My thoughts
Is your last name spelled as “Zuo”? I am asking this because of my hypothesis which may be able to explain why nothing happened to your case:
In TSC, files were put into groups/batches based on filing/receiving dates or month(s). Let’s assume that TSC put all files received in March/April 2001 into one group/batch. Then WITHIN this group, files were arranged, PHYSICALLY, in alphabetical order. This physical location is very important to when your case will be assigned to an IIO. Because it is the physical file, not the data in INS computer system, that is assigned to an IIO. So if your last name starts as “Z”, your file will be put at the end of the batch. This hypothesis can explain the many variations of processing times on cases filed within a short, close time frame (one or two months). This also can explain why sometimes husband’s and wife’s cases got separated, because they don’t have same last names. But children always have their fathers’ last names, so it is very rare that children’s files got separated far away from their fathers’.
This is my two cents. I don’t know whether it is right or wrong. If you guys are interested in this theory, we can explore this further. And it is easy to do so. Just reveal the initial of your last name and maybe we can find more clues. Of course, this theory cannot explain the misplaced and mistreated files. BTW, I don’t think PD or FD is important at all at the 485 stage. Thanks,