We received the approval letters in mail yesterday.
Basic information:
TSC NIW
I-140 & 485 concurrent filing
RD: 07/2004
I-140 AD: 03/2005
I-485 transferred to Houston local office 05/2005
First FP: 07/2005
Interview at the local office: 04/2006
At the interview, the main applicant was assigned with a new A# because the A # that was originally assigned by TSC was someone else's A#. (can you believe that??) It was because the name was similar (but not the same) and the birthday was the same.
We received letters from the interview office a week after the interview. The letters were very confusion. Our understanding was our application was approved but the visa number was not available at the time of our interview...
After our visa number became available in July 2006, we made an appointment through inforpass, then everything changed: our name check was pending...
Wrote to congressman in 02/2007, no result.
In 03/2007, we found out that the name check under the old A# was cleared, but the name check under the new A# was pending. BTW, besides the name, the information under the old A# was our information, including parents' name. Big mass up!
Waited again until 09/2007. Learned from this board to write to FBI and First Lady. Contact congressman again early this month.
Inforpass to Houston local office on 11/16/2007, told name check cleared (not sure when), the file was with an officer for final decision. However, FP was expired.
Second FP done 11/17/2007.
Approval letters received yesterday!
We hope our experience can help people whose case was transferred to local office.
1. if your name check is pending, congressman can not help a lot! Wrote to FBI and First Lady. We believe it helped our case even we didn't get any response back.
2. congressman can help if your case is delayed simply by the act of USCIS.
3. I feel we waited too long to write to FBI and/or First Lady. ACT don't just Wait when your case massed up like ours!
4. Just as FYI: no update online after our case was transferred to local office in 2005.
Thanks everyone for posting useful information on this board. Good luck!