Two (2) ASC appointment notices, for different dates

[Wingnutfish 18]

Hey guys,

My wife received her ASC Appointment Notice for the I-751 biometrics a week or two ago, notice date 11/19/2016 for appointment date 12/07/2016. Today we got a second ASC Appointment Notice letter in the mail, with notice date 11/26/2016, for an appointment on 12/16/2016. The two forms seem to be exactly the same in every way, except for those dates. Same code, same application numbers.

Has anyone else heard of this happening? I suppose we'll just show up for the first one and talk to them then, but it would be nice if someone has any insights on what's going on.

Thanks!

P.S. We did have some complications when we initially filed the I-751: We filed with a fee waiver request, but hadn't heard back by the time her conditional green card was expiring, and then managed to file again with the fee just under the wire. We received the NOA for that second attempt, and later finally received the fee waiver denial for the first attempt (though for some reason the myUSCIS case status lookup says our fee was waived, despite them having cashed the check and said they received payment in the NOA). I might speculate that they had accidentally opened two separate cases for us, except for the fact that both the "Application Number" and "Application Number 2" are exactly the same on both ASC appointment notices.

[Ketsuban 1,034]

From an outsider's perspective it would seem they denied the first fee waiver yet scheduled biometrics for it anyway. That kind of thing tends to happen when an office is not run well and deals with a constant high volume of paperwork (I used to work somewhere with those issues and mistakes like this happen all the time).

As CookieCat said, if you call up, speak to Tier 2 and bring it to their attention, they can cancel one of the appointments and get rid of the first I-751 you filed for good if it is still somehow lurking in their system.

[f f 725]

you can always go to the first apointment and have the biometrics taken for both by putting all the receipt numbers on the form.

[Wingnutfish 18]

Thanks, everyone. Will someone at the ASC office be able to address the issue in the same way that a Tier 2 person on the phone would? Because we're thinking to go to the first appointment either way, just in case.

[Ketsuban 1,034]

The only person at my local ASC office was a receptionist who did the signing in and fingerprinting all by herself. I didn't see any immigration officers. Maybe if you ask whoever is working there, they will be able to find an officer and ask.

[Wingnutfish 18]

Yeah, I guess we'll try that. Thanks.

My wife called in to USCIS today, twice. The first person, who apparently had a very bad attitude, told her the first appointment had been canceled. The second told her to just go to the first one with both letters, and someone will be able to clear it up.

[ptm897 41]

The only person at my local ASC office was a receptionist who did the signing in and fingerprinting all by herself. I didn't see any immigration officers. Maybe if you ask whoever is working there, they will be able to find an officer and ask.

there is always 1 Immigration Officer at each ASC site, I am one of those ASC Immigration Officers, we are the ASC managers at the sites, the entire site is operated by the contract workers, but the Immigration Officer is usually in their office and you will not see them unless they are needed to verify something or a question is asked, you can always ask to speak to the Immigration Officer. There are times though that the ASC ISO Officer might have left for lunch, or had to take a hour or so of personal leave. At my site, I am 50 miles away from my Field Office so if I have to take time off for a Dr's appointment or something I will do it later in the day after lunch and then there are times that I am away from my office for the last few hours of the day, and if someone comes in needing my help or has questions the contract staff at the ASC will let the person know that the Immigration Officer is out for the rest of the day. The Bio-techs take the prints, and also act as the guard/receptionist sometimes as well.

Please people understand that there are no real Immigration Officers that work at the call center, there are no Tier 2 Officers at that toll free number, there are probably Tier 2 agents as they may call them but believe me that they are NOT Immigration Officers and they are using the title as Agent probably because they are customer service agents. The toll free number gives out wrong information all the time, that has been a huge frustration with us at USCIS. Immigration Services Officers are not employed at the call center, the call center employees are all contract employees and are not Federal Employees of USCIS. I cannot stand the toll free number and the only thing they are good for is having them mail you forms if you want them, but they constantly give out wrong and conflicting information all the time. I have been an Immigration Officer for 20 years now, and I am telling you the truth when I say that NONE of our positions are ever at that call center. We have positions at the Field Offices doing interviews, we work at the Service Centers working on cases that don't require an interview, we work at Headquarters, etc.. but we are never actual employees that work at the call center. No part of our job ever involves taking calls from the call center.

The problem with the duplicate appointment notices for the ASC biometrics appointments are still due to the glitches in the system from NASS our new scheduling system. If you get duplicate appointment notices please bring all of them with you and appear at the ASC on the first appointment day and time and let them know you are getting duplicate notices.

If you happen to get another appointment notice a week or so after you appear, please be on the safe side and just go back to the ASC with that second notice, the contract staff will then double check with the Immigration Officer at the ASC if you indeed have to have the biometrics taken again.

I hope all this info is helpful to you :-)

[Wingnutfish 18]

Thank you so much! That's great to know!

The problem with the duplicate appointment notices for the ASC biometrics appointments are still due to the glitches in the system from NASS our new scheduling system. If you get duplicate appointment notices please bring all of them with you and appear at the ASC on the first appointment day and time and let them know you are getting duplicate notices.

So would you recommend we ask to talk to the immigration officer about this specific issue, or is it something the contract staff at the ASC can get sorted out for us?

[Ketsuban 1,034]

there is always 1 Immigration Officer at each ASC site, I am one of those ASC Immigration Officers, we are the ASC managers at the sites, the entire site is operated by the contract workers, but the Immigration Officer is usually in their office and you will not see them unless they are needed to verify something or a question is asked, you can always ask to speak to the Immigration Officer. There are times though that the ASC ISO Officer might have left for lunch, or had to take a hour or so of personal leave. At my site, I am 50 miles away from my Field Office so if I have to take time off for a Dr's appointment or something I will do it later in the day after lunch and then there are times that I am away from my office for the last few hours of the day, and if someone comes in needing my help or has questions the contract staff at the ASC will let the person know that the Immigration Officer is out for the rest of the day. The Bio-techs take the prints, and also act as the guard/receptionist sometimes as well.

Please people understand that there are no real Immigration Officers that work at the call center, there are no Tier 2 Officers at that toll free number, there are probably Tier 2 agents as they may call them but believe me that they are NOT Immigration Officers and they are using the title as Agent probably because they are customer service agents. The toll free number gives out wrong information all the time, that has been a huge frustration with us at USCIS. Immigration Services Officers are not employed at the call center, the call center employees are all contract employees and are not Federal Employees of USCIS. I cannot stand the toll free number and the only thing they are good for is having them mail you forms if you want them, but they constantly give out wrong and conflicting information all the time. I have been an Immigration Officer for 20 years now, and I am telling you the truth when I say that NONE of our positions are ever at that call center. We have positions at the Field Offices doing interviews, we work at the Service Centers working on cases that don't require an interview, we work at Headquarters, etc.. but we are never actual employees that work at the call center. No part of our job ever involves taking calls from the call center.

The problem with the duplicate appointment notices for the ASC biometrics appointments are still due to the glitches in the system from NASS our new scheduling system. If you get duplicate appointment notices please bring all of them with you and appear at the ASC on the first appointment day and time and let them know you are getting duplicate notices.

If you happen to get another appointment notice a week or so after you appear, please be on the safe side and just go back to the ASC with that second notice, the contract staff will then double check with the Immigration Officer at the ASC if you indeed have to have the biometrics taken again.

I hope all this info is helpful to you :-)

That was really insightful, thank you. I had no idea Tier 2 agents at the call center weren't actual officers. Makes sense though. I work for a call center that is contracted by big companies and we have to pretend to be them, in a sense.

[ptm897 41]

That was really insightful, thank you. I had no idea Tier 2 agents at the call center weren't actual officers. Makes sense though. I work for a call center that is contracted by big companies and we have to pretend to be them, in a sense.

Yes, and the public really doesn't understand that they are not talking to actual Immigration Officers, this is why they make so many mistakes, they are just contract staff and I have absolutely NO idea what kind of training they give them, because they are not actual Federal Government employees they are never allowed to attend any our official training centers, like the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center better known as FLETC in Brunswick, Georgia, so over the years I have been an Officer it is really sad to see so many applicant's being given wrong information by the toll free number and thus making very serious filing mistakes. :-(

[ptm897 41]

Thank you so much! That's great to know!

So would you recommend we ask to talk to the immigration officer about this specific issue, or is it something the contract staff at the ASC can get sorted out for us?

You are welcome, and Yes you really should ask the Immigration Officer about it, but not all of the Officers at the ASC sites are as helpful when it comes to giving out info to the public, I am extremely Customer Service orientated and I always make sure I give everyone the best and most accurate information.

There are instances though when the duplicate notice is not really a duplicate notice because the processing code on there is different, sometimes when they schedule the first appointment they put a Code 1 or a Code 2 in the Code indicator and it really should be a Code 3, so then they end up having to reschedule someone to come back and have our office take the rest of the biometrics. So it is always better to just show up at the ASC even if you get a second notice because only we will know what the reason is for, and we will look it up to see if it was a mistake or a real appointment and you need to have something done again.

[Wingnutfish 18]

For anyone stumbling across this in the future and wondering what happened:

 

We went to the first appointment, and were immediately asked, "Do you have both of your appointment notices?" It turned out that they meant to accompany the second appointment notice with a letter cancelling the first one, but failed to do so...for ANYONE. They were supposed to cancel all appointments that day to train the staff on how to use some new biometrics computer systems, but given the circumstances, they decided to allow anyone who had come from out of the metro area (more than about a half-hour drive) do their biometrics on the first date anyway, while sending locals away with a request to come back on the second appointment date.

 

We had come from an hour or so away, so they let my wife do the biometrics. They made it very clear that she didn't need to come back again for the second date, so we didn't, and nothing bad happened.

 

We did ask to speak with the immigration officer about an unrelated question, but they turned us away, saying we needed an InfoPass appointment to do that.