Hypothesis- Explaining why some people get adjudicated early and late

[fine&jadwin]

Sorry about the wording of only says 'IIO', let's not chew the word and play word game. The intended meaning is only when the information is coming out officially from CSC, from IIO, fax response, message conveyed from your lawyer or local politician, then it can be count as name check; you should not blindly count all cases past JIT as in the process of name check.

There are posts say customer service line are called and were told case is in name check, try search for it I am sure there will be plenty comes up.

Nobody blindly counrted all pending Jan-May 2002 cases as name checks. My suggestion is somewhat different: rather than to believe in the conspiracy theoris about the evil USCIS I would prefer to gauge in one way or another what happens to the cases
for 2-3 months after they have been touched.

Lying on the dusty shelves all the time is certainly one the hypothesis. Name checks may be a reason for SOME of that delay (this is why I suggested that old cases may want to fax FBI to find this out). I did a week ago. Waiting for the answer.

 

[asdffdsa]

Gotcha! We are all victims of bureaucracy and ignorance

Nobody blindly counrted all pending Jan-May 2002 cases as name checks. My suggestion is somewhat different: rather than to believe in the conspiracy theoris about the evil USCIS I would prefer to gauge in one way or another what happens to the cases
for 2-3 months after they have been touched.

Lying on the dusty shelves all the time is certainly one the hypothesis. Name checks may be a reason for SOME of that delay (this is way I suggested that old cases may want to fax FBI to foind this out). I did a week ago. Waiting for the answer.

I agree we should gauge in one way or another what happens to the older cases.

Unless the process is more clarified, there is no way to prevent abuse.

 

[Mayfly]

JIT report should be bifurcated to Concurrently Filers and Stand Alone filers

There was a memorandum dated March 31, 2004 by Fujie Ohta (90/16.45) providing a new (pilot?) program for concurrent adjudication of concurrently filed I-140s and I-485s. The beneficiaries of the program are those concurrent filers who had not had their I-140 adjudicated. In essence, it states that concurrent filers’ processing time would be different from stand alone filers and will be processed based upon the I-140 dates rather than the I-485 dates. The concurrent filers’ files will be placed on a different JIT shelf called “I-103 shelf” in the file room. Concurrent filers’ I-140 and I-485 would be adjudicated at the same time.

If so, there should be new JIT category for concurrently filers and stand alone filers. The current JIT report is misleading because USCIS makes it clear that it is making an exception to the FIFO rule as a policy. This appears to be an attempt to reduce general backlog by adjudicating while in “adjudication ready” status (without 2nd FP and 2nd name checks), however, done at the expense of old I-485 filers waiting in line who fell out of “adjudication ready” status due to the processing freeze in 2003. I am a WAC 02-214-XXXX before the concurrent filing program. Not all men (applicants) are created equal before the USCIS.

 

[bigboss0520]

More D E T A I L S on Concurrent Adjudication (I-140 + I-485) Guidance of USCIS HQ

•On March 31, 2004, the USCIS issued a memorandum to the Service Centers to adjudicate concurrently for the concurrently filed I-140 and I-485. Accordingly, people may assume that since about May 1, 2004, the Service Centers have been processing concurrently filed I-140/I-485 cases separately and differently from the I-485 cases which were filed alone. Following are the guidance for concurrent adjudication of concurrently filed I-140+I-485 cases under the memorandum:
•In the Service Center processing times reports, the concurrently filed I-485 processing time coincides with the I-140 processing time. In other words, for these filers, they should keep track of I-140 processing time and not I-485 processing time in the bi-weekly official processing time reports of the Service Centers. For them, I-485 processing time is the same as I-140 processing time. Meanwhile, those who filed I-485 separately should keep track of I-485 processing times in the bi-weekly reports.
•For the concurrent adjudication filers, I-140 petition and I-485 application always stay together. This will result in two consequences: First, since I-140 is not adjudicated separately, the previous procedure of prima facie review of I-140 eligibility is more or less removed and discouraged. Second, in order for the I-485 adjudication to be completed in the same pace with the I-140 adjucation, the Service Centers will accelerate the name check and fingerprint job vigorously.
•Actual adjudication of I-140+I-485 will not take place until I-485 application is ready to be adjudicated after completing the name check and fingerprint. Therefore, the concurrent adjudication files remain on the shelf until they are ready to be adjudicated together.
•When it reaches actual adjudication process, the adjudicators are required to review both I-140 petition and I-485 application. In other word, if the adjudicator needs to issue RFE for I-140, the adjudicator should also determine whether another RFE should be issued for I-485, should there be the RFE issues in the I-485 application. If the petitioner (employer) fails to respond to I-140 RFE or to meet the eligibility requirement, the adjudicator will deny both I-140 and I-485. On the other hand, should the I-140 petitioner be successful in responding to the I-140 RFE and satisfies eligibility requirements, the adjudicator should approve the I-140 petition no matter whether I-485 applicant has successfully responded to the I-485 RFE. If the I-485 applicant fails to meet the RFE requirement, such I-485 will be denied, and more likely the petitioner will receive the I-140 approval notice and the alien will receive I-485 denial notice.
•Plus side and Minus side of Concurrent Filing and Concurrent Adjudication: The big plus will be the processing times. If we look at the I-140 processing times, even though each Service Center differs, the average I-140 processing time is approximately one (1) year. It means that in the concurrent adjudication cases, people will get green card approval within one year or less. Then what is minus? What else, AC 21 180-day rule of change of employer. Since the alien can not change employment until after the I-140 petition is approved, those who lose the job will face a potential denial of the green card opportunity.

 

[Mayfly]

Thanks, very informative. My take is that for the new policy to actually work to reduce the overall backlogs, the I-140 JIT must not fall behind adjudication ready status (15 months after FP). If it is about 12 months now, we are taking about 3 months difference. If they get behind three months, all the cases will fall out of adjudication ready status and consequently eventually, delay the I-140 processing itself and USCIS will get into another quagmire. When they made the decision of adopt this policy, USCIS must have been confident that they will not fall behind three months. I also note that USCIS may have believed that ACT 21 caused additional paper work (FRE for new employers and so on) and maybe it is a hidden policy is to reduce the ACT 21 applicants overall??