Improving communication with GUZ

[markndannie]

i have a suggestion for the consulate: most of us are just interested in the status and when the interview is scheduled, why can't the guz consulate just make a pdf file of case numbers by interview dates etc and post it on their website similar to what is done at the india embassy. the lack of a way to contact the consulate except by a pay method is unacceptable and almost impossible for most chinese except those that live in beijing or shanghai. thanks

mark

[jtaylo69]

It would definately help and it would defiantely be fairly secure as only the petitioner & the Beneficiary would be the only ones that would know their GUZ number (That is, if that is the way they would post that info, By Guz# only )

 

How about it GUZ?

 

It would free up the need for additional Telephone lines needed to answer these types questions.

 

It would be a far better of human resources by utilizing them to assist in the file processing time not to mention it would help your office to get a bit further in the total process times.

[warpedbored]

There has been a lot of justifiable complaining lately about the new phone system at GUZ. Personally I think a lot of man power could be freed up there if they had a better on line inquiry system. A link where you could go and get updated info on your case status and make inquiries when needed. A lot of you are very tech savvy so I would like for you to come up with some good ideas and how GZ could implement them. Us mods can pick the best ones and post them for GUZ to read.

[xtal]

There has been a lot of justifiable complaining lately about the new phone system at GUZ.  Personally I think a lot of man power could be freed up there if they had a better on line inquiry system.  A link where you could go and get updated info on your case status and make inquiries when needed. A lot of you are very tech savvy so I would like for you to come up with some good ideas and how GZ could implement them. Us mods can pick the best ones and post them for GUZ to read.

162034[/snapback]

I totally agree, it would be much better if they had an online inquiry system.

 

It depends on what type of computer system GUZ (and DOS) runs on. Depending on what they run on (mainframe, etc), it might not be so easy to link in with a website. Often it gets into how a website can get access to the data it needs to provide to end-users. If whatever computer runs their website can have direct access to their main case database (like through ODBC or whatever) then things can be easier, but somehow I think this will not be the case. In that case, perhaps nightly extracts (through reports) are needed from their case computer system to a report that can then be imported into a database that CAN be accessed from a website (like SQL Server, Oracle, whatever).

 

In my opinion, building an actual website is not so much the problem - it's the data access part that is the hurdle to overcome.

Edited October 21, 2005 by xtal (see edit history)

[Randy W]

But DOS is already accessing GUZ data over the network - I would think they could make something similar available on a web page quite easily

[xtal]

But DOS is already accessing GUZ data over the network - I would think they could make something similar available on a web page quite easily

162053[/snapback]

I thought that it's GUZ that is networked with the DOS system though - but I could be wrong. But if they are then they're just accessing the same system. They could have a central mainframe system in the US and connect to it from consulates abroad via dedicated 'tunnels' over the internet (VPN) or even have dedicated lines - who knows how they're set up. Also, manual lookups are different from automated lookups (like through an online inquiry system). A human can access whatever computer system anytime and get the info and tell you over the phone - but for a computer (inquiry website) to do the same thing is a different story.

 

Also a lot of it depends on how their computer system actually works. We, the petitioners and applicants, are used to things like "when a packet 3 was sent", "when a name check was completed", things like that. It is possible that this info is only available in their system in the form of 'account notes' - meaning freetext - and then it becomes trickier to get that kind of info out of the system - because it's just plain English text that people enter in and for a computer that's not always so easy to translate into the basic info that we are looking for. Often some very basic factual information (for the customers) is actually obtained by the consulate person going through account notes (which, from their point of view, they might not want to be public because often it's mixed with stuff that is for their eyes only). I don't have any experience dealing with GUZ directly (yet) but I've seen plenty of posts where info was given and then later it turns out to be incorrect (like BillV who heard about an interview having been scheduled but then it turned out it wasn't so). Is this the result of account notes on their GUZ case and the person who gave them the info didn't read it all? Who knows. And I'm just speculating.

 

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong; I'd LOVE to see an online system where petitioners and applicants can see their case status online - it would benefit ALL involved, including the consulate. But I can also see the potential obstacles to get such a system up and running. Anyway - things kindof depend on how their system works.

 

But to start off, it sure would be beneficial if you could see some simple stuff, like when a case was entered into their system. Or for when an interview was scheduled.

Edited October 21, 2005 by warpedbored (see edit history)

[Randy W]

The picture I have is that, when you call the DOS helpline, someone enters your information on a computer terminal. It accesses the GUZ data, exactly like would need to be done for a web page. To put it on a web page would require html access.

 

We know that some of the GUZ computers are connected to a server in DOS (Washington DC) from the IP addresses.

[finenn]

Physically accessing the data could be a problem, but also it could be easily solved.

 

It's probably more along the lines of allowing access of potential sensitive data. Depending on what data you would like them to show you if it were available on the web, then you would have to have some security in place. If it's just a generic status message like the one on the BCIS site (I don't exactly remember the acronym), where you enter the GUZ number and you get back a status, that's different. Anyone can use that site and sit there and guess GUZ numbers and get back results, even though they are meaningless unless you know who belongs to that GUZ number.

 

But if you are displaying more than that, then first the transmission needs to be encrypted (SSL, they'd have to buy and maintain an SSL certificate, not to mention a web server with some web pages for this), and then you'd have to create user accounts and passwords to gain access to this data. I wouldn't leave it wide open for someone to enter a GUZ number and be able to look at someone's data, so you'd have to have password accounts. That means someone would have to create those each time they get a case, (or automate it, which takes code writing too), then allow the access from the site to the database. That part is easy once you get past the account creation, authentication and encryption hurdles.

 

All this costs money and would need some ongoing administration/maintenance as well.

 

I'd be interested in doing it.

[finenn]

As long as there's no information that others shouldn't see. Just display a status date? I thought by inquiry that meant more than a status report.

 

BTW Don some of those word to html exports don't render in all browsers readability wise. Also you may not want to overwrite the file each time since you may need to keep versions of previous postings for audit reasons of what you have posted to the public.

 

Database access risk is minimized thru many techniques like using read only views of the data and allowing only database level admins all other access.

[bubbafred10]

Forget about GUZ or DOS. They are much more efficient and orderly than Homeland immigration office. USCIS CSC is worse, at least on my petition for stepson. Now, there is huge problem there, not only discrepancy in speed of processing among the service centers (CSC vs VSC vs ETC), but furthermore I watched many petitions for people from terrrrist countries got approved faster than mine.

 

Wonder no more why 911 took place.