What we learned at GZ

[owenkrout]

Sorry for the long delay, but we came back to Shantou today. Uneventful trip this time, but we did see two major accidents on the way.

 

Richard Adams did meet with us for almost two hours and was very cooperative. He answered all our questions and even provided further information.

 

First of all, he had shut down the immigrant visa unit to all new interviews for this week and next because he had expected to receive a large number of clearances and wanted to have the time to process them promptly. All they had received as of Monday was 1200 clearances which were from November and December initial name checks. (This is not interview dates, but dates that the first name check submission was made.) Some of these people have not even had an interview yet. These were not the names they had expected to receive. He still hoped to receive a large number in that time period.

 

He stated that there were about 600 K-1 cases caught in the July-September interview delay. Of those, about 300 have received their visas. He said that the only reason that the K-1 cases are being concentrated on right now is because they have been complaining the loudest and most consistently to the point that DOS ordered him to give them priority over all other cases.

 

On January 4th, all K-1 & K-2 cases not having a name check clearance, were resubmitted to DOS via cable.

 

Shortly after that GZ changed to an Excel based data processing system. He then had them do a search for all other immigrant and K-3 visas applications that did not have a name check clearance and had a list of those compiled. The FBI data system is ORACLE based, so he asked the FBI to specify exactly how the data needed to be compiled for their system and had GZ personnel recompile the data from the Excel system into a format acceptable to the FBI and put it on a computer disk. That disk was sent directly to the FBI on January 10th. Unfortunately, the FBI did not begin to process that data until last week. He said that it is now normally taking the FBI 10 days to clear a name, so he still hopes that a large number of names will arrive while they have personnel diverted from their regular duties.

 

This explains also why DOS does not show the latest re-submits for some people. GZ skipped DOS entirely and sent the information directly to the FBI.

 

There were about 10,000 cases caught in the delay up to present and 2700 have received visas at this point.

 

Adams said that he had tried to determine some pattern to the way some people were cleared before others and said that it appeared to be random to him.

 

We are both tired, so we will post more later.

[AngryTexan]

And the beat goes on................... If I understand this correctly, the 1200 names that GZ received last week were NOT from the August group, but rather from those whose names were FIRST submitted in November and December. Do I have that right? Because the vast majority of names in the August group were submitted in the Spring and early Summer of 2002, that means the 1200 names that were returned last week were for people who applied anywhere from 5-7 months (and who have waited 5-7 months less) than those of us in the August group. Am I missing something here? Then why have so many in the August Group been told by DOS that their cases are now in GZ? It sounds like Adams told Mick and Owen something completely different.

I know I must be missing something here. Could someone please enlighten me?

[Guest jennifer_lam]

Thanks for posting the message when u just back. U guys must be very tired. Have a good rest! I have slept whole day today. So I am not that tired now.

Owen, ur wife is really funny. I like her so much. I miss her singing too!

[tonado]

He stated that there were about 600 K-1 cases caught in the July-September interview delay. Of those, about 300 have received their visas.  He said that the only reason that the K-1 cases are being concentrated on right now is because they have been complaining the loudest and most consistently to the point that DOS ordered him to give them priority over all other cases.

 

Thanks, Owen and Mick.

 

It seems positive for the black hole people. So there are only 300 black hole people left for visas.

 

Rest well after the tiring trip.

[skibum]

Tx, I was told it was cleared, not that it was in GUZ

[Mick]

And the beat goes on................... If I understand this correctly, the 1200 names that GZ received last week were NOT from the August group, but rather from those whose names were FIRST submitted in November and December.  Do I have that right? Because the vast majority of names in the August group were submitted in the Spring and early Summer of 2002, that means the 1200 names that were returned last week were for people who applied anywhere from 5-7 months (and who have waited 5-7 months less) than those of us in the August group.  Am I missing something here?  Then why have so many in the August Group been told by DOS that their cases are now in GZ?  It sounds like Adams told Mick and Owen something completely different.

I know I must be missing something here.  Could someone please enlighten me?

Dear Texan:

 

Getting ready to crash cause I am really beat. But let me try to answer you briefly. The 1200 names were from people who were submissions in November and December. Some of them were people who were recently given interviews, some have yet to have interviews, and some were from Black Hole people who were resubmitted in November/December. Problem is, GZ people really did not go back to work until the 10th, the day we were there, even though the Consulate reopened on the 6th. We pressed him to look up some the data, and he tried, but most had yet to be entered into the data base. What they received from DOS/FBI was a long list of name is no logical order. So the entire name list has to be entered into the GZ database. For example, he tried to look up my case and couldn't find it. Yet because it was a November resubmit, he said it was possible that it was on the list. They just started entering the names on the 10th. Wish I could be more specific but thats all the data on those 1200 we had to go on. Looks like FBI does the checks in a lotto fashion, no rhyme or reason.

 

Will update sometime tomorrow. I am still in a lot of pain. Li and I were involved in a severe bus accident on the way to GZ. Brakes failed coming down a hill, took out a toll booth and ran over a Toyota. At least one fatality. I suffered sprained shoulder and bruised ribs. Still in pain.

 

Hope this helps some.

 

Will try to post more detail in AM.

[Guest R2D2]

We were all told months ago that all those that interviewed from July 22, through October were resubmitted in November. We later learned that it had no relevance and the resubmissions had to be done again on January 4th. I still place the route cause at DOJ.

[Guest jennifer_lam]

Mick, Take care!!!!!!!!! say hi to ur lovely lili for me!!!!

[tonado]

Shortly after that GZ changed to an Excel based data processing system.  He then had them do a search for all other immigrant and K-3 visas applications that did not have a name check clearance and had a list of those compiled.  The FBI data system is ORACLE based, so he asked the FBI to specify exactly how the data needed to be compiled for their system and had GZ personnel recompile the data from the Excel system into a format acceptable to the FBI and put it on a computer disk.  That disk was sent directly to the FBI on January 10th.  Unfortunately, the FBI did not begin to process that data until last week.  He said that it is now normally taking the FBI 10 days to clear a name, so he still hopes that a large number of names will arrive while they have personnel diverted from their regular duties.  

 

What we have here is an user interface problem.

 

Mick: Take care of your pain.

[vince]

And the beat goes on................... If I understand this correctly, the 1200 names that GZ received last week were NOT from the August group, but rather from those whose names were FIRST submitted in November and December.  Do I have that right? Because the vast majority of names in the August group were submitted in the Spring and early Summer of 2002, that means the 1200 names that were returned last week were for people who applied anywhere from 5-7 months (and who have waited 5-7 months less) than those of us in the August group.  Am I missing something here?  Then why have so many in the August Group been told by DOS that their cases are now in GZ?  It sounds like Adams told Mick and Owen something completely different.

  I know I must be missing something here.  Could someone please enlighten me?

Dear Texan:

 

Getting ready to crash cause I am really beat. But let me try to answer you briefly. The 1200 names were from people who were submissions in November and December. Some of them were people who were recently given interviews, some have yet to have interviews, and some were from Black Hole people who were resubmitted in November/December. Problem is, GZ people really did not go back to work until the 10th, the day we were there, even though the Consulate reopened on the 6th. We pressed him to look up some the data, and he tried, but most had yet to be entered into the data base. What they received from DOS/FBI was a long list of name is no logical order. So the entire name list has to be entered into the GZ database. For example, he tried to look up my case and couldn't find it. Yet because it was a November resubmit, he said it was possible that it was on the list. They just started entering the names on the 10th. Wish I could be more specific but thats all the data on those 1200 we had to go on. Looks like FBI does the checks in a lotto fashion, no rhyme or reason.

 

Will update sometime tomorrow. I am still in a lot of pain. Li and I were involved in a severe bus accident on the way to GZ. Brakes failed coming down a hill, took out a toll booth and ran over a Toyota. At least one fatality. I suffered sprained shoulder and bruised ribs. Still in pain.

 

Hope this helps some.

 

Will try to post more detail in AM.

Mick,

Hope you are getting better! best wishes.

[Guest R2D2]

Mick, sorry to hear about your pain and accident. Rest and get well. Have an Irish coffee!

[jasonzzzz]

Thanks, Owen and Mick. Mick, hope that you are getting better.

 

An estimation of the timeline we are seeing. 1200 in 2 weeks clearance is 600 per week. Total 10000 cases were generated in the past 6 months, that is, on average 400 new cases are having been generated by GZ per week. The current pending pool is 7300. Every week, 400 in, and 600 out, it would take about 36 weeks to drain the pool. Because the nature of randomness, some of us may be lucky to get the visa at any time, and many of us will likely wait another half of year with the latest process speed.

 

Am I getting right?

[chinadave2001]

Mick,

I hope you have a quick recovery. Thank you.

dave

[LaoMao]

Thanks, Owen and Mick.

Mick, I am very sorry to hear that. Wish you well soon.

 

Even I knew that the most of Aug, Sept group resubmitted in Jan, I still want to wish you guys to be in the 1200 cleared case. It has been too long.

 

God bless,

 

LaoMao

[tonado]

Thanks, Owen and Mick. Mick, hope that you are getting better.

 

An estimation of the timeline we are seeing. 1200 in 2 weeks clearance is 600 per week. Total 10000 cases were generated in the past 6 months, that is, on average 400 new cases are having been generated by GZ per week. The current pending pool is 7300. Every week, 400 in, and 600 out, it would take about 36 weeks to drain the pool. Because the nature of randomness, some of us may be lucky to get the visa at any time, and many of us will likely wait another half of year with the latest process speed.

 

Am I getting right?

Priority to the black hole people.

 

 

"He stated that there were about 600 K-1 cases caught in the July-September interview delay. Of those, about 300 have received their visas. He said that the only reason that the K-1 cases are being concentrated on right now is because they have been complaining the loudest and most consistently to the point that DOS ordered him to give them priority over all other cases."