GC's name check for Canadians not born in Canada

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CanadianKam

Registered Users (C)
I have heard of cases of Canadians who were born in a middle-eastern country or who had a muslim name and their name check got stuck. Does anyone have any info to share in this regard? If so, how long did the name check take?

Thanks,
Kam
 
name check depends on how 'common' the components of your name are, and has little to do with national origin.

I'm anglo-saxon born in canada with names that are as common as they come and have been stuck in name check foir 3 years. My wife shares a surname with about 60 people on this earth, and hers took a couple of weeks.

Obviously if your name contains 'mohammed' or 'ali' or 'osman' or 'tarik' in any of its variations, you are going going to get a loy of 'hits' that will need manual checking (which is the root cause of name check backlog).

That is what is so frustrating about name check. its pure numbers and permuations on your name.
 
nelsona said:
name check depends on how 'common' the components of your name are, and has little to do with national origin.

I'm anglo-saxon born in canada with names that are as common as they come and have been stuck in name check foir 3 years. My wife shares a surname with about 60 people on this earth, and hers took a couple of weeks.

Obviously if your name contains 'mohammed' or 'ali' or 'osman' or 'tarik' in any of its variations, you are going going to get a loy of 'hits' that will need manual checking (which is the root cause of name check backlog).

That is what is so frustrating about name check. its pure numbers and permuations on your name.
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I agree with you to a great extent that majority of stuck name check cases are due to common names. However, there is a component in the name check process that you have not been exposed to: security check. After 9/11, the security check for GC and US citizenship applicants has increased dramatically. Otherwise, could you explain to me why there are more cases stuck in name check post-9/11 as compared to pre-9/11?! Are we running into applicants with more common names post-9/11?!!!! Of course not!

I myself am aware of the following cases:
1. Iranian Canadian who's been told by CIS that his case is stuck in extended background checks for over 12 months.
2. Iranian guy who has been in extended background check since 2001!!
3. A friend of mine who had been on GC for over 20 years and suddenly decided to apply for US citizenship. He was told by CIS officer in his interview that he looked suspicious for not applying for citizenship for 20 years. Result:extended background check! (Also, he has middle-eastern ethnicity).

Here are the cases I have read about on the internet:
1. A whole bunch of middle-easterns who have been stuck in name check for years.
2. A Pakistani born Canadian who came to Canada in the 70s when he was a kid: He has always been waived Special Registration but CIS sent him RFE to prove he was Specially Registered. This one case is pretty odd and different!

I am trying to see if anybody else has knowledge of similar cases for Canadian citizens. So please exclude cases due to common names.


BTW, if you have been stuck in name check for 3 years for whatever reason, you must think of applying for WOM (something mandamas).
 
Writ of Mandamus is old news, uscis has specifically stated that they will not process based on WoM, unless you fall into 4 very narrow hardship categories.


Security check IS name check. It occurs at both AOS and naturalization stages, since since 2003.

So, I am very exposed to it.
 
I am a Pakistan born Canadian with "muslim" first, middle and last names. I never got stuck in name check during my K-1, AOS and N-400. I averaged quicker than most other applicants who were being processed at that time. My middle name is common, but my first and last names are uncommon.
 
TheRealCanadian said:
Out of curiosity Nelson, have you gotten in touch with one of your Members of Congress, to see what can be done?
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I was retrogressed until Nov 2006, so hadn't given name check much thought. Now, after some digging (and a rather fruitfull infopass) I found out that my name had been submitted in 2004.

I have taken the first step to get any outside action (you need a FOIPA to show your congressman that you do not have a record). However, I do not hold out any hope for them, since they quite simply CANNOT push FBI to speed up clearance, they are not allowed, neither practically nor politically to do it, so...

Personally, I do not believe the anecdotes from those who wrote to congressmen, or -- heaven help me -- Laura Bush, actually benefitted from this. Remember that many impatient sorts are writing their Reps 6 months after filing demanding action, so the approval that 'majically' appeared 4 weeks later was merely regular processing. For any politician to then claim credit for speeding up the process is disingenuous (and quite typical of pols, no?).

I don't know of any true 'namecheck vistims' that were helped by anything other than Mandamus (and that door is now closed).

But I will be persuing all options once I get my FOIPA, including Mrs Bush (I'll write slowly and add a few 'God' references for her):rolleyes:

Meanwhile I go for my THIRD set of FPs next week. Amazing how digital prints expire.:p
 
Is name check using name component plus year of birth?

I've read from some papers that name component + year of birth are used in name check.

But if that's the case, why so many got stuck assuming that the chance of name component + year(I.e., John, 1970) both are being hit should be small.

Somebody please verify this.
 
Dear All

I just have a general question: since US and Canada closely related, may USCIS contact Canadian officials to acquire information regarding applicant’s Canadian background? :eek: Nothing to hide on my side, but still, such a request might lengthen Name Check procedure considerably. What do you think?
 
sometwo said:
Dear All

I just have a general question: since US and Canada closely related, may USCIS contact Canadian officials to acquire information regarding applicant’s Canadian background? :eek: Nothing to hide on my side, but still, such a request might lengthen Name Check procedure considerably. What do you think?
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Background check is a two-part process. Fingerprints (taken by USCIS) are submitted to the authorities in your former country(ies). This is done for all immigrant applicants, and has been done for decades.

Namecheck is a purely internal FBI process searching their databases (electronic and manual), instituted since 9/11. What their databases consist of is a mystery, but probably does include some foriegn input (interpol, RCMP, etc).
I don't think Cdns are being unfairly treated in this process, other than in the commonality of many names. I guess French Cdns have it easiest in that regard:)
 
tdi2005t said:
I've read from some papers that name component + year of birth are used in name check.

But if that's the case, why so many got stuck assuming that the chance of name component + year(I.e., John, 1970) both are being hit should be small.

Somebody please verify this.
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Yes, years are being used. However, just how namy John, Juans, Johans, are from that year makes the numbers grow quite quickly. Add to this Smith,Smythe,Smits,Smyth. John Smith is not going to clear name check the way it is now constituted, period. The moment more than a handful of hits are made, manual checking won't even start, since the FBI traineee probably just got 500 more names put on her desk since lunchtime.
 
nelsona said:
Background check is a two-part process. Fingerprints (taken by USCIS) are submitted to the authorities in your former country(ies). This is done for all immigrant applicants, and has been done for decades.

Namecheck is a purely internal FBI process searching their databases (electronic and manual), instituted since 9/11. What their databases consist of is a mystery, but probably does include some foriegn input (interpol, RCMP, etc).
I don't think Cdns are being unfairly treated in this process, other than in the commonality of many names. I guess French Cdns have it easiest in that regard:)
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Sending FP to your former country(ies)! Hmmm! This is probably why people from or born in countries like Iran get stuck because there is no relationship between US and Iran. These cases are probably deadlocks.

However, I still strongly believe there are extra background checks done at the discretion of CIS/FBI officer especially if you were born in a middle-eastern country. Have we forgotten the tension between the two US and Canadian governments over Special Registration (FPing middle-eastern Canadians at exit and entry) back in 2002-03? Of course there is a systemic racial profiling and discrimination in post-9/11 era and if one denies this, he/she lives in the Wizard of Oz movie or is as old school as Don Cherry (with all due respect to Don)! :D

TripleCitizen, you are one of the lucky ones and should celebrate your US citizenship did not get stuck. I am only aware of one middle-eastern Canadian who got his GC in time. I wish I could see more cases like yours and his.

Being stuck in name check for whatever reason sucks! I feel Nelsona's pain. What I heard from my company's lawyer about WOM is that CIS no longer adjudicates 485s because you filed WOM. Instead, CIS will litigate it. This does not mean you won't succeed. This means you will have to go to court to fight them. So the sooner you start the process, the sooner you can get results because going to court takes a long time. Three years is too much buddy!
 
There are enough I-485/GC/namecheck threads...

let's stick to TN issues here -- easy to get sidetracked:)
 
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