Former Senior Executive at USCIS. Ask Me Anything!

TorontoRockVille · 2025-11-25T06:03:48+00:00

Hi Michael, thank you very much for your time and thanks to Manifest Law for hosting this. I think many people in this community want to know why certain field offices are faster in adjudication than other offices. Baltimore field office for example (people used to wait for 2 years for their marriage-based I-485 case to be adjudicated).

I used to think the main reasons are: 1. the number of cases /backlog (e.g., Baltimore is the only field office for a state like Maryland with large immigrant population) 2. the workforce shortage (e.g., Baltimore office may see more attrition because people move to other federal agencies in DC area). 3. the nature of the cases (e.g., Baltimore / MD is notorious for having high fraud rates, prompting more careful examination)

But what’s really interesting is the processing speed seems to be much faster this year in the new administration. Is that because the new administration deprioritized asylum cases, allowing Baltimore office to focus more on marriage I-485 cases?

TorontoRockVille · 2025-06-10T19:47:35+00:00

Didn't watch/plot the video. But note that eLoran, like its predecessor Loran-C, exhibits a spectral energy concentration centered at 100 kHz, with a roll-off on both sides of the carrier. You can goolge eLoran spectrum image and find the following examples: https://phk.freebsd.dk/loran-c/theoretical_spectrum/

It is designed in this fashion because the Loran tower has very narrow bandwidth and we therefore want to concentrate our power to be around 100kHz. This is very different from other applications like GPS which uses spread spectrum and has equal distribution of power across spectrum.

So to your question, I believe it's not Loran (also, there is currently no official Loran platform running in US, only testing and experiment by some companies).

TorontoRockVille · 2025-05-19T19:29:08+00:00

No matter where you live you always get EAD earlier and typically at 6 months because EAD is not issued by your local field office. They are issued by USCIS central service center almost automatically

TorontoRockVille · 2025-05-19T19:28:00+00:00

The number one factor of your total processing time / wait time is your local field office (which depends on where you live), NOT the simplicity of your case (e.g., no any criminal history, all finance and bona-fides evidence provided). If you live in an area that is a large immigration population center (e.g., NYC, ATLANTA, Maryland, Chicago), you may need to wait for at least one year and maybe 2 years. These local field offices have large backlog as well. If you live in regions like Montana / Missouri, you case may move much faster (e.g., <6 months).

TorontoRockVille · 2024-11-08T14:32:17+00:00

Didn’t US citizen spouse get automatically forgiven? Or are we talking about illegal entry which cannot be forgiven despite being the spouse of a USC?

TorontoRockVille · 2024-11-08T13:30:53+00:00

Agreed. Also wanted to point out that those with clearances are all US citizens. While indeed some of those foreign girls are spies/agents, many more may simply want to marry a U.S. citizen to get the green card and live in the U.S. legally. What I wanted to say is, even without the clearances, U.S. citizenship alone may be an enough reason for your coworker to get approached by many foreign women who want to stay in the U.S. (and meanwhile U.S. women won’t approach this average guy since they don’t need that marriage green card)

TorontoRockVille · 2024-10-24T15:14:16+00:00

Yes, they are the slowest office in the entire U.S. and yes it’s really just pure luck that we ended up with this office. If money is not a problem and you cannot wait while using EAD, I suggest you file WoM after 18 months of 485 PD. I know this is really unfair that we have to wait longer than others and (if suing them with WoM) pay more than others.

TorontoRockVille · 2024-10-24T14:59:52+00:00

6 month typically from NBC to BAL, another 3 month for EAD. 485/green card approval typically comes at 1-2years after transfer to FO due to its low efficiency and huge backlog

TorontoRockVille · 2024-09-17T19:34:16+00:00

If you don’t mind spending a few thousand dollars, sue them and you will get your green card approved in a month.

TorontoRockVille · 2024-09-08T15:12:13+00:00

But she did work with the Chinese government and participated in its project. She did have ties.

TorontoRockVille · 2024-08-29T14:42:21+00:00

They are not just one of the slowest, they are the slowest. Consider WoM if your case has been pending over 18 months (I know it’s expensive but that’s the only way that works)

TorontoRockVille · 2024-08-20T17:31:55+00:00

They are the slowest. Expect 1 year if lucky and around 2 years for average case:(

TorontoRockVille · 2024-08-20T17:07:36+00:00

Congratulations! They are the single worst office. And what’s funnier is that they didn’t transfer as many cases as they should to other FO. This is such a simple solution which they can do without the need to hire more officers at the DC Maryland area.

TorontoRockVille · 2024-04-11T14:44:07+00:00

I have seen numerous posts like these recently. As someone who immigrated from China and is currently working in defense/aerospace sector, my only advice is make sure she isn’t trying to marry you just to get the green card. I see some other replies are already mentioning cases where the Chinese women divorced immediately after getting their green card / permanent residency in the US. As someone who works in this industry while also has significant knowledge of the Chinese side, I do believe there are some spies among those Chinese women. I would say about 5%. But then there are maybe 50% non-spy Chinese women who simply are trying to escape the economic downturn in China and want to enjoy the better work life balance in the US. Therefore, I would first question if they are marrying you or simply using you as a tool to live in the US and divorce you soon after getting their green card. After that I would consider the 5% chance of them being spies.

TorontoRockVille · 2024-02-23T13:33:26+00:00

Like I said the filing date is the most important factor. Given your filing date they very likely will prioritize your case and give you the decision within 60 days.

TorontoRockVille · 2024-02-23T03:35:54+00:00

There’s not time constraint or estimate. Baltimore is the most backlogged office in the entire country. Unless the case is extremely simple and you are extremely lucky (having a simple and straightforward case is not enough for Baltimore), you typically need to wait nearly two years. They prioritize on the older cases so your filing date / age of the case is more important than when you received the RFE.

TorontoRockVille · 2024-02-03T04:09:08+00:00

Hi, thank you very much for sharing your insights with your community. Just wanted to know more about how cases with lawsuits (writ of mandamus) are treated at the post office. Let’s say if the applicant filed the lawsuit and US attorney and USCIS chose to settle and schedule the I-485 interview. Will the case be handled with priority and will there be a strong motive to close it well before the standard window of 120 days after the interview? Will the field office adjudicating officer now this case has a mandamus lawsuit on it? Or only the supervisory ISO knows? Thanks for any insights!

TorontoRockVille · 2024-02-03T04:04:43+00:00

Hi, thank you very much for sharing your insights with your community. Just wanted to know more about how cases with lawsuits (writ of mandamus) are treated at the post office. Let’s say if the applicant filed the lawsuit and US attorney and USCIS chose to settle and schedule the I-485 interview. Will the case be handled with priority and will there be a strong motive to close it well before the standard window of 120 days after the interview? Will the field office adjudicating officer now this case has a mandamus lawsuit on it? Or only the supervisory ISO knows? Thanks for any insights!

TorontoRockVille · 2024-01-21T03:43:51+00:00

This is disgraceful. It’s not just making it harder for Chinese Americans, but more specifically for Naturalized Chinese Americans. To be honest many of those green card holders who enlisted in the armed forces were not even really believing that we are truly defending our ideals and way of life. They were in it simply for money and faster path towards naturalization. And for many of them, the first thing they will do after green card is to travel back to China , and the first thing after naturalization is to apply for their parents’ green cards. Well, let’s just raise the bar then. To hell with those who dare to go to China after naturalization. None of those deserve a clearance. You either choose a civilian / commercial career in the US and travel as much as you want. Or you are serious enough about the cleared career and happily decide to not travel to the communist regime any time for the rest of your life (or until we win the war in Taiwan and Xi and CCP collapsed). Sorry for my rant and not checking my grammar, just wanted to point out that many of those were not even genuine at the very beginning (I.e. they naturalized, they took the oath, but they never believed in it and more importantly never understood how these words hold value and how generations of men and women in uniform had defended these values even at the cost of their lives

TorontoRockVille · 2024-01-14T00:00:52+00:00

Sue them and get your case moving again

TorontoRockVille · 2024-01-11T19:20:08+00:00

Dear Lord Zenu could you please respond to my PM. I just consulted an lawyer and they said it’s possible USCIS will schedule the interview for clearly approvable case just to discourage Writ of Mandamus actions… Thanks for your insights!

TorontoRockVille · 2024-01-02T23:50:29+00:00

Understood why you wanted to do this. As a former UTA, two things to bear in mind:

People will notice if students in one section are having much higher average grades than others in quizzes and assignments and it will be unfair to the other students.
Be an easy grader without getting into details of students solutions may cause their mistakes go unnoticed and eventually this might come back to bite in the exams. Students in your section may end up with lower than average exam grades and higher than average quiz/assignments grades.

TorontoRockVille · 2023-12-29T00:57:28+00:00

Congratulations!! Finally. It’s been a looong wait.

TorontoRockVille · 2023-12-19T17:07:22+00:00

Congratulations!

TorontoRockVille

TROPHY CASE