. You may be able to make a web request and parse the content returned for collecting this data. I think this is why casetracker app is slow to pull data.

 

If you can script away something using javascript, you can use this package 

https://www.npmjs.com/package/req-uscis-status

Exactly. I wrote a number of node apps for this to help in identifying patterns and what case timelines were being actively worked on and such.

However, this uses the USCIS Case Tracker website, which has recntly been quite slow to update or not updating at all for many cases, so the usefulness of these tools is mostly mute now. It seems they have been putting a bigger emphasis on their new case tracker website, which is a 2FA process to login and then you only can see the cases attached to your account.

Edited September 19, 2018 by geowrian

[NYCBoy 159]

43 minutes ago, tootiespookie said:

Hello fellow applicants,

 

I was wondering if anyone here knows more about the CaseTracker app and ways to "extract" the data of any given query into workable text. Or any other tool or app out there that would accomplish this. I'm a big time nerd who loves to work with numbers and that combined with impatience and USCIS... well, it leads tons and tons of manually entered spreadsheets....

 

Right now I would love to get an idea of how cases are advancing numbers-wise rather than the occasional approval announcement posts here and there. I know there's no reason or rhyme to how USCIS works and right now it's all a big black box for all of us, but for now, getting the hard numbers and studying their statistics would ease my anxious little brain. Even if we all know USCIS' system sometimes doesn't update statuses or sends out glitchy messages, I'm still dying to get these numbers.

 

So far, I've tried taking long screenshots and putting them through an OCR but the images are either too large for any OCR or the data I get is pure gibberish and the image wasn't properly "read".

 

So if anyone out there knows a way to get this raw data, please let me know. Would most definitely be updating anyone/everyone interested in these statistics on a regular basis if I manage to get this in plain text.

 

Thanks!

ROFLOLMFO! Sign me up!!!! Try sharing the search results and copy it from there... let me know if it helps. Also my app blocked my I.P due to unusual amount of search... haha 

Edited September 19, 2018 by NYCBoy

[tootiespookie 67]

24 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Exactly. I wrote a number of node apps for this to help in identifying patterns and what case timelines were being actively worked on and such.

However, this uses the USCIS Case Tracker website, which has recntly been quite slow to update or not updating at all for many cases, so the usefulness of these tools is mostly mute now. It seems they have been putting a bigger emphasis on their new case tracker website, which is a 2FA process to login and then you only can see the cases attached to your account.

Which Case Tracker website? the official USCIS case (https://egov.uscis.gov/)?

 

Ugh... if only USCIS would release this data all at once in real time rather than only giving one case at a time. The data is there and available they just make it difficult to get. And I know the system may not update for all cases but there are still cases that are moving every day, even if they're not approvals, there's still some activity being logged and that's what I would love to track. Especially how cases change for a given fiscal day. I want to see the patterns in the current data. A while ago, someone in the K1 forum was posting batch files of cases and their statuses almost weekly and you could see cases moving even if USCIS wasn't keeping up with the true numbers of approvals/RFEs/denials etc; people in that forum could see how their cases and cases around them were moving. I messaged them for some advice but never got a response  

Edited September 19, 2018 by tootiespookie

[tootiespookie 67]

5 minutes ago, NYCBoy said:

ROFLOLMFO! Sign me up!!!! Try sharing the search results and copy it from there... let me know if it helps. Also my app blocked my I.P due to unusual amount of search... haha 

I had the same problem too. I downloaded a VPN app, so whenever USCIS blocks my IP, I change the VPN country location and I'm able to keep using it. It's called HolaVPN

[NYCBoy 159]

11 minutes ago, tootiespookie said:

I had the same problem too. I downloaded a VPN app, so whenever USCIS blocks my IP, I change the VPN country location and I'm able to keep using it. It's called HolaVPN

Cool! Ill get it, I’ve been changing wifi ever since they blocked me. 😁

[tootiespookie 67]

8 minutes ago, NYCBoy said:

Cool! Ill get it, I’ve been changing wifi ever since they blocked me. 😁

Lol my IP goes through about 4 different countries on a normal day

[geowrian 22,337]

42 minutes ago, tootiespookie said:

Which Case Tracker website? the official USCIS case (https://egov.uscis.gov/)?

 

Ugh... if only USCIS would release this data all at once in real time rather than only giving one case at a time. The data is there and available they just make it difficult to get. And I know the system may not update for all cases but there are still cases that are moving every day, even if they're not approvals, there's still some activity being logged and that's what I would love to track. Especially how cases change for a given fiscal day. I want to see the patterns in the current data. A while ago, someone in the K1 forum was posting batch files of cases and their statuses almost weekly and you could see cases moving even if USCIS wasn't keeping up with the true numbers of approvals/RFEs/denials etc; people in that forum could see how their cases and cases around them were moving. I messaged them for some advice but never got a response  

Correct, that's the one where it pulls the data from. The DHS website is the new one with the 2FA.

 

Agreed...it would be so much easier if they jsut released metrics instead of having to resort to parsing HTTP responses and aggregating the data ourselves.

I can't say for certain if this is the case, but it was probably my scripts used. I provided them along with instructions to a few members who then did the same to others for different months. They're very simple scripts really...1 to scan for I-129F cases and another to parse that list and get the current status. Then a database to parse the data and find the changes.

 

39 minutes ago, tootiespookie said:

I had the same problem too. I downloaded a VPN app, so whenever USCIS blocks my IP, I change the VPN country location and I'm able to keep using it. It's called HolaVPN

I used AWS spot instances, each of which has a different IP every time it runs.

[tootiespookie 67]

3 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Correct, that's the one where it pulls the data from. The DHS website is the new one with the 2FA.

 

Agreed...it would be so much easier if they jsut released metrics instead of having to resort to parsing HTTP responses and aggregating the data ourselves.

I can't say for certain if this is the case, but it was probably my scripts used. I provided them along with instructions to a few members who then did the same to others for different months. They're very simple scripts really...1 to scan for I-129F cases and another to parse that list and get the current status. Then a database to parse the data and find the changes.

 

I used AWS spot instances, each of which has a different IP every time it runs.

Wow!!! that sounds exactly like what I'm trying to do. Could you share the instructions? maybe I can attempt to tweak it for I-751s. I'm a newbie when it comes to coding and usually use very inelegant ways of automating processes but I may be able to stumble my way around it instead of brute forcing it like I have been doing so far hahaha

[geowrian 22,337]

12 minutes ago, tootiespookie said:

Wow!!! that sounds exactly like what I'm trying to do. Could you share the instructions? maybe I can attempt to tweak it for I-751s. I'm a newbie when it comes to coding and usually use very inelegant ways of automating processes but I may be able to stumble my way around it instead of brute forcing it like I have been doing so far hahaha

Sure. PM me and I'l get to sending them later (can't right now).