Got our fingerprints done this morning for the Citizenship and Immigrations Service (what used to be called Customs or INS, and by the way, a tip for my friends in Washington DC: just changing the name of a monolithic, bureaucratic, bohemoth government agency does not make it either 1) more efficient or 2) more appealing).
Our I600 application (to classify Tommy as an immediate relative) was mailed six weeks ago. I sent it by FedEx on 9/17 (a Friday). FedEx says they got it on 9/20 (Monday). In the 9/24 mail, we got (a very official looking I-797C) written notice they were processing our paperwork and we should expect written instructions regarding what to do next. We got two copies by the way; one for Jenny and one for me.
About a week later, we got another one...no, actually two more I-797Cs. These told us to go get fingerprinted on 10/26, almost exactly one month later. Thinking it was an awfully long time to wait for fingerprints, I wondered whether we could move it up. So, I looked for a phone number on the notice. There wasn't one. I looked for a phone number on the website; again nothing. A bunch of research and digging later indicated the only option for changing your appointment was to mail the form back and wait for another I-797C with a new date (bet $1,000 it wouldn't have been an earlier date either).
So being good instruction-followers, we waited the month. Now, I'm going to completely skip over the silliness (and expense) of taking six weeks and mailing 4 letters to schedule us for fingerprinting....at least for now. What I'm completely bothered by is how we waited calmly for our delayed-six-weeks appointment only to arrive this morning to a huge, empty facility with several (very nice) employees patiently waiting for something to do. The whole "we're so busy we couldn't possibly get this done sooner than 6 weeks" facade of their circa-1943 scheduling and communications system was a complete sham! The ladies there told us we could have come sooner--just shown up any day--and they would have taken us....AAAAAAAAHHH!
Healthcare by the federal government anyone?
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