Hi guys, woke up this morning to see a bunch of emails from CRIS. Two were sent last night around 10:30 ("Card production ordered") for spouse and and myself, and another two this morning around 8:00 ("Approval notice sent"). With a big sigh of relief I would like to thank everyone on this forum for your great companionship on this arduous journey and I wish you guys lots of good luck. It took me only two years but quite often in the last 6 months I was overwhelmed by frustration and hopelessness. Frankly I don't feel any happier right now, just kind of relieved. I guess it will take time to sink in.
Here's my story (also see my signature). My biggest mistake, in retrospect, was probably to sit and do nothing for about 1.5 years. The only thing I did was to check the processing times posted at USCIS Website, which now I know is pretty much bogus. In January 2007, I started calling USCIS about my case and checking this forum for tips and advices. At the time I even didn't know about FBI name check mechanism and the reason behind my delay was indeed this check. Based upon your advices (and God bless you for that!), I decided to take initiatives by writing to the First Lady and Congressional representative of my district. The responses to both were "name check pending", which was very frustrating. Anyway, my name check
got cleared about 1.5 months later and I found it out through POJ calling and also from a recent Infopass appointment.
I got 2 LUDs recently on 6/14 and 6/15, but nothing happened for a while. Turns out that those LUDs were for an online address update that I requested on 3/30 (received a letter from USCIS dated 6/13 which says so). Actually I also sent an address update request to TSC by snail-mail as per instruction of IO at my Infopass in May. It's possible that because of these actions, somebody picked up my dusty file and approved it. I know that some of you are well ahead of me in line (akayal for example), but that's just the way USCIS works. Be patient, try all methods, and keep your fingers crossed. I do wish all of you very speedy approvals!!
So, here are two (rather obvious) lessons that I've learned:
1) Try everything you can to get your name check cleared. Write to your congressional representatives, FL, VP, FBI, etc. as suggested on this forum. Make an Infopass appointment once a month. Use POJ to call USCIS until you'll get a nice lady who tells you about your case. Don't give up, you'll get a reasonable person eventually. In my case, my first Infopass was a total waste, but the second was much more informative (I got a lady from my own country). I called USCIS using POJ only once, but was able to speak with a nice lady who was the first to say that my name check was cleared.
2) Once your name check has been cleared, try to contact USCIS in every way you can to get somebody look at your file. As I said above, my case got approved perhaps because of an address update request I sent in earlier. Others have suggested creating a SR request, calling TSC once in a while to ask about your case or writing to ombudsman. This forum is great because of the oh-so-many inventive ways people have come up with to get USCIS off its lazy ass and get you out of the mess.
Once again, thank you all and wish you the best of luck!
Here's my story (also see my signature). My biggest mistake, in retrospect, was probably to sit and do nothing for about 1.5 years. The only thing I did was to check the processing times posted at USCIS Website, which now I know is pretty much bogus. In January 2007, I started calling USCIS about my case and checking this forum for tips and advices. At the time I even didn't know about FBI name check mechanism and the reason behind my delay was indeed this check. Based upon your advices (and God bless you for that!), I decided to take initiatives by writing to the First Lady and Congressional representative of my district. The responses to both were "name check pending", which was very frustrating. Anyway, my name check
got cleared about 1.5 months later and I found it out through POJ calling and also from a recent Infopass appointment.
I got 2 LUDs recently on 6/14 and 6/15, but nothing happened for a while. Turns out that those LUDs were for an online address update that I requested on 3/30 (received a letter from USCIS dated 6/13 which says so). Actually I also sent an address update request to TSC by snail-mail as per instruction of IO at my Infopass in May. It's possible that because of these actions, somebody picked up my dusty file and approved it. I know that some of you are well ahead of me in line (akayal for example), but that's just the way USCIS works. Be patient, try all methods, and keep your fingers crossed. I do wish all of you very speedy approvals!!
So, here are two (rather obvious) lessons that I've learned:
1) Try everything you can to get your name check cleared. Write to your congressional representatives, FL, VP, FBI, etc. as suggested on this forum. Make an Infopass appointment once a month. Use POJ to call USCIS until you'll get a nice lady who tells you about your case. Don't give up, you'll get a reasonable person eventually. In my case, my first Infopass was a total waste, but the second was much more informative (I got a lady from my own country). I called USCIS using POJ only once, but was able to speak with a nice lady who was the first to say that my name check was cleared.
2) Once your name check has been cleared, try to contact USCIS in every way you can to get somebody look at your file. As I said above, my case got approved perhaps because of an address update request I sent in earlier. Others have suggested creating a SR request, calling TSC once in a while to ask about your case or writing to ombudsman. This forum is great because of the oh-so-many inventive ways people have come up with to get USCIS off its lazy ass and get you out of the mess.
Once again, thank you all and wish you the best of luck!
One other experience is that since most immigration attorneys operate on a flat fee basis (rather than an hourly basis) - they have very little incentive to proactively pursue your case if it gets delayed.