Los Angeles, CA - N-400 Timeline

[texasdude]

Hi citizen2008, My N400 PD is also Oct 3, 2007 DO Los Angeles , Can you please PM me the attorney name and contact information. That will be really appreciated.

 

[texasdude]

Hi citizen2008, What kind of time frame did this attorney give in terms of getting the N400 adjudicated for your priority date

 

[Feliz-LA]

So he finally opted to go for individual WOM with me and others (each will be a different retainer agreement) and different case altogather

I think he's just trying to make as much money as possible

it makes sense to use his servise if you are:
1) suspecting high possibility of being stuck in Name Check (especially if name sounds Muslim, plus male gender and age multiplies amount of possible matching criminals)
2) too busy to file WOM yourself (under $100 i think)
3) willing to pay the 4 figure fee to speed up the process
4) sure that the case is uncomplicated and 100% eligible

and if you are filing individually then there is no reason for you to look for others to cut fees etc. so I hope it works out for you, good luck!

as to me personally, I have free time, so I will prepare to file WOM myself in couple months, if LA doesnt speed up due to new employees (see NYC thread).

but ideally i think WOM makes more sense if
1) somebody with March 08 PD got IL like in NYC while July 07 pending, and I haven't seen that happening in LA DO yet, if it did and a person agreed to gave me copies of his/hers NOAs as proof, i'd have filed WOM already.
2) the number of days given in NOA1 passed - but i hope to be done by Jan 09.

 

[citizen2008]

Hi citizen2008, What kind of time frame did this attorney give in terms of getting the N400 adjudicated for your priority date

We did not talk about that. I will ask him before I file.

 

[Feliz-LA]

some editions (added PD-IL/ PD-ID/PD-OD times)

Most recent timelines together in order of FP done (pages 33-43 of thread - Nov 15, 07 - May 19, 08)
since it's the beginning of FBI check - i though it makes sense to sort by FP - to see if there is pattern

FP dates, with OD
Mar 22, 07 - jjj240 PD Mar 07, 07 --- IL Sep 08, 07 - ID Oct 02, 07 - OD Nov 30, 07 (6/7/9 month)
April 04, 07 - mimithecat PD Mar 07, 07 --- IL Sep 09, 07 - ID Oct 03, 07 - OL Jan 28, 08 - OD Feb 21, 08 (6/7/11 months)
May 18,07 - wael megid PD Apr 18, 07 -- ID Jan 11, 08 -OD Apr 30, 08 (8/9/12 months)
May 24, 07 - ranapratap PD Apr 16, 07 - IL Dec 20, 08 - ID Feb 01, 08-OL-Feb 22, 08 - OD 03/20/08 (8/10/11 months)
May 26, 07 - Muks PD April 10, 07 - ID Jan 11, 08 - OD Feb 1, 08 (8/9/10 months)
May 28, 07 - rd070901 PD Apr 16, 07 - IL Dec 25, 07 - ID Feb 26, 08 - OD Mar 20, 08 (8/10/11 months)
May 30, 07 - ninim2200 PD Apr 17, 07 ---IL Nov 29, 07 -ID Jan 23,08 - OD Feb 21,08 (6/9/10 months)
June 20,07 - SoCalDude (San Bern.)PD Apr 19,07 -- IL Jan 23, 08 - ID Mar 15,08 - OD May 22, 08 (9/11/13 months)
June 22, 07 - sambangis (Santa Ana) PD May 25, 07 - ID Dec 03, 08 - OD Jan 18, 08 (6/7/8 months)
July 13, 07 - Yafoulli PD May 30, 07 --- IL Jan 19, 08 -ID Mar 25, 08 - OD Apr 30 (8/10/11)

FP dates with IL and ID
end of Jan ILs >>PD May 07>> Mar 08
June 25,07 - Faye PD May 29, 07 ----IL Jan 19, 08 - ID Mar 19, 08 (8/10/? )
July 06, 07 - arashijing PD May 24,07 ---IL Jan 22, 08 - ID Mar 18, 08 (8/10/?)
end of March ILs >>> PD beg. of Jul>> May 08
Aug 21, 07 -Jedi.Knight PD Jul 02, 07 --- IL Mar 18,08 - ID May 07, 08 (8,5/10/?)
Aug 31, 07 - century city PD Jul 05, 07 ---IL Mar 20, 08 - ID May 19, 08 (8,5/10,5/?)
Dec 18, 07 - Caifitas PD July 28, 07 - IL rec Apr 3 - ID May 15 (9/10,5/?)
end of April ILs >> PD end of July >>>end of June 08
xx xx xx FP - eternal wait - PD July 25, 07 --- IL Apr 17, 08 - ID Jun 20, 08 (9,5/11,5 /?)
end of May ILs>>> ??? PD July-August>>> July 08
????? - DO's possibly busy with training new IOs?

FP dates, no IL yet
Feb 29, 07 - shopgirl PD Jan 29, 07 (so far 1 year 3 months- name check?)
Aug 21, 07 - alect - PD Jul 13, 07 (10,5 +?)
Sep 25, 07 - ftm -PD July 27,07 (10 +?)
(Sep-Nov 07 frontlog, no NOAs, no FPs)
Dec 18,07 - caliSun - PD Sep 27,07 (8+)
Dec 22, 07 - yummyk (Santa Ana)- PD Aug 21,07 (9+)
Jan 17, 08 - citizen2008 - PD Oct 04 (7+)
Jan 18, 08 - Feliz LA - PD Oct 30,07 (6,5+)
Feb 07, 08 - Manlika2004 - PD - Jan 14,08
Feb 07, 08 - AusCal (VJ)- PD Sep 12, 2007

here's my record for LA DO so far

DATE 2008- PD 2007- forum name

IL
Sunday Sep 9, 2007 ---- March 07, 07 - mimithecat
Thursday Nov 29, 2007 --- April 17, 07 - ninim2200
Thursday Dec 20, 2007 --- April 07 - ranapratap12
Thursday Jan 17 --- May 23, 07 - arashijing
Saturday Jan 19 --- May 26. 07 - Yafoulli
Saturday Jan 19 --- May 29, 07 - Faye
Tuesday Mar 18 --- July 2, 2007 - Jedi
Thursday Mar 20 --- Jul-5, 07 Century City Laguna Niguel
Thursday Apr 17 --- July 25,07 - eternal wait VJ

ID
Jan>> PD April
Monday Jan 7 --- April 10,07 Muks
Wednesday Jan 23 --- April 17, 07 - ninim2200
Feb >> PD April-May
Friday Feb 1 --- April 07 - ranapratap12
Monday Feb 25 ---- May 26. 07 - Yafoulli
Mar >> end of May
Tuesday Mar 18 --- May 23, 07 - arashijing
Wednesday Mar 19 --- May 29, 07-Faye
Tuesday Mar 25 --- May 26. 07 - Yafoulli
May >>> beg. of July
Wednesday May 7 --- July 2, 2007 - Jedi
Monday May 19 --- Jul 5, 07 - century city Laguna Niguel
June >> end of July
Friday Jun 20 ----Jul 25.07 - eternal wait VJ -

OL
Jan>>> March April
Wednesday Jan 23 --- April 17,07 - ninim2200 -same day
Monday Jan 28 --- March 07, 07 - mimithecat
Feb >> April
Friday Feb 22 --- April 07 - ranapratap12


OD goes by Oath date -location- PD 2007 - forumnames OATH SCHEDULE
Feb > Mar-Apr
Friday Feb 1 ---April 10,07 Muks
Thursday Feb 21 ---July 19, 07 - Deena--- April 17, 07 - ninim2200, ---March 07, 07 - mimithecat
Mar > April
Thursday Mar 6 oath -court 75
Thursday Mar 20 oath-LA CC ---April 07, 07 - ranapratap12
Apr >> May
Thursday Apr 10 oath -court
Wednesday Apr 30 oath-LA CC ---May 30,07 - Yaufulli
May >>> June
Thursday May 8 oath -court
Thursday May 22 oath-LA CC --- Apr 19, 07 -SoCalDude (San Bern)
June>> ?? July
Thursday Jun 5 oath court, 75
Thursday Jun 19 oath quiet cannon, 2700
July >>> ?? July-Aug
Thursday Jul 3 oath court, 75
Friday Jul 11 oath ConvCen 12 000
Thursday Jul 24 oath court, 75

please update your timelines in signatures or post them in your DO's thread

 

[ftm]

Lawyers cannot speed up the N400 process

I am almost positive that lawyers cannot speed up the N400 process even if they are claiming to. If your file has glitches such as crimes, tax issues, permanent residence issues, etc. then you could benefit from a lawyer. I would not waste money if you don't have to. My brother and I have both filed with lawyers, because we had to. We are still waiting just like everyone else.
His PD is a couple of days after mine.

Just my humble opinions
ftm

 

[Manlika2004]

Well we moved back to June in the new processing dates. Not that that means anything.

 

[citizen2008]

Hi

Interesting thing I noticed today by looking at the Oath Dates in LA Do area. The maximum number of people scheduled to take OATH for May, June and July of 2008 seems to be around 20,000 MAX (some cases even less people). That tells me, that even if the USCIS adjudicates a minimum of 30,000 approvals a month, how are they going to provide Oath to all those people.

From all the data that FELIZ-LA collected, it seems to me that his prediction of USCIS giving Interview date to a October filer like me may take them 2 more months or July of 2008. But with the Oath Backlog they are creating now in the process, It will take them more than just mere 2 months for Oath.

So in my case, first I went through the frontlog of applications, once that cleared, I went through backlog of adjudication (interview) and now I think backlog of Oath schedule.

I am definitely going to file WOM. I am just not sure how I can put up a great argument where by I can get the whole thing done by August or September, even with WOM successfully conducted, my naturalization case will take about 12 months. (hey USCIS was not all wrong in their prediction after all. Their prediction and my prediction are almost identical. Only difference is we will have have to fight the WOM which is I think what USCIS needs)

 

[Feliz-LA]

My brother and I have both filed with lawyers, because we had to. We are still waiting just like everyone else.

no, lawyers by themself of course cannot speed up anything, but in case of being stuck namecheck - filing WOM seems to be only thing that can help. And it's legal (and a lot cheaper) to file it without lawyer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 02, 2007 reported by LA DO on May 15 2008,

so Feb>Mar>Apr>May dates look like:
Los Angeles CA (14.3) >Feb 06/30/2007> -80> Mar 04/11/2007> -14>Apr 03/28/07> +2,1 months> May 06/02/2007

in the unlikely case that June 2,07 is not another randomly generated crazy number, it could means Oath date

last oaths on forum between April 15 and May 15, 08 was Yafoulli PD May 30, 07 > OD Apr 30 total 11 months
last oath ceremony before May 15 was May 08, so probably May 08, 08 latest case PD naturalized was June 2, 07.

considering that IL are sent 2 to 4 months earlier then oaths, and the fact that last forum IL was received April 17 for PD July 25, then May 17-29 are theoretically sending ILs to PDs from Aug 2, 2007 to Oct 2, 07. but that's again in the unlikely case the dates given aren't random and we somehow still consider US CIS logical and processing cases in order received.
------------
more about Oaths:

there were 75 people on May 8 Oath - supposedly up until June 02 PD reported on May 15th
and 18 000 people will be naturalized today May 22 - meaning June, 02 and after (hopefully all of June will be done that day? may be some July?)

Los Angeles DO had 127,533 cases pending on January 31 (according to LA Times)

Oath schedules
in February 19 075 ->>>March-April 2007>>> forums ODs of PD March 07, April 10, April 17, July 19, 07
in March 12 075 >>>April 2007>>> OD for PD April 07, 07
in April 7 075>>>> April -May 2007 >>>OD for PD Apr 19, 07 and May 30,07
in May 18 075 ->>> June 2007>> may be July
in June 2 775 -> July 07? is it so low, because in April-May they were busy with new IO training?
in July 12 150 -> July? Aug?
------
total 71 225 complete from Feb-July (+ about 7000 rejected)

127 533 - 71 225 = 56 308 left
if about 5000 -7 000 new cases were received in 6 months Feb-July, 08

then they should be half way through the back log by August, that's about 60 000 - 65 000 left pending on Aug 1.

 

[Feliz-LA]

Hi
Interesting thing I noticed today by looking at the Oath Dates in LA Do area. The maximum number of people scheduled to take OATH for May, June and July of 2008 seems to be around 20,000 MAX (some cases even less people). That tells me, that even if the USCIS adjudicates a minimum of 30,000 approvals a month, how are they going to provide Oath to all those people..

where did you get the number 30 000? was is a sertain article?

whole US CIS nationally processes anywhere from 30 000 - 90 000/month according to the only reliable stats they release, so i don't think LA DO alone could be processing a whole third of it.

their speed is most likely to be close to oath speed - about 2000-18 000 in 1(-2-3) month (possibly accumulated for one big mega ceremony)
as to the oath, their maximum is 18 000 a day, and if ceremony is held in same big hall of LA CC with max 6000 at once capacity, then there is no reason to schedule less people, other then that there are less approved cases ready for oath, may be because of new IOs training, like June is low, that is oaths for interviews done in April. hopefully new IOs start in May-June cuz in July the number of oaths is high again.

let's see in Aug-Sep oath numers stay consistent to prove the theory

from this article: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0515citizenship0515.html
i get the feeling that 2000 oaths a day is ALOT for even big city like Phoenix DO, and 18 000 of LA is called - MEGA CEREMONY

probably normally - before backlog - around 1000 -2000 cases were approved and naturalized a month per big DO.

more about old and new speeds in DOs

For example: from JohnnyCash's information, the new adjudicators will process an average of about 23 cases a day, compared to 9 currently. So in terms of productivity, each new super-adjudicator will be worth about 255% of a current adjudicator. That means if there are (hypothetically) already 56 adjudicators in NYC, the addition of these 22 would double the daily number of interviews. That's not counting weekends.

Here are some interesting numbers:
The 22 IOs that have been hired by the NYC DO will be responsible for at least 25 interviews per day. That's 550 interviews conducted on a daily basis.
Suppose that the interviews will also be conducted on Saturdays, which makes it a 6 day work week. Using the minimal numbers, that's 3300 interviews per week (550x6=3300).

According to the LA Times article that was much discussed on this forum, NYC has approximately 50,000 backlogged applications. Divide that by 3300 and it appears that, at this pace, the backlog should be cleared within approximately 15 weeks. That sounds almost too good to be true.

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigration16apr16,1,5259190.story?track=rss

some immigration offices in Southern California are staying open on weekends to get though a backlog of more than 180,000 people hoping to become U.S. citizens.

In addition to overtime and weekend schedules, Arellano said the Los Angeles district plans to hire 100 workers by the fall to speed up processing of immigration applications.

too bad there is no mentioning how many officers LA DO had initially

 

[Feliz-LA]

LA court schedule with WOM cases against Jane Arrelano
01-28-2008.pdf
May 23, 2007 article about media campain that caused back log in LA
http://fairimmigration.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/citizenship-drive-gets-a-lift/

The citizenship drive began in January, when Univision’s largest station — Los Angeles’s KMEX 34 — began bombarding Southern California airwaves with a campaign designed to steer eligible viewers to become U.S. citizens.

The impact was immediate: In Los Angeles and surrounding counties, the number of citizenship applications filed to the U.S. government more than doubled for the three months ended March 2007 compared with the same period last year. It typically takes six or seven months for green-card holders to complete the citizenship process.

Now, the campaign is spreading quickly to big cities including Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix. After the yearlong campaign is complete, a second phase is slated for 2008 that will focus on getting the new citizens to register to vote.

“I have never seen anything like it in my career. It’s big,” said Jane Arellano, a 39-year veteran of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services who is district director in L.A.

According to a person close to the situation, the initiative was a factor in the agency’s decision to extend the terms of 40 immigration adjudicators in the district whose contracts were due to end in January

In Los Angeles, the 123% jump in citizenship applications contrasts with a 59% increase in the U.S. overall for the first three months of the year. The success in L.A. emboldened Naleo and Univision to take the campaign elsewhere: A campaign in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area is to kick off in the next few weeks, organizers say.
.

ok if 40 were to retire, i guess there was at least more then 50 (NYC was 56)

more on amount of Adjudicators: July 15, 2007
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/gardengrove/article_1767958.php

The surge in applications has led USCIS to re-assign four teams of adjudicators – 32 people – in the Los Angeles area to focus on citizenship. Because of the rise in applications, aspiring citizens are now waiting eight months for an interview compared with a six-month wait earlier this year, said Jane Arellano, USCIS district director in Los Angeles.

Arellano said about 90 percent of applicants in Orange County are approved.

more of stats: March 12, 2008
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/citizenship-months-interviews-1997686-last-angeles

About 236,000 people applied for citizenship in the greater Los Angeles area last year, more than twice the filings reported in 2006.

That prompted U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to take a series of measures in the region to stave off a looming backlog. These include an agreement with a group of 20 asylum officers in Anaheim who have signed up to receive training and overtime pay to conduct naturalization interviews out of their Manchester Ave. offices Ave through September.

USCIS will also conduct weekend interviews in offices in East Los Angeles and San Bernardino, said district director Jane Arellano. "We don't want to lose the ground (we had gained)," she said. "We were doing so well and the surge came along."

Citizenship applicants asked to report to the Anaheim asylum center will hail from nearby zip codes in Los Angeles County, which faces a bigger backlog than Orange County, Arellano said, adding that USCIS' Santa Ana office will get a staffing boost to help it stay on top of paperwork.

photo of Jane Arrelano with Andy Garcia and Emilio Gonzales
http://www.uscis.gov/images/nativeimages/01-24-08_2.jpg
From left to right: USCIS District Director Jane Arellano, "Outstanding American by Choice" Andy Garcia, and USCIS Director Emilio T. González in Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 24, 2008

 

[Feliz-LA]

American Immigration Lawyers Association - Southern California Chapter has regular meetings with heads of LA DO including LA DO Director Jane Arrelano

full list of 2005-2008 meetings http://www.socalaila.org/minutes_forms.asp

latest ones are scanned images, not a text, so I cant copy it here, i will have to refer to pages.
March 13, 2008 :
http://www.socalaila.org/pdf/minutes/2008-03-27 district 23 dd mtg minutes.pdf

page 2 is N400
page 5 referes to INFOPASS IO's ignorance.
page 8 - staffing changes and N400 processing time
- from filing to interview - 10-12 month
- from interview to oath - 60-90 days
is same day oath scheduling still happening and will continue - YES

Feb 28, 2008:
http://www.socalaila.org/pdf/minutes/2008-02-28 lado dd mtg minutes.pdf

page 7 - staffing changes
-surge positions available to address backlogs
- Asylum officer start N400 interviews March 15 in Anaheim on Sat and Sun
page 8
- currect Interviews schedules are for: April 6, 2007
- 60-90 days till oath
- same day oath scheduling - in LA office only

Jan 31, 2008
http://www.socalaila.org/pdf/minutes/2008-01-31 lado dd mtg minutes.pdf

-page 10: Generally interviewing April 2007, "however as cases are ready for interview they fall into the interview queue regardless of the date of filing"

Dec 6, 2008
http://www.socalaila.org/pdf/minutes/2007-12-06 district 23 dd mtg minutes.pdf

page 7:
- 1 (!!!) new adjudicating officer in Santa Ana
- Saturdays interviews

too bad that they post them about once-twice a year, all documents from June 07 to March 08 were posted in April 08, so probably no updates for another several months

 

[Feliz-LA]

and here's is how Jane Arrelano could have became a Director:

NY Times: December 21, 1994
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...2A15751C1A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

*Robert Moschorak, the former district director of Los Angeles. After he sought preferential treatment for his wife's application for citizenship in 1990, a subordinate, Jane Arellano, reported him to Justice Department investigators. Mr. Moschorak later confronted her in a hallway and, a witness said, began throttling her. Immediately afterward, he was said to have remarked, "Would murder get me a day off, or some other disciplinary action?" Mr. Moschorak denies that he pinched Ms. Arellano's windpipe or made the remark, and the agency took his word over that of the witness and concluded that no assault had occurred. He retired with full benefits last year.

Eighteen years after she came to this country from Mexico, Maria Teresa Moschorak applied to become a citizen as her husband, Robert Moschorak, was vying for one of the agency's most coveted jobs, Los Angeles district director.

Mr. Moschorak, while acting director of the office, decided to do his wife a favor and arranged for her to jump to the top of a six-month waiting list. To save her additional months of delay, he wanted to set up a special swearing-in ceremony on the very day she was interviewed by the I.N.S.

But there was a complication that Mr. Moschorak apparently wanted to sidestep: Mrs. Moschorak had two misdemeanor arrests on her record for petty theft. Neither had resulted in a conviction, and ultimately they would not have disqualified her from citizenship. But she had acknowledged only one arrest on her application, and omission of the second, if detected, could have meant another five years of waiting.

Mr. Moschorak asked a subordinate to handle his wife's application "discreetly," without telling his immediate superiors. The subordinate later told investigators that he had routinely speeded up processing "for any service employee."

At the time, however, the Los Angeles office was already facing a lawsuit for giving just such preferential treatment. Jane Arellano, the assistant district director in charge of citizenship, found out about the special request and bluntly told Mr. Moschorak that she would not speed up his wife's application, particularly given her arrest record.

Ms. Arellano then reported the incident to the Office of the Inspector General, the Justice Department unit that investigates wrongdoing at the I.N.S.

With an inquiry on the incident pending, the immigration service promoted Mr. Moschorak to district director. A few days later, on June 7, 1990, the Inspector General's investigators interviewed him about various accusations of wrongdoing.

The next day, at 7:50 A.M., Mr. Moschorak confronted Ms. Arellano in a hallway. According to her account in a sworn deposition, he was furious about his session with the investigators. "What did you tell those guys?" he demanded.

"He got increasingly more angry at me," she said in the deposition. "His hand, he reached up with his right hand and put it on my throat. He pinched my windpipe."

Ms. Arellano said she staggered backward, and as another senior I.N.S. official, Rosemary Melville, walked by, Mr. Moschorak turned and asked whether committing murder would earn him a day off under I.N.S. disciplinary rules. Ms. Melville told investigators that she saw Mr. Moschorak's hand on Ms. Arellano's throat and, unsure if he was joking, asked whether this was his way of treating "problem employees."

Ms. Arellano, who said she was left with a red mark on her throat, immediately reported the incident to the Inspector General. Investigators eventually concluded that Mr. Moschorak did "influence and intrude" into his wife's case, but did not break any laws.

Their report recounted conflicting versions of the choking incident. Mr. Moschorak said he had been joking with Ms. Arellano and had touched her "in that neck area very close to" her shoulder. Ms. Arellano and Ms. Melville stuck to their accounts.

The Inspector General's office said it forwarded its report to Commissioner Gene McNary. But the agency said it never received the document, and the matter disappeared into the bureaucracy.

Ms. Arellano continued working for Mr. Moschorak over the next three years. The agency did not even consider disciplining him until February 1993, and it acted only after Ms. Arellano complained to the agency that protects whistle-blowers that Mr. Moschorak was retaliating against her.

On March 30, 1993, Mr. Hankinson, the Inspector General, told Congress that an unidentified district director had "physically intimidated" a subordinate and had gone unpunished for years. That same day, Mr. Moschorak announced to his staff that he would retire five years early.

Mr. Moschorak called Ms. Arellano's account "pure bunk" and said his retirement was long planned.

The I.N.S. eventually reviewed the choking incident and concluded that while Mr. Moschorak had acted inappropriately, "no assault had occurred." The agency acknowledged that it had "failed to take timely action." The Deputy Director Year After Year, Clerk Is Harassed

March 6, 2003 - INS> BSIS transition's new DO directors (incl. Jane Arellano):

http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/press_release_0106.shtm

She has been a head of N400 department of LA DO since 1986!
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0007/eappendix.htm

The Assistant District Director for Adjudications, Jane Arellano, had held her position since 1986.

it's also a funny article about all the technical innovations in INS and ATTENTION: the LA DO N400 1994-1996 back log!!!!

The Los Angeles District had the largest workload in the country as INS Headquarters considered a backlog reduction project. By December 1994, it was receiving twice as many cases per day than it could adjudicate per day with the staff on board. By the summer of 1995, more than 220,000 naturalization applications received in the District Office had not even been entered into the computer. Applicants were waiting more than one year to be interviewed. Another 200,000 cases had not been "closed out" after the naturalization ceremony and were awaiting final processing. During CUSA, because of the extraordinary attention and resources brought to bear on Los Angeles' naturalization workload, the District became "current" in naturalization processing (applicants were waiting less than four months for an interview) and completed more than a quarter million naturalization cases during fiscal year 1996.

as i quoted before - total 236,000 cases were received in LA DO in 2007, and by Jan 31, 2008 - 127,533 were pending, hopefully it won't take them 2 years to clear the rest

 

[Bobsmyth]

My God, if such things happen at a DO level, can you imagine what goes on at headquarters? What a dysfunctional agency..very sad.

 

[Feliz-LA]

LA County Bar Association's Immigration Section FALL 2006 guide to LA DO
http://www.hklaw.com/content/CST/FALL06newsletter.pdf

To access the USCIS information services in room 1001, all persons, including attorneys, must use the USCIS INFOPASS Appointment System.

DATABASE INQUIRIES
Location: An IIO can check the computer database to see where certain A files are located, if an “IP Security” name check has cleared, if a petition has been filed at a particular Service Center, or any other information on a USCIS file.

NATURALIZATION INQUIRIES
Section Chief for Naturalization
Wade Prader, Room 6024
(213) 830-5233

Attorneys (not the public) can do 3 naturalization inquiries, per day, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to noon. Attorneys can also do an inquiry for any naturalization case that has not received an approval, oath ceremony, or because the IP security checks has not cleared. The Naturalization Office in El Monte will be closing in March 2007. As of that date naturalization interviews will be conducted at the LADO.

USCIS Los Angeles District Office
Jane Arellano
District Director
300N. Los Angeles St. Room 6570
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 830-5400

LA DO Corruption???
http://www.justice-denied.net/INSCorruption_02.htm

INS Employees' Allegations of Retaliation
3. Kathy Bell

By October 1996, Kathy Bell had worked in the Los Angeles District as an Office Automation Clerk in INS' Citizenship Branch for three and one-half years. Her primary duty during the early part of her tenure at INS had been to data-enter information from citizenship applications into INS' naturalization database (NACS). For 18 months before October 1996, she reviewed and processed fingerprint cards and criminal history reports for naturalization applicants after those cards had been returned to INS by the FBI.

As discussed at length elsewhere in this report, Los Angeles District's procedures during CUSA for processing fingerprint cards and criminal history reports were extremely weak. Supervisors assigned insufficient resources to processing these records and, as a result, Bell bore responsibilities far beyond what could be appropriately expected of one employee, and beyond what should have been expected of an employee with her experience and pay grade. The information she provided to the Subcommittee, to the media, and to the OIG about Los Angeles' vulnerable procedures was corroborated in all material ways, and her role in increasing our understanding about those procedures was crucial.

As we also discuss elsewhere in this report (see our Appendix on Los Angeles criminal history checking procedures), district managers reacted defensively to Bell's disclosures to the press and to the Subcommittee. She was soon regarded by those managers as someone who had not been loyal to INS. However, we found no evidence that Bell suffered any adverse personnel action or that INS officials engaged in any prohibited personnel practice as a result of her cooperation with the Subcommittee or with the OIG.

1. The allegations of retaliation
On October 16, 1996, Bell provided an affidavit to Subcommittee Counsel Wilon and later that same day met with a news reporter. To both, Bell described Los Angeles' compromised background checking procedures, asserting that Los Angeles INS was naturalizing criminals and had destroyed many thousands of applicant fingerprint cards.

After her allegations appeared in local newspapers, Bell alleged that she was ordered into the office of the Assistant District Director for Adjudications (ADDA), Jane Arellano, on October 17, 1996. Present at that meeting were Bell's supervisors, Preston Prater and Janice Thompson, and Naturalization Section Chief John Amador. Lester Campbell, a representative from the AFGE, was also present to represent Bell.
According to Bell, she was asked why she had made the statements to the reporter and whether there was anything else she had said that had not been reported. Arellano told Bell that she was "just a clerk," implying that she did not understand the procedures about which she had spoken to the press. Bell also said that she was told she "needed to be put in [her] place." In addition, she was told that she had violated INS regulations by talking to the media and for taking extended lunch breaks. At the meeting in Arellano's office Bell's first and second-line supervisors (Thompson and Prater, respectively) began to question Bell's time sheets, specifically, the lunch periods she had claimed on the previous two days. Bell said the meeting with her managers lasted approximately two hours and ten minutes.

According to Bell, the retaliation that followed this meeting was the removal of the telephone from her office and heightened scrutiny of her performance. She said that Arellano ordered Bell's telephone removed from her office and then moved Bell from the individual office in which she had worked to a cubicle in a more open part of the office. Bell later told the OIG that the reason she was given for the telephone removal was so that she would not be able to receive telephone calls from the press. Arellano also directed that Bell be given a copy of her Performance Work Plan (PWP), the written description of her job duties.

2. OIG review
OIG agents interviewed Bell's supervisors in light of the retaliation allegations. ADDA Arellano admitted that she held a meeting with Bell and her supervisors after Bell's allegations appeared in the press. At the meeting, according to Arellano and other supervisors, Bell admitted having taken two lunch breaks of one and one-half hours each to speak to the news media. These supervisors also told the OIG that the reason the telephone was removed from Bell's office was that Bell herself had complained that it was a distraction, a fact that Bell also admitted to the OIG. The supervisors also said that her change of offices was in response to Bell's complaint that the office she had been working in was too hot, because of the photocopy machine, and that people walking in and out to use the machine interrupted her. As for providing Bell with a copy of her PWP, supervisors said that Bell made clear at the meeting that she did not know who her direct supervisors were, so they provided her with a copy of her work plan so that she would be familiar with her chain of command and her specific job description.

 

[ftm]

Got IL today!

After a long wait I finally got my IL today!
Check the signature below for details. I almost
didn't update my info because I am still waiting for
alect to get IL. Hopefully you got yours today alect, we
are all supporting each other here.

 

[yummyk]

After a long wait I finally got my IL today!
Check the signature below for details. I almost
didn't update my info because I am still waiting for
alect to get IL. Hopefully you got yours today alect, we
are all supporting each other here.

Congratulations FTM. A long wait for you - almost 12 months from PD to ID. Hope everything goes well, and please do report back on your interview experience. You will be able to vote in November!

 

[Jedi.Knight]

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

FTM!!!!

AWESOME!!! I'm so stoked for you! Good luck in your interview. The Force is Strong with You!

Best,
-jedi

 

[caliSun]

After a long wait I finally got my IL today!
Check the signature below for details. I almost
didn't update my info because I am still waiting for
alect to get IL. Hopefully you got yours today alect, we
are all supporting each other here.

Congrats FTM, good luck with your interview!!!

 

[ftm]

Thanks for all the great support - this forum is amazing!
Well this is my second time applying, I had an issue with continuous residency, and guess what I am still not in the clear...
If they deny me again I will be eligible to apply again 7/26/08 according to the 4 years 1 day rule.

I really hope they don't deny me, this has been a seriously long road. My first application went in August 2004, I got denial letter in June 2007!