Who's still waiting for approval notice since interview on or before 4/15/03

7

7yrGC

Registered Users (C)
Who's still waiting for approval pending CIA check since interview on or before 4/14

Today is 10/23/03. We had I-485 interview on 4/14/03 after our cases had been transferred to Newark, NJ local CIS (legency INS) office. The officer told us that he would send us approval notice to our home once he got CIA check results delivered to his system. But we are still waiting for the notice after 6 months and 10 days.

Who else are in the same situation? Please post your information so we can keep track of how long the CIA checks take.

I know for sure that everybody applying for Green Card is subject to CIA and FBI checks under immigration law ( Regardless their cases are finally completed at Service Centers or Local district offices for transferred cases). But I have no idea of when the CIA check is initiated during the processing.

Please shed your lights if you have some info on that.

The fact I know is that INS used to using "No news is good news" policy to pre-approve I-485 cases if CIA could not get its check work done within 60 days to ease the significant backlogs then. CIA only fed back to INS for those cases with background problems. Then INS excercised its discretion to revoke some pre-approved cases. However, at a certain point after 9/11/01, this policy was changed back to its prototype, which is that the INS cannot approve any I-485 cases until it has received CIA check results. Who cares how long you get to wait? Preventing terrorists' attacks is what the DHS (CIS's new parent) is about.

I-485 processing time took 6 months to 12 months around 1997, 12 months to 16 months before 9/11 tragedy, and now between 18 and 24 months.
 
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Originally posted by rajum
Have you contacted the senator ?

-rajum
Click to expand...

I will wait for at most one more month. If the status does not change, I'll take aggressive actions including media exposure at my own cost, or filing a lawsuit against CIS.

One of the US Senator representing NJ in 2001 helped little for our cases because it took them 6 months to get a useless result from INS which said "Your cases were closed. If you need to apply for Green Card, you need to file a new I-485".

That was irrelavant to our request. So this time this option should be the last one I'll take if I have to.
 
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Senators Set Deadline for CIA in Iraq Probe

World - Reuters

Senators Set Deadline for CIA in Iraq Probe
1 hour, 57 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday demanded that the CIA (news - web sites) produce documents and schedule interviews for the panel's assessment of prewar intelligence on Iraq (news - web sites) by noon on Friday.


"It is our desire that the committee's review will serve to validate the good work of the intelligence community and, where necessary, provide corrective suggestions where the intelligence product might have been better," said a joint letter from committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, and senior Democrat Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia.


"We expect to receive all documents and schedule all interviews by 12 p.m. (1700 GMT) Oct. 31, 2003," the letter to CIA Director George Tenet said.


It was responding to a letter from Tenet dated Oct. 24 to the two senators, and obtained by Reuters, that said the CIA had provided the committee with "binders of material relating to the October 2002 NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, support for terrorism and possible acquisition of yellowcake from Niger."


"In addition to that material, we have been compiling material relating to our coverage of these subjects for a period of over ten years," Tenet said. "We will provide the additional material as soon as possible."


The senators called that phrase "troubling," saying that information was to have been provided to the committee five months ago.


'DISCONNECTS AND INCONSISTENCIES'


The senators said the CIA had not yet provided an explanation of "the various disconnects and inconsistencies in the assessments concerning the Niger uranium issue."


Controversy erupted this year after President Bush (news - web sites) said in his State of the Union Address that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Africa, a claim that was later found to have been faulty. The White House has said it should not have been included in the January speech.


Roberts and Rockefeller said a list of requested documents and interviews had been the subject of "nearly daily discussions" between their committee staff and Tenet's staff for months.


"In light of the agency's many other responsibilities, the committee has been patient, but we now need immediate access to this information," the senators said in the letter.


In a pointed response to Tenet's offer to have senior intelligence analysts make presentations to the committee as early as Nov. 20, the senators said they would set the committee's agenda.


"Our staff has interviewed many of these individuals and intends to interview them all before they complete their work," the senators said. "While we welcome your offer, we believe strongly that, at a time determined by the committee, you must appear in person," they said.


The Senate and House intelligence panels are reviewing prewar intelligence that suggested Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction, which have so far not been found.


It has become a major political issue with critics of the Bush administration saying the White House may have exaggerated the intelligence to gather support for the war against Iraq.


And, on the other side, some Democrats say Republicans are trying to put the blame on the intelligence agencies to shield the White House from any fallout.
 
7yrGC:

We had our interview 04/28/2003 in Boston and still waiting for approval. I do not know why it takes so long. A few weeks ago I sent an inquire about our statuses. No reply yet.

--YLB2.
 
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If you look at the above news titled "Senators Set Deadline for CIA in Iraq Probe " from which I have quoted the following excerption, you can understand why the Senators are out of patience with this agency, just as we are !!!

"In light of the agency's many other responsibilities, the committee has been patient, but we now need immediate access to this information," the senators said in the letter.
Click to expand...

In contrast, FBI is doing a great job in processing applicants' finger print checks in a matter of a few days (for original finger print check or second finger print check due to the current CIS notorious backlog which has been causing a lot of applicants' finger print and medical examination reports to expire).

Quite a few people in this forum have posted messages saying they could not get passport stamped during interview due to the expiration of their FBI finger reports, but got approval letters in a couple of weeks once they redo their finger prints on or after their interview date.

Certainly the CIA has to answer the Senators' inquries into the pre-war intelligence about Iraq's WMD, before it can answer us why it has taken it over six months and still not yet get its work done after our interviews at local CIS offices, regardless of Newark, Boston, or elsewhere.
 
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I-485 interview pending CIA check over 6 months

YLB2 ,

I should have said "thank you" in my last posting for sharing your information.

I searched this forum and found the following similar cases, all of which were pending CIA checks after I-485 interviews with local CIS Newark NJ office.

Length of pending CIA check from interview to approval

2 months for one case
4 months for one case
5 months for one case
6 months for one case
7 months for Malda's case , the longest one posted in the forum

It is interesting to read this guy's comments after going through LC, interview, CIA check, and approval, by clicking on this link:

http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?threadid=29599&highlight=interview+cia+approval
 
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I went to Newark CIS office today to check the status of our I-485 cases pending CIA check after our interview on 4/14/03.

The status is still pending after 6 months and 20 days of our interview. The infomation officer told us today that our cases are still pending FBI Name Check which she said is beyond CIS control.

But she printed out our case status in which there are two dates:
processing date 3/9/03 and loaded date 9/15/03. From the two dates, I can tell at least our cases are moving although very slowly. The first date is the same or around the date when we received the interview letter. The second date is the same day when I went to the Newark office in person last time to check our cases' statuses. Did my last visit trigger the loading of our cases for those checks? If the loaded date is when the CIS loaded all pending cases for FBI finger print/ FBI name check /CIA check for that batch into a tape and sent to FBI or CIA, then our cases are under CIS control for another 5 months delay. But I am not sure the delay is occuring in those checking agencies or CIS.

CIA was circled on our interview receipt of 4/14/03, but today the information officer told us our case are pending FBI Name Checks. I am very confused and I guess so am the information officer, since all his knowledge and the scope he can answer within are limited to this computer screen's case status report.

After I heard that one black guy was being told by an information officer at one window that his case is still pending name check, I talked to him and found out his interview date was in May. I then told him I was interviewed one month earlier than he and is still waiting for whatever checks.
 
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7yrGC:

It looks like your case was stuck and forgotten in CIA until you reminded them about yourself. The bad thing is that FBI name check may take another 3-4 month, but may be they already have made it and were waiting for the CIA response. In any case, I am glad that you managed to push things on. It is my turn to do the same.

I hope you will get your approval soon.

--YLB2
 
YLB2,

Have you got any chance to go to your local CIS office to find out what is going on with your case?

I'm going to check our cases' statuses in person 3rd time around 8 months after interview, which is the middle of December.
 
7yrGC,

I did not do anything since I applied for the 3rd EAD in October. I had a hope that if all of my FBI and CIA clearance results were received and they were OK, my EAD application might trigger the approval of the “forgotten” GC application.
I decided to wait the approval of EAD. If it is not approved within the promised 90 days, I will go to the Boston BCIS to check the status of both: EAD and I-485. If they are pending because of FBI or CIA I will go into their offices.

P.S.
I’ve read your “Repository of INS/CIS mistakes/Errors”. It stunned me. I could not imagine the stupidity and inhumanity of this bureaucratic machine to such a degree. Nothing can surprise me anymore! Thank you for spending your time for writing such a voluminous story. (It worth to be a plot of a movie! Write to Scott Adams, he can turn it into a serial of Dilbert strips :) ).

I wish you sooner victory!

YLB2
 
interview

Is that in all case , that they are holding up for some more time after Interview, or some of them getting stamped same day.?
 
To: YLB2

Thanks for your appreciation of my long frustrationg story called "Repositiory of INS/CIS mistakes/errors". But I deleted it couple of days ago because one of my neighbors called me and asked me if that is my sad story, which made me feel uneasy, also because people no longer payed attention to it after a few days of posting it.

I went to Newark, NJ office today for the third time and got the same status ---------- still pending name check.
 
folks

its finally over

today my spouse got stamped in Baltimore.

we went at 8am and we were out by 9am.

verified all the documents and ask few questions and stamped the ppt.

lady officer so nice and polite. she was assisted by another officer.

Case transfered on 25jul 2003

2nd FP was done on 2aug 2003
ID 12/11/03
stamped 12!/11/03

i thank all of you , for your support , guidence, hints and tips

all the best for folks waiting for Stamping..
 
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