Crap - Wife's case xferred to DC & we r moving

G

goastros

Registered Users (C)
In my life, things never come easily for me.

Just when I had decided to take a job back in texas and move back from DC area to Houston next week, last night they touched our cases.
I was hoping they touch our cases & now approve them.

But My wife's case was Xferred to Washington, DC local office.
She is dependent.
My last update date too like hers is 07/07/04 but the my status is still the same (FP rec'd), so i expect the same thing on my case too today.

Has anyone here been successful in xferring their cases from local office back?

I am sad since last night. :mad:
 
Sorry to hear that goastro

I dont know what to say. INS is the damnest thing, you never know what they will do.....

But wish you good luck and hope you would be approved soon...
 
Sorry Goastros, wish yours approved

do you know why they transferred your case to local office, something triggered it? best luck friend.
 
Goastros, we were hoping to see your approval soon too. Sorry to hear about the transfer. Why don't you call the famous 800 number and try to talk to an officer?No harm in trying or for that matter even try faxing a letter to the other "famous fax no."? Anyway don't lose your calm. Its almost over so hang in there and worst case, just travel to DC and back when necessary(easier said than done you might say!!) :(
 
you will be fine

Goastros buddy, i am sorry to hear that, but at least they are processing your case now, hope they approve yours now. the in worst sutiation, you have to wait for a while then fly d.c. to seal your card, it is not too bad deal.

be patient, you will be fine, good luck :)
 
We're in similar boat, except that our cases were transfered to Miami. We've tried writing, calling the national center, updated address with local and national again and again, but no success. Our cases are scheduled for interview in one month, and my attorney said 99.99% of the time, they will immediately 'reject' to interview once we show them out of state license and THEN, transfer the file to the correct jurisdiction.
 
Swaps - good to hear that u will come back to houston...dont worry man..maybe u should move every now and then...that might move the process time faster..sorry to be funny now..but i was just seeing the lighter side of life..

Madhav

goodluck man..
 
goastros

Sorry to hear about your plight, dear friend. I have heard that Washington D.C local office is very slow on transfer cases, even though they have good processing dates for locally filed cases. I am not sure why this anomaly, though. However, what you ought to do is to allow at least 45 days to lapse and probably should take at least 3-4 business days off and pitch your tent in DC Area and pay a visit to the local office to talk to an Immigration Officer. The least you could do is to put a status-query with all the latest details regarding your transfer of residency to Texas. Please note that the chances of DC Office transferring to TSC is highly remote and in all probability they can hasten the transfer to your local-office in Houston, Texas. Cases with your RD will be called for interview at Houston, approximately 4-6 months from now. Merely calling National Customer Service Center or even the local office in D.C will not suffice.
 
Sorry to hear that goastros,
I am a strong follower of your posts. I am really sad after seeing your post. Things won't come easily for me too. My prayers are always with you. All the forum members owe you their prayrers after seeing all your hard work you did on this forum.

May god bless you my brother.
 
Sorry to hear that goastros. Its just one more hurdle... As poongunranar said, go to the local office and tell them that you are moving to houston and ask them to transfer to houston office.

Good Luck.
 
Goastros,
Sorry to hear about this situation. They are doing all this to reduce the backlog. I'm in a similar situation, but yours is worse I think, since you are planning a move.

My case got transferred to Miami, my wife's did not get transferred. My wife's is the dependant case. Your situation is the other way around, which I find even more puzzling.

I wonder how they can split up the cases and approve the dependent separately? Isn't everything based on the fact that the primary applicant has a job or not? This confuses me. They keep telling me that they process each case individually, so does that mean that if the primary is denies, then the dependant has a chance to be approved? Of course not! So why do they say that they are processed individually?

I went to the Miami office to request that my wife's case get transferred to be processed together with mine. The IIO seemed very skeptical that the request would do anything, since its not the jurisdiction of the Miami office to request transfers of employment based cases. It took a bit of convincing, but she finally gave us a form to fill out to request the transfer. She gave us a copy and said she would fax it TSC.

My wife's case has still not been transferred to Miami, and I still do not have an interview date. My theory is that if they are processed together at the interview, it would reduce any delays. If my wife's case stays separated from mine, then who knows how long the delay for hers to be approved will be after mine is approved at the interview.

If you do go to the local office to request to have it transferred to where you are moving to, than also ask them to transfer your case from TSC to the office where you are moving at the same time. It only makes sense.

Either way, I can't honestly suggest you follow my path, because I'm not sure it will work, as the local offices really don't have a say in what happens to employment based cases. Just sharing my experience, since it seems similar to yours.
 
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GoAstros,

Do NOT worry. This is nothing. Look at it this way, in the worst case your wife has to travel to DC when her interview is scheduled. But it is better than not having approval and file not being opened. It is better than transferring her file from DC to TX. The option of transferring the file is chosen by some people but some of them landed in big trouble. Some lost thier files(well its TSC and you know that), some got more delay in their transfer (no need to convince more on this). It may happen that DC local office may be faster than TX local office ( Dallas, Houston or San Antonio depending on your location).

Look at it this way. In life having control is important. We do not have control of other's actions but we have control of what we think, say or do. I would prefer to have control in my hand. In this case, I would take my wife back to DC on scheduled interview date. This is in my control and I do not want anxiety created by other's actions for which I do not have control.

The delay, anxiety and frustration on one hand and a flight from TX to DC on another hand. Choice is ......????
 
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Mad Par said:
Swaps - good to hear that u will come back to houston...dont worry man..maybe u should move every now and then...that might move the process time faster..sorry to be funny now..but i was just seeing the lighter side of life..

Madhav

goodluck man..
Click to expand...

madhav,
Things have become terribly busy for me as I have to transition things, go for good bye lunches, pack, move and arrange things back in houston.
madhav, i was going to call u and tell you & rest of the friends on phone.

others, thanks for your wishes, Most of you are my very good forum friends.
Mad Par is my personal friend.
 
Thanks guys for all your wishes.

I didn't get any more Online Status update on my case as yet.
But i expect mine to change to Transfer to local office in DC as well.
( but now based on george's mesg I am not sure what will happen)

I will be flying back to Houston on 15th and starting work on 19th.

My attorney in Houston has told me to file AR-11 immediately and then he would request a move back from DC local office to Houston.
if things work out correctly and my case gets transferred to houston local office, at least i will have my houston attorney alongwith me for the interview ( at least i think he will attend).
Though now cwpj's experience tells me the transfer from 1 local office to another is also not that swift process.
 
GoAstros,

The local processing times for Houston and DC are published on website. Please not that the interviews are set based on your 485 RD and not your transfer date to local office. Compare the two dates and see which one is closest. If the difference is only of 3 months then it may not be worth going after transferring the file from DC to Houston. Please check this forum for horror stories of file transfers. This is one more gray variable.

Filing of AR11 does not mean that your file will be automatically transferred to Houston. TSC is not that fast to check AR11 and work accordingly.

Interviews, in majority of cases are simple. Unless your case has some problem, one does not need an attorney. In my experience, attorney and TSC does not have any vested interest to expedite your case. In my case, I had to be extra careful, as if for some reason my case is denied then it is not my attorney but I had to leave US.
 
JURISDICTION and VENUE is the issue

goastros:

Washington D.C Office cannot interview your cases after your move because of the simple, fundamental principle of jurisdiction and venue. While TSC has in personam(person) and in rem jurisdiction (thing at hand jurisdiction, if you have "reasonable contacts within that local-area") on your case, any local-office has only in rem jurisdiction so long as you are a resident or domicile of that local-office. Once, you shift your domicile from Washington D.C area, that local office has no locus standi to interview your case. Naturally, they will adopt the principle of suo sponte (one's own will in transferring out a case, etc.) thereby acknowledging Washington D.C office to be a forum non conveniens, only to transfer the venue to Houston, TX.

Jurisdiction is not same as venue. USCIS has the jurisdiction on your case, while the venue for adjudication can only be TSC or Houston, TX.

There are always exceptions, but, I in all probability can guess that Washington D.C office will not be inane to conduct the interview anymore, once they find that the address has changed. You are expected as per unwritten law to file address-change with the local-office, as well. Therefore, once they receive it on file, they will have to transfer yours to Houston, TX, suo sponte, without you having to explicitly apply pressure on them to do so. However, why you may want to apply the pressure is for the simple reason that you can save time elapsed in your file gathering dust at DC only to be transferred later to Houston, TX, because some intelligent officer at DC may find that, that office is no longer the appropriate venue for your case.
 
Swaps - Good to hear that you are coming back to Houston. We missed you man. As poong man says, the case will be xferred to houston local office. I think they are little better than DC office. If you need any help (other than unloading ur packages:) ), do not hesitate to let me know. You have my current #s.

Goodluck with everything.

Madhav
 
Dont get too anxious yet.

GoAstros:



I really wished U would get an Approval rather than a transfer.

I feel bad that U feel sad. For some one who has been helping out most of the forum members with advise, trackers and what not, I would say get up dust your behind and start a strategy. I know U are a fighter.


Try to analyze the pros and cons DC vs. Houston. Like cwpj, poongunranar and longGC have mentioned transfer to Houston may not be in your best interest. One of my friends has been using my address (he moved to Dallas) to avoid an RFE, think about a friends address to avoid jurisdiction issue.

For some one who has been dealing with INS for a long time, it always feels like Why me? But believe me the relief, experience and the happiness you experience after your Approval will be matched only by a few.

Wish U have a smooth move, come up with a good strategy and get Approval quickly without much hassle.
 
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