N652 - Name check delays

A

atnyc

Registered Users (C)
Hi all,
I applied for my N400 in March 06 (VSC), got my FP in April 06, Interview June 06, got N652 pending name check and now waiting for Oath letter.

I have been watching multiple threads on this website and here is my 2 cents to all the worry worts out there ... If you are not one of those lucky ones that get their name check completed within 3 days after FP, then count 90-120 days from the day of your FP. This is the average time taken by the FBI due to their backlog to complete the Name check. Dont even bother calling your representative or senator, they cant push anything for you but only forward your email or fax to USCIS and you will get a standard response.
If your time is up more than 120 days from the date of your FP, then the chances are that you are going to be stuck for a long time and you may have to try escalating at that point through your senator etc.
Before the 120 days from FP, anything you try to do to escalate is only a crap shoot and you are only going to have pain and aggrevation. Whats really happened here is that USCIS got rid of their backlog and other agencies are yet to catchup with them and hence this new problem of name check delay.

So be at peace and dont worry about something that you cant control unless your buddy works in the FBI.

Ps: Dont even bother about speeding tickets or Parking tickets for your interview. They dont really care about them.
 
atnyc said:
Hi all,
I applied for my N400 in March 06 (VSC), got my FP in April 06, Interview June 06, got N652 pending name check and now waiting for Oath letter.

I have been watching multiple threads on this website and here is my 2 cents to all the worry worts out there ... If you are not one of those lucky ones that get their name check completed within 3 days after FP, then count 90-120 days from the day of your FP. This is the average time taken by the FBI due to their backlog to complete the Name check. Dont even bother calling your representative or senator, they cant push anything for you but only forward your email or fax to USCIS and you will get a standard response.
If your time is up more than 120 days from the date of your FP, then the chances are that you are going to be stuck for a long time and you may have to try escalating at that point through your senator etc.
Before the 120 days from FP, anything you try to do to escalate is only a crap shoot and you are only going to have pain and aggrevation. Whats really happened here is that USCIS got rid of their backlog and other agencies are yet to catchup with them and hence this new problem of name check delay.

So be at peace and dont worry about something that you cant control unless your buddy works in the FBI.

Ps: Dont even bother about speeding tickets or Parking tickets for your interview. They dont really care about them.
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After 120 days you should take them to court.
 
I guess you could definetly do that after 120 days from interview. By the way letters from your Representative to the Congress and Senator do help in the process and keeps up the pressure. From what I hear, some of the DO's check for the backlog of the name check status on their systems every week. In your case, if your IO or case officer is out and forgets, then you loose time and can potentially get lost into an abyss even if your name check came through.
 
I heard on this forum that sometime they make you sign a waiver during interview so that you cannot file lawsuit. Is that true ?
 
bhopo71 said:
I heard on this forum that sometime they make you sign a waiver during interview so that you cannot file lawsuit. Is that true ?
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Yes this is true,there have been instances where uscis has tricked applicants to sign waivers,goodnews is signing such a waiver doesnot harm the applicant . Mr Gotcher,once said that the courts do not honor such a waiver.
 
Well .. If one had attended the interview, you would probably know that they make you take an Oath and then the officer is asking you a serious of questions. I dont believe that the USCIS interviewing officer is going to slip a piece of paper and get your signature without letting you know the contents. This is America that we are trying to become citizens of and such practices definetly dont hold water in the court of law. I dont believe that they take such a waiver from you, its all hear say and nothing substantiatied.
 
atnyc said:
Well .. If one had attended the interview, you would probably know that they make you take an Oath and then the officer is asking you a serious of questions. I dont believe that the USCIS interviewing officer is going to slip a piece of paper and get your signature without letting you know the contents. This is America that we are trying to become citizens of and such practices definetly dont hold water in the court of law. I dont believe that they take such a waiver from you, its all hear say and nothing substantiatied.
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Dear buddy,welcome to the backyard of uscis...there is no hear and say...this has infact happened to quite a few people.
 
Would you believe that uscis recently told a guy that uscis has requested somekind of information from the applicants(native country's)embassy?

infact thts what uscis told a applicant when he took a infopass and approached uscis asking what happened to his case and the immigration officer told him that we have requested some documents from your country's embassy and we are waiting for the documents...what would u say for that?
 
Well, I guess I am not ready to drink the USCIS backyard coolaid yet. In any case, if USCIS is requesting for info from a country's embassy, then its definetly a valid reason. If it is needed, why would they not request any information?
 
query11. said:
Would you believe that uscis recently told a guy that uscis has requested somekind of information from the applicants(native country's)embassy?

infact thts what uscis told a applicant when he took a infopass and approached uscis asking what happened to his case and the immigration officer told him that we have requested some documents from your country's embassy and we are waiting for the documents...what would u say for that?
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In fact, I was told exactly the same thing... Totally bs. It only shows the wide spread poor training, ignorance (if not deliberately delaying/lying) etc of the organization.
 
nolight said:
In fact, I was told exactly the same thing... Totally bs. It only shows the wide spread poor training, ignorance (if not deliberately delaying/lying) etc of the organization.
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I dont mean to be indifferent to anyone's experiences but rather only empathize with you. However I do feel that many posts are only bash the USCIS in nature and not necessarily adding meanful info or value to the readers.
This is a nice support forum for readers and writers to exchange points and show support, but rather I find that only scare tactics prevail here. Its like "I had a bad experience, so let me create a paranoia and get everyone worried and scared".
Some of the readers are really worried about this new name check issue and I feel that positive messages and exchanges will help everyone a long way, not just making statements like "sue them". Everyone suing the USCIS is only going to be detrimental to us and to the future N400 applicants and they are the ones who are going to get screwed.
 
atnyc said:
I dont mean to be indifferent to anyone's experiences but rather only empathize with you. However I do feel that many posts are only bash the USCIS in nature and not necessarily adding meanful info or value to the readers.
This is a nice support forum for readers and writers to exchange points and show support, but rather I find that only scare tactics prevail here. Its like "I had a bad experience, so let me create a paranoia and get everyone worried and scared".
Some of the readers are really worried about this new name check issue and I feel that positive messages and exchanges will help everyone a long way, not just making statements like "sue them". Everyone suing the USCIS is only going to be detrimental to us and to the future N400 applicants and they are the ones who are going to get screwed.
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Respectfully disagree.

Many people here told of real stories, not "scare tactics".

I think, if anything legal (including writs against USCIS) can be helpful, it should be encouraged.

BTW, anybody knows of any advovacy group interested in taking a look at this name check issues? I was told that AILA tried to bring up with USCIS but got back with the usual excuse of national security.
 
nolight said:
Respectfully disagree.

Many people here told of real stories, not "scare tactics".

I think, if anything legal (including writs against USCIS) can be helpful, it should be encouraged.

BTW, anybody knows of any advovacy group interested in taking a look at this name check issues? I was told that AILA tried to bring up with USCIS but got back with the usual excuse of national security.
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Yes. There is an effor right now uunderway to legislatively address Name check delays. There is a yahoo group mentioned at : http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=898

If you signup for this group and check their messages forums there is a link to this effort: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/namechecktracker/message/119

(I will reproduce the posting in this link by member Randall Emery):
American Families United will be submitting legislative language this
week to establish a review process for name checks for families of US
citizens.

To put this in perspective, this is where you would hope to be
following a successful class action or petition -- a place where we
could talk about changing the law.

I asked the question if there was interest in supporting (financially)
an effort to work to expand the scope of what we would like to prusue
to include other categories, like name checks during employment based
applications for permanent residence.

There was some interest, but it was conditional on more people getting
involved. I'll set up a poll that will follow this email. We need an
answer right away, though, as we are working on this right now.

For family members of American citizens, we are working for you, and
we'd encourge you to join in our efforts. We are asking for
conditional pledges (you pledge to donate if 209 others do as well)
here:
http://www.pledgebank.com/americanfamilies

Please join this effort to ease this pain.
 
atnyc said:
I dont mean to be indifferent to anyone's experiences but rather only empathize with you. However I do feel that many posts are only bash the USCIS in nature and not necessarily adding meanful info or value to the readers.
This is a nice support forum for readers and writers to exchange points and show support, but rather I find that only scare tactics prevail here. Its like "I had a bad experience, so let me create a paranoia and get everyone worried and scared".
Some of the readers are really worried about this new name check issue and I feel that positive messages and exchanges will help everyone a long way, not just making statements like "sue them". Everyone suing the USCIS is only going to be detrimental to us and to the future N400 applicants and they are the ones who are going to get screwed.
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I respectfully disagree. How will playing nice with the USCIS help future applicants? Unless somebody rocks the boat, they could care less. Senators and Congressmen for the most part could care less about what you need too because you can't vote for them and in the world of politics, 99% of the time that's all that matters. I can guarantee you that 9 times out of 10 you'll get the same response from them as you'll get from the USCIS itself (which would be "FBI security checks are pending, nothing we can do, wait till everything's cleared"). What's the point, may as well go straight to the USCIS for that info.

Speaking of which, I went on an Infopass appointment back in January, thinking that I was gonna have a nice chat with an USCIS officer discussing the issue. The conversation last 5 minutes during which I was told (and I quote) "It's been a year since you filed your paperwork? Oh, you are in the beginning stages of the process! It may take up to 4 years to finish your security checks!". That was the end of the conversation. Now how does the fact that it would have taken them 4 years to finish my background checks benefit future applicants? Should we go ahead and let them do that to every person who is caught up in this kinad of situation?

The knee jerk reaction to 9/11 created this unbelievable mess and unless there are some drastic changes made, it will get worse and worse and worse. No changes will be made unless people stand up for themselves. You got rights provided to you by 8 USC 1447(b). Use them.

K
 
atnyc said:
Well .. If one had attended the interview, you would probably know that they make you take an Oath and then the officer is asking you a serious of questions. I dont believe that the USCIS interviewing officer is going to slip a piece of paper and get your signature without letting you know the contents. This is America that we are trying to become citizens of and such practices definetly dont hold water in the court of law. I dont believe that they take such a waiver from you, its all hear say and nothing substantiatied.
Click to expand...

If they put this piece of paper in front of me at the interview, I would have probably signed it. You know why? Because at the interview, it wouldn't cross your mind twice what kind of implications that signature will have. I bet 99.99999999% of people have never heard about a name check until they are told about it after the interview and have NO idea what kind of a mess it might be. It's not like before they ask you to sign that piece of paper they go "Well, ok, your background check might be pending for years. However, you got an option to sue us if it's not it within 120 days from today. Now go ahead and sign this to wave that option".

K
 
RealSuperK said:
If they put this piece of paper in front of me at the interview, I would have probably signed it. You know why? Because at the interview, it wouldn't cross your mind twice what kind of implications that signature will have. I bet 99.99999999% of people have never heard about a name check until they are told about it after the interview and have NO idea what kind of a mess it might be. It's not like before they ask you to sign that piece of paper they go "Well, ok, your background check might be pending for years. However, you got an option to sue us if it's not it within 120 days from today. Now go ahead and sign this to wave that option".

K
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Well put, RealSuperK.

As far as I can tell, USCIS is probably the worst government agency there. Just today, I called their customer service line. Well, it was a drag for waiting about 20 min. Then came with this old lady, who didn't know what the hack she was talking about, started reading INA regulation to me ("The green card, with an unrestricted SSN, authorizes you to work in US freely.." bla...) She didn't even understand my question was about naturalization! Then she insisted on my case number which is EAC*123456789 has only 9 numbers after I repeatedly told her that the "*" should be used when she checked on my case.. after another 1 hour's wait, she got escalated to her supervisor (?) who then told me "I don't have any information for you"..


Let me put this way: as an individual applicant, your power of "negotiation", even for a piece of information (or correct information) is abjectly poor, espeically when facing USCIS or bureaucratic machinaries. Someday, somebody got to put a website to record the misery that everyone is this mess has been going through, particularly, how it has impacted their lives. (for example, for me, I took me almost 5 months to make up my mind to take a postdoc position since I know a prior that I have to move after my temporary assignment and I have to be in this blackhold foreever.....now consider, those are in line for green cards...the whole process is reaching a point being inhuman for psychological torture.)


So, please consider to take whatever legal systems can offer to you and me for help. (I would..however, I am moving to a new DO in 3 weeks..There is nothing I can do at this moment except praying that they don't screw up my case transfer..)
 
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