AOS Delay Options?

[Bruce]

It has now been over two years since we have been married and mailed in our adjustment of status packet to the BCINS.  All we heard from the BCINS was that our packet was sent to the California Service Center (Laguna Nigel) in August 2005 to "speed up our processing."  We have made yearly summer trips to Russia each July on the I-131 form no problem.  She was fingerprinted January, 2005; never interviewed.  Daughter was born November 2005.  This wait game is a real joke  .  What is your best advice / guess  ?

[Jet]

Not sure what to tell you other than what William3rd told me in the other thread about Mandamus. I will say that you won't learn anything that you don't already know unless you make an appointment at your local district office and speak, face to face, with a living breathing human. Once you figure out what the holdup is, you can try to go to your congressman

[BC]

Why not just write a short, concise recap of your situation, request resolution within a reasonable period of time, maybe 14 days and send it off registered with return receipt.  I figure this is what a lawyer would do anyway, basically set a deadline for them to react before taking further actions.  Let them know that failure to resolve the issue in a timely manner will force you to take further steps to bring closure to the matter.  Include a copy of their last notification to you.

I've never dealt with these folks but this is the SOP I've used for years with many government offices and it seems to work quite well..  It puts the ball squarely in their court and will give you a head start for a congressman or attorney.  Remember, jumping the gun using formal legal measures can sometimes give the other party an even longer timeframe to respond.

http://www.visalaw.com/05feb3/2feb305.html

states:

Before filing the lawsuit, there are a number of steps that should be taken.  This is so that when the suit is filed, the plaintiff has clearly done everything they can, short of filing a lawsuit, to resolve the problem.  A plaintiff who appears in court without having attempted to resolve the situation in other ways will not be particularly sympathetic, whereas one who has will be.

[William3rd]

Here is my 2 cents worth.. . .

If you hire an attorney, attorneys have liasons to work with the service centers and district offices. Make sure you hire an AILA member.

If you dont hire an attorney- make an infopass appointment and get the story from an officer. Make sure you get a time line. Then you can contact your congressman for help.

If you still dont get it done. . . . mandamus actions are a good tool but you need an attorney to pull it off. You may get an award for attorney fees in your case.

In this case- I would go straight to my Congressman-ask for his or her immigration liason assistant.

Letter writing is pretty much useless and is a waste of time in a case where the AOS is two years old. Usually the complaint from the Service will be that the FBI clearance never came back but that is not YOUR problem.

Good luck

[BC]

Here is my 2 cents worth.. . .

Yeah.. guess the best advice isn't always the cheapest.. 

[Bruce]

Thanks all and its off to make an infopass appointment I go  .

[William3rd]

You are going to need new fingerprints done. That will be the first real sign that they are working on your case again. Is your mailing address up to date?

Have "fun," Bruce. At least with infopass, you get to miss out on all the camarady of camping out in front of the INS building at 4AM. Brings back memories of waiting in front of ticketron all night to get zeppelin tickets-

[Bruce]

Thanks, no change in address.  Pain in the a$$, but the family is going to have to go pay a visit.

[Jet]

You are going to need new fingerprints done. That will be the first real sign that they are working on your case again.

Yep, LMAO I always thought they wanted fingerprints because they don't change over time, but according to USCIS they have an expiration date of 15 months 
Luckily for us, with all those work and travel documents they need a fresh set every time as well, so Lil's are current, even if her AOS file isn't (at last count they had 9 sets for her  ).

At least with infopass, you get to miss out on all the camarady of camping out in front of the INS building at 4AM. Brings back memories of waiting in front of ticketron all night to get zeppelin tickets-

Well if you long for the old ticketron days, mosey on down to Miami any morning between 4 & 6:30am they're lined up around the block to the point where the lines that form for the 2 doors on opposite ends of a highrise that spans a city block nearly overlap each other - and thats just for the appointments scheduled before 8:30am 

[Vaughn]

Bruce, IIRC most of the cases forwarded to California in that time period resulted in GCs by mail, sans interview - such was Ken
Catzenmouse's Elena, among others. I've got a strong suspicion your casefile's been overlooked, or fallen through a crack. Good luck as you state your case at the appointment.

[William3rd]

Yep, LMAO I always thought they wanted fingerprints because they don't change over time, but according to USCIS they have an expiration date of 15 months 
Luckily for us, with all those work and travel documents they need a fresh set every time as well, so Lil's are current, even if her AOS file isn't (at last count they had 9 sets for her  ).Well if you long for the old ticketron days, mosey on down to Miami any morning between 4 & 6:30am they're lined up around the block to the point where the lines that form for the 2 doors on opposite ends of a highrise that spans a city block nearly overlap each other - and thats just for the appointments scheduled before 8:30am 

But can I still get Zeppelin tickets? How about Grateful Dead?

[Son of Clyde]

How about Grateful Dead?

It ain't the same since Jerry Garcia died.

[aikorob]

Yeah...... camping for Dead tickets was a party in itself

[Bruce]

Well, we went through the harrowing experience of NY immigration, or should I say EEMEEGRAYSHUN yesterday.  First we waited on one line to get into the building.  When we got to the big ape he told us you have a baby with a stroller so wait on the line over there.  When we got to the big ape in charge of that entrance he told us, you have a stroller and a baby, you need to go to the line around the corner.  So I stopped and asked him exactly where the line is around the corner because his "colleague" up the block directed us to his line etc.  He told us not to worry and that there is only one line there.  By the way, the right line for a baby with a stroller is on Commerce street.  We showed up at 10 am (in front of the building) for a 10:30 appointment.  By the time we got into the building it was 10:30 am.  Then we had to wait on a processing line.  By then it was 10:45.  They read our bar code and sent us to a room with a bunch of windows and immigrants (plus a few citizen observers like me sitting in shock).  We were given number 246.  They were on 162 when we arrived.  We did have one thing going for us as we waited.  They were on 185 or so by 11:30 when Mrs. Rodriguez happened to notice our daughter.  Mrs. Rodriguez (name changed to protect the innocent, but you get the idea) was "a supervisor" who came over to interact with our daughter who luckily stopped screaming and started smiling.  Mrs. Rodriguez said, I do not know why but all of the children and dogs love me etc.  So, we got talking and I told her about our case.  She said that is a mistake, let me take your wife's passport and I'll try to clear it up with my boss.  I walked all around and saw her with a big fat white guy in a larger glass partition office behind all the normal worker with glass partitions booths ie. where you walk up to the "immigration officers."  By 1:20 or so they called our number and we started heading to our glass window without our passport.  Lo and behold Mrs. Rodriguez walks out to us and goes to the desk and says I am already handling their case.  She explains that the California service center "lost our file" during processing, that all our information was entered correctly in their computer and that she was now sending for it to come back to the NY office.  I asked her if there was a paperwork problem and she said all our paperwork seems fine from what she could ascertain, that it was just a case of a misplaced file.  She took our home my work phone numbers and said she would be calling us up to clear things up when she gets our file.  I asked when this will be and she said could be as fast as four days and could be as slow as a month but I suspect within two weeks.  She said, do not worry I have solved worse mix ups than your case and I am now on your case.  When you come back to immigration just tell the guards you are here to see Mrs. Rodriguez etc.  So, it sounds promising.  What a mess that place is and perhaps our daughter lead us to a stroke of luck.  What do you guys think?  It was an extremely stressful day for us.  The hardest part was just getting into the building.  The next hardest part was waiting on line until we could be "processed" to wait in the big room to see an immigration officer. 

[jb]

My Gawd~! Bruce, what a mess...

Hopefully you will her something good from Mrs. R.  If you have a case worker taking a personal interest in your situation it cannot hurt.

Good luck.

[Vaughn]

I had this feeling your casefile was misplaced. Here's hoping
Mrs. R comes up with good news soon.

[William3rd]

Give them their two weeks and add one more for good measure and then go see Mrs. Rodriguez again-unless she gave you a firm appointment. Then it will be Congressman time. . ..

See if there is any newspaper interest. A call from a reporter doing a human interest story can work wonders

[ConnerVT]

Damn... I'm glad that I'm in Vermont.  For the three trips we made to the St. Albans sub-district office, I think I've seen perhaps 6 other people in total (other than USCIS employees).

The most difficulty we have ever had there was getting my wife through the metal detector (both the security gaurd and I were starting to believe she has a metal plate in her head or something    ).

Hope it all works out with little difficulty, Bruce...

[Michelangelo]

Bruce, I'm very happy you found this ray of sunshine in Mrs. R. 

I hope it works out and this ordeal is over.

I hate it that our government provides such poor service and has put you through this.

In Kiev, my girl had to wait outside 4 hours beyond her appointment time in a cold rain when she had her visa interview.

Par for the course, I suppose.

[Bruce]

Thanks all and especially William III for advice.  Right now it is a waiting game. 
The first thing that went through the metal detector was our baby stroller.  Yeah, taking off my belt and having a guard have me pull down both socks to make sure there was nothing inside is no fun, but I was happy to get the opportunity to go inside the building at that point.

NYC immigration is not a place I would wish upon most people for a visit, so I hope those of you in the NYC area never have to visit.  I shudder to think we will have to visit at least one more time. 

[Bruce]

Well, for all it is worth the BCINS changed the message that has been on their website concerning our case for the past year and a half to:




 
 Case Status 
Receipt Number: mscxxxxxxxxxxxx

Application Type: I485, APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: This case is now pending at the office to which it was transferred.

The I485 APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS that was transferred to our CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER location is now pending there. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you. If you move while this case is pending, call customer service. We process cases in the order we receive them. You can use our processing dates to estimate when this case will be done, counting from when USCIS received it. This case is at our CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER location. Follow the link below to check processing dates. You can also receive automatic e-mail updates as we process your case. Just follow the link below to register.
 

Its just enough to get my hopes up a bit.  So, maybe things really are starting to cook now, though still no call from Mrs. R who hopefully is trying to help us out.
 

[Bruce]

Well, its been close to a month since we sent to EEMEEGRASHUN.  Mrs. R never did call us.  However, today my wife received a notice to have her fingerprints taken again at the local BCINS office in downtown Brooklyn.  So far William III you are spot on.  Maybe things really are moving again on our case.  Thanks for all for the helpful pointers.  In our case going to the BCINS office did seem to have helped.............if getting another set of fingerprints after two years actually leads to something  .  I actually had it on my calendar to go to immigration tomorrow.  I guess I will not go now.

[William3rd]

Need current clearance to get the AOS so your case is moving again. Interview again within 12 weeks methinks-or a magic green card just arriving in the mail without explanation.

As an aside, the last 3 AOS I did all got GC without interview about a month after the FP were done. Since these were all K1 AOS, USCIS can get another shot at them when the 751 comes due in two years. I am wondering if this might be a new policy shift in LADO so I will be asking about that this thursday night at the AILA/USCIS/LACBA XMAS party.

Glad things are moving again for you, Bruce

[Bruce]

Darn, I was hoping I would just get the 10 year green card since its over two years marriage time.  I would be overjoyed if she got anything positive within three months after fingerprints.  Thanks again.

[William3rd]

If the approval of the green card is past the two year mark-second anniversary of the marriage, she should not have to get CR status. It should be a ten year card. Keep your fingers crossed