O-1 from Nebraska: still nothing

grewa002

Registered Users (C)
I still have not heard anything about my I-129, submitted 4/24/02.
My lawyer's office said that they called again and they were told that Nebraska is still working on O-1s from 4/1.
This is interesting because my 120 days of processing time should be expiring 8/22, plus the processing times posted on this site gives a date of 5/1 as of 7/31.
Anyone with recent news?
 
nsc

hello,
you are right, their update time shows 5/1. Depending on which state you are in either you or your lawyer can file a "congressional inquiry" since for you it has been more than the processing time of 120 days. I am not sure if it could backfire or not (hopefully it should'nt effect their decision - as it is a common practice to file congressional inquiries) but worth discussing it with your lawyer.
 
Nebraska nightmares

Sorry I didn't update you sooner, I was pretty busy all of a sudden.
As you remember, I had an O-1 application filed 4/24/02. On 8/23, the 121st day after my petition, I received a notice for RFE (request for further evidence), stating mainly that one is very unlikely to be eligible for O-1 straight out of fellowship and that they disregarded the (12) expert letters, because everyone provides glittering letters. By the way, they were referring to me as "he", although my name is clearly female (Anna).
I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I had previously filed a petition that had been rejected (stating exactly the same things- had agreed that I met 2/8 criteria for O-1), and together with the above application, I had filed an appeal to the previous one. The outrageous thing is that on the same exact day as the RFE, I received a response from Nebraska (signed by the same person)that my appeal had been accepted and the appeal's unit in DC had written to Nebraska that I was satisfying 6/8 (!!- all except the Nobel prize and the high salary) criteria for O-1. They also said that Nebraska is wrong in disregarding expert letters, as O visas rely on such evidence. They even said that a high salary is not to be expected for university physicians!
So, my ordeal is over for the next couple of years. However, these people in Nebraska are grossly incompetent, since 11 months after 9/11, they don't seem to be able to connect 2 applications to one person, even though the applications were IDENTICAL!!!
My advice to anyone going for an O-1:
1) If you have multiple job offers, choose the one that does not belong to Nebraska juristiction
2) If you have to send your application to Nebraska, persist. And be aware that the process may take time (8 months total in my case, the first application expedited!!)
 
ATG

Congrats, atleast the ordeal is over with a happy ending. Please write what kind of RFE did they request on your second app. Did you go through a lawyer for the first premium proc petition and the second petition? Did the lawyer file the appeal as well? Is your attorney an experienced one? and lastly when did you file the appeal (how long did it take for the appeal to be addressed?)
 
O Nebraska

Rdip,
I had filed both applications/ appeal with the same lawyer. She is supposedly very experienced, but we were not thrilled with her and I'm not sure that I would recommend her or that I will go to her next time. She was very easy to contact , but made some stupid mistakes of negligence. We paid $5000 initially and then $ 1000 for the appeal and $ 1500 for the second application. The appeal had been filed 3/19, but she actually was surprised that it came so soon. The decision was taken in DC on July 15, but then it took another 5 weeks for it to go from DC to Nebraska and get the Nebraska approval stamp.
They did not ask for anything specific on the RFE this time, that's the weird part. With the first application, they had asked for more letters from people unrelated to me, even though I had already filed 8 at the time, and only 2 were from my fellowship program.
If you have connections in some other country, I would suggest to try to get them to write a letter preemptively, just in case they ask you for RFE, so you don't lose time waiting for the letters at that point.
I hope you don't have to go through that, good luck
 
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