This is from www.immigration-law.com, please pay attention to the Phase III [soon to be announced]. It seems that all the immigration cases from ease-south US will be filed to TSC, immigration cases from west-north US will be filed to NSC.
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10/02/2006: Case Transfers Among Service Centers and Bi-Specialization
The USCIS has been undertaking reengineering of the filing, processing, and adjudication of petitions/applications which are under the jurisdiction of the four Service Centers (CSC, VSC, NSC, and TSC) under the name "bi-specialization program" as follows:
Phase I [April 2006]: New Nonimmigrant Petitions of I-129 and related I-539 applications, filed with VSC and adjudicated by either VSC or CSC depending on the types of cases. New Immigrant petitions of I-140 petitions and related I-485 applications, I-765 EAD applications, and I-131 Advance Parole applications, filed with NSC and adjudicated by either NSC or TSC. Under the Phase I programs, all the petitions and related applications of nonimmigrant and immigrant cases which were pending at one of the four Service Centers were supposed to be continuously processed and adjudicated by the Service Center where the cases had been pending.
Phase II[August 2006]: Changed Phase I immigrant I-485 filing procedure by requiring filing of all the I-485 applications, no matter whether they were concurrent filing or stand-alone filing or no matter where the underlying I-140 petitions had been pending prior to the start of the Phase II program in August 2006, with the NSC. Accordingly, all the new I-485 applications had to be filed with the NSC even if their I-140 petitions had been pending in other Service Centers. Along with this changes, the applications of EAD and Advance Parole which are ancillary to the I-485 applications also had to be filed with the Service Center where their I-485 applications were filed and pending.
Phase III[Soon to be announced]: The Phase I and Phase II have produced shipment of hugh volumes of petitions and applications between the pairs of sister Service Centers (NSC-TSC in immigrant proceeding and VSC-CSC in nonimmigrant proceeding). In order to eliminate such shipment of cases among Service Centers, the USCIS will soon divide the nation into the two territories or geographical jurisdictions: One jurisdiction is determined by the current geographical jurisdictions of CSC and NSC. The other jurisdiction is determined by the current geographical jurisdictions of VSC and TSC. Within each of the two new geographical jurisdictions, they will continue bi-specialization program. Accordingly, those in North-West jurisdiction will be required to file nonimmigrant cases with CSC which will also process and adjudicate the nonimmigrant petitions and applications within the new jurisdiction. Those in East-South jurisdiction will be required to filed nonimmigrant cases with VSC which will process and adjudicate the filed nonimmigrant petitions and applications, and immigrant cases will be required to be filed with TSC which will then process and adjudicate the immigrant petitions and applications in the East-South jurisdiction.
The Bi-Specialization Programs have caused a tremendous confusion in the immigrant community. Had the USCIS strictly followed the foregoing procedures, the confusion could have been more or less bearable and manageable. However, the reality has been different. Regardless of the bi-specialization programs, the Service Centers have been swifting around and transferring files among the Service Centers to manage the caseloads of each Service Center. According to the USCIS, during the last three months, the following transfers of files have taken place:
VSC transferred FY 2007 H-1B cap cases to TSC (20,000) and NSC(6,000).
VSC transferred all the I-130 petitions to CSC.
VSC, NSC, and TSC transferred all the I-360 cases to CSC.
CSC transferred entire I-485 applications to NSC.
The transfer of files among Service Centers has created nightmares to the customers in two areas, among others.
Since I-907 Premium Processing and I-485 ancillary applications of EAD and Advance Parole are required to be filed with the Service Center where the primary petitions or applications are located, unless they constantly keep eye on the mails and USCIS website status processing report for their cases, they could be easily lost as to the proper jurisdictions where they will have to file related applications.
Second problem is the increased communciation to the consumers in writing by the new Service Center with the transferred cases including new Receipt Notices, RFEs, etc. When people move, people may not get these important notices properly and timely since the USCIS mails cannot be forwarded by the U.S. postal services. Consequently, these people may not even know where their files are located and how to contact the right Service Center.
In this day and age, people will just have to keep their eyes wide open and watch carefully all the changes that take place almost daily in the immigration proceedings.