Extension Letters now being increased to 48 months. (merged)

[Stein 276]

I posted this in the January 2023 filer thread but for anyone that isn't following that specific month thread they wouldn't see this.

 

We just got our extension letters today.  Instead of extending the expiration 24 months our letters are good for 36 months.  Doesn't look like they anticipate anything getting better any time soon.  At least it will avoid some of the problems people are running into with 24 month letters and still not being done and needing to make an appointment for an ADIT stamp.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Stein

[Rearviewmirror 397]

2 minutes ago, Stein said:

I posted this in the January 2023 filer thread but for anyone that isn't following that specific month thread they wouldn't see this.

 

We just got our extension letters today.  Instead of extending the expiration 24 months our letters are good for 36 months.  Doesn't look like they anticipate anything getting better any time soon.  At least it will avoid some of the problems people are running into with 24 month letters and still not being done and needing to make an appointment for an ADIT stamp.

Ugh. That’s annoying given I JUST got my 24 month letter (January filer). 

[Crazy Cat 41,821]

So, a 2 year Green Card is now good for 5 years?  This is ridiculous!  They need to just eliminate the I-751 completely.  Only 1%-3% of ROC cases are actually denied.  

Edited January 21, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[Rearviewmirror 397]

3 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

So, a 2 year Green Card is now good for 5 years?  This is ridiculous!  They need to just eliminate the I-751 completely.

I also don’t know how they square this with other recent filers who only got 24 months? 
 

It is such a massive pain to have to keep renewing my driving license every time a dumb USCIS piece of paper expires.

 

They also only just changed to 24 months in September. 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Rearviewmirror

[Crazy Cat 41,821]

1 minute ago, Rearviewmirror said:

I also don’t know how they square this with other recent filers who only got 24 months? 
 

It is such a massive pain to have to keep renewing my driving license every time a dumb USCIS piece of paper expires.

When they changed from 12 to 24 months, many people received an updated extension letter.  Maybe, they will issue you a 36 month letter.

[Mike E 11,739]

4 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

So, a 2 year Green Card is now good for 5 years?  This is ridiculous!  They need to just eliminate the I-751 completely.  Only 1%-3% of ROC cases are actually denied.  

They should just issue 8 * 12 = 96 month extension letters.

 

Glad they didn't bother with 30 month letters. Can imagine the average airline employee figuring out how to add 30 months to an expiration date. As it is, I expect 10 percent of airline employees won't know that 36 months = 3 years.

[OldUser 6,622]

@Mike E no joke, on my recent trip the airline agent had to call for her manager, who told her what to do, e.g. add 2 years to expiration date on GC.

[Rocio0010 5,579]

Good. So now they’re going to roll out the 36 month extension letter to all us 2022 filers, instead of using that man force to work on 751 cases that should be approved in two days at most

[mindthegap 2,589]

4 minutes ago, OldUser said:

@Mike E no joke, on my recent trip the airline agent had to call for her manager, who told her what to do, e.g. add 2 years to expiration date on GC.

I have that all the time... several times the airline employee has put in the original 2 yr card expiry date (which was in 2015) and obviously it rejects it for putting a past date. I have to tell them that they need to put the expiry date on the letter/stamp, but they quite often still have to check with a supervisor before they do so. 

One recent one had never seen an I-551 stamp before, and insisted on the extension letter too!

[Mike E 11,739]

7 minutes ago, OldUser said:

@Mike E no joke, on my recent trip the airline agent had to call for her manager, who told her what to do, e.g. add 2 years to expiration date on GC.

Yes I was thinking of you. 

1 minute ago, Rocio0010 said:

Good. So now they’re going to roll out the 36 month extension letter to all us 2022 filers, instead of using that man force to work on 751 cases that should be approved in two days at most

Considering the backlog (https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/Quarterly_All_Forms_FY2022_Q4.pdf ) for I-751 is over 270,000 cases and grew by 12,000 cases in FY2022 (ended September 30, 2022), it must take dozens to print that many letters, and stuff them in envelopes. And these letters have to be on water marked paper. It probably costs at least $20 per letter. Call it $6M. If an ISO is paid $50 / hour in wage and benefits, then 16 hours of work per case with $6M means: 6,000,000 / ( 32 * 50) = nearly 4000 additional cases they could be doing per year, out of the 109,000 they did last FY.

[OldUser 6,622]

I wondered why can't they just state the new expiration date in the letter based on GC expiry. Surely, it's not that difficult with modern technology to add 24/36 months to expiration date. That way it wouldn't be a brainer for an airline worker to enter this information from extension letter instead of having to do the math.

 

But then I thought of all possible scenarios USCIS can get the date wrong, and came to conclusion maybe it's for the better the way it is.

Edited January 21, 2023 by OldUser

[gogogo786 38]

They should just abolish the ROC. I understand it is to prevent marriage fraud, but I think the fraud prevention can be done during the Naturalization interview for permanent residents who obtained residency through marriage.

[Daphne . 1,852]

43 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

When they changed from 12 to 24 months, many people received an updated extension letter.  Maybe, they will issue you a 36 month letter.

I sure hope they will because mine is expiring later this year.. If they do, I received them all! 

[Rocio0010 5,579]

5 minutes ago, gogogo786 said:

They should just abolish the ROC. I understand it is to prevent marriage fraud, but I think the fraud prevention can be done during the Naturalization interview for permanent residents who obtained residency through marriage.

Yeah I do get that it is to prevent marriage fraud in theory , but with all the time they’re taking, they are allowing 751 applicants to continue on marriage fraud since they take so long to process cases.

[OldUser 6,622]

17 minutes ago, gogogo786 said:

They should just abolish the ROC. I understand it is to prevent marriage fraud, but I think the fraud prevention can be done during the Naturalization interview for permanent residents who obtained residency through marriage.

Those folks just won't apply for N-400 if this was the case.