Adjustment of Status Information: Filing a Complaint against a USCIS Officer

During the course of processing their adjustment of status applications, applicants may encounter problems with the adjudicating officer. While the majority of officers are very professional, ocassionally, an applicant may meet an officer who is rude or seems to ask inappropriate questions.

Bear in mind that some of the questions asked during the adjustment of status interview are personal and even intimate, because they are designed to determine whether the couple is truly married or not. However, it is possible that the line of questioning may become extreme or excessive to the point of being abusive.

When that happens, applicants are likely to want to report the officer. However, obtaining the officer’s name may not be so easy. In some USCIS offices, name plates are not required and officers may be hesitant to provide their names. Such lukewarm responses may appear to be efforts to discourage or stonewall the applicant from obtaining more information. However, from an USCIS officer’s point of view, this reaction makes sense in light of the harassment that USCIS officers can be subject to. Incidences of an officer’s tires being slashed or threatening phone calls have occurred. Indeed, USCIS officers can be subjected to rude and offensive behavior on the part of the applicants whose paperwork they are procesing. Nonetheless, encountering this appearance of uncooperative behavior can be very frustrating for the applicant who is trying to establish a record of what happened and what was communicated.

The recommended approach when this happens is to discuss the applicant’s concerns with the officer’s supervisor, rather than the officer. While an officer may not offer you his/her name, each officer has a unique number and stamps.  This information can be provided to the supervisor when lodging a complaint.

In our experience, supervisors at the local USCIS offices are open to reasonable complaints about particular officers. Appealing to the supervisory level is likely to yield a faster response for applicants who are experiencing difficulties working with their USCIS officer.

If you are interested in applying for adjustment of status for your fiance, spouse, or loved one, contact our law office 626-771-1078 or visit us at www.myfianceevisa.com.

This entry was posted on 29. November 2009 at 03:18 and is filed under Adjustment of Status. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print