Modified Excel Script

D

dinnu

Registered Users (C)
I have always felt like having an excel macro that could read SRC numbers from an existing excel worksheet and scan the BCIS website. The reason being out of the 100s of cases I scan every time only few are I485s.

Finally I got some time to modify the excel macro that was posted by tru. I am not sure if anyone has already done this.

What does the script do?
It asks you for the name of the worksheet (not the file name, but the worksheet name). It assumes that the first column contains the SRC numbers and scans the BCIS site using these numbers. It stops as soon as it finds an empty cell.

So, let me know if you guys are interested in the script.
 
reply

With this we folks can scan more numbers than we are able to currently. Please post here. I am sure a bunch of other folks will be interested as well. Thanks for the help.
 
Here you go ...

It assumes that the first row is the header .... and looks for SRC #s from the second row. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Disclaimer

BTW ...

Use this script at your own risk... I am not responsible if BCIS comes after you for using the script :D
 
hello

so what should we write in the place for worksheet name is it modified.... you have in the earlier note
 
The name of the file is different from the name of the worksheet. The file I posted has a file name "Modified I485Scan.xls". If you open this file, there is a worksheet called SRC02-269 (bottom left hand corner of the spreadsheet). This is the name you need to specify.

If you have used the earlier script, you can see that it automatically creates a worksheet with the name of the day you scanned for.

Hope this helps ...
 
i did try

it tells me the file doesnot exist.
also is there a limit of number cases or range that you can specify?
 
okay, lets try this again...

Open the file i provided. Click on "Enable Macros" when it prompts you. You should see three src numbers (which i provided as an example). Then run the macro.

When it asks for the worksheet name type in
SRC02-269

It should run the scan and update the spreadsheet.

Let me know if this works ...
 
The macro can check for 10,000 src numbers (which can be easily changed to what ever you want). But the point is, after a few hundred hits, BCIS website disables your access for about 24 hrs. I would suggest that u try 300 - 500 src numbers at a time.
 
Regarding dinnu's Disclaimer

Are we doing something wrong or illegal by using this macro?

I don’t know for sure. But, the way I see it is that we are simply using a program that checks information that is available to everybody thru the internet. I have not seen any message on the BCIS web page or anywhere else saying that it is illegal to check the status of a case that does not belong to you. I definitely would not want to infringe any law.

Is there any lawyer in this forum who might give us some advice in this matter?
 
reply

I am not a lawyer and I don’t claim to be an expert in privacy laws by any stretch of imagination, so don’t hold me to this.


In the privacy statement at the bcis website. A specific line in the statement says that

Information presented on this WWW site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credit is requested.

Here is the link to the privacy statement in its entirety
http://www.bcis.gov/graphics/privnote.htm
 
This is the message you get when you scan for too many numbers. Note that it does not say it is illegal to do it.

We're sorry, but you have been denied access due to too many inquiries.

The purpose of the Customer Relationship Interface System is to give customers and their representatives access to case status information on their applications in our electronic inventory. To ensure that customers have full access to check on their cases, we use several volume limits.

You received this message because you repeatedly entered invalid receipt numbers.

If you believe the problem may be that you simply repeatedly made mistakes typing in the specific receipt numbers you wish to check, you can close your browser, come right back and try again. If you are blocked when you try again, it is because you either repeated your mistake or because your total volume of inquiries over the past 24 hours has at that point exceeded our overall volume limit, in which case you will be blocked for a period of time.
 
dinnu,

I can see that your Modified Macro (MM) updates all the changes it finds. I assume that now the MM is only checking the SRC numbers that already exist in a specific worksheet. In my particular worksheet the numbers are only for I485 cases. Therefore, it does not waist time checking for SRC numbers that belong to other type of cases (ex. I140, I765, etc.)

Is this correct?

Thanks for your help and for taking the time to enhance the macro. This is great.
 
Manolacho,

Yes, you are correct. In fact the macro only works for I485 cases, i.e., if you have src numbers for other cases (for e.g. I765 or I140) in your excel worksheet, it does not update their status.

The macro can be easily modified to update the status for any type of case. If anyone is interested, I can do that and post it again.
 
dinnu,

Is it possible to have both macros (old & modified) in the same file/worksheet? I believe so, but I would not know how to do it.

This way you can run the old macro looking for new SRC numbers on different ND and run the modified macro to update existing SRC worksheets. Also it would be a good idea to keep the third macro that summarizes and graphs the results

If you know how to do it could you please post a file with the three macros in one file?

Thanks for your help.
 
Thanks a lot. If you think of any other way to farther improve the file, please do so. We will all appreciate your work.
 
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