California Service Center Processing Time

The wait is EVIL!

I know exactly what you mean Paladin!

My fiance is in the Texas Service Centre area.. and Lord Almighty... we're having no joy in trying to get information. If anything, the waiting time just increases. Now it seems also that BCIS have thrown us all down at the mercy of a generic National Service Centre number, where call centre operators sit at their terminals answering the phones and telling us they know nothing... "when the paperwork still hasnt been approved in 6 months, THEN we can lodge an enquiry" !!!!!

So hang in there ok. My fiance and I are going pretty nuts, having not seen one another since last November. But, looking at it that way, we're at least half way there now. I count my lucky stars that the days dont move backwards!!!

Star.
 
Hey Thnaks for the reply Star275!
I have only glancing reply to my inquiry. It seem that CSC is running about 4 months. I was told 2 mon. in April and now it is up for grabs.
I have contacted congressmen and Senators and all seem powerless to help. Same goes for IRS, Soc. Sec. OPM ETC. They all say..."well this what that agency said and thank you for the opprtunity to serve you". they do this without looking at specific isues and details and simply accept what the agency tells them. they then tell me that they have no controll over the agency.

Well, I beg to differ. They think I am stupid but I know that it is the Congress that makes the laws and sets the regulations for these agencies and then they try to say they have nothing to do with it.
This is worst service administration I have ever known ,except for Reagan who cared for no one.
I have investigated the "expedited application route and found one obnoxious drone worker at BCIS who told me there is no such thing. I spoke to one today who said there are criteria for expediting of application but the guidelines are vague, "purposely". Then it all depends on who you get to review the case. If it is someone who is sympathetic or not is only answer I get. Even the congressional people are not getting called back for over 3 weeks now. They are waiting for information re: anything and not getting it.
I think I will try one of the classes for expediting the app. If I file this through a Senator or Congessman there is less chance of retaliation by BCIS.
The entire thing is unacceptible and dark time for the citizens of the USA who are losing our rights everyday and no one cares.

In nut shell, my app. will sit in a pile for 4 months before it is processed which takes approx. 30-60 minutes. (This had been confirmed by several sources.)That is the real crime here. There is no security reason, no other rationale except that this adminstration needs to cut back at our expense due to the huge deficits they have created. Yes they will save pennies on our backs and spend dollars for their buddies. (sounds like my X)
I think it is hopeless and even using an elected official is a gamble.
This site if for profit. I called to speak to an attorney and they sounded more like BCIS than BCIS. I would not do business with these people at this point. They will require $$$ and I can be abused by BCIS for free.
 
Forgot to ask

Hi STar275,
I forgot to ask when you filed and how long has it been since then? You say you are half way there , how do you know?
I saw my fiance last on March 31.
We filed and was recieved by the dark and dysfunctional BCIS on March 23. One month has passed and the centralized call center told me it will take a little longer. But they know nothing.
You know, after it goes to BCIS it now has to to New Hampshire the NVC for 2-4 weeks but I have heard that some apps get out of there in 6 days. Forget the 235 days. It's all to cover their butts.
So how long has it been?
not getting any younger.
paladin
 
Paladin,

I last saw my fiance in november 2002. We filed in March 2003... BCIS received our paperwork on March 20th 2003.

About being "half way".. we havent seen each other in almost 7 months... we figure... even worst case scenario, it couldnt possibly take another 7!!!
 
TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Star 275,
Thans again for the reply. You seem to be doing better at this powerlessness than I am. i do not being puished around and treat like dirt especially when I am "waiting for my life to begin".
If your time frams are correct then you should near the end of your time W/ TSC. I have sen a post or two I think on ezboard.com that said that TSC has and change their time frame at any time and not tell us. I think by now we know they can do whatever they want whenever they want and there is nothing we can do. This means they can also speed up and not tell us. I saw this also in another post somewhere.
So you just may have one more month to go before you move on to NVC.
I saw my beautiful fiancee in march and I am already tearing my hair out. They 1st told mne 60 days then 120 days and I get the same BS or lies and attitude that we all get when we call that cnetral # for BCIS.
What foreign embasy are you working with? I will be "working with" (LOL- working with, what a joke) the Philippine embassy and I am told it is the worst in the entire world for the USA. they are the most flooded of all.
I had hired this guy to go over my app. and put in corerect order etc.. So I know the app is perfect but it will sit for 4 months before they even look at it. But he says that he has been doing this for 30 yrs. and it has always been 6 months and always will be 6 months. I've got news for him. the congressional people all differ on the facts and are lax in responding.

I submitted on 6/23/03 and got the NOA. so one month of lies and frustration and sifting through thr govt's garbage has gone by. i must find a way to deal with this or I will go nuts.
BCIS tole the I could get my woman here with tourist visa then amrry her and then apply for chnge of sattus. However she will not be protected during this time of waiting for change of status.
There are hundres of thousands of illegal immagent sin this country but with my luck they will knock my door and take her away. I refuse to live in the Philippines.
Have you been to yahoo site for CSC or google.com for same. I have not yet gone because there is just so much bad news I can take in a day. I feel better when i do not contact BCIS and will use the congressional people who say "well it can't hurt" which really means it probably will nmot help.

Now, there are categories for expiditing an app. but BCIUS will not give out the criteria for these categories. My congressional people cannot get it and I was told by nicer BCIS person that the criteria are purposefully vague. The say it all depends on who you get to review your case. so if I get some of types who man the phones I could be in big trouble as they will not sympathize with my appeal for speeding it up.
The best advise I got was to wrtie my letter and try to explaine under the "humanitarian" category for edpititing and have it go through my congress person. I was also advised to go in person.
That's it for now. No news, little hope of things changng anytime soon. The Gov't does not care and it will reflect in my voting patterns in 2004.
Other categories are emergency, loss of money to non-profit and finacial harship of some kind. What constitues an emergency or any other category is unknown. You know they are not clear to their advantage. Maybe your elected official can get this for you.
Take care and best wishes to you fiancee.
paladin
 
I-129F for Fiancee - Timeline

Here is an updated timeline on my I-129F filed with the California Service Center.

02/07/2003 - Application Received by CSC.

05/29/2003 - Service Center requested additional information (I forgot to write 'NONE' for some of the questions like fiancee's children, other names, previous spouse, etc.)

06/05/2003 - Service Center received my response to their request for additional information.

06/12/2003 - Approved by CSC and sent to NVC (National Visa Center) for further processing

06/18/2003 - Processed by NVC and forwarded to Foreign Consulate.

07/01/2003 - Packet 3.5 received by my fiancee from the consultate in Islamabad, Pakistan. Forms to by filled out are: DS-156 (two of them), DS-230 Part I, DS-156K, and I-134. Also needed are original AND photocopies of Birth Certificate, Death/Divorce Certificate of previous spouse if any, Copy of Passport, Medical Exam report along with Chest X-Ray, Two Photographs per specifications, and Police Certificate from country of nationality, country of residence at the time of visa application in which the applicant has resided for six months of more, any other country in which the applicant has resided for one year or more.

All documents are to be submitted to the consulate via the specified Courier Service (FedEx). The documents will be reviewed within 2-3 weeks and if everything is complete, the interview will be scheduled within 2-3 weeks of the review.

Good Luck.
 
Hi Everyone!!!!
FYI,
Spoke to BCIS on Thurs. Drone told me CSC is up to five months processing time. could not tell as of when or what applications are effected.
They continue to stink and oh, it's the same ols crap I am sick of it. Thay suck and that all there is to it.
Will pass along any new infor. as I get it but not getting it so easily or fast.
 
Calling the Service Center, or writing to them for that matter, is almost useless. After receiving my first Receipt Notice that indicated 205 days to process, I wrote them a letter right away. That was back in Feb. 2003. I got a reply to that letter now in July 2003, after my application was approved. I don't know why they even bothered to reply.

Anyway, what helped me somewhat was that I tracked some of the other cases at CSC via the online status check. It took me a while, but I figured out some things that may help you. The site to check the status is:

https://egov.immigration.gov/graphics/cris/jsps/caseStat.jsp

The Receipt Number structure is as follows:

WACyydddnnnnn where:

WAC is the code for California Service Center
yy appears to be the Fiscal Year (Sep-Aug) code.
ddd appears to be the Business Day number of the Fiscal Year.
nnnnn This number seems to start at 50000 every day and increments by 1. Searching some receipt numbers, I found out that the CSC gets anywhere between 2000 - 4000 applications per day. That's a lot of processing.

I basically started searching from 50000 and kept incrementing by 1 looking for Application Type: I129F, PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). Once I found these receipts, I noted down the numbers and tracked their progress. It didn't help much, but tracking cases that were ahead of me gave me some idea as to when they might get to my application. I have a whole bunch of I129F receipt numbers dated between 01/27/03 and 02/11/03. If anyone is interested, send me an email.

Hope this helps somewhat.
 
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Bhojanis,
thank yoiu for the insight and info. I began using your technique but did not have the same succeuss you did. i also started at 50000 my # 52833. I think I should go back further maybe 5000-10000. I will not get any results looking at apps rescived on the same day as mine.
Do you know what this "nonimmigrant worker" petition is? they are processing them in 30-60 days.
Thanks again for the info.
five months looks like it is part of the "new order" of our covert Gov't.
 
Got Birth Certificate??

Well, the CSC finally did send me something...regrettably it was not an approval, but a Request for Evidence. It seems I had two problems:

1. The dreaded "blank spaces"! Trust me, leaving blanks is only asking for them to send it back. So don't do it. I didn't put anything in the "Other Names Used" for both of us, and the "Alien Registration Number" for me and the "Social Security Number" for her. And they said that "NONE" is not an appropriate response; rather use "N/A". Might be true for all "blank" fields: can't tell.

2. NOW they want a birth certificate for her! If you read the I-129F and G325 instructions, they don't tell you this. So, either they forgot, or my Arabic connection raised some sort of red flag. (FYI: Mr. Bhojani has informed me that his recently approved petition did not require a birth certificate.)
My advice? Obtain a certified copy and a certified translation and include it. Or at least have it ready in case they want it. You will need it anyway at the other end (read the other posts). So, this will cost me at least a week and possibly two weeks' delay while my fiancee in Israel has this taken care of and FedEx'd to me. Arghh!! (I could fight this, but I'm just going to acquiesce for now.)


Here is an updated timeline on my I-129F filed with the California Service Center.

02/28/2003 - Application Received by CSC.

07/09/2003 - Service Center requested additional information (completion of blanks and birth certificate)

Further note: If you are dealing with Tel Aviv, they are WAY backlogged on interviews. Currently they are scheduling for the end of October. Bottom Line: check closely with your particular U.S. Consulate and see how they handle this.

Well, that's enough for now. God willing we might actually get together in November. Wish me sanity, k?

TF :confused:
 
Hello all:

I too received a response today from the CSC. It is a request to "Submit a legible copy of of the birth certificate and/or unexpired foreign passport for the beneficiary."

It goes on to say that "Any document written in another language other than English shall be submitted with a full Enlish language translation. The translator must cerity that the translation is complete and accurate and that he or she is competent to translate. NOTE: The requested foreign language document must be submitted with the Enlish translation."

I also noticed that the I-797 has the "A" number on it for my fiance(e).

My timeline....

3/12/2002 - Application received by CSC (although the website says 3/13/2003)

7/14/2002 - Request for additional information/Evidence.

It appears to me that maybe it is a new requirement to proove DOB for Beneficiary.
 
Thanks, Tom. At least they told you they wanted a copy. I think the person typing mine forgot. In fact, today I spoke with a second-level rep at the BCIS toll-free line (called an "information officer") and he thought that they "probably" meant to say "copy" on mine and forgot. However, he says that, if they don't SAY "copy", then the rule is they mean "original", and if I guess wrong, I'd get it denied. Yuk! But you have it in writing, so don't worry..
NOW I'm left wondering if their statement to you is legit for me. I just got off chat with my fiancee, and have told her to send the original (that makes ya nervous, eh?). The good news: the BCIS guy told me that, when it comes to normalization of status, they will probably want the original anyway, so it's good to have it in the casefile for later.

Getting really confused signals, but I think I'll make it through the minefield of red-taped booby-traps they leave laying around for innocent tax-paying U.S. citizens to stumble over!

Carry on!

Timothy
 
Interview Scheduled in Islamabad

I-129F for Fiancee - Timeline - Interview Scheduled in Islamabad

Here is an updated timeline on my I-129F filed with the California Service Center, and processing at U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

02/07/2003 - Application Received by CSC.

05/29/2003 - Service Center requested additional information (I forgot to write 'NONE' for some of the questions like fiancee's children, other names, previous spouse, etc.)

06/05/2003 - Service Center received my response to their request for additional information.

06/12/2003 - Approved by CSC and sent to NVC (National Visa Center) for further processing

06/18/2003 - Processed by NVC and forwarded to Foreign Consulate.

07/01/2003 - Packet 3.5 received by my fiancee from the consultate in Islamabad, Pakistan. (For details about this packet, see my previous posting).

07/10/2003 - Visa application, Affidavit of Support, and all supporting documents FedEx'd back to the embassy.

07/15/2003 - Application reviewed by the embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan and interview scheduled for August 27th.

07/16/2003 - Faxed a request to the embassy requesting an earlier interview date.

07/23/2003 - Request granted. New interview date set for August 6th, three weeks earlier than the original interview date.

Good Luck.
 
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Encouraging timeline, Salim. I wish I were dealing with Islamabad and not Tel Aviv. So much for "friendly relations" getting you anywhere. I guess there are just too many people in Israel trying to get out (you can hardly blame them).

Either way, I too plan to appeal for an earlier date (unless I get lucky and one opens up) because, as I've posted before, Tel Aviv is more than 3 months out on interviews. It seems that, effective this month, they are interviewing ALL visa applicants, including (presumably for the first time) those applying for visitor (B1 or B2) visas. THIS could explain why they went from about a month between receipt of approvals from the NVC to almost four months practically overnight. Too bad for us. But if they, for example, issue us a date in November, we'll call (or fax?) a request weekly for an earlier date (assuming one become available through cancellation or rescheduling, which they admitted is always possible). Unless they agree to call us if/when something opens up (we'll still check up on them...but I don't want to over-pester them.)

So, hopefully my timeline will improve (I'll post it when I get my NOA--approval, I hope--from the CSC.

Keeping my finger and toes crossed...

"Sleepless from Seattle" :(
 
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Hi bhojanis

This is great that you were able to prepone your spouse's interview.

Did you give a compelling reason for the preponement?

americandesi
 
Hello AmericanDesi,

Yes, I believe I had a very good reason to ask for the earlier date and that's probably why they granted it. What I can say is that the staff at the Islamabad Embassy is very cooperative and understanding.

Good Luck.
 
My updated timeline...

3/12/2002 - I-120F Application received by CSC (although the website says 3/13/2003)

7/14/2002 - Request for additional information/Evidence.
(Needed a copy of Birth Certificate or Passport for DOB verification) :(

7/22/2002 - CSC Received my additional information/Evidence. :)

7/29/2002 - CSC Approved our Petition and forwarded to NVC. :D
 
On to the NVC!

Well, I don't know why it seems that my application gets the slow-boat treatment, but they DID finally approve it on 7/30 and so "phase one" is complete. The "out of the blue" request for a birth certificate cost me about two weeks delay (the "blanks" in the form were my fault).


Here is an updated timeline on my I-129F filed with the California Service Center.

02/28/2003 - Application Received by CSC.

07/09/2003 - Service Center requested additional information (completion of blanks and birth certificate) Rec'd 7/12.

7/21/03 - Sent original birth certificate and corrected I-129 to CSC via USPS next day delivery

7/30/03 - NOA approval date (received today 8/4). Now on its way to the NVC in New Hampshire :) They say 2 to 4 weeks, but the evidence from other posts is more like a week (God willing). With my luck it will be two.

I'll post more when the NVC notifies me that the case is being sent to the embassy. We are hoping on a mid-Nov wedding date, with the back up in interviews in Tel Aviv.

TF
 
Has anyone been ever able to talk on the phone with the US embassy in New Delhi about visa issues? I have been trying to call them for the last one week but the phones are either busy or no one bothers to pick up.
 
My 1-129F is currently with the Vermont service center, but I have a question for you guys. About 2 weeks ago I moved to Hawaii from my previous foreign address (before that I lived in NY, so Vermont jurisdiction when I filed from Japan.) and notified VSC about my change in address. Will they still finish processing in Vermont or will my case be shipped off to the CSC?

Also, my case is running late (Vermont is 30-45 days) by almost one week, and it has been driving me nuts. I can't imagine how you guys are dealing with the massive wait times right now.

Finally, an FYI...the Japanese consulate accepts a faxed print out from the immigration internet site when the case is finally approved, so you might want to contact your consulate and find out if you actually have to wait while the official approval notice is sent from America to them.

Thanks.
 
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