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DV 2011 AOS Only

Call 606-526-7500
Be ready to give them your full case number and name and date of birth. Then they will ask you if you are the applicant.
After that, they would ask: "How can I help you?"
Ask them: " Can please tell me if USCIS has requested my file yet? "
If they didn't they would tell you no. If yes, they would tell you the date they sent the file.

Try it, and let us know the outcome.
Good Luck,

BasheeraB said:
I have no idea :confused: . how do i go about to verify that information? i searched for a customer service line on their website but i could not find any. Can you please help me???
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Interview Experience

Hello everyone! I just got done with my interview (FO: Bloomington, MN) and here is a brief account of how it went.

Oh also, before i forget, if DV2012 winners want some clarification(s) about how the process for changing from CP to AOS is or if we are allowed to leave the US once you've sent in the first set of docs (122 i think), just send me a private message whenever and i'll be glad to share what i know and learned from all the wonderful people here on this forum as well as the 'ordeal' that i had to go through during the process!! hahah

So my interview was scheduled for 10am, got there at 9 and was told to come back later as they only allow people to enter a maximum of 30 mins before the scheduled appointment. I went back again at 945 and was finally allowed to enter and i proceeded to the waiting room full of people praying that my immigration officer will not be as rude as the security guards outside.

At 10am sharp, a very pleasant looking lady came to greet me and i knew at that very moment that 'the heavens' were looking down at me today!! hahah like seriously, she was so nice it was too good to be true! Went through my name,name changes, all the yes/no questions and then she asked me why my CN was AS7XXX but i sent in my documents for AOS so late. I then explained to her about how I had to change from CP to AOS because i had to study abroad for a semester and missed my interview in Malaysia... She even joked about me 'studying abroad while i'm already studying abroad' in the US! After that, she confirmed all the addresses that i've lived at, checked my I-20s, passports, and compared my original documents with the copies that i had sent in and made copies of some documents that she did not have in file. As I was waiting for her to ask for my financial support documents (i've been freaking out about this because I'm on CPT and not on campus so i dont have a job, and my parents pay for school. i had another friend on HB1 visa fill out the form for me just in case....), she surprised me instead by saying that i can start putting all my documents back in my file and she had all the details she wanted!! not even once did she ask about my financial status or transcripts from the university (this could be because I'm already a senior and i had a letter from my uni saying that i had maintained my academic/financial/immigration statuses). She then confirmed all the dates that i've been in and out of the US since my first entry in 2009 (about 4 times) and where my destinations were everytime exited and reentered. Finally, she told me that all she needed to do was later in the afternoon, she will check with SEVIS to see that i've maintained my F1 status and that diversity visas for this fiscal year are still available. i thanked her and she wished me good luck and walked me out till the office exit!!

At about 2pm i received an email saying that my case has moved to CPO, and at 4pm i receive another email saying that my case is now in the 'decision' stage. the website currently says that its in the 'decision' stage so i'm hoping that there was just a tiny error in the times the emails were sent out and not that my card has moved from CPO back to decision! Going to check the site again in 24hrs!

Should I 'assume' that i've been approved???
 
BasheeraB said:
Sorry for all the questions i am asking but the thing is that unlike most if not all of u, we've hired an immigration specialist who took care of filling up all our applications and "paid" our fees. I got a call today from an immigration officer saying we did not pay the DV fee, that is why we did not get our cards yet. I am so disappointed and discouraged right now. Apparently we have been deceived and been ripped off. all the same we have decided to make another payment ourselves directly to the department of state with the hope that they will process it as fast as they can. my fear now is time...will they automatically notify USCIS about our payment or what is going to happen? :(
Click to expand...

This immigration specialist you worked with, I take it that he/she is not an attorney? are they certified? was it a non-profit organization? you should definitely report them and after the end of the month see if you could sue them. i would still hold out hope if i were you there's still 11 business days left!

@contented! i'm so glad everything worked out for you!! I'm sure your case has been approved :)
 
Interview

To contented

I had my interview bloomington MN. It was very fast. it was a very nice white lady. she went through my file and ask some question on my I-485 ( my name, parent name, yes or no questions). she asked for my passport, drive license, I-94 and social security. she also asked for proof of work and a proof that i paid for my visa. After that she checked on her computer to see if my visa was available. she said everything was good and she will update my case before the end off the day ( September 15). When I checked my case online it was on card and document production and 6 hours later when i checked again it was on decision. I Think when you go to the interview try to to have a copy of your document. My officer was very happy that I had copies for her so she didn't have to go and make copies. Try to not apply early. my case was denied because i applied early ( i didn't know this forum at that time) and there was no visa for me. I reapplied in august 4 and got my interview on September 15. it was very fast. for F1, I am or was a F1. F1 status run out after I applied for the first time for my I-485. and could not renew my I-20 since I apply to adjust my status. my case was denied so I talk to my international adviser. she wrote a letter explaining why I could not extend my I-20 and that I still going to school. she even printed some Immigration document from big book and gave then to me to put on my application. the officer really like that my school wrote that letter and it was very helpful. very important you have to STOP working when your I-485 is denied.

I would to say thank to this forum and its memmbers.
 
Yesterday my status moved to CPO then to DECISION. They said they had registered my new status and sent me a mail. Almost 2 months after my interview, I finally got a decision. I suggest to those whose case is in pending to call the customer service to expedite their case as I did on Friday. On Tuesday, at my third infopass appt I was told that the request was given to the supervisor. 2 days later I got approved. So I think the customer service may have played a big role.Good luck to every body.
 
seems like this is happening to a lot of peoples' statuses, after their interview it goes from Initial Review -> CPO then right back to -> Decision.....whats going on???
 
I think this is the reason. When Interviewer approved it, it went to PDA which is handle by different depatment/people. Their work flow is to send out the approval notification, welcome letter and then Card. So it went back to Decision stage and sent out the decision then slack of a bit and do PDA and card production. This is my theory though.

japaneschinlove said:
seems like this is happening to a lot of peoples' statuses, after their interview it goes from Initial Review -> CPO then right back to -> Decision.....whats going on???
Click to expand...
 
Sorry to hear about that. I am glad that you found out when there is time. Dont' get discouraged.:)
My suggestion is to Call DHS on Monday and see if they received your payment. If so, explain the situation and ask them to email you the receipt as well as request them to inform USCIS(or send the file if they haven't done so). That will take care of the DHS side.
Once you get the receipt in hand Call USCIS office to request for expedited process.Or if you know how to contact the FO officer who inform you about fee payment, that would be the best. Get an info pass as fast as you can(I believe that you already schedule one), take the receipt and talk to them.

Do you know that FO already have DV files from DHS? If not, FO will need to request the file asap.
Do you have the contact for the FO officer that contacted you?

Wishing you the best. And don't worry, you still have time.


BasheeraB said:
Sorry for all the questions i am asking but the thing is that unlike most if not all of u, we've hired an immigration specialist who took care of filling up all our applications and "paid" our fees. I got a call today from an immigration officer saying we did not pay the DV fee, that is why we did not get our cards yet. I am so disappointed and discouraged right now. Apparently we have been deceived and been ripped off. all the same we have decided to make another payment ourselves directly to the department of state with the hope that they will process it as fast as they can. my fear now is time...will they automatically notify USCIS about our payment or what is going to happen? :(
Click to expand...
 
I don't think you mean DHS but KCC.
DHS is Department of Homeland Security (that includes USCIS in it). If they didn't get the application fee ($1070~ per ea) they would not even continued the case and biometrics...
I'm pretty sure they need the $440 ea. to be paid to KCC for them to release the file to USCIS.



apatay said:
Sorry to hear about that. I am glad that you found out when there is time. Dont' get discouraged.:)
My suggestion is to Call DHS on Monday and see if they received your payment. If so, explain the situation and ask them to email you the receipt as well as request them to inform USCIS(or send the file if they haven't done so). That will take care of the DHS side.
Once you get the receipt in hand Call USCIS office to request for expedited process.Or if you know how to contact the FO officer who inform you about fee payment, that would be the best. Get an info pass as fast as you can(I believe that you already schedule one), take the receipt and talk to them.

Do you know that FO already have DV files from DHS? If not, FO will need to request the file asap.
Do you have the contact for the FO officer that contacted you?

Wishing you the best. And don't worry, you still have time.
Click to expand...
 
apatay said:
Sorry to hear about that. I am glad that you found out when there is time. Dont' get discouraged.:)
My suggestion is to Call DHS on Monday and see if they received your payment. If so, explain the situation and ask them to email you the receipt as well as request them to inform USCIS(or send the file if they haven't done so). That will take care of the DHS side.
Once you get the receipt in hand Call USCIS office to request for expedited process.Or if you know how to contact the FO officer who inform you about fee payment, that would be the best. Get an info pass as fast as you can(I believe that you already schedule one), take the receipt and talk to them.

Do you know that FO already have DV files from DHS? If not, FO will need to request the file asap.
Do you have the contact for the FO officer that contacted you?

Wishing you the best. And don't worry, you still have time.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for your words , i feel so relieved now. We were able to send the cashier check yesterday and KCC is suppose to receive it today, so i guess they might process on monday. I will do as u say and call, and i hope they will be ok with sending the receipt by email or fax. We called them yesterday and they said our file has been transferred to USCIS office since september 9th. Very surprising right??? Unfortunately the FO who called me gave me a number dat is not "working", so i was planning to do another infopass to show them the receipt as soon as they fax or email it to me.
I will let you know the outcome.

Thanks so much, u guys are great!!!
 
Freedom11 said:
I don't think you mean DHS but KCC.
DHS is Department of Homeland Security (that includes USCIS in it). If they didn't get the application fee ($1070~ per ea) they would not even continued the case and biometrics...
I'm pretty sure they need the $440 ea. to be paid to KCC for them to release the file to USCIS.
Click to expand...


Yes it's the dv fee they need us to pay.
 
japaneschinlove said:
This immigration specialist you worked with, I take it that he/she is not an attorney? are they certified? was it a non-profit organization? you should definitely report them and after the end of the month see if you could sue them. i would still hold out hope if i were you there's still 11 business days left!

@contented! i'm so glad everything worked out for you!! I'm sure your case has been approved :)
Click to expand...

No we found out too late that she is not an attorney but was dealing pretty much with anything that is related to immigration. When i tried to ask her why she did not pay the money to KCC, she pretended not to understand what i was talking about...anyway, most important thing for me right nw is to approved. We will take care of her when everything is done :D.
Thanks for the words of encouragement though :)
 
Well...
This doesn't make sense.
Once KCC receives DV fee payment, they would send the PC-160 form that you had to fill up. They simply stamp it with PAID...
I assume you didn't get that form signed.
What really bothers me here is that KCC sent your file to USCIS....
I know pretty well from many sources that KCC will NOT send the file until they get the payment for DV fee for each person in the application. Sometimes, people apply with their children or spouses that not everybody end up adjusting status. In such case, one sends a payment only for the people that are adjusting status and KCC will always ask for clarification as they will not send the file till all fees for all people is paid.
So, I don't understand how they sent the file....
One guess is that they did get paid the DV fee, however USCIS doesn't have/never received the receipt to show that...So without the receipt, they assume you didn't pay. Or maybe KCC is confused about not applying your payment. Or maybe they simply sent your file to USCIS without paying attention that they never received the fee.


BasheeraB said:
No we found out too late that she is not an attorney but was dealing pretty much with anything that is related to immigration. When i tried to ask her why she did not pay the money to KCC, she pretended not to understand what i was talking about...anyway, most important thing for me right nw is to approved. We will take care of her when everything is done :D.
Thanks for the words of encouragement though :)
Click to expand...
 
Basheera, I agree with Yoni. KCC will not send the file until the payment is received.
One possibility is that your intermediary has actually made the payment, but she may have not submitted the receipt with the AOS package and she has not passed it to you either.

Or maybe she did not include the stamped, self-addressed envelope with the payment. DOS requires such an envelope to be included in order to send the receipt back.
But I am quite sure that the fee has already been paid once before.

Where did you get the information that your file is not being processed because the fee hasn't been paid?
I am surprised that USCIS cares that much about that receipt. If they got the file from KCC, then the fee must have been paid. I hope the information that you got is accurate and you are not focusing on the wrong problem.

If you pay twice, I think there is a way to recover your money from DOS. But you'll need to fight that battle after you get your GC.
I hope it all ends well. You should definitely do an infopass as soon as possible and insist to talk to an IO or a supervisor if the person you talk to initially is not helpful. But try to be polite when you go there, you will get better results with honey.


Freedom11 said:
Well...
This doesn't make sense.
Once KCC receives DV fee payment, they would send the PC-160 form that you had to fill up. They simply stamp it with PAID...
I assume you didn't get that form signed.
What really bothers me here is that KCC sent your file to USCIS....
I know pretty well from many sources that KCC will NOT send the file until they get the payment for DV fee for each person in the application. Sometimes, people apply with their children or spouses that not everybody end up adjusting status. In such case, one sends a payment only for the people that are adjusting status and KCC will always ask for clarification as they will not send the file till all fees for all people is paid.
So, I don't understand how they sent the file....
One guess is that they did get paid the DV fee, however USCIS doesn't have/never received the receipt to show that...So without the receipt, they assume you didn't pay. Or maybe KCC is confused about not applying your payment. Or maybe they simply sent your file to USCIS without paying attention that they never received the fee.
Click to expand...
 
during my interview on September 15. The officer did ask me if I have a copy of my KCC receipt. I think it depend of the Immigration officer. it is better to have your payment receipt with you in case.
 
baobab said:
Basheera, I agree with Yoni. KCC will not send the file until the payment is received.
One possibility is that your intermediary has actually made the payment, but she may have not submitted the receipt with the AOS package and she has not passed it to you either.

Or maybe she did not include the stamped, self-addressed envelope with the payment. DOS requires such an envelope to be included in order to send the receipt back.
But I am quite sure that the fee has already been paid once before.

Where did you get the information that your file is not being processed because the fee hasn't been paid?
I am surprised that USCIS cares that much about that receipt. If they got the file from KCC, then the fee must have been paid. I hope the information that you got is accurate and you are not focusing on the wrong problem.

If you pay twice, I think there is a way to recover your money from DOS. But you'll need to fight that battle after you get your GC.
I hope it all ends well. You should definitely do an infopass as soon as possible and insist to talk to an IO or a supervisor if the person you talk to initially is not helpful. But try to be polite when you go there, you will get better results with honey.
Click to expand...


I understand what you are saying, and we were as surprised as you when the guy told my husband that our files have been already transferred to our local USCIS here in philadelphia since sept 9th (by the way, we had our interview done on august 23rd). The FO who called me did not say anything about the file but only said that the department of state had notified them about our fees not been received by them yet and we have to pay it if we want to get our GC. I don't know what to say but my best guess is that probably as Freedom said they sent the file without verifying if payment have been made or not but later found out about it. We will have to go for an infopass asap to get a clarification about all these because i am really confused myself.
 
fargodome said:
To contented

My officer was very happy that I had copies for her so she didn't have to go and make copies.

.
Click to expand...

yes that is definitely something that everyone going for an interview has to have prepared. you might have your officer feel annoyed if you dont as he/she will need to check everything and run out to make copies thus making things bothersome. However, like in my case if you did not submit a copy of something, just be prepared with a good answer and say sorry. I lost my previous I-20 so my school issued me a new one, so I sent a copy of my new I20 in. However just a few days before the interview, I ended up finding the old I-20 that i misplaced a year ago and took that to the interview just in case. Apparently USCIS wants copies of all your I-20s, previous/current it doesnt matter. So all students doing AOS for DV2012, please keep this in mind!!
 
apatay said:
I think this is the reason. When Interviewer approved it, it went to PDA which is handle by different depatment/people. Their work flow is to send out the approval notification, welcome letter and then Card. So it went back to Decision stage and sent out the decision then slack of a bit and do PDA and card production. This is my theory though.
Click to expand...

Yes apatay you are absolutely right.I could not 'stay in peace' after this happened to my case so I called USCIS and asked the 'tele-officer' to verify the status of my case, if i was indeed approved, and she said that all is well and i should be getting the welcome letter soon. Then when I asked her if there was a problem because the case moved 'backwards' from CPO to decision, and as you said, its only a problem with the flow. She said the the CPO is handled by another branch within USCIS so it is possible that CPO appeared first and then decision because the 'decision' step was posted too slowly on their online system. She assured me not to worry and that I and many others who are in this situation in this forum are indeed permanent residents and no longer non-immigrants! :cool:
 
Thanks for the correction. For some reason DHS stuck in my head.
Freedom11 said:
I don't think you mean DHS but KCC.
DHS is Department of Homeland Security (that includes USCIS in it). If they didn't get the application fee ($1070~ per ea) they would not even continued the case and biometrics...
I'm pretty sure they need the $440 ea. to be paid to KCC for them to release the file to USCIS.
Click to expand...
 
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