TheRealCanadian
Volunteer Moderator
I've been having a slow week waiting for the audit to complete and the AVM/WWW systems to be updated. To pass the time, I've been reading through the I-485 SOP document that was posted here a while ago. I'm going to share with all of you what I have read and discovered. As a bit of personal background, my RFE response was received by the INS on 8/28/01, with no news so far. I am trying to figure out the workflow steps on an RFE response, to see why my case takes so long and others get approved in just a few days. I am not an attorney or connected with the INS in any way, but here is my guess as to what goes on at VSC (and the other Service Centers) right now.
To begin, there are two terms you should become familiar with, CLAIMS and RAFACS. CLAIMS is the mainframe system that the INS uses to track the status of your case. It tracks case type, when a case was received, and any action taken on it (RFE/approval/denial). RAFACS is the system that the INS uses to track the contents of your file, ie. the physical documents that you send to the INS with your application. For an I-485 proceeding, not only do you file information with the INS, but things get sent back to the Service Center in order to process your case. Your original visa petition, the Labour Cert, the fingerprint results from the FBI - all this stuff gets added to your case file. The location of that file is tracked by RAFACS.
Now, two things are probably happenning. First, the news says that "internal file movement has ceased". That means that RAFACS is not being updated, and no physical documents are moving around the Service Center. If your I-485 is currently "staged", that means it will not be looked at during the audit. Sorry, folks. The only way that it will get looked at is if it's been transfered to an ajudication officer.
There's many reasons why a file can be staged. The biggest place for it to be staged is the "Ready Work" queue, which means the case is ready to ajudicate. The fingerprints have been received, all the info has been collected, it just needs to be picked up. Another reason for staging (no longer in use for EB) is the "Visa Hold" stage, ie. your priority date is no longer current. Finally (and this is of great concern to me), your I-485 could be staged waiting for an RFE. My understanding was that a file always remained with an ajudication officer from RFE issuance until approval or denial - apparently not! However, there is no instruction whem generating an RFE to RAFACS the case back to Workload Distribution, so this may be an optional step.
When your case is "assigned to an officer", it probably means that the AO has checked in the case via RAFACS. The IIOs can access this system, but many choose not to. However, let me suggest that this is not always an accurate guide. Many AOs, I have heard, do not check the file in via RAFACS until they are about to ajudicate it, and then they check them in/out in a batch. So the case can be sitting on their desk for several days or weeks. That may be why some of you don't hear anything about the "assigned to an officer" stage, and then it gets approved.
Now, approval is not a simple one-step process. The AO must first "Recommend Approval" and then "Approve" the case. When the AO "Recommends Approval", the case gets put into a "Visa Hold" queue, and visa numbers must be allocated to you and your dependents. Only after the case comes back does the case get "Approved"! Apparently, the visa number allocation is pretty quick.
Each time that a change is made to a case (Intent to Deny, RFE, Recommended Approval, Approval) the CLAIMS system gets updated. From this, you see or hear different status messages on the AVM or WWW systems. I suspect that the AVM does not query CLAIMS directly, but instead gets updated via a batch process at approximately 6pm Eastern Time. The web site may or may not query CLAIMS directly; they may have that as the goal, but right now the system may be querying a copy of the CLAIMS data that is updated on a batch cycle because the system may still be undergoing tests. (I also think the INS is afraid that large numbers of Web site queries could overwhelm CLAIMS).
So there you go. Knowledge is power, but I don't know how accurate this is. Let's say it's somewhere between 50% and 90%. Next time you call an IIO, ask if the case has been "Placed into Suspense" and a "Processing Hold". That means you've been Recommended for Approval, and you're just waiting on the visa number to be allocated. Ask for the RAFACS location - has it been transfered to an Ajudicator or is it still in Workload Distribution? Has it been staged for an RFE? You will probably get more meaningful answers than "How long will it take?" My guess is the IIOs don't know - but they can tell you what CLAIMS and RAFACS tells them.
Besides, you might really surprise them by asking lots of pointed questions about their internal systems.
To begin, there are two terms you should become familiar with, CLAIMS and RAFACS. CLAIMS is the mainframe system that the INS uses to track the status of your case. It tracks case type, when a case was received, and any action taken on it (RFE/approval/denial). RAFACS is the system that the INS uses to track the contents of your file, ie. the physical documents that you send to the INS with your application. For an I-485 proceeding, not only do you file information with the INS, but things get sent back to the Service Center in order to process your case. Your original visa petition, the Labour Cert, the fingerprint results from the FBI - all this stuff gets added to your case file. The location of that file is tracked by RAFACS.
Now, two things are probably happenning. First, the news says that "internal file movement has ceased". That means that RAFACS is not being updated, and no physical documents are moving around the Service Center. If your I-485 is currently "staged", that means it will not be looked at during the audit. Sorry, folks. The only way that it will get looked at is if it's been transfered to an ajudication officer.
There's many reasons why a file can be staged. The biggest place for it to be staged is the "Ready Work" queue, which means the case is ready to ajudicate. The fingerprints have been received, all the info has been collected, it just needs to be picked up. Another reason for staging (no longer in use for EB) is the "Visa Hold" stage, ie. your priority date is no longer current. Finally (and this is of great concern to me), your I-485 could be staged waiting for an RFE. My understanding was that a file always remained with an ajudication officer from RFE issuance until approval or denial - apparently not! However, there is no instruction whem generating an RFE to RAFACS the case back to Workload Distribution, so this may be an optional step.
When your case is "assigned to an officer", it probably means that the AO has checked in the case via RAFACS. The IIOs can access this system, but many choose not to. However, let me suggest that this is not always an accurate guide. Many AOs, I have heard, do not check the file in via RAFACS until they are about to ajudicate it, and then they check them in/out in a batch. So the case can be sitting on their desk for several days or weeks. That may be why some of you don't hear anything about the "assigned to an officer" stage, and then it gets approved.
Now, approval is not a simple one-step process. The AO must first "Recommend Approval" and then "Approve" the case. When the AO "Recommends Approval", the case gets put into a "Visa Hold" queue, and visa numbers must be allocated to you and your dependents. Only after the case comes back does the case get "Approved"! Apparently, the visa number allocation is pretty quick.
Each time that a change is made to a case (Intent to Deny, RFE, Recommended Approval, Approval) the CLAIMS system gets updated. From this, you see or hear different status messages on the AVM or WWW systems. I suspect that the AVM does not query CLAIMS directly, but instead gets updated via a batch process at approximately 6pm Eastern Time. The web site may or may not query CLAIMS directly; they may have that as the goal, but right now the system may be querying a copy of the CLAIMS data that is updated on a batch cycle because the system may still be undergoing tests. (I also think the INS is afraid that large numbers of Web site queries could overwhelm CLAIMS).
So there you go. Knowledge is power, but I don't know how accurate this is. Let's say it's somewhere between 50% and 90%. Next time you call an IIO, ask if the case has been "Placed into Suspense" and a "Processing Hold". That means you've been Recommended for Approval, and you're just waiting on the visa number to be allocated. Ask for the RAFACS location - has it been transfered to an Ajudicator or is it still in Workload Distribution? Has it been staged for an RFE? You will probably get more meaningful answers than "How long will it take?" My guess is the IIOs don't know - but they can tell you what CLAIMS and RAFACS tells them.
Besides, you might really surprise them by asking lots of pointed questions about their internal systems.