March Notes from the NSC

  1. Use Form G-731 (copy attached) to inquire about the non-receipt of an Alien Registration Card that the NSC processed, e.g., adjudicated the I-485, the I-90, or supports the local office that adjudicated the I-485 (Cleveland, Detroit, St. Paul, Helena, Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Kansas City, Omaha, Chicago and their sub-offices.)
  1. As of 3/19/99 the NSC has only entered the fees for N-400s through January 14, 1999. However, the case data entry (applicant name, DOB, address, etc.) has only been completed on applications filed before January 4, 1999. Therefore, no receipt's have been issued for cases later than 1/4/99. Likewise, none of the applicants have been scheduled for fingerprints. NSC is applying extra personnel time to do this work. It means there may be a greater delay in the receipting of other case types.
  1. About 900 N-400s were found in Chicago that have been recently received by the NSC for processing. They will receive the "clock in date" of the date received by Chicago, NSC expects they will be data entered after the cases described in #2 above, but before any cases received at NSC after 1/19/99.
  1. The NSC will soon address the "last in first out" approach to correspondence from the public. It is hoped that this will address change of addresses, error correction, etc., in time to prevent more errors.
  1. The NSC announced a change in policy with regard to computer cases within the Chennai Consulate District. All H-1B Cases that were filed before December 15, 1998 and had been sent to Chennai for verification will now be adjudicated on the merits, or an RFE will be issued. All newly filed cases will be reviewed by an officer. If the case fits the limited referral profile, the documentation will be referred to Chennai. The NSC will wait 60 days and if the NSC has not received a response from Chennai, they will adjudicate the case on its merits.
  1. I-485 cases that were filed with the NSC on or before June 30, 1998 are now eligible to be adjudicated. The NSC Processing Report shows that the oldest I-485 at the Nebraska Service Center is September of 1997. Cases that were filed after that date have been worked, but the processing time is stated in terms of the oldest pending case.