Name Check - Why did my parents not name me "Zdfsgkslfn" ?

S

SickOfNameCheck

New Member
I am sick of the Name Check process. The more I read about the cases of people stuck in the Name Check process (some for more than 3 years), it makes me cringe. How can a process be so stupid, so illogical , so nonsensical....

Think about it...If somebody was really a national security threat, would the FBI allow him/her to remain in the country for 3 years while it was doing a backgound check on the person. The time frame it takes(for the so-called 1% cases) is a farce. By the way, I don't believe in the 1% figure at all..not for a second. It is also unfathomable to me that there can be such a primitive system that relies so majorly on first name/last names. How can the folks at FBI not get it that there are a million Indians with Sanjay/Sanjeev/Manoj kind-of-names and a million "Wong" in China..and not all of them are potential security threats.

Anyways, so I received an email from USCIS confirming that my NameCheck is still pending with the FBI....and the wonderful one-liner to go with it..."the service has no control over the time it takes the FBI to resolve the case"...Great!! SO USCIS can wash their hands off my problem while FBI says that they are answerable only to their customer agency (which is the USCIS)...which renders the actual stake-holder (you and me) totally helpless.There is no phone number to call...no email id to write to in order to enquire about the NC status...you are for all practical purposes in a BLACK HOLE. The process could take 1 year, 2 years, 3 years..in some cases even 4 or more....with zero visibility towards your future...you are stuck in a thankless job, cannot make major investments...all this while the FBI is trying to determine if you are really a terrorist (assuming they are working on your case and your file is not gathering dust somewhere).

I am not sure why I am writing this post since I have no questions to ask. I guess I just wanted to register my protest against the ordeal (in the form of Name Check) that is meted out to the would-be-immigrants. I wonder if any US Govt Agency would dare do anything like this to the "citizens".

So...my fellow sufferers...please feel free to use this thread to voice your disgust at the process. Believe me ...its better than writing inconsequential emotional letters to the Senators or the FBI which (going by the experiences of most people) is guaranteed to yield ZERO results. So...let it out and de-stress ......its the best you can do. I am feeling better already.
 
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USCIS-FBI Approved Baby Names

Due to heavy public demand USCIS is planning to publish a Baby Names book called "USCIS-FBI Approved Baby Names".

Guaranteed 100% to pass the FBI Name Check or your money back minus the cost of shipping. :)

My way of protesting against this cruel and barbaric practise of punishing innocent people who happen to share a name with some other wrongdoer.
 
Endeavour2003 said:
Due to heavy public demand USCIS is planning to publish a Baby Names book called "USCIS-FBI Approved Baby Names".

Guaranteed 100% to pass the FBI Name Check or your money back minus the cost of shipping. :)

My way of protesting against this cruel and barbaric practise of punishing innocent people who happen to share a name with some other wrongdoer.
Click to expand...

U guyz have a very good sense of humor....which is much needed during these tiring times :p

I do hope we all cross the bridge some day!
 
According to the latest bulletin published by USCIS, you can order this book only if you have approved I-140 and your Name check has been pending for 10 years. The service has NO control over how long it will take to deliver the book to you after you order. ;)

Endeavour2003 said:
Due to heavy public demand USCIS is planning to publish a Baby Names book called "USCIS-FBI Approved Baby Names".

Guaranteed 100% to pass the FBI Name Check or your money back minus the cost of shipping. :)

My way of protesting against this cruel and barbaric practise of punishing innocent people who happen to share a name with some other wrongdoer.
Click to expand...
 
I think someone IS taking notice! Yesterday's Talk of Nation program on NPR covered issues legal immigrants face (hear recording at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5398818). I am thankful to the caller named Amit who phoned in from southern california and mentioned some of the issues we face during employment based permanent residency. There are no easy solutions, there are three big government beurocracies, a patchwork of rules, and a great demand for services from these understaffed agencies. So everyone knows that there are problems, the question is how much public will is there to fix them.
 
Does anybody plan to choose those unpopular and weird names for his/her kids? Just wondering
 
SickOfNameCheck said:
I am sick of the Name Check process. The more I read about the cases of people stuck in the Name Check process (some for more than 3 years), it makes me cringe. How can a process be so stupid, so illogical , so nonsensical....

Think about it...If somebody was really a national security threat, would the FBI allow him/her to remain in the country for 3 years while it was doing a backgound check on the person. The time frame it takes(for the so-called 1% cases) is a farce. By the way, I don't believe in the 1% figure at all..not for a second. It is also unfathomable to me that there can be such a primitive system that relies so majorly on first name/last names. How can the folks at FBI not get it that there are a million Indians with Sanjay/Sanjeev/Manoj kind-of-names and a million "Wong" in China..and not all of them are potential security threats.

Anyways, so I received an email from USCIS confirming that my NameCheck is still pending with the FBI....and the wonderful one-liner to go with it..."the service has no control over the time it takes the FBI to resolve the case"...Great!! SO USCIS can wash their hands off my problem while FBI says that they are answerable only to their customer agency (which is the USCIS)...which renders the actual stake-holder (you and me) totally helpless.There is no phone number to call...no email id to write to in order to enquire about the NC status...you are for all practical purposes in a BLACK HOLE. The process could take 1 year, 2 years, 3 years..in some cases even 4 or more....with zero visibility towards your future...you are stuck in a thankless job, cannot make major investments...all this while the FBI is trying to determine if you are really a terrorist (assuming they are working on your case and your file is not gathering dust somewhere).

I am not sure why I am writing this post since I have no questions to ask. I guess I just wanted to register my protest against the ordeal (in the form of Name Check) that is meted out to the would-be-immigrants. I wonder if any US Govt Agency would dare do anything like this to the "citizens".

So...my fellow sufferers...please feel free to use this thread to voice your disgust at the process. Believe me ...its better than writing inconsequential emotional letters to the Senators or the FBI which (going by the experiences of most people) is guaranteed to yield ZERO results. So...let it out and de-stress ......its the best you can do. I am feeling better already.
Click to expand...

SickOfNameCheck,

I share your pain, Being stuck in Name check turns out to be the worst stage of whole un-pridctable process. I have been waiting for 17 months now and do not know when I will get done- may be tomorrow or may be 2-3 years from now, completely irrational, unfair and chance ...
 
will_get_there1 said:
SickOfNameCheck,
do not know when I will get done- may be tomorrow or may be 2-3 years from now, completely irrational, unfair and chance ...
Click to expand...

This is exactly my point. If the FBI were to tell me that it would take them 5 years to clear my name-check, I will at least have a definite time frame and will plan my future accordingly (may be even pack my bags and leave the country). But the current situation is (like you said) - one's Name check could clear tomorrow, in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years...who knows they might even just forget about it....

To think that a Govt Agency (esp a US Govt Agency) can be so insensitive and unfair is amazing . And that there is not even a number or email id to contact them is doubly so.
 
What we want would be the consitency but I can understand
it is not easy to make the name check process consistent.

If not consistency, they can make their process more transparent.
I mean they can tell us things like when my name check was
actually started and in what stage my case is in.

I think it's doable and does not cost much for Federal angencies.
But my guess is that it would bring up lots of complaints and stuff
if they become transparent about their procedure.
So that's why they stand very foggy about their process.

So the conclusion is that there is not much we can do about this.
I'm going to live my life according to my plan whether I get GC
or not. If other opportunity come up before GC, it's their loss.
 
fdfd said:
What we want would be the consitency but I can understand
it is not easy to make the name check process consistent.

If not consistency, they can make their process more transparent.
I mean they can tell us things like when my name check was
actually started and in what stage my case is in.

I think it's doable and does not cost much for Federal angencies.
But my guess is that it would bring up lots of complaints and stuff
if they become transparent about their procedure.
So that's why they stand very foggy about their process.

So the conclusion is that there is not much we can do about this.
I'm going to live my life according to my plan whether I get GC
or not. If other opportunity come up before GC, it's their loss.
Click to expand...

Making the process more transparent is exactly what they dont want to do. The reason being if the process is made transparent, everyone will realize how lazy and broken the system is, paving way for lawsuits by us. The backlog is so huge that they will take years together. Add to this the issue of "national security" and from their point of view "the more obscure the process the better".

Ultimately, it is the luck factor that counts the most in this entire process of obtaining the residency.If someone asks me what counts the most towards getting a GC, I would dfinitely say that luck (more than your qualifications) matters the most.
 
may be we should sign a petition,keep sending it from bush to fbi to every officer in uscis to get us out of this someday
 
Endeavour2003 said:
My way of protesting against this cruel and barbaric practise of punishing innocent people who happen to share a name with some other wrongdoer.
Click to expand...

I disagree with the last part of the statement. I am sure there are no wrongdoers with my name. I got a very common middle name and first name. In that case everyone with those name must be stuck, which is not true.
 
Hi GreenCardVirus,

My statement was in a general sense only and should not be taken literally. BTW, Do you know exactly how the FBI Namecheck works?

I mean if the name has three components like <FirstName> <MiddleName> <LastName>

1. Does a name get a hit even if even one component matches or does all the components ( F M L ) of your name have to match to get a hit?

2. Do they do pattern matching or do they go for exact matches?

3. Does a Name which is spelled differently but is pronouned the same show up as a hit.

4. Do they go further and check the DOB as well to filter out false positives?

Of course all of these things are immaterial to people suffering under the Name Check ( it hardly matters if you were shot from a gun or a pistol ) but would be interesting to know the same.

Well in restrospective....if the CIA got it so damm wrong on the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq....can the FBI be far behind on the namecheck. Good work FBI.....keep ruining the lives of innocent people...way to go!!!

GreenCardVirus said:
I disagree with the last part of the statement. I am sure there are no wrongdoers with my name. I got a very common middle name and first name. In that case everyone with those name must be stuck, which is not true.
Click to expand...
 
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Name check is the weirdest/stupidest nonsensical thing I have heard of.

Lets assume that the namecheck process results in a "hit" for some unfortunate soul. Then its likely that FBI wants to check and see if he is a potential criminal/terrorist . (Please note , I am not suggesting that anyone stuck in namecheck process is a criminal/terrorist.Most peope are innocent but maybe share a common name with some wrongdoer)
I think they should expedite the processing for such people.Having someone who could potentially harm this country hang in this country for multiple years is senseless . This should be considered a top national security issue.
Also , uscis should release statistics. How much has this NameCheckProcess really benefitted in keeping out criminals/terrorists in terms of numbers ?
 
my share

I totally agree that there is nothing that we could possibly do to speed up these useless guys in compelting this process.. we all just have to take the pain in different forms that we suffer due to the fbi's illogical way of identifying terrorists. in addition, i am not sure of the intent. If their intent is to catch the terrorist, y only do it, only when he/she applies for gc. Obviously they have a record of the person. Go and spend time in finding the actual guy rather than, spending time in doing a name check research of 1000s of innocent people.. like many other reasons listed in this thread, I dont see a valid reason as to why these guys are doing this illogical process and making our life hell. And, I am probably going to take the heat of name check much more due to my name.. just waiting.. completed 1 and a half.. probably a long way to go...who knows..
 
Compare with Airline passengers flying in to US

I believe that the process of name check itself doesn't take too long. May be a day to check various databases. I say this because these days the airlines travelling to US share the passenger name list with US officials and name check would need to hit the same records. I imagine they get it done quick, since air traveller's are not seen waiting in Airports for years before they are granted access to US soil. So what am I missing here? If an airline passenger can come in after name check verification in matter of days [hours in some cases] why does it take so long for immigrants???
 
Here is a plausible explanation ..

This argument comes courtesy Ron Gotcher:

a - USCIS sends FBI a name check query
b - FBI responds with the result
c - USCIS "forgets" to enter this result in the data base

Now then, USCIS will keep "waiting" for the result until cows come home AND
FBI will never resend the response, thinking it is done with the case.

Guys, this is the "UDP" version. They should have adopted the "TCP" version
(SYN-ACK-SYN). Too late now! This is a classic deadlock situation.

It might help if your name is Zwerwaqtrtaqxxazz, or it might not.

I am not trying to rub it in, I just finished 3 years waiting for my name check to come through. My state's senators staff is wonderful though; I sent an email to them last night and first thing this morning they called me (that is correct) and said that they will take this up immediately w/ FBI, but would I mind waiting 6-8 weeks for a response? Unbelievable! Try this route, ladies and gentleman, it might work.

At least you would not have to order that infamous book of approved names :)
 
dl1cd said:
This argument comes courtesy Ron Gotcher:

a - USCIS sends FBI a name check query
b - FBI responds with the result
c - USCIS "forgets" to enter this result in the data base

Now then, USCIS will keep "waiting" for the result until cows come home AND
FBI will never resend the response, thinking it is done with the case.

Guys, this is the "UDP" version. They should have adopted the "TCP" version
(SYN-ACK-SYN). Too late now! This is a classic deadlock situation.

It might help if your name is Zwerwaqtrtaqxxazz, or it might not.

I am not trying to rub it in, I just finished 3 years waiting for my name check to come through. My state's senators staff is wonderful though; I sent an email to them last night and first thing this morning they called me (that is correct) and said that they will take this up immediately w/ FBI, but would I mind waiting 6-8 weeks for a response? Unbelievable! Try this route, ladies and gentleman, it might work.

At least you would not have to order that infamous book of approved names :)
Click to expand...


Have you given the writ of mandamus a thought??.3 years is way too long to wait.If you have been waiting for a period of 2 years or more, WOM is guaranteed to get you a positive decision. A good lawyer can make a very good case out of it (or you can do it urself i.e pro se) and prove that this wait is unreasonable.
I would definitely give WOM a thought if I were you. I have been stuck in this shithole for more than a year now and am just waiting for the day when I can sue these worthless people.
 
nikedude said:
Not sure if everone had got a chance to read this. I found it useful.

Link to Fact Sheet
Click to expand...

Interesting read. If the current immigration bills pass, then I wonder how much extra effort is going to be added to the already overburdened USCIS, FBI and interagency workflows, when 12 million illegal aliens 'come out of the shadows' to get their 'guest' worker cards, or whatever.

After 9/11 everyone's case went into a multi-year holding pattern while all USCIS resources were dedicated to Special Registrations.

Dumping millions of new applicants into the system - illegal ones, at that - is going to cause irreversible gridlock!
 
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