Eric&Yuhui Posted March 27, 2003 Report Share Posted March 27, 2003 Any "hold" folks found out if the holds were about random case audits by DoJ/DHS, or just plain random.. or... etc..etc...I really do not believe the holds are due to the commonality of a particular last name. Heck.. the 20 most popular last names in China account for like 50+% of the whole population, so that would have happened before. Link to comment
danswayne Posted March 27, 2003 Report Share Posted March 27, 2003 Before they were not required to keep the names if there was no hit within 30 days, because no news meant good news. Now they have to wait until everything is finished down to the last little dot on the i and the cross on the t. So now the common name factor could very well have more detrimental effects on the namecheck than it did before. If you have to check everyone with the same name and there are 20,000,000 wouldn't you think it would take longer than someone else?? Just common sense. Link to comment
Don&MuSi Posted March 27, 2003 Report Share Posted March 27, 2003 We're still waiting. Add Don&MuSi to your list. Link to comment
kkimm Posted March 29, 2003 Report Share Posted March 29, 2003 want to bring this thread up front, b/c found out as of last Friday, (3-28-03) that my case has been put on hold. Has anybody on hold got his clearance yet?? Link to comment
blennon Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 Woo Hoo!!!Please update our (blennon) status to: EMS Recieved - March 29 It is a happy, happy day... more later (it's past bedtime). Link to comment
tonado Posted March 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 Woo Hoo!!!Please update our (blennon) status to: EMS Recieved - March 29 It is a happy, happy day... more later (it's past bedtime).Blennon, Great news for a former hold. Congrats. Link to comment
SBS Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 God this is really a good news to all our put on hold cases!! but one thing i wonder Why you didn;t get any information before you get EMS? CA or DOS may tell you that your case has sent to GZ before you get EMS. does it mean CA or DOS can;t really check from their comptuer? Link to comment
SBS Posted March 30, 2003 Report Share Posted March 30, 2003 Woo Hoo!!!Please update our (blennon) status to: EMS Recieved - March 29 It is a happy, happy day... more later (it's past bedtime).Could you please tell us your visa TYPE? Link to comment
blennon Posted March 31, 2003 Report Share Posted March 31, 2003 Responding to the two SMS messages above... First, the easy one: Visa Type is "fiancee (K1 visa)" On the 2nd item... This is going to be very long-winded so bear with me and let me emphasize it is MY INTERPRETATION ONLY - I don't stake a claim to it's accuracy and would welcome alternative perspectives and corrections: I'll summarize first: I think we've got consular officers in GZ and visa office public inquery agents in D.C. with NIVCAPS and IVACS systems between them. Then, we've got the CLASS system between GZ and all the D.C. agencies who perform namechecks. In addition, we've got a consular point-of-contact in the Visa Office who compiles and pushes out CLASS system summaries to GZ in spreadsheet format, and a Visa Office supervisor who DOES have the authority to communicate (internally) beyond the limits of a public inquery agents. Again, I can't stress enough - I'm putting pieces together. I welcom 2nd opinions. Here's the long form: I'm not sure what people mean by DOS (Department of State) versus (CA) consular affairs. To be clear, "Consular Affairs" and the "Visa Office" are both organizations under the umbrella of DoS - the State Department. Consular Affairs provide domestic support to the Consulates... and the Visa Office supports visa processing. Guangzhou happens to have a Consulate with a Visa processing unit... it's all gray area, but the key is: the organziational roles are different - they work together like a financial office and engineering department might: there not always on the same page. Now, specifically when you call Washington, you are calling the Visa Office. And within the Visa Office, you are specifically speaking to members of their Public Inquiry staff. These are men and women who sit in front of a computer monitor and key in your Case number, then regurgitate what ever shows up on their screen. I'm GUESSING the systems referenced by public inquery are: "NIVCAPS - Nonimmigrant Visa Computer Assisted Processing System" and "IVACS - Immigrant Visa Information System" (I could be totally off base here.) The consular officer's in Guangzhou actually enter the updates that appear on Public Inquery monitors. (So it is "officially" GZ who changes your case status from Pending to Hold to Approved.) Where does GZ get their information? From another team (not Public Inquery) in the Visa Office and from other agencies outside the visa office and perhaps, even outside the Department of State. I believe there are Visa office staff members responsible for case flow between agencies. I'm speculating based on a congressional testimony I read that makes me think there are Visa Office agents assigned to support a collection of consulates. So, while we talk to what-ever Public Inquery agent answers the phone, Guangzhou has a single-point-of-contact in the visa office for all their inqueries. Guangzhou gets two pieces of data from Washington that prompts them to make status changes. One item is an excel spreadsheet that contains a summary of case updates (several cases listed with dispositions). I think this spreadsheet comes from the consulate's assigned point-of-contact in the visa office. I think the point-of-contact compiles the summary report to make the consulate agent's job easier. Where's the compiled report coming from? I think it's a system called "CLASS: Consular Lookout and Support System". CLASS is "the Department of State's name checking system for visa and passport applicants that is designed to interconnect with all Consular Affairs automated systems at posts worldwide that require name checks". (That's the verbatim definition). The second item GZ needs is an electronic memo for each item (Visa Case) listed in the excel-spreadsheet. Memos provide informational details supporting the case's current disposition. Any name checking agency can supply a disposition. I believe the memos are stored in CLASS and the summary report prompts GZ to go look for the memos - (apparantly the memos aren't easily searched on, and the excel spreadhseet serves as a type of manual search-index). If everything works correctly, GZ should print the memo and file a hardcopy with your case... then (I'm speculating again and would love to get further clarification) GZ maybe updates IVACS or NIVCAPS with the status change.... which would bring us back to Public Inquery's status screen and your phone call. Public Inquery agents probably know the agents who support the consulates, but the people whose role it is to answer public calls and serve as a buffer do not also have the task of processing visa requests. (Don't hate them for not knowing what's happening on the other side of cubical wall. ) That's what visa office supervisors are for - they can get you over the cubical wall. Link to comment
SBS Posted March 31, 2003 Report Share Posted March 31, 2003 My husband and I really appreciate of your reply Blennon! Thank you very much! Link to comment
kkimm Posted April 1, 2003 Report Share Posted April 1, 2003 Is there any approval for people "on hold". I couldn't get anything out of CA except something like "a federal agency has placed a hold on you case and it will need a significant amount of time..." Gone the August-Black-Hole Gang, here comes the March-On-Hold Gang! If there are many people here received this, we should do something... Link to comment
panda Posted April 2, 2003 Report Share Posted April 2, 2003 Are pending and hold two different issues and if so ; why?? Link to comment
Eric&Yuhui Posted April 2, 2003 Report Share Posted April 2, 2003 Are pending and hold two different issues and if so ; why??pending applies to ALL cases that are under name check and not yet cleared." On hold "applies to SOME pending cases... i.e some things came up ("red flag " of sort, either justified or not ) that requires further investigation from the bozzos who run those namechecks.. Link to comment
Mick Posted April 2, 2003 Report Share Posted April 2, 2003 Are pending and hold two different issues and if so ; why??My read on this situation is that "pending" means the case is still in process through normal channels. Thus many people recieve the pending response for either DOS or GZ. The "on hold" is a different thing. From the copies of it that have been posted, it clearly states that a government agency has placed the case on hold and that processing will take longer. Link to comment
kkimm Posted April 2, 2003 Report Share Posted April 2, 2003 Are pending and hold two different issues and if so ; why??My read on this situation is that "pending" means the case is still in process through normal channels. Thus many people recieve the pending response for either DOS or GZ. The "on hold" is a different thing. From the copies of it that have been posted, it clearly states that a government agency has placed the case on hold and that processing will take longer. What I've found out is that if you call the DOS info line 1225, they can only tell you pending/cleared. "On-Hold" is something found out by the CA officers who spent the time tracing down your case...at the least, "On-Hold" is something that either GZ or DOS info line cannot see... only shows pending on their screen Link to comment
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