Rejected Fingerprints--How they affect citizenship timelines

B

beesan

Registered Users (C)
My wife's prints were rejected by the FBI because of poor quality. I have been searching the forums for applicant timelines with similar situations such as my wife's, but have not had much success.

I started this thread in hopes of finding timelines for applicants whose prints were rejected on their first attempt, and specifically, how much time passed before they received their 2nd FP notice and/or IL.

I originally posted my wife's situation in an existing thread. (Thread Title "Finger print question") I cannot seem to provide links to that post here since I have not met the 15 post requirement.

The following quote from Bobsmyth is from that thread:

Bobsmyth said:
I assume you mean what happens if FP quality is not acceptable. USICS will send you a 2nd notice within about 3 months of first. If second FP quality is still not acceptable you will then be asked to provide police record from every place you lived in last 5 years.
Click to expand...

I found a thread where "Gpng_dl" says his wife waited for 3 months before receiving the 2nd FP notice.

I found another post where "Atlanta_Brother" says his mother received her 2nd FP notice in a week. This was in regards to a Green Card app though.

I was really hoping that a 3 month wait was not the norm for such a situation.

For reference, the technician told my wife that her scanned quality of her prints was low, and so she took ink prints in addition to the scanned ones. I phoned the FBI after a week or so and found out that her prints were rejected. Timeline is in sig.

Any timelines members can point me to for reference would be appreciated.
 
It means that the technician just took her Finger prints and did not show the card to supervisor and sent to FBI. Next time she goes for fingerprint she should rub oil to her fingers for 4-5 days advance and also search Google for ridge builder lotion. With Ridge builder solution one can get good prints.
http://www.evidentcrimescene.com/cata/print/print.html
Ridge Builder
Certain individuals, because of work or medical conditions, such as masonary workers or the elderly can develop worn or smooth fingerprint ridges. This can cause difficulty when fingerprinting and results in an unclear fingerprint. In such cases this Ridge Builder lotion is recommended. The ridge builder works by temporarily “puffing” or raising the fingerprint ridges and in most cases provides a clearer print. Simply apply a small amount to the fingerprint and wipe clean prior to printing. 4 oz. jar.
 
Thanks for the Ridge Builder solution advice ginnu. I went to the site and checked it out.

In your experience, how much time before we get the 2nd FP notice?
 
Contact USCIS to find out if they will send 2nd FP notice?

Here is quote from Bobsmyth from message thread titled "Finger print question". It is in response to my wife's rejected fingerprints situation given in the opening post of this thread.

Bobsmyth said:
USCIS may still send her a 2nd FP appointment request eventhough her ink prints were rejected. Any rejected FP will cause a delay in overall processing as USCIS has to either sendher a new FP appointment or she'll have to get the police records during the last 5 years where she lived.
Click to expand...

We would like to take a trip abroad and want to find out what the next move by the USCIS will be. If they will be sending a 2nd FP notice in 3 months, we would like to take our trip now. If not, and we need to provide police records, perhaps we can wait for her IL.

For our situation, is it possible to contact USCIS and determine what the they will do?
 
Most likely they will send her a 2nd FP request within the next 3 months. If you don't want to hold off your trip, then make sure to have someone check your mailbox while you are away in case the 2nd FP letter arrives while you are gone.
You can also schedule an Infopass with your wife to see if they can tell you when the 2nd FP notice will be sent.
 
Oddly enough, I know for fact that my fingerprints will have issues. They had a hard time during the Green card process to get my prints and during a recent fingerprintint experience for Global Trusted Traveler, I was also told that my prints are "Terrible". As I near the FP time, I wonder if there is a way centers can take manual prints instead. Would save me months... any suggestions other than rubbing suspeicious oils on hand? :)
 
SunnyJ said:
As I near the FP time, I wonder if there is a way centers can take manual prints instead. Would save me months... any suggestions other than rubbing suspeicious oils on hand? :)
Click to expand...

The ASC do take manual FPs if the technician sees the quality from scanner is not good.
 
case update

Just updating what is going on with our case for this thread.

We called the customer service number to inquire about the status of our 2nd FP notice. Upon our request, the first level representative transferred us to second level representative, which I assume was an IO. We explained to the IO that we were hoping to travel abroad in June, and that the FBI informed us that my wife’s scanned fingerprints were rejected. We asked if we could get our 2nd FP notice scheduled ASAP so we could make our plans. The man we spoke with was very helpful. While I was on the phone with him, he composed a message regarding our request and sent it out. He also took our phone and email address and gave us a reference number.

The day after we called, my wife received an email from the USCIS Chicago office. The email stated the following:

"Recently you called to inform us that you have not received a biometrics appointment letter. After checking our systems the biometrics taken on 04/07/2009 are still valid and you will not be scheduled again at this time. We are sorry for any misunderstanding and thank you for informing us of this matter."

Today I called the FBI again to inquire about the status of my wife's prints. The FBI restated that my wife's scanned prints were rejected because of poor quality. I then asked if the manual ink fingerprints that the technician took during the April 7th FP appointment were sent to the FBI. The FBI representative stated that after scanned prints are rejected, the manual ink prints should be mailed to the FBI. However, she informed us that there was a backlog in processing manual ink prints at the FBI. She estimated it would take 6 to 8 weeks to process them. She said I could call after the 6 to 8 week time period to find out if the manual ink prints had been processed successfully.

We had scheduled an InfoPass, but cancelled it after speaking with the IO by phone.

I noticed the following text from a PDF document from this website titled “Question and Answer USCIS NATIONAL STAKEHOLDER MEETING
Answers to National Stakeholder Questions” dated March 25th, 2008.

The following text is from that document “Where an applicant submits a set of fingerprints that quality assurance review suggests is likely to be rejected by the FBI as unable to classify, standard practice in the field is to take a second set of fingerprints on a card using the manual ink method. This card is submitted if and when the first submission is returned as rejected thus alleviating the need for a return visit by the applicant.”

It seems this is what has happened to my wife. I will update more as our case progresses.
 
Thumb Injury

Hello - Few days back I got a cut on my left thumb . Had to go to ER and got few stiches. Stiches are removed now but still the healing is not complete. I have FP appointment on thursday (05/07) . What should I do . Please advice Thanks
 
My wife had her prints rejected due to poor quality. USCIS scheduled a 2nd FP within two weeks time and the prints were rejected again. Then she received a letter asking her to get the police clearance from all the places she lived in the last 5 years.
 
How come fingerprinting can be rejected? When USCIS ASC take your fingerprint, the device automatically check teh quality. They usually take your 10 finger together and use it as reference and then fingerprint each
of your finger and check it against the reference with matching score.

The ASC technichian should nesure the matching score pass the quality
acceptance line.
 
WBH said:
How come fingerprinting can be rejected? When USCIS ASC take your fingerprint, the device automatically check teh quality. They usually take your 10 finger together and use it as reference and then fingerprint each
of your finger and check it against the reference with matching score.

The ASC technichian should nesure the matching score pass the quality
acceptance line.
Click to expand...

Sometimes it is not immediately apparent that the prints are of poor quality and this is only revealed when they are sent to the FBI. So even though the scanner says they are good, the FBI can still reject them because the ridges are not fully visible.
 
WBH said:
How come fingerprinting can be rejected? When USCIS ASC take your fingerprint, the device automatically check teh quality. They usually take your 10 finger together and use it as reference and then fingerprint each
of your finger and check it against the reference with matching score.

The ASC technichian should nesure the matching score pass the quality
acceptance line.
Click to expand...

Poor quality was not due to technician's fault or the equipment's fault. It was the bad ridges on the fingers. The scanner was not able to pick up the prints in an acceptable way because the fingers did not have well defined ridges. Even the manual prints would have been rejected as the maual process also can not lift the prints in any better way than the scanner. The root cause of the problem lies in the fingers. Thats why she was asked to get police clearance from all the places she lived in the last 5 years.
 
It's really strange that fingerprints taken by CIS could be useless. If you're watching those police dramas on TV, even latent finger prints of a corpse could be extracted and matched.

Anyway, here's my timeline with FPs: District offfice NYC

Oct 31 08 : Fingerprint notice
Nov 25 08 : FPs taken
Dec 22 08 : NOA unable process FP card. rescheduled re-take
Jan 06 09 : FPs re-taken
Feb 02 09 : NOA naturalization interview on Mar 2409
Feb 05 09 : Yellow letter case file review FPs unclassifiable twice.
Must bring police clearance to interview

It takes two weeks to process a NYC police clearance (AKA good conduct certificate) and is valid for 60 days. Make sure that clearance is valid at time of interview.

I will have my oath on May 8 2009 this coming Friday.
 
To mpotturi and Caramuru...

In your situations, were manual ink prints taken at either the first or second FP appointments?
 
No, no manual prints were taken at first or second takes... I just got a case review letter (after the interview letter) saying to obtain police clearance and bring with me to interview.
 
Fingerprint Issue

I had my fingerprint appointment 2 weeks ago :

Due to extreme dry skin the fingerprint scanner could not read couple of fingers on one hand .

Since the system did not accept the scanned prints they went ahead and took my prints manually and infact took two sets of them.

The lady said she would keep one set and send the second over to FBI and incase FBI rejects the first set ,she would mail the second set and if that fails i will have to go with the police clearence route.

I plan on calling FBI next week to find out the status of my first set of prints.

All said and done i think this is a speed breaker / bump which definetly will dealay the process by a few weeks if not months.


can anybody post the number to call at FBI for the Information ?
 
Dont worry. My wife had similar issues. Her first FP was rejected. She got a letter for a second FP in 2 weeks. That went thru fine. She got her interview letter and her interview is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
 
My wife received her "Case File Review Notice / Interview Document Check List" (yellow letter) today.

There has been no update to her case status online. It still reads "This case is at our NATIONAL BENEFITS CENTER location."

However, from reading other timelines, it seems that receiving the CFR letter means an interview letter will soon follow. Right?

We have not received a second FP notice yet, and the CFR letter did not request police clearance.
 
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