theory for 2001/2002 case delays

S

sundancekid

Registered Users (C)
gurus, my 2c

maybe the 2001 /early 2002 cases are held back because of the FBI namecheck.

85% of FBI namechecks clear "electronically" in 72 hrs. the rest take months because they are "flagged" as persons of interest, and have to be checked manually by an FBI agent. [this is info from the FBI website-- congressional testimony]

When the namecheck does not clear, the INS officer just waits until it does. FBI has a huge namecheck backlog. HUGE.

so then the INS officer goes on to process newer cases on his desk, and if those namechecks clear in 72hrs, they jump ahead and get approved.

I think that some of the people still not approved from 2001/early 2002 represent the 15% still waiting for a manual name check.

these delays did not occur previously in 2001/2002 because the rules were different. Before, if a FBI namecheck was not returned within 60 days, the INS were able to consider it "clear".

Now they have to have an answer-- yes or no, before they can approve a case [again from FBI]

now think of this-- the very people identified as potential threats to "homeland security" are already in the country, and free to travel. Shouldnt they be doing security checks on these people in hours, not months!?!?

again just my 2c-- and yes, I'm still waiting for my security check-- the FBI have had it for 4 months now.
 
I dont think your case ever leaves INS.

INS send a namecheck request to FBI, when the INS start to adjuducate your case.

this namecheck delay may also explain why some RFE's are resolved quickly and others are not-- the rfe is taken care of but the namecheck is still pending??

one thing is for sure, INS is in a mess

from a security standpoint, all namecheck backlog for AOS ALREADY in the country should be cleared before any namechecks are processed for applicants who are still outside the USA.
 
sundancekid, your theory seems credible, however, our (spouse & mine) name/DOB check was cleared some time back but our cases weren't taken up for adjudication, don't know why. But when we initiated an inquiry through the Senator's office these facts surfaced and they said that they would now assign an officer to adjudicate our cases. The internal workings of CIS are a mystery to all or most of us. So I don't know whether our case would have eventually come up for adjudication even without the Senatorial inquiry. I can understand them approving March and April 2002 cases when their web site shows a current processing date of 2/15/2002, but what beats me is the approval of September and October 2002 cases.
 
Still waiting after replying to RFE. Site changed to RFE response received on March 3rd. However no FP2 notice yet. Can I expect an approval without FP2 notice or I have to get FP2 notice? May be I am greedy..
 
Question for Sundancekid

At what stage does CIS request a name check from FBI. Is it when they are ready to adjudicate a case?
 
in my case the INS officer at my interview told me the namecheck request was sent to FBI at the same time I got my interview notice.

for non-interview cases, I beleive the namechecl is requested when they start to look at your case. If your name check clears in 72 hrs, there is no real delay.
 
Well, the only thing wrong with your theory are the numbers, because then we would be seeing 15% of people with huge delays and everyone else would get approved in a fairly predictable amount of time. Also, name checks with the FBI would affect the following people/nations the most: predominantly muslim countries and african and european countries with war crime indictments (there are databases that the names are checked against with this info). I don't know if there is any research or evidence on these forums or in Rupnet data to support this, since most applicants are from Indochina.
 
I dont think there is one simple explanation for the delays.

I think the FBI namecheck is ONE POSSIBLE explanation for SOME of the delays-- as it affects a significant number of applicants.
 
Hi,

How is FBI namecheck and finger printing related?

Does INS repeat namecheck when they ask for FP again?

My FP2 results were sent back to INS the same day.

I am wondering what is INS waiting for? namecheck again?

Thanks
 
pls share your info who are waiting for long

name startswith
EAC/RD/ND EAD3 FP1 FP2 CO.change? first last ST AD
AD
02091*** 0204 0302 0308 NO V V NY ?
 
Originally posted by MJRDJAN2002
Hi,

How is FBI namecheck and finger printing related?

Does INS repeat namecheck when they ask for FP again?

My FP2 results were sent back to INS the same day.

I am wondering what is INS waiting for? namecheck again?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Two different things done by different agencies. Your FBI fingerprints (8 fingers, 2 thumbs) are checked against crime databases. CIS is doing IBIS checks (name). this extends to the CIA if required. The namecheck can be extended to other family members and your company also if so desired..If your job is related to "sensitive technologies" and if you are from a group of countries (russia, Israel, pakistan, India, etc), add some more checks from DoD and DOS..(similar to Visa Condor, Mandis)

Bottom line: each case is different.
 
Yeah, I wonder if technology has anything to do with it too, when it comes to IT, it would be interesting to profile the approved cases and the ones waiting and see if tehcnology aspects of the cases get reviewed, in other words, does someone in a legacy discipline (Cobol, etc.) have a longer average wait time than someone in a current discipline (OO)?
 
Originally posted by Milko_Djurovski
Yeah, I wonder if technology has anything to do with it too, when it comes to IT, it would be interesting to profile the approved cases and the ones waiting and see if tehcnology aspects of the cases get reviewed, in other words, does someone in a legacy discipline (Cobol, etc.) have a longer average wait time than someone in a current discipline (OO)?
Click to expand...

"sensitive technologies" refers to an array of technologies from nuclear, to fiber optics, semi-conductors, chemicals, etc. There is a list for all of these like the TAL list.
 
Originally posted by cinta
"sensitive technologies" refers to an array of technologies from nuclear, to fiber optics, semi-conductors, chemicals, etc. There is a list for all of these like the TAL list.
Click to expand...

Cool to know, although my post was admitedly not directed correctly, rather I was asking about disciplines or area of IT expertise, not the core business expertise...
 
A lawyer told me that if the last name + first name are popular, the background check(name check) may take longer time. Think about my spouse¡¯s case, maybe it is true. The FBI(CIA/USCIS) system is not smart enough¡_.
 
Originally posted by gc_2000
A lawyer told me that if the last name + first name are popular, the background check(name check) may take longer time. Think about my spouse¡¯s case, maybe it is true. The FBI(CIA/USCIS) system is not smart enough¡_.
Click to expand...

The system is designed not to be "smart" on purpose. Any name pattern close to or matching those in the databases, is usually flagged for a manual check. It is just a failsafe procedure to eliminate any possible oversight that would be permeatted from the programmer to the program.
 
Originally posted by Milko_Djurovski
The system is designed not to be "smart" on purpose. Any name pattern close to or matching those in the databases, is usually flagged for a manual check. It is just a failsafe procedure to eliminate any possible oversight that would be permeatted from the programmer to the program.
Click to expand...

IT is just one field. It does not matter what kind one is working on.
Popular names present a problem as the likehood of somebody "bad" being in any one of a number of databases increases with the popularity of the name. Most probably every culture has a pattern in their names and this may be a problem as well. take for example the Chinese and their most common name (Chao??). How many millions of people have the same first, second or both? In Arabic the names are long and any mispelling creates problems. In Greek (like my name), a lot of people are given a christening name after their grandfather/grandmother and the second name stays the same, resulting in a lot of same names. The only difference is the middle name. Go figure!
A popular Moslem name is their Prophet and I am not sure how well it goes with USCIS.
Besides, there is not a fixed complete database yet. The terrorist List database is to be finished by the end of 2004. Most of the databases are also inaccurate and difficult to correct erroneous records.
 
Originally posted by cinta
IT is just one field. It does not matter what kind one is working on.
Popular names present a problem as the likehood of somebody "bad" being in any one of a number of databases increases with the popularity of the name. Most probably every culture has a pattern in their names and this may be a problem as well. take for example the Chinese and their most common name (Chao??). How many millions of people have the same first, second or both? In Arabic the names are long and any mispelling creates problems. In Greek (like my name), a lot of people are given a christening name after their grandfather/grandmother and the second name stays the same, resulting in a lot of same names. The only difference is the middle name. Go figure!
A popular Moslem name is their Prophet and I am not sure how well it goes with USCIS.
Besides, there is not a fixed complete database yet. The terrorist List database is to be finished by the end of 2004. Most of the databases are also inaccurate and difficult to correct erroneous records.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I neccessarily agree with that. The fact that a name is popular or not has itself nothing to do with it. Now, if there is name in the database that is equivalent to a John Smith US name, yes, then a lot of people have problems. But, there is no other way to check for this, really. I believe that they currently check not only against the terrorist database, but also against databases for various other crimes, like war crimes (Hague), outstanding international warrants (Interpol), suspicious financial transaction names, etc. Yeah, the process itself is not very useful unless your name is very unique. But it certainly needs to be done. The security concern of the US agencies is a justified one. Nothing can be assumed in these checks (like it was before in the security checks, where they waited for a period of time and if no FBI person called, they assumed that the name was OK).

I think the underlying problem, as I said, is that these tasks are not given enough priority (read: financial funding) and that will not change in the short term. FBI certainly has more important stuff to do, although it would seem that this is pretty important as well.
 
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