February 2020 AOS Filers

[David_Norway 135]

USCIS is clearly in a difficult situation, and they can't please everyone, but if there was a good hearted, well-meaning person in charge, they would:

1) Have extended hours for the ASCs to remove backlog while keeping the offices safe.
2) Figure out a short term fix to the printing issue, including potentially hiring a short-term contractor.

Obviously not the case, but frustrating to know that with the right leader in place, they could drastically improve the lives of tens of thousands of people relatively easy.  

[mat2291 79]

Another day with a Tier 2 officer. The good news is that I only waited for 20 minutes to get a call back. But that’s pretty much all the good news that I can share.

 

On to the other not so good news: The immigration officer that I spoke to was very nice and calmly explained the situation that is going on based on her knowledge.

 

She told me that my case had already been flagged as escalated and the immigration officer who I spoke to yesterday personally was the one who emailed NBC about my case.

 

Based on my understanding of her understanding (understandingception), I am already in line for rescheduling. The term she used was “ordered for scheduling” but she can’t see from her end when that date is going to be. It’s their automatic system that sets up the date based on availability and capacity of my ASC — which is being decided by that ASC’s supervisory team. She says she doesn’t know what cases the ASCs are prioritizing right now as that is the ASC’s discretion.

 

So I asked her what my escalation service request can do if it’s the process above that decides when I get rescheduled. And she says if the service center approves my case as escalated (escalated and not expedited), then they will be the ones to order the ASC to get my rescheduling prioritized.

 

She also consistently mentioned (like the officer yesterday) that she can’t anymore do any manual rescheduling from her end because they are only allowing that for select cases. I believe this happened sometime end of Monday that USCIS disabled the manual rescheduling. She also listed the expedited cases that USCIS is only allowing Tier 2 officers to manually reschedule: 1) military, 2) naturalization applicant who was outside of the US and had traveled back to the US just so they can get their biometrics taken because the embassy/consulate offices are still closed, 3) frontliners for COVID-19.

[igoyougoduke 1,635]

17 minutes ago, mat2291 said:

, I am already in line for rescheduling

haha that is funny. thanks for sharing.  

 

18 minutes ago, mat2291 said:

It’s their automatic system that sets up the date based on availability and capacity of my ASC —

that is a big joke. apparently the system is setting up appointments for june/may filers but yeah everyone else is not priority 

[LilyKins 121]

I think I'm the only Pittsburgh filer here, but someone on Reddit posted this morning that they've received their rescheduled appointment at the Pittsburgh ASC. Hopefully our biometrics appointment is coming soon!

[fromsweden 197]

8 hours ago, David_Norway said:

Looked at some of the documents that you can access for free, and it seems like main plaintiff got her EAD shipped to her on July 24th. (So maybe litigation works?) But more informative for a lot of people here is this other plaintiff who filed Feb 28, but who had not done his biometrics yet:

"Mr. La Manna filed an I-765 with USCIS on February 28, 2020, MSC2090973341. The USCIS NBC approved this application on May 19, 2020"
"Before Mr. La Manna’s employment authorization (EAD) can be produced, his approved I-765 application requires a biometrics appointment for collection of fingerprints and a photograph. Had this been Mr. La Manna’s second I-765 application approval, USCIS would have been able to clone the previous biometrics and photograph and use them to produce a new EAD. However, because Mr. La Manna is a first-time applicant, no previous photograph and biometrics exists."
"The backlog at the New York ASC is three weeks. In addition, current card production is at approximately 50 per cent."
"Notwithstanding the circumstances and conditions described in Paragraphs 5 and 6 above, on July 24, 2020, USCIS NBC contacted the New York City ASC and Field Office to make a special dispensation for collection of Mr. La Manna’s photograph and biometrics. The New York Field Office contacted Mr. La Manna and arranged a special appointment today. This morning, Mr. La Manna’s photograph and biometrics were captured, and USCIS requested production of an EAD card."

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.243394/gov.uscourts.ohsd.243394.35.2.pdf

Conclusion: Litigation works! Also, if they feel compelled/pressured, they are capable to making things happen really quickly! 

Question: Can they do this for the thousands of people who are in similar situations? There is an urgent motion for class certification where they define the class as:

"This lawsuit seeks immediate mandatory injunctive relief on behalf of Plaintiffs and a proposed class of approximately 75,000 aliens who reside in the United States and submitted an Application for Employment Authorization that was approved by USCIS, but who have not received an Employment Authorization Document (EAD)."
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.243394/gov.uscourts.ohsd.243394.38.0.pdf

Given Mr. La Manna's experience above, I think this class would include people without biometrics as well.

Reading more in the document about class certification, I see there are many plaintiffs who have not received their EADs yet.
Also, too familiar to many of you:
"Plaintiff Ngenkeng has called the USCIS customer service number many times, and each time is told something different. (Id., ¶ 5.) He most recently called USCIS last week and was told to call back if he did not have his card by September 14, 2020."
 

This is very interesting, thank you. Good to see there are those without biometrics in the class.

 

I think the most obvious and easiest thing for USCIS to do is to temporarily allow the approval document to serve as an official employment document. I can't see a compelling reason why they can't do that. The employer will not do this for fear of prosecution, but if USCIS relaxes the rule (at least for now), it will ameliorate the issue.

[Basil123 131]

1 hour ago, mat2291 said:

Another day with a Tier 2 officer. The good news is that I only waited for 20 minutes to get a call back. But that’s pretty much all the good news that I can share.

At least that's some information I guess. I just got off the phone with USCIS and they refused to even transfer me to a Tier 2 agent. Their reasoning was that "they could give me the same information and therefore cannot transfer me". 

 

And of course then they said to just wait. Well screw that, I have waited so long just to see my case be ignored. I'm not even one of the ones who got their EAD & AP approved. Even though I had an EAD before, like what's up with that?!? Plus I'll be outside of regular processing times within less than 30 days. You better believe I'll be calling 20 times a day then until they fix this.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to share and rant a bit. I am just so beat and while I probably should call again rn, I don't think I can get myself to do that. It's so draining and the amount of times I've cried over this in the past months is just ridiculous. 

 

Good luck everyone! Keeping my fingers crossed you have more success!

Edited July 30, 2020 by Basil123
Typo

[mat2291 79]

1 hour ago, James120383 said:

haha that is funny. thanks for sharing.  

 

that is a big joke. apparently the system is setting up appointments for june/may filers but yeah everyone else is not priority 

Lol I know. I am now very desensitized to any info they give me but you best believe I won’t stop calling until I get rescheduled. While talking to a Tier 1 officer, he noted in a mean way that I called everyday since last Thursday. And I said proudly, “Yup. You best believe I’ll be calling every single day until you guys reschedule me.”

[mat2291 79]

11 minutes ago, Basil123 said:

At least that's some information I guess. I just got off the phone with USCIS and they refused to even transfer me to a Tier 2 agent. Their reasoning was that "they could give me the same information and therefore cannot transfer me". 

 

And of course then they said to just wait. Well screw that, I have waited so long just to see my case be ignored. I'm not even one of the ones who got their EAD & AP approved. Even though I had an EAD before, like what's up with that?!? Plus I'll be outside of regular processing times within less than 30 days. You better believe I'll be calling 20 times a day then until they fix this.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to share and rant a bit. I am just so beat and while I probably should call again rn, I don't think I can get myself to do that. It's so draining and the amount of times I've cried over this in the past months is just ridiculous. 

 

Good luck everyone! Keeping my fingers crossed you have more success!

I would suggest getting a script going from your end and then updating it with every call because that is what I did. Lol

 

A tier 1 officer told me Friday I have every right to get transferred to a Tier 2 officer and to not let a Tier 1 officer tell me otherwise (that was comforting in some way). I’ve had a Tier 1 officer yesterday hang up on me but for the most part, all of the ones I talked to were able to get me transferred when I followed my script.

[Basil123 131]

1 minute ago, mat2291 said:

I would suggest getting a script going from your end and then updating it with every call because that is what I did. Lol

 

A tier 1 officer told me Friday I have every right to get transferred to a Tier 2 officer and to not let a Tier 1 officer tell me otherwise (that was comforting in some way). I’ve had a Tier 1 officer yesterday hang up on me but for the most part, all of the ones I talked to were able to get me transferred when I followed my script.

That's great advice actually. We'll hit them with our scripted answers, before they read theirs to us haha. Cause yeah, the inconsistent information that they provide us with is just so ridiculous.

 

But seriously, I'll start doing that. Probably should also start being more firm. I'm not good with confrontation, maybe I should have my husband be on speakerphone with me. Or, even better, my MIL. She's a champ haha.

 

[mat2291 79]

1 minute ago, Basil123 said:

That's great advice actually. We'll hit them with our scripted answers, before they read theirs to us haha. Cause yeah, the inconsistent information that they provide us with is just so ridiculous.

 

But seriously, I'll start doing that. Probably should also start being more firm. I'm not good with confrontation, maybe I should have my husband be on speakerphone with me. Or, even better, my MIL. She's a champ haha.

 

On my notes, I specifically noted the response they gave me and grouped them together. I then added a script for what to respond to that response.

 

I created the script because I want to make sure I remain level-headed when I talk to any of them. Without it, I just end up being too emotional and accusatory which doesn’t benefit me in any way.

 

Good luck! I hope all of us see some positive developments to our cases.

[bodgie19 54]

44 minutes ago, Basil123 said:

Anyway, I just wanted to share and rant a bit. I am just so beat and while I probably should call again rn, I don't think I can get myself to do that.

It's quiet okay to have these emotions. This is the place to let it out. If anyone understands, its all of us on here. So you go ahead and rant as much as you need.

[TDB 19]

I just spoke to a tier 1 rep. They told me I had been placed in the "rescheduling queue" for biometrics and to call back if I haven't heard within 30 days of my ASC reopening. They would then escalate it.

 

They also told me I would not receive my EAD despite being approved until I have completed the biometrics - directly in contrast to the tier 1 rep I spoke to on Tuesday who said I would receive it within 60 days.

 

I want to believe the rep from Tuesday but I fear the one today might be more accurate...

[bodgie19 54]

3 minutes ago, TDB said:

I just spoke to a tier 1 rep. They told me I had been placed in the "rescheduling queue" for biometrics and to call back if I haven't heard within 30 days of my ASC reopening.

I was told the EXACT same thing on July 23 from a Tier 1.  Its scripted...I got excited too. Sorry to rain on your parade. It's just all a bunch of BS. Technically, if we didnt have biometrics yet, we are all in a "queue"...its such a subjective response. When you ask them where in the queue...they give you this response: 🤷‍♂️

[AFCF 273]

I called USCIS just now. The Tier 1 person I talked to told me that they scheduled me for my biometrics appointment last July 28. However, she can’t see when they scheduled me for on her system. She was really nice though. I also asked to be transferred to Tier 2 and she was so helpful and didn’t hesitate to do it at all. 

 

Hopefully the information I got is accurate. I’ve been obsessing about this, I’m sure all of us have. 🥺

[MIBogdan 48]

1 minute ago, chxakx said:

I called USCIS just now. The Tier 1 person I talked to told me that they scheduled me for my biometrics appointment last July 28. However, she can’t see when they scheduled me for on her system. She was really nice though. I also asked to be transferred to Tier 2 and she was so helpful and didn’t hesitate to do it at all. 

 

Hopefully the information I got is accurate. I’ve been obsessing about this, I’m sure all of us have. 🥺

Actual date is not visible in their system. You will get mail within appx. a week and then you will know the date. Normally it is 2.5 weeks from the day the scheduling happened - July 28 in your case. I had same experience