Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

My decision letter from USCIS arrived in the mail yesterday. I had been expecting the worst since reading on an on-line forum that the phrase, "we mailed you a decision" is a euphemism for "application denied". If an application is approved, they generally just tell you that your application has been accepted - there's no need to let you down gently.

True to these expectations, my application was denied. But the reason for the denial turned out to be something that completely beggars belief. Let me present you with an excerpt from the denial letter:

8 CFR 274a.12(a)(6) provides for the issuance of employment authorization to: An alien admitted to the United States as a nonimmigrant fiance or fiancée of a United States citizen... for the period of admission to the United States.

Employment authorization under category (a)(6) may only be granted for the period of admission to the United States. The evidence submitted indicates you entered the United States on May 15, 2007. You were admitted for a period of 90 days.

Because your period of admission to the United States has therefore expired, you no longer qualify to receive employment authorization pursuant to 8 CFR 274a.12(a)(6). Therefore, upon consideration, it is ordered that this application be denied. There is no appeal to this decision.

So, have you got this?

Because my application was not processed within this 90 day period, my application was denied. However, there were 120 days between USCIS's receipt of my I-765 and the issuance of my decision. This, of course, means that there was never any chance of my application being successful. I believe that any application should be decided on its merits, not on how long it takes USCIS to get around to opening each case. If there's only a 90 day window for fiance visa EAD applications, then USCIS should take all reasonable steps to ensure that such applications are processed within those 90 days.

I feel that I've been completely shafted by bureacracy here: that I have done everything right - I have entered the country legally, I have filled in all the correct forms and submitted them in a timely fashion - and have gotten nothing in return. And they wonder why there's such a problem with illegal workers in this country...

This morning, I had calmed down enough to call the USCIS Information Center for advice. I outlined my case to the operator, and he seemed to think that the decision was irregular: the fact that I had married within the 90 day period should stand in my favour. However, as they are only an Information Center, there is no one there authorized to act on cases: he could only offer me alternative courses of action.

The first was to open a new I-765 based on my I-485 case, but this would require another $180 fee and - almost certainly - another 4 month wait. The second option, one that he thought would be better, was to make an appointment at the Portland USCIS office to discuss my situation personally with an officer.

The only way to make an appointment is via USCIS' online "InfoPass" system, which I have never had any luck with to up until this point, so I wasn't particularly hopeful when I logged in to it... I expected the usual "there are no appointments available at this time, please try again later" message. Fortunately - and completely unexpectedly - there was an appointment available on Monday, October 15, so I quickly snagged it. Hopefully, some common sense can be applied to my case, because the "service" I have got from USCIS regarding my work authorization has been nothing short of disastrous so far.

Posted in: chaosboy, immigration, united states on October 2, 2007 at at 12:55:00 PM