What is an A file?

N

niwea

Registered Users (C)
Dear Experts:

There are several occasions it is mentioned in the posts that IO at Citizenship interview looking at or having A-file and N 400 file. I guess N 400 file is the application we submit.

What is an A-file? Where does this come from? What does it contain? What an IO does to it? Where it will go? Can we see our A-file? Where can we get this A-file…

Thank you all
 
niwea said:
Dear Experts:

There are several occasions it is mentioned in the posts that IO at Citizenship interview looking at or having A-file and N 400 file. I guess N 400 file is the application we submit.

What is an A-file? Where does this come from? What does it contain? What an IO does to it? Where it will go? Can we see our A-file? Where can we get this A-file…

Thank you all
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A-file is a file with alien number. Alien number can be found on your plastic green card, ead (work authorization card), or other immigration documents.
 
A-file is a physical file that contains all your correspondences with uscis over time. It will have everything from any evidence you submitted for an application and any approvals /rejections...your name check etc etc. It can talk walk and chew gum at the same time. It has been used over time to scare a minor alien child if he won't go to sleep...actually has been used on adults too. 9/10 USC applicants after seeing the file come back and say "how big it was...damn"
 
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Thanks...A file is electronic or paper file?

Thanks to all the information...Is the A file is electronic/digital or paper file? I am I going to see it on the desk of the IO doing my interview?
 
niwea said:
Thanks to all the information...Is the A file is electronic/digital or paper file? I am I going to see it on the desk of the IO doing my interview?
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It is a paper file.

My file was as high as 4-5 reams of paper. It might actually have been less because papers added one at a time may look more volume, but you never know.

Not sure if he was serious or joking, but my IO said looking at my file his first thought was that it was an asylum case, but then he saw it was employment.
 
Hi everyone,

My brother is waiting for his oath letter over a year now. He had his interview on June 23, 2008 and still have not received his oath letter. He passed the tests for English and U.S. history but the officer marked "a decision cannot yet be made about your application". The officer wrote on his N-652 paper, "The USCIS is awaiting to receive your A-file". Does anyone know what this means? What does my brother need to turn in? Please help.
 
irene1514 said:
Hi everyone,

My brother is waiting for his oath letter over a year now. He had his interview on June 23, 2008 and still have not received his oath letter. He passed the tests for English and U.S. history but the officer marked "a decision cannot yet be made about your application". The officer wrote on his N-652 paper, "The USCIS is awaiting to receive your A-file". Does anyone know what this means? What does my brother need to turn in? Please help.
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It means that the DO is waiting for physical file to arrive from NBC.
 
A# file is a physical paper based file which contains every communication made between an Alien and US government since he/she came to USA. It includes all our previous petitions, approvals/denials, copies of all our education/passport/birth certificate documents etc....that we provided in the past. USCIS is getting ready to scan all A# files into digital so that multiple IO's from multiple locations can access digital A# files at the same time and process pending cases much faster. No more waiting for months to locate A# files and move them. Heard IBM was given the contract to digitalize all the A# files and it could take few years to complete it. Unfortunately we won't benefit from it.
 
irene1514 said:
Any idea why they don't have the A-file for so long? Do we have to turn in something? Please suggest any ideas. Thank you.
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Nothing required from your part but patience. It could be that NBC wasn't able to initially locate your A file for some reason.
 
spiderman03 said:
A# file is a physical paper based file which contains every communication made between an Alien and US government since he/she came to USA. It includes all our previous petitions, approvals/denials, copies of all our education/passport/birth certificate documents etc....that we provided in the past. USCIS is getting ready to scan all A# files into digital so that multiple IO's from multiple locations can access digital A# files at the same time and process pending cases much faster. No more waiting for months to locate A# files and move them. Heard IBM was given the contract to digitalize all the A# files and it could take few years to complete it. Unfortunately we won't benefit from it.
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Does it mean the officer didn't have the A-file available to him at the time of the my brother's interview? He is waiting for his oath letter for over a year now. He had his interview on June 23, 2008. What can we do to proceed the case?
 
irene1514 said:
Hi everyone,

My brother is waiting for his oath letter over a year now. He had his interview on June 23, 2008 and still have not received his oath letter. He passed the tests for English and U.S. history but the officer marked "a decision cannot yet be made about your application". The officer wrote on his N-652 paper, "The USCIS is awaiting to receive your A-file". Does anyone know what this means? What does my brother need to turn in? Please help.
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Considering the official processing times and recent court judgments that mandate USCIS to process cases within 6 months and also the rule that USCIS cannot hold a case beyond 120 days after interview, your brother has every reason to approach a local DO supervisor (infopass), contact a senator and also approach local court through a good lawyer. Reading the following articles and see if they could be helpful for your brother

http://www.murthy.com/pdf/20091109_NatzLawsuit.pdf

Also, read the last section under the title "Mandamus Relief for Delays in Deciding Citizenship Applications" in the following article.

http://www.ansarilawfirm.com/index....ustinTexasimmigrationandcitizenshiplawyer.cfm


Also, http://www.ailf.org/lac/natz_delay0806.shtml
 
irene1514 said:
Hi everyone,

My brother is waiting for his oath letter over a year now. He had his interview on June 23, 2008 and still have not received his oath letter. He passed the tests for English and U.S. history but the officer marked "a decision cannot yet be made about your application". The officer wrote on his N-652 paper, "The USCIS is awaiting to receive your A-file". Does anyone know what this means? What does my brother need to turn in? Please help.
Click to expand...

How come one can be interviewed without A file in the first place?
 
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