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Notes
from the California Service Center November 1, 2000 Cases at the California Service Center (CSC) are broken down into Divisions. The five divisions are as follows: Division
I (I-526, I-829, I-360, I-140,
I-824) (immigrant) Division
II (I-129, I-539, I-102, I-824)
(Non-immigrant) Division
III (I-130, I-751, I-821 NACARA,
I-765, I-817, I-824, Waivers) Division
IV (Legalization, N-400, I-131,
I-589 Asylum) DIV
V (Customer Service, I-90 Project) The CSC has advised of the following: Family petition cases. Division III is currently using all of its resources to bring the processing time for immediate relative cases to within 90 days. In addition, quota cases are being assigned to officers before the visa becomes available. Automated phone system. It is taking several weeks to reflect the receipt of documentation because of the backlog in routing that information to the file. This includes initial case information as well as resubmissions pursuant to a “Request For Evidence”. Inability to get through to a live person on the phone. For a 90-day period, the CSC did not have a back up for the Front Office Duty Officer so there were times when we could not provide complete telephone coverage. We currently have two officers assigned to the Front Office and they will work together to ensure that there is adequate telephone coverage. Effect of the audit from September 26 through October 4. The recent audit did have an impact on the CSC's workflow process, as adjudicators were responsible for counting files, which impacted their productivity. Receipt notices were generated and officers adjudicated applications/petitions during the audit, however; adjudicative decisions were not updated as approved, denied, etc. in the computer system until after the audit was completed. Notices of Action were not produced until after the audit was completed. Current Processing Times for I-140 petitions. Our processing time is currently within 90 days for those cases in which a visa is available. Processing Times for I-90s. Division V now processes I-90 applications. The I-90s are being processed within 90 days although our scanning problems have resulted in further delays. What can be done where a fee receipt has not been issued for over a month? Every effort is made to fee receipt applications and petitions within 48 hours of receipt. You can contact the CSC via fax, mail or telephone to inquire about a receipt notice if the receipt notice has not been received within a month of submitting the application/petition to the CSC. You should also verify the status of the payment. If cashed, the check will have the WAC# on the backside of the check. How to avoid separation of I-129 and I-539 cases submitted simultaneously. In order for the I-129 and I-539 to be processed together, they must be submitted together. This means at the same time, in the same envelope. If this procedure is not followed, the cases will not be attached and the case types will be processed in appropriate receipt order- not concurrently. If, however, this was submitted properly and still separated, please advise us and we will attempt to resolve the problem. What caused the delays in I-765 processing during August/September? The Service Center has identified and resolved the problem that caused the delay in processing I-765s during the month of August. However, in September we began having problems with the scanning process. Scanning is required to create the card so we have experienced a backlog in that area. We are currently seeking assistance from the other Service Centers and hope to resolve this problem soon.
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