Question regarding I485 queue

B

becky

Registered Users (C)
Hi all,

I need your help in understanding something, please, and if possible a legal opinion (if Rajiv has time). The day before yesterday I met with the Director of Constituent Services for Senator Barbara Boxer. I had a very pleasant interaction, where I raised my concerns about the length of adjudication time and the difficulties of waiting for so long.

One thing that came up and I would like to clarify is how the queue works. I had always understood it to be the case that once you were allowed to submit your I485 for processing you would be processed in order of arrival of the queue (first in first out so to speak). Are there any exceptions to that other than
a) pilot programs

and b) how does concurrent I140 and I485 affect that queue?

The reason I am asking is that I want to write a follow up letter complaining about processing out of order, and the lack of feedback that the CSC is providing its customers who have a) waited over 26 months and b) watched others get processed before them. But I want to have my facts very much in order before pushing on this direction. So any help you can give me, any good legal and non-legal opinions welcomed.

thank you,

becky
 
I remember reading another thread which said "directions from head office were responsible for certain cases being approved ahead" or something to that effect. I also know of another guy getting approved earlier because he was involved in some NASA program that required additional security checks several times, so he got a letter from NASA and his approval came flying in like a rocket (no pun intended).

I don't think that there is any official policy of first in first out.
 
> Are there any exceptions to that other than
> a) pilot programs

Project Kashmir shows a lot of recent approvals for I-485 cases filed in:
1) late February 2002
2) late April 2002
3) late 2002 to early 2003

Although 3) may contain some pilot cases, for most of the above cases, its fingerprint will be expiring soon.
Obviously, the CSC is attempting not to expire fingerprint for some cases, but not all cases because it is impossible.

However, as you know, the CSC had kept fingerprint expired for most of WAC-02 applicants through February 2004.
 
There are good number of approvals for Oct'02, & Nov'02 and Dec'02, which are in the year 2003. Ofcourse there are plenty of approvals form Apr'02 to Sep'02 also.

As of 04/27, Total / Approved ratios for the year 2002 are as below

10/01-Total / approved–0620/0522
11/01-Total / approved–5890/4350
12/01-Total / approved–2125/1107
01/02-Total / approved–2807/310
02/02-Total / approved–2770/247
03/02-Total / approved–4162/241
04/02-Total / approved–3781/373
05/02-Total / approved–3031/178
06/02-Total / approved–2703/149
07/02-Total / approved–2335/122
08/02-Total / approved–2697/106
09/02-Total / approved–3435/116

As of 04/25, Total / Approved ratios for the year 2003 are as below

10/02-Total / approved–4750/115
11/02-Total / approved–4442/120
12/02-Total / approved–3288/111
01/03-Total / approved–3060/79
02/03-Total / approved–2625/53
03/03-Total / approved–4162/51
04/03-Total / approved–3781/46
05/03-Total / approved–2083/22
06/03-Total / approved–1796/13
07/03-Total / approved–2214/16
08/03-Total / approved–2008/18
09/03-Total / approved–2226/07

As of 04/25, Total / Approved ratios for the year 2004 are as below

10/03-Total / approved–2330/04
11/03-Total / approved–1485/01
12/03-Total / approved–1506/01
01/04-Total / approved–1263/00
02/04-Total / approved–1420/00
03/04-Total / approved–1947/01


As per Kashmir Stats, the movement of Cases filed in 2003 and 2004 are also very very high compared to year 2002.

http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=769781#post769781
 
my 2 cents

for general EB population CSC honors FIFO rule, different exceptions may go as far as 5% of applications. these may be approved out of order.
 
I think ND meant 50% not 5%. I donot think they approved just 5% out of order, from the total number of applications. We wouldn't have so many approved threads for 03ers and the scans won't be so far from truth.

Becky, you could mention that we would have no problem if only few cases were taken for Pilot Program. Infact we wouldn't have a problem if they just did a little percentage of 2004 applications too. What bothers is that resources seem to be divided by half, which is not fair for early filers. Though we donot know or for sure that BCIS has any commitment to process applications FIFO, one would think that is how government or any responsible agency would work.
 
mango_pickle,

ND022202 is right, usually pilot programs run for around 90 days, and about 5 % of cases get approved. This time they maybe cranking the shaft a little and 15% might get through, but with backlogs at over 50,000 cases, this 5% - 15% number appears to be big.

INS seems determined to cut backlog but they are cutting the tree in half as compared to chopping it from the top.

We the people who have been waiting for a long long time, need to wake up and take action. I would say all of us should ping the Senators to tackle the backlogs or we are going to be shafted in the ass!

Unfortunately this ploy of INS is definitely going to work. It is going to divide the 485 community with people from 03/04 getting the benefit why will they support backlog reduction with the same fire? :( 18 months and counting, terrible to see INS break FIFO!
 
question the resouce allocation and its necessity

I appreciate your effort and keeping the senator's attention in our suffering, here is my two cents:

Judging from the rate the applications were proccessed with the pilot program, a siganificant amount of resources has been assigned to it, and compare that with the regular processing, make me wonder is that all necessary and fair?

If the purpose of the pilot program is to evaluate how much faster it is, is it necessary to put so much resources into it; after pilot program is over, will these resources be taken away from I485; and how about transfer half of it to the queue?

Considering the amount of work involved in each case, one can tell each pilot case will definately take longer than I485 alone:

here is a brief comparison of amount of work:
pilot regular
============================================
I485 Y Y
EAD Y Y FP Y Y RFE Y Y 2FP Y/N Y
I140 Y N


FP takes literally almost no resource of IBIS, computer generated notice, support center are not busy at all, the rest is taken care of by FBI. On the other hand I140 is quite heavy on IBIS.

So if cases in pilot program are processed at 3-5 fold rate of regular queue, it is safe to say that at least 5 times more resources have been allocated to it. In another words, if they simply put same amount of resource in both, the queue will advance twice as fast.

Maybe IBIS could provide senators the exact number of worker they put on pilot and regular processing, and how many number of cases are processed during same period of time. Although senator don't have to give us the number, but at least IBIS should be questioned why they put so much resources in pilot, and although they claimed pilot won't affect regular processing, is that indeed true.
 
My guess is that USCIS is trying to reduce the backlog, but while planning/executing for that, their first focus not to keep EVERYBODY happy, but to keep some of them happy. And at this point, they are just trying to keep immigration lawyers, their various organizations (AILA etc) happy. That's why these pilot programs - catchy labels like "approval in 90 days".

- Radom file pickup and approval makes the JIT date blurred. Therefore, you cannot argue (anf files class action lawsuit) that USCIS are not approving cases fast. If you wating for 3 years and you still did not get approval, USCIS will claim that "probably there is good reason that your approval is getting delayed - name check, additional security checks, your employment history, complexcity of your application blah blah blah".

- Closing 2003/2004 and all the NEW files will make lawyers communities happy because that will provide assurance to new clients - "it's not that kind of morbid and frustrating scene anymore". Therefore they won't bother USCIS that much for older cases.

I doubt USCIS is going to reduce the backlog to zero within september. Even if they do so, I won't be surprised if some of the Jan02, Feb02 cases have to wait until 30th September. I consider that is good too because in that case Jan/Feb02 applicants have an definitive assurance from USCIS that they are going to be approved/denied "WITHIN Sep 04" (why not a catchy slogun like "02 case approval within September 2004"????). But as usual USCIS's assurance of backlog reduction is vague. And I won't be surprised if USCIS moves its resources from I485 backlog reduction to some other kind of applications - without reducing the I485 backlog completely. It happened in the past(and that's why we have such a huge backlog) and it can happen again. Let's hope ALL the long-waiters will be approved before that.
 
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