More USCIS processing BS? K1

[Dakine 26]

I'm helping a buddy with a K1 and his filing date is May 24, 07.

Never has got a NOA1 or a NOA2.

I've seen where others got NOA 2s with similiar filing times.

He called USCIS today and the told him they'd mail him a NOA1.

Also he mentioned he'd seen where peeps filing after him have already received NOA approval notice.

In fo Operator told him because his fiancee petition is for a Filipina they are processing peeps from the Philippines that filed April 30 now.

I never knew CSC went by country.

Just more BS????? or something I never heard about?

At least they didn't give the standard processing date in Jan or Feb

[DakotaK1 1]

I cant imagine that they process by countries,I am pretty sure they process by the dates the petitions arrived there.

I woul tell your friend to wait a little,there has been delay with the NOA2´s.

[kitkat1 5]

No they don't process by country - it's never a good idea to believe anything the mis-information line says.

[bszoom42 0]

Actually, I heard that USCIS does break down the applications at least by region, if not by country. I will see if I can find the reference to that. I am also fairly sure that certain countries have "above average" treatment, such as Cuba.

Edited August 21, 2007 by bszoom42

[doug & angel 0]

In fo Operator told him because his fiancee petition is for a Filipina they are processing peeps from the Philippines that filed April 30 now.

How I wish that was true .. our receipt date is April 19th.

[kitkat1 5]

I've read about the weird, fast processing for Cuba I-129Fs and I can't figure out how it makes any sense. USCIS's official line is "each application is processed in the order received" and of course, every case is different and takes a different amount of time. Who knows?

[bszoom42 0]

Ok, I found the reference.

According to http://warsaw-visaguide.hypermart.net/provision.htm, applications get divided by region the beneficiary is from.

THE PROCESS AT INS

Mail Room: Your Petition will arrive at the INS Service Center's mail room with hundreds of other Petitions.

Intake: Your Petition will be taken to an Intake Clerk from the Mail Room. This Clerk will look it over for all of the proper forms. They will not examine any paperwork, but simply take the form checklist (that they have memorized by now). For example, the checklist will say "(1) Form I-129F, yes here; (2) G-325A's, yes here, (1) Birth Certificate, yes here, etc." Your Petition could sit on the Intake Clerk's desk for days, especially if the INS Service Center is busy.

Processing: Your Petition will be sent on to the Processor from the Intake Clerk. This person assigns your case to a specific Examiner.

Examination: Your Petition will be sent on to the Examiner from the Processor. This is the actual person that inspects your Petition to verify that your relationship is valid, that you are an American Citizen and so on.

Central Processing: Once approved, your Petition moves to Central Processing, where a Divisional Director separates your Petition by region, Asian, Central America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, etc. This task is only for categorizing your Petition.

Outtake: After being classified by region, your Petition is sent to an Outtake Clerk. The Outtake Clerk assigns your Petition an "A number" depending on your region.

Distribution: After being assigned a reference number, the "A number", a Distribution Clerk will carry out any special acts, such as cabling the Embassy. The acts are a result of notes made by the Examiner, not you by you.

Information: If you call INS, you will speak to an Information Officer. This is a glorified term for "INS Secretary." The only access they have is the INS Service Center's computer network, which will not tell you anything more about your Petition's status than you hear on the INS telephone voice message. They do not interface with Examiners, who are much too busy examining than to cater to specific requests.

EXPLANATIONS

Non-sequential examinations: Approval is happening to other K-1 applicants who submitted their Petition after I did (according to the I-797 notice date). At the INS Service Center, various Petitions are randomly pulled from the files to train new Examiners. Most likely, an experienced Examiner grabbed a Petition out of the stack to train a new recruit right there at his/her desk. They then subsequently approved the Petition (lucky Petitioner!). The Petition the Examiner grabbed may have been anywhere and hence explaining why it was "out of order" or why the approval date is earlier than other Petitions with earlier I-797 notice dates. This is happening everyday, Examiners are training new recruits everyday. If your Petition was approved in a very quick timeframe, say within 10 days, it was most likely pulled for training purposes.

Request for more information: There are no rules here, just based off of the Examiner's judgement. If the Examiner requests additional information, it will delay your Petition from about 1 week to as long as 1 month, typically. Your Petition will most likely be sent to the "back of the line." Possible reasons for a request for more information include:

(1) Your fiance(e)'s last name matches another last name of a Beneficiary from a previously fraudulent marriage. Supposedly, INS holds a list containing the names of previously fraudulent K-1 marriages. (2) You or your fiance(e) did not sign the I-129F or G-325A form

Examination is 15 minutes: The actual examination process typically takes 15 minutes, that's it. On to another Petition.

Priority given to most paperwork: If an influx of non-I-129F paperwork arrives at the INS Service Center, your K-1 Petition could be sitting for a very long time, until the backlog of other paperwork is examined.

K-1 decision legally set at 30 days: No, nothing legally binds the INS Service Center to process your K-1 case within 30-days. Unfortunately, the goal of within 30 day processing is stated in most of the INS Service Center guides, but may not necessarily be followed.

G-325A carbon copies: The duplicate G-325A carbon copies are not used anymore, the INS Service Center actually will throw these away. Your whole Petition will eventually be filed electronically, once the Outtake Clerk assigns it an "A number." Still, you should definitely submit your Petition with the carbon copies, but no need to worry if not every carbon copy is legible.

NSC: The Nebraska Service Center typically processes as much paperwork than all three other INS Service Centers combined. This may help to explain longer waiting times.

File cabinets: Petition paperwork is held in file cabinets before the Intake Clerk pulls it for examination.

Edited August 21, 2007 by bszoom42

[kitkat1 5]

Well my favorite bszoom, that does shed some light - except that you can tell by much of the information that it's very outdated. I wonder how accurate it is these days?

[bszoom42 0]

Yeah, that is true it is outdated, but I like gathering as much gossip as I can

Anyway, I am not certain how true it is, but it is plausible. I can see why USCIS might want to break up the applications by region; especially if they have special rules for certain countries.

Other then then the fact it is outdated, the rest of the information seems to jive with what we believe the process to be.

[Dakine 26]

Yeah it also helps explain why USCISs estimated processing dates are what they are.

Gives them lots of leeway.

They can't do wrong as if they approve way before estimated date you have a very "happy camper"!

If approved closer to estimated date you still have a "happy camper" that just sweated it out longer!

Edited August 22, 2007 by beckypua

[kits_24_faith 0]

Ok, I found the reference.

According to http://warsaw-visaguide.hypermart.net/provision.htm, applications get divided by region the beneficiary is from.

THE PROCESS AT INS

Mail Room: Your Petition will arrive at the INS Service Center's mail room with hundreds of other Petitions.

Intake: Your Petition will be taken to an Intake Clerk from the Mail Room. This Clerk will look it over for all of the proper forms. They will not examine any paperwork, but simply take the form checklist (that they have memorized by now). For example, the checklist will say "(1) Form I-129F, yes here; (2) G-325A's, yes here, (1) Birth Certificate, yes here, etc." Your Petition could sit on the Intake Clerk's desk for days, especially if the INS Service Center is busy.

Processing: Your Petition will be sent on to the Processor from the Intake Clerk. This person assigns your case to a specific Examiner.

Examination: Your Petition will be sent on to the Examiner from the Processor. This is the actual person that inspects your Petition to verify that your relationship is valid, that you are an American Citizen and so on.

Central Processing: Once approved, your Petition moves to Central Processing, where a Divisional Director separates your Petition by region, Asian, Central America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, etc. This task is only for categorizing your Petition.

Outtake: After being classified by region, your Petition is sent to an Outtake Clerk. The Outtake Clerk assigns your Petition an "A number" depending on your region.

Distribution: After being assigned a reference number, the "A number", a Distribution Clerk will carry out any special acts, such as cabling the Embassy. The acts are a result of notes made by the Examiner, not you by you.

Information: If you call INS, you will speak to an Information Officer. This is a glorified term for "INS Secretary." The only access they have is the INS Service Center's computer network, which will not tell you anything more about your Petition's status than you hear on the INS telephone voice message. They do not interface with Examiners, who are much too busy examining than to cater to specific requests.

EXPLANATIONS

Non-sequential examinations: Approval is happening to other K-1 applicants who submitted their Petition after I did (according to the I-797 notice date). At the INS Service Center, various Petitions are randomly pulled from the files to train new Examiners. Most likely, an experienced Examiner grabbed a Petition out of the stack to train a new recruit right there at his/her desk. They then subsequently approved the Petition (lucky Petitioner!). The Petition the Examiner grabbed may have been anywhere and hence explaining why it was "out of order" or why the approval date is earlier than other Petitions with earlier I-797 notice dates. This is happening everyday, Examiners are training new recruits everyday. If your Petition was approved in a very quick timeframe, say within 10 days, it was most likely pulled for training purposes.

Request for more information: There are no rules here, just based off of the Examiner's judgement. If the Examiner requests additional information, it will delay your Petition from about 1 week to as long as 1 month, typically. Your Petition will most likely be sent to the "back of the line." Possible reasons for a request for more information include:

(1) Your fiance(e)'s last name matches another last name of a Beneficiary from a previously fraudulent marriage. Supposedly, INS holds a list containing the names of previously fraudulent K-1 marriages. (2) You or your fiance(e) did not sign the I-129F or G-325A form

Examination is 15 minutes: The actual examination process typically takes 15 minutes, that's it. On to another Petition.

Priority given to most paperwork: If an influx of non-I-129F paperwork arrives at the INS Service Center, your K-1 Petition could be sitting for a very long time, until the backlog of other paperwork is examined.

K-1 decision legally set at 30 days: No, nothing legally binds the INS Service Center to process your K-1 case within 30-days. Unfortunately, the goal of within 30 day processing is stated in most of the INS Service Center guides, but may not necessarily be followed.

G-325A carbon copies: The duplicate G-325A carbon copies are not used anymore, the INS Service Center actually will throw these away. Your whole Petition will eventually be filed electronically, once the Outtake Clerk assigns it an "A number." Still, you should definitely submit your Petition with the carbon copies, but no need to worry if not every carbon copy is legible.

NSC: The Nebraska Service Center typically processes as much paperwork than all three other INS Service Centers combined. This may help to explain longer waiting times.

File cabinets: Petition paperwork is held in file cabinets before the Intake Clerk pulls it for examination.

bszoom.. i noticed that you are good at these things.. can you help me find info how they processed RFEs? The reason I asked is that I am a March filer and after waiting for almost 4 months I received an RFE. After getting the RFE in the mail, I sent out my RFE reply the same day via express and USCIS stamped the post office confirmation that they have received it the next day. Until now I do not have an update if they have resumed the processing. All I know for a fact (I hope I'm correct) that the officer who has our case or any officers work on RFE first before working on other cases since they have started on them. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.

[RosemarieL 0]

Yeah, that is true it is outdated, but I like gathering as much gossip as I can

Anyway, I am not certain how true it is, but it is plausible. I can see why USCIS might want to break up the applications by region; especially if they have special rules for certain countries.

Other then then the fact it is outdated, the rest of the information seems to jive with what we believe the process to be.

Perhaps they sort it by region after approval to make it easier for NVC who have to forward those approved petitions to specific embassies.