N-400 inteview experience: No decision made

Jackolantern said:
The IO may have seen something odd in the system or your A-file, like a B1/B2 entry without an I-94 number associated with it.
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Should that be handled already when the OP was granted green card? It does not make any sense for USCIS GC abdjudicators to have an internal policy when granting GC like "We do not need to be careful in granting permanent residency application. If we make a mistake then let the citizenship adjudicators QC
our work and catch our mistake 5 years down the road".

Most people reported the IO seldom look so carefully into the pre-GC portion of A-file which are usually one or two inch thick on the interview tables and many rpeort IO does not seem to review anything befor ethe interview. This is teh case even with those who have an issue (arrest/citation, long trip overseas) It is hard to explain why suddenly the IO decide to review everything for a parcicular applicant who is clean whatsoever. Interview time for straigh case is only 10-15 minutes (and many report sub-10 minute time) and maybe lasto to 25 minutes when there is an issue. IOs have no time trying to dig dirts from old A file
unless they have a reason
 
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@guju - the person who recently filed the complaint and won was ASOROCK. Look for threads with his/her name.

I know Asorock will disagree - but in my opinion, most of such issues are because of IOs noticing some pattern of abuse, and only in a very small number of cases the IO is out to get you. And in some cases (maybe yours is one such), there is a genuine misunderstanding based ... could be a data entry issue.

Having said that - what you can do is to get your house in order - #1) do not let the worry make you do something which will make you ineligible - such as drink and drive, and #2) start building a narrative and documentation for an appeal if it comes to a denial. If they anyway do not decide in 120 days, you shoot it off. If they decide negatively, you have to do it any way. Besides the merits of the case, record your observations about the IO in much more detail than here. You should be able to document your case on its merits, on the law, and on the professionalism (or not) of the people you dealt with.

Hopefully, you will hear a positive decision soon and you do not need to use all this prep material. But if it comes to challenging them, you will be ready.
 
WBH said:
Maybe each IO has a target ratio of approval vs denial. And this IO was unlucky because recently all applicants he had interviewed were
just straight forward cases so his approval rate is 100% sp fat and he need to deny someone to bring down that rate to the target area.
If the overall rate of denial is 10%, an IO may be froned upon by his supervisor or auditor if his approval rate is close to 100%
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...but if the supervisor signs off on the approval, why would the IO be frowned upon?
 
WBH said:
Should that be handled already when the OP was granted green card?
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Not possible if the (mistaken) B1/B2 entry was after the GC approval. The OP has a B1/B2 with an expiration date in 2011.

And even if the mistaken B1/B2 entry was before the GC, the fact that the GC adjudicator saw it and decided it wasn't relevant doesn't mean the next IO looking at it would automatically dismiss it. The next IO would still see what looks like a discrepancy, not necessarily knowing that the GC adjudicator already took it into account.
It does not make any sense for USCIS GC abdjudicators to have an internal policy when granting GC like "We do not need to be careful in granting permanent residency application. If we make a mistake then let the citizenship adjudicators QC our work and catch our mistake 5 years down the road".
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It does not routinely happen, but they are within their rights to re-evaluate the granting of the GC if they want to or if some other issue in the file indicates something is off.
 
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Vorpal said:
...but if the supervisor signs off on the approval, why would the IO be frowned upon?
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The supervisor may set target ratio of "recommdned for approval" vs "a decision can not be yet made". I believe if IO give "recommended for approval" result, ther supervisor just sign it with no or little reviewing; otherwise supervisor will spend soem time reviewing. It is
not that supervisor want to revirew but if IO under his magangement give too many "recommended for approval", he does not know which one
to review so he sign them off then teh rate of approval for the whole DO will go up way beyond the target rate for thst DO. The USCIS director
may not like it.
 
There are some rude people always. But dont get alarmed.

If you dont have any criminal history, nothing would stop you from getting the citizenship.

I am sure, you would get soon.
 
I don't think IOs have approval/denial 'Quotas' that they need to meet as USCIS gets to keep the application fee irrespective of approval/denial.

I'm not sure its even possible to enter the country on a B1/B2 when you have a green card. I'm assuming all of this happened after 9/11 and INS/BCIS/USCIS has been pretty strict over the last 8 years or so.

Most probably this is a data entry issue that USCIS needs to resolve internally.
 
Yes, started 2002. I think it is very unlikely that any of my entries got booked as a B1/B2 because when I was coming in on the L-1, I would only have received a 3 or max 6 month entry stamp if using the B1/B2 which I know never did happen. Second, the I-94 has a field for 'country of residence', which clearly cannot be 'USA' for a visitor. And when I was on the green card, the biggest relief was to not have to fill up the I-94 at all, and go straight to the shorter and faster citizen/residents line on the airport. If in spite of that, ie not having filled an I-94, having presented the GC, if they recorded the entry as a B1/B2, well then anything is possible.

I am not going to sweat or spend money on lawyers yet till I know what they want. The officer was speculating that I potentially could have entered as a visitor. Well 'potentially' I could have done just about anything. I can't control their imagination. So I will wait for the N-14, nothing received yet, over 3 weeks now. I see no reason to rush anything because at least for the short term, the citizenship will not change anything in any practically useful way compared to the green card.

I will keep folks posted if I hear anything.
 
Already updated in a separate thread, also posting here in case someone refers to this months/years later and wants to know what finally happened.
---
I received the oath letter today for the 18th of June 2010. No N-14 or RFE was ever received. I suspect having sent a letter through a lawyer, and the G-28 probably indicated that I am serious about pursuing this - though of course it could have been something else completely unknown to me. During the past 5 months, I received a speeding ticket for $75, for which I have no 'official' proof of payment except a paid cheque image using online banking. Hopefully that will suffice on oath day, but if I run into the same immigration officer I am sure that won't be enough.

Anyway, will keep folks posted on what happens on oath day.
 
Last update on this thread: Did the oath today. I told them about my traffic ticket, appears that I was the only one with a traffic violation. The guy wrote it down on the oath letter and put it in a different pile (a pile of one essentially), and asked me to go wait and an officer would call me to discuss. And I thought oh damn, there we go again. When is this going to finally get done. And I sat with the rest of the crowd a bit tense about if they'll want something else now. Then the judge came around and folks took the oath and I did too, not sure where this was going, as nobody had called me and the big pile of other folks' oath letters had been handed over to two ladies who were stamping/embossing, and mine lay on the side as an orphan. Then there was this flurry of people walking around, I could not track my papers from the distance and when they started distributing the nat certs, mine was the absolute last one to be called (after about 50 odd). I was quite sure by then it wasn't going to happen for me today, so to hear my name when the guy had just one envelope in his hand was like a sixer on the last ball. I was really relieved, got it, barely got to mumble thank you to the judge, and then the officers announced, thank you everyone have a good day and the show was over. I walked out still a bit dazed from all the stress of the last 90 minutes, but now that a few hours have passed I am glad this is over and I never have to see these bureaucrats again.
 
Thanks Vyle.

I feel for you GCdetails. It is sad that something which should have been a celebration in our lives has been turned into torment by apathetic bureaucrats. But in the end, it will work out for you and your wife as well. The sad thing is that as time goes by & when we will look back at our naturalization certificates, there may be no feeling of pride, but just a reminder of having our noses rubbed in the dirt by some totally callous dimwitted moron.

There is not much I can say that will be any relief to you, except that hold your head high, do not fear, do not worry, because you don't control them and the only thing you control is your own reaction to the events, and when you look back you should feel you dealt with it like a man.
 
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