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Why transfer of applications to local offices?
- Thread starter MrSkyMour
- Start date
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
Your statement confused me a bit....
If you are trying to say that your case was transferred, and you don't have an up-to-date status online, that is correct, since the local office will not ever update the online status. The only way to get the correct status of your case is to make an infopass appointment and go visit the local office.
If you are trying to say that you feel that you can't rely on the online status, and you want an accurate status of your case, but your not positive that your case was transferred or not, then the only way to get a more accurate (albeit useless) status is to call the 1-800 NCSC number and ask them to file a case inquiry. You can only do this if your case's RD is 30 days past the official processing date.
A transfer does not mean you will have an interview, but it most probably means that you will. It will specify on the transfer notice that you get from the local office whether you are going to have an interview or if it just transferred for processing, to reduce the backlog at NSC. Read the online status or transfer notice when you get it in the mail.
How will it affect your case? Well for starters, there will be a bit of a delay because your case now has to be physically transferred to the local office from the service center (about 1-2 months). Next they will need to find a time to schedule an appointment for your interview (another 1-18 months, depending on the local office). This delay differs from local office to local office, and there is no online processing time available for EB cases. The processing time posted is only for family based cases. You would have to see the officer in person, and present all the paperwork required for your case (passports old & new, new pictures, all EADs, all APs, all I-94s, birth certificates, marriage certificates, updated EVL, company financials, most recent paystubs, tax reurns & W2's for the past 3 years, etc) Hopefully you have a lawyer that can come with you if you don't have a straight forward case so that you don't answer any questions in a misleading or confusing manner.
Case transfers can happen for any number of reasons, and quite frankly they can even happen just at the discretion of the adjudicating officer, as a random check. read this:
{excerpt from the "I-485 Standard Operating Procedure", page 7-3.24}
Employment based Criteria
The adjudicating officer must determine whether the employment-based
I-485 meets waiver of interview criteria set forth below.
Employment-based:
• The principal applicant is employed by the same petitioner who submitted
the approved underlying employment-based visa petition.
• The principal applicant has been interviewed in the course of an
investigation or field examination, and the adjudicating examiner
determines that further interview of the applicant is unnecessary.
• The principal applicant has been approved as an alien of extraordinary
ability or alien of exceptional ability and is otherwise eligible for
adjustment of status.
• The principal applicant has been approved as an outstanding professor or
researcher, or a multinational executive/manager and has a continuing
offer of employment from the same petitioner who submitted the
underlying approved petition.
• Adjustment applicants who received national interest waivers based on
performing primary medical care to a medically under-served area must
demonstrate that they intend to continue according to the terms and
conditions of the underlying petition.
Deviation From Interview Waiver Criteria
The above interview waiver criteria may be modified by individual officers in
response to developing local circumstances and regional concerns, which
would dictate the need for further restrictions.
On a case by-case basis, an officer may choose to relocate an I-485 for
interview if he/she deems it necessary. Applications require a relocation if
the officer determines:
• a need for validation of identity
• a need for validation of legal status
• questionable admissibility and/or qualifications
• apparent fraud
• a second filing
• an applicant with fingerprint rejected twice
• an applicant with medical condition class A or B
• the A-file cannot be located at the time of adjudication.
If you are trying to say that your case was transferred, and you don't have an up-to-date status online, that is correct, since the local office will not ever update the online status. The only way to get the correct status of your case is to make an infopass appointment and go visit the local office.
If you are trying to say that you feel that you can't rely on the online status, and you want an accurate status of your case, but your not positive that your case was transferred or not, then the only way to get a more accurate (albeit useless) status is to call the 1-800 NCSC number and ask them to file a case inquiry. You can only do this if your case's RD is 30 days past the official processing date.
A transfer does not mean you will have an interview, but it most probably means that you will. It will specify on the transfer notice that you get from the local office whether you are going to have an interview or if it just transferred for processing, to reduce the backlog at NSC. Read the online status or transfer notice when you get it in the mail.
How will it affect your case? Well for starters, there will be a bit of a delay because your case now has to be physically transferred to the local office from the service center (about 1-2 months). Next they will need to find a time to schedule an appointment for your interview (another 1-18 months, depending on the local office). This delay differs from local office to local office, and there is no online processing time available for EB cases. The processing time posted is only for family based cases. You would have to see the officer in person, and present all the paperwork required for your case (passports old & new, new pictures, all EADs, all APs, all I-94s, birth certificates, marriage certificates, updated EVL, company financials, most recent paystubs, tax reurns & W2's for the past 3 years, etc) Hopefully you have a lawyer that can come with you if you don't have a straight forward case so that you don't answer any questions in a misleading or confusing manner.
Case transfers can happen for any number of reasons, and quite frankly they can even happen just at the discretion of the adjudicating officer, as a random check. read this:
{excerpt from the "I-485 Standard Operating Procedure", page 7-3.24}
Employment based Criteria
The adjudicating officer must determine whether the employment-based
I-485 meets waiver of interview criteria set forth below.
Employment-based:
• The principal applicant is employed by the same petitioner who submitted
the approved underlying employment-based visa petition.
• The principal applicant has been interviewed in the course of an
investigation or field examination, and the adjudicating examiner
determines that further interview of the applicant is unnecessary.
• The principal applicant has been approved as an alien of extraordinary
ability or alien of exceptional ability and is otherwise eligible for
adjustment of status.
• The principal applicant has been approved as an outstanding professor or
researcher, or a multinational executive/manager and has a continuing
offer of employment from the same petitioner who submitted the
underlying approved petition.
• Adjustment applicants who received national interest waivers based on
performing primary medical care to a medically under-served area must
demonstrate that they intend to continue according to the terms and
conditions of the underlying petition.
Deviation From Interview Waiver Criteria
The above interview waiver criteria may be modified by individual officers in
response to developing local circumstances and regional concerns, which
would dictate the need for further restrictions.
On a case by-case basis, an officer may choose to relocate an I-485 for
interview if he/she deems it necessary. Applications require a relocation if
the officer determines:
• a need for validation of identity
• a need for validation of legal status
• questionable admissibility and/or qualifications
• apparent fraud
• a second filing
• an applicant with fingerprint rejected twice
• an applicant with medical condition class A or B
• the A-file cannot be located at the time of adjudication.
curiousGeorge said:If you are trying to say that you feel that you can't rely on the online status, and you want an accurate status of your case, but your not positive that your case was transferred or not, then the only way to get a more accurate (albeit useless) status is to call the 1-800 NCSC number and ask them to file a case inquiry. You can only do this if your case's RD is 30 days past the official processing date.
yah that's what I meant cause I might get married and I wanna make sure I get married before the approval of the application... I will check with my lawyer, hopefuly he will be able to get me more informtion.
background on my case: concurrent I-140 and I-485, I-140 approved, FP are done on june 15th 2004...
Thx!
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
What is your I-485 RD?
curiousGeorge said:...
A transfer does not mean you will have an interview, but it most probably means that you will. It will specify on the transfer notice that you get from the local office whether you are going to have an interview or if it just transferred for processing, to reduce the backlog at NSC. Read the online status or transfer notice when you get it in the mail.
...
curiousGeorge,
I've seen you write about this previously. Can you point one case where it was transfer to local office and there was no interview? I personally haven't seen any, and nobody replied to this question on my previous post.
My letter does say "..you case was transferred for speed processing..." and I'm 100% positive that I'll get called for an interview.
If you keep saying this, you must be aware of a case from where you draw your info. If so, please share, as I may have missed some of your posts.
curiousGeorge said:What is your I-485 RD?
I don't know exactly what date, but ut started right after I recieved the labor certification, which was in January or Febraury 2004.
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
npnjan02,
I'm getting the info from my lawyer who says that most of the time when the case is transferred for speed processing, there is no interview scheduled. When a case is transferred for an interview, then it will get an interview. He has seen cases that got tranferred for speed processing, and did NOT get an interview. They were just approved like a case at the service center would be (via mail).
I also searched through this forum for people who were transferred for speed processing, and the ones that I found:
1) no longer come to the site. They probably got approved, and didn't bother to update anyone here.
2) they got transferred BACK to the service center.
3) They got an interview, and were either approved, or are still waiting for thier name check to go through.
I couldn't find any concrete examples on this forum to show you. Just going by what my lawyer told me. Its not guaranteed that you won't have an interview if you're transferred for speed processing, but your changes are bit better according to my lawyer.
Since I can't personally find a concrete example, I'll stop posting this view.
I'm getting the info from my lawyer who says that most of the time when the case is transferred for speed processing, there is no interview scheduled. When a case is transferred for an interview, then it will get an interview. He has seen cases that got tranferred for speed processing, and did NOT get an interview. They were just approved like a case at the service center would be (via mail).
I also searched through this forum for people who were transferred for speed processing, and the ones that I found:
1) no longer come to the site. They probably got approved, and didn't bother to update anyone here.
2) they got transferred BACK to the service center.
3) They got an interview, and were either approved, or are still waiting for thier name check to go through.
I couldn't find any concrete examples on this forum to show you. Just going by what my lawyer told me. Its not guaranteed that you won't have an interview if you're transferred for speed processing, but your changes are bit better according to my lawyer.
Since I can't personally find a concrete example, I'll stop posting this view.
curiousGeorge said:...
Since I can't personally find a concrete example, I'll stop posting this view.
Well, don't. You bring some optimism here.
I know there's very little info here about cases transferred to local, and the only reason that I keep asking is hope. One never ceases to hope.
My lawyer has retired, and it's only his associates that deal with my case. They say that I will have an interview, regardless of what the letter says. I sincerely hope that they are wrong.
My case got messed up - it was stuck on FBI name check for 11 months, and during this time NSC didn't bother to transfer it to local. According to the senator I contacted, the reason for the case not being adjudicated was that they didn't have the I-140 on file. I believe they kind of forgot about the case, since I know 245(i) cases do get transferred immediately. People I know with same RD as mine, got transferred and approved more than 10 months ago. I strongly believe that NSC never found the I-140, but they transferred the case regardless. I actually feel that I will be lucky if I get an interview. You probably see why I now don't believe what the transfer notice says "you case was transferred for speed processing".
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
saras76 is in a similar situation. I'm not sure if you'vre read about his case. His I-485 got transferred to Miami for speed processing, but they haven't approved his I-140 yet.
You may need to visit the local office, or get a senator involved. Since they may not have the I-140, they may not know how to proceed, and so your case may sit around if you don't prompt them a bit.
If you do get an interview scheduled, that's not a bad thing either, although I would recommend you take a lawyer with you who has previously done EB interviews in the past. Your case is not of the straight forward variety, and so it may help to have someone there who knows how to answer th officers questions in a way that they like to hear them answered. Just my personal experience. Also if you take a lawyer that the officer recognizes, then it eases the tension, and the officer may not ask any tricky questions since he'll know that the lawyer will be able to "dance" around the answer, as lawyers can sometimes do.
First things, first. I recommend you "ping" the local office a bit. Either in person, or via a senator. Make sure to pick a senator or congressman who is pro-immigration.
You may need to visit the local office, or get a senator involved. Since they may not have the I-140, they may not know how to proceed, and so your case may sit around if you don't prompt them a bit.
If you do get an interview scheduled, that's not a bad thing either, although I would recommend you take a lawyer with you who has previously done EB interviews in the past. Your case is not of the straight forward variety, and so it may help to have someone there who knows how to answer th officers questions in a way that they like to hear them answered. Just my personal experience. Also if you take a lawyer that the officer recognizes, then it eases the tension, and the officer may not ask any tricky questions since he'll know that the lawyer will be able to "dance" around the answer, as lawyers can sometimes do.
First things, first. I recommend you "ping" the local office a bit. Either in person, or via a senator. Make sure to pick a senator or congressman who is pro-immigration.
curiousGeorge, I appreciate your comments.
My I-140 was approved and I have a copy of the approval notice; the attorney has the original.
As far as Senator's help, I had contacted 2. The one who brought the news about the missing I-140, does no longer answer my voicemails or is available for a phone conversation /you know how it is, they ask who's calling first/. I have contacted the second, who up to now claimed that there was no problem in my case at all, and the case wasn't delayed, but just followed standard procedures. It wasn't it, but how can you argue. I expect an answer from him within 2 weeks. Then, most likely I will be considering another (congressman) most likely.
My I-140 was approved and I have a copy of the approval notice; the attorney has the original.
As far as Senator's help, I had contacted 2. The one who brought the news about the missing I-140, does no longer answer my voicemails or is available for a phone conversation /you know how it is, they ask who's calling first/. I have contacted the second, who up to now claimed that there was no problem in my case at all, and the case wasn't delayed, but just followed standard procedures. It wasn't it, but how can you argue. I expect an answer from him within 2 weeks. Then, most likely I will be considering another (congressman) most likely.
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
Have you considered visiting the local office in person to ask about your case, and when it might be scheduled? I wouldn't expect the answer to be very encouraging, but maybe they can tell you something you haven't heard yet.
I thought I'd give them some time to really transfer the paperwork. Also, I haven't been able to schedule an appointment with InfoPass, it tells me "At this time we don't have any information appointments available, please try again later" or some sort. So I keep trying.
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
If you have a common last name, sometimes it won't let you make an appointment, since there may be another person with the same last name that already has an appointment. also try at differnt times of the day. I've noticed that at a certain time (I think during the middle of the day) the queue seems to fill up and then you can't get on infopass to make any appointments until the late night, or early morning. Just something to try....
My (primary) case was approved at VSC, but my husband's transferred to Chicago on the same day.
The website transfer notice doesn't specificaly say that an interview will be scheduled, but since I haven't received any mail from the loca office yet I don't know whether this is true or not.
I have a few questions and would really appreciate if someone can answer these:
1) Why would a dependent's case transfer after primary approval?
2) At my passport stamping which was two weeks after the approval I asked the officer about my case status and was told that he can't locate my husband's case as it probably hasn't been transferred yet. How long does it take for the paperwork from VSC to get to Chicago?
3) I see on this website that there is a 5-month wait time for the interview, but how quickly does the transfer letter arrive after the transfer?
Regards
The website transfer notice doesn't specificaly say that an interview will be scheduled, but since I haven't received any mail from the loca office yet I don't know whether this is true or not.
I have a few questions and would really appreciate if someone can answer these:
1) Why would a dependent's case transfer after primary approval?
2) At my passport stamping which was two weeks after the approval I asked the officer about my case status and was told that he can't locate my husband's case as it probably hasn't been transferred yet. How long does it take for the paperwork from VSC to get to Chicago?
3) I see on this website that there is a 5-month wait time for the interview, but how quickly does the transfer letter arrive after the transfer?
Regards
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
udacha6 said:3) I see on this website that there is a 5-month wait time for the interview, but how quickly does the transfer letter arrive after the transfer?
I can give my experience with Miami, I can't speak for Chicago specifically, but his might help you a bit.
My transfer date was May 27th. The file arrived in Miami on August 9th.
As for why the dependant is transferred, well, although thier own SOP directs them to keep family members' cases together, USCIS considers each case seperately for adjudication purposes, and if the service center wanted to verify something, or just do a random check then they can issue a transfer.
Any of these conditions could have triggered it, or it was just random:
• a need for validation of identity
• a need for validation of legal status
• questionable admissibility and/or qualifications
• apparent fraud
• a second filing
• an applicant with fingerprint rejected twice
• an applicant with medical condition class A or B
• the A-file cannot be located at the time of adjudication.
Last edited by a moderator:
curiousGeorge,
My RD date is Feb'02. There was absolutely no movement (no RFEs) for 2.5 years, so I had to file an expedite request. Five days later my case was approved and his transferred.
I still didn't get any reply from the FBI about his name check. Mine was cleared in Dec'02.
You would think if there are any security concerns then my case would not be approved either, right?
My RD date is Feb'02. There was absolutely no movement (no RFEs) for 2.5 years, so I had to file an expedite request. Five days later my case was approved and his transferred.
I still didn't get any reply from the FBI about his name check. Mine was cleared in Dec'02.
You would think if there are any security concerns then my case would not be approved either, right?
curiousGeorge
Registered Users (C)
udacha6 said:You would think if there are any security concerns then my case would not be approved either, right?
No. The cases are independent of each other when it comes to security clearances. That's what I meant when I wrote that USCIS considers each case as a separate case when they adjudicate them. Personally I didn't have the results for my name check prior to my interview either. I still have not received them and the request was made to the FBI 3 months ago.
In this case since you are the primary, you are approved on the sponsorship of your company, and you passed the security clearance on your own merit.
Your spouse's case will only get approved if you remain married, and if his security clearance passes on his own merit, regardless of the fact that your security clearance was declared OK.
His case is no way shape or form automatically approved, just because yours has been approved. They still need to verify a few more things specific to him. Many people have the misconception that the dependant case is always approved at the same time as the primary, and if the primary is approved then the dependant will be approved. Although this is true in the majority of cases, USCIS still sees the dependant as an individual case, who's approval, is based on the approval of the primary, and among other things, like medical history, criminal record, legal status, working without authorization, etc.
Its also possible that since you asked for an expedite request, they agreed that it should be expedited, since its past their processing date, and considered his case to be so old that they wanted to get it off their plate as fast as possible so that they could move the processing date forward. It may not have been personal, just bad luck.
But don't worry too much about it. Just because they transferred him for an interview, does not imply that he was a bad person, or that he will get denied. They may just want to verify that he exists, in person, and ask him a few questions, in person. Usually these questions are not out of the ordinary, and its nothing to be concerned about. My interview questions, for example, were so basic, it was almost a silly waste of my time.
Or, if he was transferred for "speed processing" my theory is that he has a chance to not even get an interview at all, and just get approved by the local office. I believe they do this to cases that are generally straight forward, but they just want to move the processing date ahead at the service center.
Last edited by a moderator:
curiousGeorge,
Thanks a lot for the long and very detailed message. I really appreciate the time spent on answering my questions.
The expedite request was filed for both of us and somehow only mine got approved and his transferred. It was just a month ago.
The transfer notice doesn't say anything about scheduling an interview, so I hope it won't come to it even though you say that it is normally just a formality.
Please stay in touch.
Thanks a lot for the long and very detailed message. I really appreciate the time spent on answering my questions.
The expedite request was filed for both of us and somehow only mine got approved and his transferred. It was just a month ago.
The transfer notice doesn't say anything about scheduling an interview, so I hope it won't come to it even though you say that it is normally just a formality.
Please stay in touch.