N400s Filed at Manhattan (NYC) Field Office

[Mari181 30]

17 hours ago, N400NYC said:

I am hoping it's okay with the admins but I wanted to start a thread that specifically relates to the Manhattan field office. The situation with this office is different from that in the Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island field offices which are part of the other "New York" thread.

 

The Manhattan field office services residents of Manhattan, the Bronx, and various counties to the north of the city: Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Sullivan, Orange, Ulster. 

(See here: https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/field-offices/new-york-new-york-field-office)

 

This field office has >30,000 pending cases. The published "processing time" is 13 months (50% of cases decided by this point) to 22.5 months (93% of cases decided by this point).

 

I am hoping more people with pending cases with this field office can start participating in the discussion!

 

By the way, I filed in April 2019. As of today, my estimated case completion time is April 2020. 

The timing is ridiculous! We have the same timing rates in Florida. I was waiting 1,5 years for my interview (which is not the worst regarding the established timing) 

[Mark_Shalini 3]

2 hours ago, Lemon23 said:

That makes sense that is why you got an interview right away since you're not under New York City (Manhattan) jurisdictions.

@dhavalkumar where is the location of your interview?

[Lemon23 400]

12 minutes ago, Mark_Shalini said:

@dhavalkumar where is the location of your interview?

Should be in Manhattan based on the Tappan, NY zipcode 10983, but different floor and group in Manhattan Federal Plaza building is processing the application for applicants from OP's location.

Interview notice is based on County, regardless if the interview location is on Manhattan. See below:

 

https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/field-office/field-office-state?state=NY&topic_id=1&lang=1125

Edited May 24, 2019 by Lemon23

[Mark_Shalini 3]

2 minutes ago, Lemon23 said:

Should be in Manhattan based on the Tappan, NY zipcode 10983, but different floor and group in Manhattan Federal Plaza building is processing the application for applicants from OP's location.

Interview notice is based on County, regardless if the interview location is on Manhattan.

I was under the impression they would just dump everyone in line based on FIFO. So they have different areas/levels/offices for the different county. Would that mean that the rest of the surrounding counties which are not as packed up like NYC applicants would make it faster?

[Lemon23 400]

11 minutes ago, Mark_Shalini said:

Would that mean that the rest of the surrounding counties which are not as packed up like NYC applicants would make it faster?

Yes, since the interview notice is based on County, like for example in Queens county, most applicants in Queens got their interview already after 11 months.

Queens is known as the much faster County to process the N-400 application within the New York City jurisdictions.

I don't believe in FIFO, it's just that Manhattan is packed with applicants having 62k pending applications compared to other NY counties.

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Lemon23

[N400NYC 380]

There are 3 separate field offices with 3 separate processing time lines: 

 

- Manhattan/NYC (which also processes counties to the north of NYC)

- Brooklyn

- Queens

 

But they are all physically located at Federal Plaza in Manhattan.

 

Across the 3 field offices there are about 80,000 pending applications (see here)

- Manhattan: 30,000

- Brooklyn: 25,000

- Queens: 25,000

Edited May 24, 2019 by N400NYC

[NovaSprings 89]

19 hours ago, N400NYC said:

I 

This field office has >30,000 pending cases. The published "processing time" is 13 months (50% of cases decided by this point) to 22.5 months (93% of cases decided by this point).

 

 

So an interesting data point as comparision, numbers are my thing....New Orleans has 3000+ cases in the que, with a wait time of 12 to 19 months.  I filed late April est completion July 2020.  Both situations frustrating, but does that mean that NOLA has 10% of the officers as Manhattan?  

[N400NYC 380]

14 minutes ago, NovaSprings said:

So an interesting data point as comparision, numbers are my thing....New Orleans has 3000+ cases in the que, with a wait time of 12 to 19 months.  I filed late April est completion July 2020.  Both situations frustrating, but does that mean that NOLA has 10% of the officers as Manhattan?  

It's a good question. I really don't know how USCIS as an entity allocates staff/resources. Logically one would assume that staff are distributed based on need/demand. But the inconsistency in processing times across field offices leads me to think the ratio of staff to pending cases is also totally inconsistent from one field office to the next. 

[N400NYC 380]

3 hours ago, Lemon23 said:

That makes sense that is why you got an interview right away since you're not under New York City (Manhattan) jurisdictions.

Actually, Tappan is in Rockland and that county is covered by the Manhattan/NYC field office. So that's why I am perplexed! 

 

 

The Manhattan "New York City" field office services residents of Manhattan, the Bronx, and various counties to the north of the city: Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Sullivan, Orange, Ulster. 

Edited May 24, 2019 by N400NYC

[dhavalkumar 1]

1 hour ago, Mark_Shalini said:

@dhavalkumar where is the location of your interview?

26 federal plaza  

jacob k javits federal building 

newyork 10278

[dhavalkumar 1]

1 hour ago, Mark_Shalini said:

@dhavalkumar where is the location of your interview?

26 federal plaza jacob k javits federal building newyork 10278

[N400NYC 380]

@Mark_Shalini - it's a bit confusing, but all three field offices that process cases for New York City, are all located in the same building in Manhattan, but they have separate caseloads:

 

- "New York City" field office: Manhattan, Bronx + six counties to the north of NYC

- Brooklyn field office

- Queens field office 

 

All are located in the same building in Manhattan (but on different floors). So perhaps some people say the "NYC/Manhattan" field office but really their field office is Brooklyn or Queens. 

[N400NYC 380]

@dhavalkumar - your experience is interesting because you are living in Manhattan and have received an interview within 5 months which is super fast by the standards of the "NYC" field office. So I guess we are trying to work out if that was just a one-time luck thing or there are other factors involved (like the "last in, first out" theory mentioned elsewhere). If I got an interview within six months I would be very happy based on how dismal things currently look. 

 

 

[Mark_Shalini 3]

1 hour ago, N400NYC said:

@dhavalkumar - your experience is interesting because you are living in Manhattan and have received an interview within 5 months which is super fast by the standards of the "NYC" field office. So I guess we are trying to work out if that was just a one-time luck thing or there are other factors involved (like the "last in, first out" theory mentioned elsewhere). If I got an interview within six months I would be very happy based on how dismal things currently look. 

 

 

He lives in tappan,NY (Rockland)- that’s the part @Lemon23 was explaining there is a further breakdown based on counties. 

[N400NYC 380]

51 minutes ago, Mark_Shalini said:

He lives in tappan,NY (Rockland)- that’s the part @Lemon23 was explaining there is a further breakdown based on counties. 

No, I don't think there is (perhaps L23 didn't realize that Rockland is managed by the NYC office). All cases from those 6 counties (north of the Bronx) go through the same field office - "New York City" - I highly doubt they would have separate processing times/lines/queues for people from different counties going through the same field office.