'Cause this has got to be a bad dream. I gave the USCIS 2 weeks without bothering them about the status of our immigration stuff (I-171H form that we need to travel). I was thinking, "I don't want to get on their nerves. They told me at the first of the month that the package arrived. They're processing it.....they are....they must be." right. I e-mailed them last Thursday. No reply, so I e-mailed them again yesterday just to check the status and to let them know that our agency said be ready to go possibly by the 22nd of March. Well, they sent me a reply. It said,"If you look on the FAQ section of our website, you will see that we don't do inquiries until 45 days has passed." Does November count????? I e-mailed them back and said, as nicely as I could, that I don't have 45 days. This is supposed to be an expedited application because of all the delays, and we are traveling in 29 days. After that, I went to Bart Gordon's office and spoke with his frontman who apparently deals with USCIS on a regular basis. He didn't even take me to his office. He spoke with me in the lobby of the building, and acted rather put out that I was bothering him. He got the Memphis people on the phone (at least that's what he led me to believe) and said, "I got one here that's snakebit....Yeah, it's another one of those adoption cases". I was sitting right there. I thought, should I be offended? He went on and talked to her a little longer, explained the situation, told them of course it wasn't their fault and I should have used Fed-Ex instead of USPS that one time. She apparently told him he should hear something by March 9th. When he hung up, he said if he hadn't heard by March 9th, he would call them back. But he didn't sound real happy about it. Is this not his job? Am I not paying this man's salary with my taxes? Whatever.....at least he called. Then I went to work to do some paperwork and while there I checked my e-mail.....just in case. Sure enough, USCIS replied to my earlier e-mail. They said they had pulled my file and reviewed it. They thanked me for sending a copy of the original homestudy and homestudy update along with the birth and marriage certificates. Then they went on to say that I had failed to send the original of the homestudy update. They can't process the application without it. "We had anticipated that you sent the information in, knowing that the preparer was sending the original, therefore you were not notified immediately" Here's my favorite line in the whole thing. "Our apologies for not being more proactive in your case." They went on to say that as soon as they received the original, they will immediately put it into the final review stage. I wonder how long that will take? Good thing I asked again, huh? Here's the real kicker. They have the original!! They have had it all along. Along with my birth and marriage certificates that they lost 3 times. I sent it in with the original application 3 months ago!!!!!!!! Rachel, my favorite social worker in the whole world, is making ANOTHER original of the update and overnighting it to USCIS so they will have it tomorrow. Think they can keep up with it? I made an appointment to be in Memphis at 9:15 AM Friday morning to speak with an immigration officer. It probably won't do a darn bit of good, but it will make me feel better. Oh, by the way, if my girls from work are reading this, I'm sorry for the temporary meltdown. This'll all be over real soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment