N-400 April 2020 Filers

[thewaitingame 34]

On 12/15/2021 at 7:57 AM, Cloggie said:

Libertate explains our predicament very clearly. I am now also considering filing a FOIA request. How do we proceed from here?

Use this. https://www.uscis.gov/records/request-records-through-the-freedom-of-information-act-or-privacy-act

 

About the delaying part, yes, if your file is already at the field office, they will need to pull your files back to the NRC and delay everything. I mentioned this a couple of pages back. Someone got delayed because of FOIA a few years back. 

BUT, your case is not being processed at all anyways. There's no harm afaik ~~

 

 

[JustBelieve 7]

1 minute ago, thewaitingame said:

if your file is already at the field office, they will need to pull your files back to the NRC and delay everything.

I don't think this will delay anything. Nothing will be pulled back as it has already been mentioned. It's just about requesting your records and has no effect on the processing time.

[orangeal 12]

Why would they prioritize pulling your A-file, if the problem is that they are short-staffed? I'm skeptical

[JustBelieve 7]

Just now, orangeal said:

Why would they prioritize pulling your A-file, if the problem is that they are short-staffed? I'm skeptical

I believe this is done by a different department but maybe it can trigger something? Who knows. Some are scheduling info passes to speak with officers, you might try this too. Currently, no such option in my local field office.

[thewaitingame 34]

25 minutes ago, JustBelieve said:

I don't think this will delay anything. Nothing will be pulled back as it has already been mentioned. It's just about requesting your records and has no effect on the processing time.

It was someone else's experience and that's the answer USCIS gave their senator, as I'm not USCIS so idk.

However, that case was back in 2013 where digital files were barely implemented, so maybe that was the situation back then.

 

about "Nothing will be pulled back as it has already been mentioned" -> it depends. If it's the only copy that they have, meaning it has not been digitalized, that's the only way to get your FOIA result, to pull your file back. Local office does not have a dedicated team to "scan" the files. They will just send it back to NRC if it's requested.

[thewaitingame 34]

26 minutes ago, orangeal said:

Why would they prioritize pulling your A-file, if the problem is that they are short-staffed? I'm skeptical

My interpretation of this is that they do it in order. It's not FOIA being prioritized over adjudicating your file. If the FOIA unit requested your file to send back before they adjudicate your file, they will just send it back. That person said they had a RFE, so that RFE might have been received after FOIA unit requested the file and already sent it back => causing the delay. But that was then. Altho similar situation here where Afile is not in the possession of local office ~~

[orangeal 12]

On 12/14/2021 at 2:07 PM, Cloggie said:

I read about some people filing a FOIA and have success with it? Not sure about this procedure, but I am going to look into it now.

 

You can do it here https://www.uscis.gov/records/request-records-through-the-freedom-of-information-act-or-privacy-act

What l am saying is that when you you file a FOIA, the retrieval of your A-file is done by the NRC. These are the same people who are supposedly having a hard time pulling files because of staffing issues. If they can't find time to retrieve files for USCIS, where are they going to find time for you? Why would they prioritize your request at the expense of another government department? I don't get it.

[eizerr 4]

1 hour ago, orangeal said:

What l am saying is that when you you file a FOIA, the retrieval of your A-file is done by the NRC. These are the same people who are supposedly having a hard time pulling files because of staffing issues. If they can't find time to retrieve files for USCIS, where are they going to find time for you? Why would they prioritize your request at the expense of another government department? I don't get it.

The theory is that for March-June 2020 filers the initial requests for A-files got lost due to lockdowns

[AH2020 30]

3 hours ago, orangeal said:

What l am saying is that when you you file a FOIA, the retrieval of your A-file is done by the NRC. These are the same people who are supposedly having a hard time pulling files because of staffing issues. If they can't find time to retrieve files for USCIS, where are they going to find time for you? Why would they prioritize your request at the expense of another government department? I don't get it.

I don't get that part either.  But some people seem to have had luck with it so for me it is worth a try. At the least it makes me feel like I'm doing something and gives me a little hope. We shall see...

[Scandi 4,154]

3 hours ago, orangeal said:

What l am saying is that when you you file a FOIA, the retrieval of your A-file is done by the NRC. These are the same people who are supposedly having a hard time pulling files because of staffing issues. If they can't find time to retrieve files for USCIS, where are they going to find time for you? Why would they prioritize your request at the expense of another government department? I don't get it.

The FOIA is only the already scanned in A-file, they won't go looking for your physical file. Pulling it up on the computer is likely a whole lot faster than trying to locate it in a storage facility. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Scandi

[Yupibotan 15]

I really want to believe in a a fairytale about FOIA accelerating our cases and will closely monitor this thread. If I see any progress, I'll also do an FOIA. 

 

But here is why I'm sceptical. 

 

Even if uscis requested an a-file to process our cases, it's likely an e-ticket request in their internal case management system sent to NRC (or whoever is in charge of an a-files). Until this ticket is resolved (electronic copy of a-file sent to uscis) by NRC, our cases cannot move forward in their case management system. 

 

When we do FOIA, NRC likely resolves our personal e-ticket request, not the one that was originated by uscis. Therefore I don't see any logic in FOIA helping us.  I doubt they are smart enough to link out FOIA ticket to our N400 case. 

 

Of course, all above is my speculation based on my IT background and some experience with non-profit and government IT systems in the US. It's usually an IT mess multiplied by bureaucracy. 

 

There's tons of assumptions we make about our cases, a-file stuck is NRC is just one of many other unknown reasons. 

 

Hope I'm wrong 🙂

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Yupibotan

[orangeal 12]

6 hours ago, Yupibotan said:

I really want to believe in a a fairytale about FOIA accelerating our cases and will closely monitor this thread. If I see any progress, I'll also do an FOIA. 

 

But here is why I'm sceptical. 

 

Even if uscis requested an a-file to process our cases, it's likely an e-ticket request in their internal case management system sent to NRC (or whoever is in charge of an a-files). Until this ticket is resolved (electronic copy of a-file sent to uscis) by NRC, our cases cannot move forward in their case management system. 

 

When we do FOIA, NRC likely resolves our personal e-ticket request, not the one that was originated by uscis. Therefore I don't see any logic in FOIA helping us.  I doubt they are smart enough to link out FOIA ticket to our N400 case. 

 

Of course, all above is my speculation based on my IT background and some experience with non-profit and government IT systems in the US. It's usually an IT mess multiplied by bureaucracy. 

 

There's tons of assumptions we make about our cases, a-file stuck is NRC is just one of many other unknown reasons. 

 

Hope I'm wrong 🙂

I'm afraid you are right. You will have noticed that nobody has been able to articulate the mechanics of it.  Either way, we are all going to come out of this a little wiser. 

[eizerr 4]

On 12/16/2021 at 9:17 PM, Yupibotan said:

I really want to believe in a a fairytale about FOIA accelerating our cases and will closely monitor this thread. If I see any progress, I'll also do an FOIA. 

 

But here is why I'm sceptical. 

 

Even if uscis requested an a-file to process our cases, it's likely an e-ticket request in their internal case management system sent to NRC (or whoever is in charge of an a-files). Until this ticket is resolved (electronic copy of a-file sent to uscis) by NRC, our cases cannot move forward in their case management system. 

 

When we do FOIA, NRC likely resolves our personal e-ticket request, not the one that was originated by uscis. Therefore I don't see any logic in FOIA helping us.  I doubt they are smart enough to link out FOIA ticket to our N400 case. 

 

Of course, all above is my speculation based on my IT background and some experience with non-profit and government IT systems in the US. It's usually an IT mess multiplied by bureaucracy. 

 

There's tons of assumptions we make about our cases, a-file stuck is NRC is just one of many other unknown reasons. 

 

Hope I'm wrong 🙂

 

There is a actually an option allowing to link your FOIA request to your uscis case when you create it.
 

Mine is currently showing as being attached to my N400 processing

[Yupibotan 15]

37 minutes ago, eizerr said:

There is a actually an option allowing to link your FOIA request to your uscis case when you create it.
 

Mine is currently showing as being attached to my N400 processing

Now it's interesting! Is it available during the FOIA request creation or after? 

[eizerr 4]

10 hours ago, Yupibotan said:

Now it's interesting! Is it available during the FOIA request creation or after? 

I did it during the creation time. 

 

Honestly speaking filing this request took 5 minutes for me, and I don't think it worth a debate like we see here. 

 

It may help or it may not, in the worst case one spends 5 minutes, so why not to try.