What do processing dates exactly mean?

E

eccevino

Registered Users (C)
Hello All,

I have filed for US citizenship (CSC/California) on January 29, 2007. This is my "priority date", I suppose. My fingerprints were completed in Phoenix some time in February. Since then, I have been visiting the USCIS website regularly to check on any updates to my case as well as current "processing dates" for Phoenix. As of June 15, 2007 the website states that they were "processing" cases filed on November 12, 2006. Does this mean those applicants who filed on or before November 12 have been already interviewed and are awaiting for the oath letter? Or does it mean they have received their interview letters at around mid-June? What does the "processing date" really mean? The reason I am asking is because I know at least 2 people here in Phoenix who filed for citizenship a couple of months after I did, and one of them has been already interviewed while the other received an interview letter. I am still waiting for my interview letter as of today. Is the "processing date" telling me I should wait a little longer to contact them, or is it time for me to get an Infopass? Any opinions will be highly appreciated.
 
If the USCIS did not lie on those "processing dates" pages, it might be easier to tell.

As I understand it, the processing date on those pages means (is supposed to mean) that the district office actively processing applications with those dates - for an N-400, it would mean (I believe) that the interview has been scheduled.

As far as I can tell, the dates on the pages are nearly meaningless. They are useful, however, for one thing. If your PD is earlier than the processing date posted, then they owe you an explanation for the delay. Of course, the explanation that you get is usually something useless like "we're processing your application, call us back in 6 months".
 
If people who applied months after you at the same DO already finished their interviews, I would have to assume that your case is stuck in some kind of a background check. It wouldn't hurt to do an InfoPass to confirm this. USCIS publishes the processing dates to sort of "cover their asses" and keep too many people from bugging them. A majority of cases get processed within the timeline that they provide (except for those stuck for a long time in name check) and so they don't have to expend too many resources to give you an exact status on your case. Instead they can simply have a customer service representative tell you to wait until the official processing date becomes more recent than your priority date.

-KM
 
Oh, and...

Your "priority date" is the date on the notices you have received from the USCIS (it's the one labeled "priority date" :)).

In general, the USCIS will pretty much ignore you until your application goes "past" the processing date on the web site. I would wait until the earlier of 6 months or the processing date rule has passed before scheduling an infopass.

The thing is... In all likelihood, if you are well behind what other applicants are seeing for processing, they you are probably stuck in name check. Finding out that you are stuck in name check is a bit like finding out that you have some horrible, uncurable, non-communicable disease that eventually (and unexpectedly) cures itself. There is *nothing* you can do about it, and, eventually (in a month, in two years) the problem will go away.

Don't spend too much effort worrying about it. If they took your fingerprints, then they have your application, and, in general, they don't loose them once they start processing them.

Good luck
 
Thanks for your replies, Flydog and Kagemusha. I'm not sure if I'm stuck on name check or not, but I guess I probably don't want to know. My records are very clean (not even traffic violations) so I have nothing to be worried about. I'm just feeling weird that 2 people I know who applied after I did were called for the interview before I did. My name is not too common but not very uncommon either, so who knows...I guess I will just wait until the interview letter arrives, or the "processing date" on the USCIS web site is later than my "priority date". I just want to get through with this so I can travel to my home country on vacation in December!
 
If I were you then I would be very careful relying on your citizenship being done by December.
You are clearly stuck in the name check if you know other people from your DO who already had their interviews, but have applied after you.
For your name being common / uncommon or having no criminal background does not have much to do with the name check.
Believe it or not, but from reading various Internet sources and talking to people, someone would learn that you have very high chances to be stuck in the name check for years if you are:
- Male
- Work in Hi-tech industry (this one was actually cited in the Washington Post article last month).
That is not to say that other categories will not be stuck, but these two have much higher chances.
BTW, my priority date is Jan. 19, 2007, Atlanta DO (which is currently processing April / May 2007, according to this site, but showing Nov.12, 2006 on uscis.gov website) and i am waiting for my name check to complete.

Just an idea: should I change my job to become a janitor in order to become a US citizen? :confused:
 
I agree getting stuck in name check has very little connection to crime. It is clear from reports of members on this forum that most of them never had any tiff with the cops. I wonder what information is sent for name check purposes. I don't think they send employer and occupation. How would they know if the person is working in a hi-tech industry?

I had suggested to Sachin to put up some polls - education level of poster who are stuck in name check and those who are not. Similarly regarding country of origin, age group, sex, religeon etc. It is very likely the typical candidate would be male 18-45 +.....?+...?

I rarely see women getting stuck in name check. Only a unanimous poll would provide more information on this. We have a large enough transient memebership here to generate pertinent conclusions provided there are some takers to create anyonymous polls.
Alpinist1 said:
If I were you then I would be very careful relying on your citizenship being done by December.
You are clearly stuck in the name check if you know other people from your DO who already had their interviews, but have applied after you.
For your name being common / uncommon or having no criminal background does not have much to do with the name check.
Believe it or not, but from reading various Internet sources and talking to people, someone would learn that you have very high chances to be stuck in the name check for years if you are:
- Male
- Work in Hi-tech industry (this one was actually cited in the Washington Post article last month).
That is not to say that other categories will not be stuck, but these two have much higher chances.
BTW, my priority date is Jan. 19, 2007, Atlanta DO (which is currently processing April / May 2007, according to this site, but showing Nov.12, 2006 on uscis.gov website) and i am waiting for my name check to complete.

Just an idea: should I change my job to become a janitor in order to become a US citizen? :confused:
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top