My details are as follows: Country-India, Category-EB2/RIR/Non-NIW, PD-09/16/98, RD-08/25/99, ND-09/15/99, FP-08/02/00.
I have been calling VSC after office hours on a weekly basis and have always got the message "This case cannot be found at this time..." up until 09/11/00. I decided to indulge myself and actually called during office hours today at 12:03 p.m. Surprisingly enough, I heard the magical "You have reached the Vermont Service Center of INS..." instead of the annoying beep...beep...beep...busy signal at 12:05 p.m. What surprised me even more was that the message had changed to where they had the case information and the fact that they are taking "between 90 and 180 days for this kind of case" (what a blatant lie!). Assuming that the VSC recorded message does not wake up one fine day all by itself and goes looking for missing cases, I am being optimistic enough to believe that someone has actually cared to wipe the dust off my file and done something with it. Therefore, stretching my luck to a point where I could hear the yarn snapping, I decided to press \'0\' to actually attempt talking to an IIO. Believe it or not, I was talking to an IIO in under 10 minutes. The IIO was very polite but largely useless, which is about as good as it gets with IIOs based on what I hear from all of my fellow-INS-victims on this forum. She mentioned that they were processing applications from 8/23/99 and since mine was 9/15/99, it should take between 4-6 weeks before my case is adjudicated. While we do have conflicting information from IIOs as to what date they are currently processing it appeared that she was actually looking at some field on some screen (this could have been a complete figment of my imagination, she could have been reading a tabloid for all I know and just picked up the 8/23/99 date out of complete thin air as I firmly believe IIOs are supposed to do as part of their job requirement (maybe I should be a little more generous and say that IIOs use a more deterministic tool, like, ummm, tarot cards or dice). She also mentioned that they have about 25,000 applications to be adjudicated by the end of the year, so it might take more time (her non-commital attitude must qualify her for an award at INS). I greatly respect INS\' don\'t ask-don\'t tell policy so I did not dare to ask her whether all 25,000 applications were I485s or everything in the wide world that INS does.
In any case, believe me I was not competing with the IIO I had the good fortune of having an audience with today, in confusing you guys, but I do believe that my file may have changed locations or at least has some additional fingerprints on it, which may or may not be a good thing. Unless one of you comes back and tells me that VSC actually has this one contractor who comes once a year on September 12 and rummages through all the files and enters missing files into the telephone inquiry system, or something less drastic and equally plausible, I would put in my tupenny\'s worth and say that they might be looking at stuff from much later than 8/1/99.
Until then, keep your chin up and write sarcastic notes, like I my present attempt. When all else fails, sarcasm is the only thing that might amuse us
. And remember Ellis Island and how the immigrants had their agonizing wait of several hours while their fate was decided by the predecessor of INS. Compared to that, our wait of just a few years, is of course, justified. Think positively though, some day, your great-great-grandchildren will go to one of the four Immigrants\' Memorial National Monuments at St. Albans, Vermont and go through the archives to locate your name and look at a copy of your birth certificate and so on. So you see, even as you wait, you are creating a legacy.
I have been calling VSC after office hours on a weekly basis and have always got the message "This case cannot be found at this time..." up until 09/11/00. I decided to indulge myself and actually called during office hours today at 12:03 p.m. Surprisingly enough, I heard the magical "You have reached the Vermont Service Center of INS..." instead of the annoying beep...beep...beep...busy signal at 12:05 p.m. What surprised me even more was that the message had changed to where they had the case information and the fact that they are taking "between 90 and 180 days for this kind of case" (what a blatant lie!). Assuming that the VSC recorded message does not wake up one fine day all by itself and goes looking for missing cases, I am being optimistic enough to believe that someone has actually cared to wipe the dust off my file and done something with it. Therefore, stretching my luck to a point where I could hear the yarn snapping, I decided to press \'0\' to actually attempt talking to an IIO. Believe it or not, I was talking to an IIO in under 10 minutes. The IIO was very polite but largely useless, which is about as good as it gets with IIOs based on what I hear from all of my fellow-INS-victims on this forum. She mentioned that they were processing applications from 8/23/99 and since mine was 9/15/99, it should take between 4-6 weeks before my case is adjudicated. While we do have conflicting information from IIOs as to what date they are currently processing it appeared that she was actually looking at some field on some screen (this could have been a complete figment of my imagination, she could have been reading a tabloid for all I know and just picked up the 8/23/99 date out of complete thin air as I firmly believe IIOs are supposed to do as part of their job requirement (maybe I should be a little more generous and say that IIOs use a more deterministic tool, like, ummm, tarot cards or dice). She also mentioned that they have about 25,000 applications to be adjudicated by the end of the year, so it might take more time (her non-commital attitude must qualify her for an award at INS). I greatly respect INS\' don\'t ask-don\'t tell policy so I did not dare to ask her whether all 25,000 applications were I485s or everything in the wide world that INS does.
In any case, believe me I was not competing with the IIO I had the good fortune of having an audience with today, in confusing you guys, but I do believe that my file may have changed locations or at least has some additional fingerprints on it, which may or may not be a good thing. Unless one of you comes back and tells me that VSC actually has this one contractor who comes once a year on September 12 and rummages through all the files and enters missing files into the telephone inquiry system, or something less drastic and equally plausible, I would put in my tupenny\'s worth and say that they might be looking at stuff from much later than 8/1/99.
Until then, keep your chin up and write sarcastic notes, like I my present attempt. When all else fails, sarcasm is the only thing that might amuse us
. And remember Ellis Island and how the immigrants had their agonizing wait of several hours while their fate was decided by the predecessor of INS. Compared to that, our wait of just a few years, is of course, justified. Think positively though, some day, your great-great-grandchildren will go to one of the four Immigrants\' Memorial National Monuments at St. Albans, Vermont and go through the archives to locate your name and look at a copy of your birth certificate and so on. So you see, even as you wait, you are creating a legacy.