Let's talk about USCIS file transfers.
Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer, practicing law throughout the United States out of our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. USCIS gives you the ability to sign up for electronic alerts, whenever something happens on your case.
In my mind, those electronic alerts, there's a question as to whether they're a blessing or a curse. Obviously, there's great information that you can get and it's nice to be able to track your case, but sometimes too much information is a bad thing.
What do you mean by that, Jim? Well, what I mean is that we have some clients who sign up for electronic alerts on their case, and I'm glad that they do. Of course, we do that for them.
There's no real reason for them to do that, but they like to do it and it makes them feel better to have the ability to monitor their case.
One of the alerts that comes through from time to time is you'll see that a case has been transferred from one service center to another. So depending on where you live and what kind of application it is, the case will get sent to one of the service centers around the country.
To the National Benefit Center or there's one in Potomac or one in Vermont or California, there's all these different service centers. Sometimes some service centers are busier than others. And you'll see an alert that your case has been transferred to another service center.
The problem is that just throws the clients all up in arms and they're wondering, "Oh my God, what's happening? Why is my case being transferred? Something must be going on. Something must be wrong."
It's not the case. It's just for workload purposes that, like I said, the offices aren't as busy as other offices. You can't read too much into it.
Of course, generally, if you're talking about the National Visa Center or an embassy or USCIS, I don't put much stock in what they say electronically. A lot of that stuff is automated, and it's just a matter of people clicking on something on a file or scanning something with their barcode.
A lot of these alerts are automatic and electronic, so you can't put too much stock in them. I try to tell our clients, don't get too worked up about electronic alerts.
Then of course, there's also alerts that a case has been sent to the field center and clients would get all excited. "Woo-hoo, that means our case is set for an interview."
But I've seen cases that get sent to the local field office sit there for a continued delay, so you can't read too much into it really when it comes to the USCIS. You just have to go with what is in front of you. Go with what actually happens, and don't put too much stock into these electronic alerts.
I understand the excitement. I understand the desire to know what's going on. But at the end of the day, if I were you, if I were applying for immigration benefit, I would file the application and then I wouldn't think about it until I had to. I wouldn't spend so much time just like, click, click, click, click, click.
"Okay, what's going on with my case? What's going on with my case? What's going on with my case?" I know it's easy for me to say, I'm a big white guy who was born in St. Louis and is a natural born US citizen.
I know that's easy for me to say. But at the same time, I just want you to be peaceful and happy, and I don't want you to be stressed out. Those stupid electronic alerts probably are more trouble than they're worth.
I hope this video makes sense. If you have questions about your case or about your case has been pending for too long, give us a call 314-961-8200.
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