VSC Update : January 21, 2003
Posted Feb 07, 2003

For MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers with cases pending at the Vermont Service Center (VSC), we provide here answers to questions on the minds of many. These were asked of the VSC by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

Expedite for Age-Out

The Vermont Service Center will continue to expedite those cases in which a child will become 21 and "age out," no longer being eligible for benefits as part of the parent's green card case. In light of the protections provided by the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), this expediting is no longer automatic. However, if a child is not qualified or it is unclear whether s/he qualifies under the CSPA, the VSC will continue to expedite the case processing. For more information on the aging out and CSPA, see our October 25, 2002 article, CSPA, Who Can Really Reap its Benefits?

Delays

VSC has reported it was necessary to reassign some employees in order to meet deadlines related to Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The reassignments have pulled staff members from almost all types of case processing to work on TPS cases. This has caused further delays in processing. The Service Center report predicted TPS processing would be completed at the end of January 2003. Hopefully, the processing times soon will begin to improve in the other areas. The California Service Center anticipates similar delays due to TPS processing. See our article, CSC: Case Delays Due to Processing Priorities, also published in this week's MurthyBulletin.

Concurrent Filings

The I-140 Requests for Evidence (RFEs) for concurrently filed I-140/I-485 cases will now include language informing the petitioner if there is a "processing hold" on the request for Employment Authorization and/or Advance Parole filed with the I-485. This means that the applicant will not receive the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) or the Advance Parole (AP) until the employer / petitioner responds to the I-140 RFE.

Status Requests

The VSC strongly encourages people to use the online INS case status inquiry system to check routine status matters, rather than telephoning. They note that the time spent answering questions and responding to eMails (for premium processing cases) would be better spent processing cases.

Premium Processing

Some attorneys perceive that there is a higher incidence of RFEs in premium-processing cases. At The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, we have not noticed a significant difference but the rapid nature of the premium processing may make it appear as if RFEs are more frequent. The VSC disclosed that RFEs for premium-processing cases were issued at a rate of 13.3% between October 2001 and September 2002. VSC does not have statistics for the processing of non-premium cases during the same period. The rate for RFEs on I-129s has been 21% in the past few years.