Latest from NSC regarding I-485 processing

Ghareeb

Registered Users (C)
Hello...

I just received a letter from my immigration attorney in connection with I-485 processing, and I would like to share it with you all.

"The supervisors at the BCIS Nebraska Service Center have acknowledged that the processing date of employment-based I-485 has not moved much since early 2003. The Center indicated that it has taken a 75% cut in officers assigned to this product line. The Center currently only has five officers working on this product line. The Center stated that it anticipates that it will return to pre-cut levels of production by October 1st and that it's planning to augment the staff on the product line by three officers at that time bringing the total number of officers on that product line to 19. However, these officers will also have to focus on asylee and religious worker adjustment of status applications. The Center did indicate that if the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) initiates its PERM program wihch then increases the number of Form I-140 filings, the Center may have to transfer some of the officers from the Form I-485 product line to the Form I-140 product line to keep processing times relatively current".
 
thanks for sharing this with us. i am glad somebody got something concrete out of the normally taciturn gnomes in NSC.
 
What does it matter.. It is evident that there is no dearth of excuses to keep putting off EB-based cases. INS is not entirely to blame for this. Congress imposes opportunistic edicts and the agency has no choice but to carry them out. Likewise, resources are scarce because congress appropriates away the fee proceeds to other areas like border enforcement instead of allocating them to the processing of applications.

The train I am waiting for is a lifetime too late.. Now, who said that?
 
Good post. Finally we have some concrete #s on how many officers are assigned to adjudicate 485 applications.

If they had a 75% cut and the current strength is 5, then the original should have been 20. And if they augment by 3 more, then it becomes 23 and not 19.....I guess NSC numbers just don't add - nothing to be surprised!
 
No Wonder They Are Making No Progress

From my review of the script data, we see about 500 I-485 cases per day at NSC. If we assume about 22 workdays in the month that is 11,000 new cases per month.

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen an average of 8 new cased being worked per week. If Rupnet represents about 1% of cases that means they work about 800 new cases per week (2400 per month), which for 5 operators is about 32 cases per day or one every 15 minutes. (arn't we all promised 15 minutes of fame).

I think these estimates are consistent with things we have heard in the past. It has been taking them about 3-4 months to process each RD month and we have seen their case backlog grow so much.

As for the promises of more resources that are going to be devoted to these case, I have heard that too many times before to gather any enthusiam about the belief. For every day they delay in adding resource they are adding about 350 cases to the backlog.

Because unless they can shorten the time it takes to get through cases (more resources, new process etc), you should consider the following waiting times (assumes it will take 2.33 months to work each RD month and they start Jan 02 cases now).

RD - Case Processing To Start
1-Jan-02 - 1-Aug-03
1-Feb-02 - 9-Oct-03
1-Mar-02 - 18-Dec-03
1-Apr-02 - 26-Feb-04
1-May-02 - 6-May-04
1-Jun-02 - 15-Jul-04
1-Jul-02 - 23-Sep-04
1-Aug-02 - 2-Dec-04
1-Sep-02 - 10-Feb-05
1-Oct-02 - 21-Apr-05
1-Nov-02 - 30-Jun-05
1-Dec-02 - 8-Sep-05

I would be very happy for someone to show me where my estimates are out.
 
There should be hope for the mid 02 to Dec 02 filers however.
The reason being that when the EB priority dates became current in July 01, there was a flood of applications. I am just guessing here, but the # of applications each month from 07/01 to probably 02/02 should be 3-4 times more that any month from that period onwards.

So i guess, once BCIS gets through to April/May 02 RDs, things should be much faster.

Also, I think that the number of current I485 filers must be really less, considering the downturn / lesser # of H1s etc in the past two years.

My own RD is 10/28/2001 .. Guess I will have to hang in there for a while.
 
Paul, you are right on the estimates. That's the wait I am mentally geared for. Any more would break my sanity.

Jay, bulk of the EB rush (when PDs became current) happened July - Sep 01 - that's my guess looking at Rupnet's # of cases/month data. Also, maybe there's no cheer for the second half 02 filers either. NSC introduced concurrent filing of 140 & 485, and there were 2 groups of 485 filers for a while - ones with approved 140 and the concurrent filers.

Well, I am just being crabby. I should not have taken that nap this afternoon. Maybe that ever-optimistic feeling would come back later - my pet dream is that NSC diverts its workforce from H1B to 485 since the H1 quotas are reverting to original levels!
 
That number of 5 and 19 doesn't look right

So in a regular situation they only have 19 for 4oo applicants per day.

Considering 19 times 10 per day = approx 200 a day
By the end of 2nd year they have 50% just sitting there just collecting dust. These numbers are very hard to believe.
But thanks for sharing what you got. We should all post what we hear.
 
Depends on How Long It Takes To Process A Case

If we assume that it takes 15 minutes per case, then each officer assuming 100% productivity would get though 32 cases per day. Realisticly if a case took 15 minutes then you would not hope for more that. That would still be 512 cases for 20 people.
 
I would be surprised if ...

... the estimate of 15 MIns. per case is correct!!!!!!

How can they check every thing in 15 minutes and how come they won't want to take some time off for peeing and chatting.

Common, everyone needs some break! Not to say that we all need our cases processed. I guess there is more to this story of numbers. Things don't seem to fit in togather (5, 19, 23 etc.)

So until our turn comes to reach that 15 min. time slot, we are all ...

StillWaiting...
 
reality check guys

Someone posting a couple sentences here is far from "concrete evidence". 15 min per case is also unrealistic. It takes longer than that to make an RFE determination, and lately tehy been doing a lot of those.
 
Question For PaulClarke

Hi
Mu RD is Dec 02. Your estimate that this case will be looked at in Sept 05 is scary..... was this your pessimistic view or most likely scneario
aslo, then, would it be not prudent to shift to counselar.....

hambir
 
Guys, this is just my opinion when it comes to consular VS Adj. of Status

1. With AC21, one can basically be a "free bird" with a few restrictions, as soon as you have completed 6 months in the AOS stage.


2. With consular processing since you file I829 (am not too sure of the form) #, and not I485. You cannot (as far as I know) invoke AC21 during consular processing.
With all the consulates in India, and elsewhere mandating interviews for all non-immigrants, your turn at for a GC interview might also take a while.

Personally I feel AOS (with I485) is a safer route to go. (esp with AC21 in place).
 
Latest from NSC regarding I-485 (follow up)

Hi People -

Good morning.
It seems that some people are questioning the validity of my post. Since my immigration attorney made this news available on the Internet, I would like to post a link to this news so that you can take a look at it for yourself. There are some more information on this e-newsbulletin that you may find to be of interest.

The link is:

http://www.masudafunai.com/english/practices/immigration/up08-04-03.asp

Hope you will find this link helpful.

Ghareeb
 
Lets Hope 15 minutes is correct.

My figures were based on 15 minutes per case which for 5 case workers is 32 cases each or 160 cases per day. If it takes them 30 minutes per case then that is only 16 each per day or 80.

With some overtime, let assume that there are 22 work days each month. From the script data we know that there are about 400-500 cases per day. Lets assume 400. That is 8800 per month. At 15 minutes per case then that is 3520 cases per week and the backlog grows by 5280 cases per month and it takes them about 2.5 months to process a months worth of cases. If it takes them 30 minutes per case that is only 1760 per month and the backlog grows by 7040 per month and it takes them 5 months to process each months worth of receipts. If that was the case (which I really hope its not), then if nothing changes in terms of case worker resources or processing efficiencies, then consider the following processing times.


RD Month Processing To Start
01-Jan-02 - 15-Aug-03
01-Feb-02 - 14-Jan-04
01-Mar-02 - 14-Jun-04
01-Apr-02 - 13-Nov-04
01-May-02 - 14-Apr-05
01-Jun-02 - 13-Sep-05
01-Jul-02 - 12-Feb-06
01-Aug-02 - 14-Jul-06
01-Sep-02 - 13-Dec-06
01-Oct-02 - 14-May-07
01-Nov-02 - 14-Oct-07
01-Dec-02 - 14-Mar-08
 
Hi Paul

If we assume approximately 400 new cases per day, then we should consider the percentage of dependent cases. I believe all dependent cases are tied with primary applicant and processed together. In my case I have 2 dependents filed with me on the same day. For dependents they don't need to work on employment, educational .. information.
If we assume 50% of these cases are dependent, then primary applicant cases will come down to 200/day.
 
paul...something does not seem right

Paul
Something about your analysisidoes not intutively seem right
i dont think a case can be adjudicated in 15 mins. also, it does not see right that the backlogs will grow (w/0) anything being done in that its taking 6 years (1200 days) to adjudicate...ins still says 550-600 days
i kind a think that posting interpretations based on many many assumptions skews results amazingly. coming froma stats background i have seen that happen...so while i appreaciate your thinking, its disheartening to many filers and (hopefully) flawed....
:(
 
Thats exactly right!!! V Kumar

Thast what I meant by ASSUMPTIONS skewing data. I have 4 dependents......and generally most filers have atleast 1. and these cases are automatically approved agter background checks so they dont take any time if you know what i mean.
With this your expected time is cut down by half...100% difference



so we should be careful with assumptions
:)
 
No one knows how the BCIS processes the cases. 15 minutes is only enough for them to check name and birthday on different documents. If they can finish a case within 15 minutes, then I guess they can also complete it in 5 minutes.
 
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