please help i am from NZ/australia and have married a usc. I filed last sept for 1485 and work visa etc fingerprints and a photo were taken and a work visa was issued. this expires september this year. We went for a interview in march for my greencard and was informed at the end of it that my name had still not cleared by the fbi. what happens if it is not cleared when my work visa expires ? and any suggestion how to speed up my name check. Thanking you in advance for any advice in this matter

There is nothing you can do but wait, there is no speeding up or expediting, a lot of people are having the same problems as you because of backlogs, you have reached so far, just have a little more patience, It maybe frustrating, but at least you have an EAD which can be renewed, be thankful it could've been worse.

thank you Ren i hope i get the greencard before my work card expires i have seen other people state that they have been stuck in name check for years

Hi Joanne,
I am stuck in the FBI name check since June of 2006 - almost a year now. I researched the FBI name check in every possible way and found out that there some things I can do. Here's what you should do first. Research the internet, call attorneys, call USCIS customer service line, schedule INFO passes with USCIS. Find out who is congressman in your state and contact him/her. Make sure you make notes of all these contacts. Most likely you will get the same answer from everyone - "Your case is pending, awaiting FBI name check clearance. We cannot expedite it, you just have to wait”. I know this is not the answer you were looking for but you need to do this. Next step is to contact Ombudsman - It's a department of USCIS that offers free assistance with problem cases. In the letter to Ombudsman you will need to describe what you have done so far to resolve your case. I have noticed (from this and other web sites) - that Ombudsman is able to help - in some cases at least. By the way this is where I am in the process. If Ombudsman is not able to help the only other option you have it "Writ of Mandamus" - which is a lawsuit in Federal Court against USCIS. It seems that this almost always works. It's been about 11 months for me so far - I’ll wait another 4 or 5 months if nothing happens - I am filing a lawsuit. In my opinion if within 2 weeks after the interview nothing changes - it will not change for a long time - many months or years. By the way after all those inquiries I made to USCIS - they responded with one letter stating (get this): "Your case is not yet ready for decision to be made, due to background checks. It often takes more then 6 months for the background checks to be completed". What a smart answer - I already know that, it has been 10 months already and no results. They tell you it takes more then 6 months but don't tell you the maximum or even average time frame - because there is no maximum - it will get resolved when someone gets to it. From some of the Immigration supervisor I spoke to in person I found out that an average time is 12 to 18 months but there are people stuck in there for 3 or 4 years. What's even more scary - the number of cases stuck in "FBI name check" is growing and there more and more each month - Over 300,000 are waiting for more then 6 months.I hope I didn’t scare you but this is the truth. Maybe when it gets to few million pending cases - then U.S. government will do something about it. Anyway, Best of luck!

Tomek.

I was waiting for 10 years to get my priority date to come up so i can apply for i485 and now in name check...

i would like to know,is there anyone who had their interivew and status was still pending due to name check....
How long until you got your green card? and what did you do to get it?

I can not under stand why it takes long time for fbi name check, they have all the tools to get into.

What about those applicant who had been in US for more then 7 to 10 years. This sounds like mind game played by USCIS and FBI.

Adam

You have to understand that number of applicants is very high and they need alot of time to do so, plus we are talking about gov employees. Take for example Post Office how fast are they working?! Lines at the post office is always off the hook.....so hope this will answer you question!

I applied 2003, my name check was pending family-base since Feb 04 and I got approved mar/07. I wrote a letter to the First Lady in Washington D.C and the FBI answer
with the above information about when the INS sent the request for name check. I also filled mandamus lawsuit in the Federal Court in January. So I think the ONLY think working about Name check is sending letter to the B. Bush.