Nebraska Center just finished processing my case

Hello,

I am not a fan of creating a new post if there are similar posts I can add to, however I know how much anxiety many of us have been feeling with the DACA renewal delays, that I wanted to share the details of my story in case it helps anyone. I am also going to be adding my stats to the Sticky notes keeping track of renewals.

My Story:

• My current EAD to expire August 17th, 2016
• USCIS received the application for my SECOND renewal on March 20th, 2016
• Received notice to go in for Biometrics on 04/05/2016. I remember almost missing this notice as I got it a few days before. But I dropped everything to make the appointment.
• Never heard anything from them till I decided to go online in early July to "Check my Status." I noticed there was an error in my case status showing up when I logged into my account versus when I just called customer service. So then I began the week log tag game where I would call customer service, who would then escalate me to an immigration officer to check my case status, who would then not call till a random time the next day when I would miss the call because I was in a work meeting, and the cycle began. Long story short, they let me know that they were still processing my case.
• Then I called back on July 22nd to find out the status of my case and this is when customer service let me know that Nebraska has a "2 month backlog." It was at this time I realized that I am at risk for having my EAD expire before my new EAD arrived, AND my company had already been sending me emails asking me to come in and get my I-9 re-verified before August, 17th.
• Since I was within the 150-120 days timeline, she said I could go in and talk to an immigration officer. I found an infopass appointment date for August 4th, in a city that wasn't my home city but where I was going to be visiting. So I know you can go into any USCIS location for the infopass appointment. It doesn't have to be your home city.
• I then came to my trusted DreamAct Portal site, read all the stories, knew I was probably fighting a loosing battle, but I wasn't ready to just give up. I read the Sticky "NILC DACA RENEWAL DELAY STEPS" where I then filled out the online form for the Ombudsman as I awaited my infopass appointment. I included a letter in my online form from my manager stating what a valid employee I was and how inconvenient it would be for our team if I had to cease working on 8/17/2016. I also included my income and that I was a single female with no other means of supporting myself except my own income (which is true). I am not sure if that helped at all, but I am including all my details in case it helps someone else.
• Ombudsman office sent me a generic letter saying someone is looking into my case a few days later.
• I showed up at info pass on 08/04/2016. The immigration officer said there is nothing he can do since Nebraska isn't accepting requests for expediting EADs. He said they are backed up like never before. I told him that I had opened a request with the Ombudsman and he told me that was good and hopefully that helps, but otherwise he is very sorry, it sucks, but there is nothing he can do and I just have to wait. He also told me I was not the first person he had seen that day with the same situation. I said thanks, and walked away with a heavy heart.
• I have been wrapping up my work and training my replacement all this week so I don't leave my coworkers stranded as my company policy is to put me on unpaid leave of absence for up to 90 days or when I get my renewed EAD, which ever came first.
• Then today I decided to go online and check my status again and saw that they have just finished processing my DACA, and are mailing out my renewed DACA this week. They also said that they have put in a request to produce my EAD card, so hopefully I get that in the next week or so.
  

Approved for DACA - August 9th, 2016.
EAD Card Production Request - August 10th, 2016
EAD Expiration - August 17th, 2016.

I am not sure what helped my case, but may be this means that Nebraska has started to push some cases through because I saw another August 9th approval on the site today. I do remember that when the immigration officer looked up my case status, he saw that it had a tag he wasn't familiar with. Something along the lines of "priority, streamline..bla ba". He had to call Nebraska to ask what that meant, but when he got off the phone, he still said there is nothing further he can do and I just have to wait. I was a very straightforward case. No records/tickets/charges, college graduate with a current full time job. I had already been approved for an EAD twice before.

FILL OUT THE OMBUDSMAN FORM if you are within the application timeline guidelines. It is something easy you can do.

Thanks for sharing the detailed steps and your experience. Glad you got it renewed hopefully it will be in time. I'll check out the OMBUDSMAN form.

How come i see people talking about logging on at the uscis website? Is there any benefits of making an account? Ive always just used cased status no logins

The question now is wether we will get our EAD cards before 8/17. I have a feeling our cards will arrive at our mail boxes on 8/17. Lucky for you that you get unpaid leave.

I created my login account earlier this year, but honestly I have seen no benefit in having that account versus just using the "Check my Status." That may change in the future though, so no harm in getting a login.

My personal analysis, based on my experience working as a technology consultant, is that it looks like they are trying to modernize their processing systems by incorporating technology, but the transition has been slow and has had many glitches. My account login actually showed that they sent me a termination notice the day I applied, when in reality they hadn't sent any such notice and was probably a technical error when they transferred records on the back end. That is why I had to call in early July because the "Check my Status" and my account login didn't seemed to have been synced.

Yes,I recognize that I am lucky. I consider myself blessed to just have had the opportunity to do something meaningful with my life. This whole experience of being a dreamer has been very tough, but I also see that it has taught me the ability to handle the ups and downs of life in a way I would never have learned if I had it all easy. I remind myself of this whenever I go through a dreamer related battle. I have failed so many times in life, and still been able to get up that now failure doesn't scare me. I know I will figure it out. It may not be easy, I may not like it, but I will be fine.

The benefit is that the account one updates faster than just the case status

That was an awesome story I just read its such a blessing how it worked out for you! God bless!