Tale of Two Government Agencies

This is more of an aftermath of a weird experience I had with two government agencies namely USCIS and USPS. I recently applied for my OPT extension since I graduated. I got it after some troubles and I am writing here to let people know what can they do to make sure no such thing will happen to them.

Apply Early

The time line is typically wrong, there is around +/- 6 Months it can change so do NOT delay your application. If it is taking too long, read the section “Most Effective way to Communicate with USCIS if things do not go well”.

Check Your Status Frequently

They will send you a notice for the delivery of your documents and that document will have a case number. Remember that number and check as frequently as possible.

Fix your Mailbox

This is the tricky part and unfortunately caused me lots of delay (~1 Month of starting my job late). Make sure your name clearly and exactly appears on your mailbox. This is very important and they did not deliver my card just because my name was not on the mailbox. The reason my name is not there was because of my apartment management claiming that “it is no longer necessary by USPS because of identity theft possibility”. Do not believe that, just put your full name in your mailbox. You also need to go to USPS and register your address.

Get Your Tracking Number

This is the most critical part. If you can get your tracking number when they send your document, you can track and intercept it. It works really well except one problem; USCIS will probably not tell you the tracking number. They have a really weird system and although you specifically ask for it their answer is: “You card is not sent yet, there might be X weeks of delay.”

There are still a few things you can do to go around this. And, the most effective one I figured was; Go to USPS webpage and create a myUSPS account. Then, signup for updates about all mails sent to you. It works amazingly well. Basically if someone sends you a trackable mail/package, it sends you an e-mail with tracking number. This is the key for many possible problems.

Most Effective way to Communicate with USCIS if things do not go well

Although it sounds weird to me, apparently one of the things the local congressmen does in this country is following the people’s USCIS cases. Go find your local congressmen http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/. You should call them if there is a problem and if USCIS is ignoring you. Mine even had a specific form/number for USCIS problems. And, they actually call USCIS for you and they talk with real people who are not call center employee. They are very effective and do not hesitate to contact them.

And I received mine a few weeks before I need to go abroad for a conference. I was almost cancelling all my travel plans so it can get stressful but I hope these will help to you.