Hari412 said:
Hello Folks!
I sent my application 2 weeks ago and thought of calling them today. So I asked them THE Golden Question...
They are looking at applications received in the week of Sept 8...
Hope this is correct and helps my fellow mates....
Thank you very much
Hari412, unfortunately, I really, really..... doubt that they are looking at Sept 8 applications. I called them up last week and they were stuck on Aug 5. Besides this a number of people here have applied in August and has not yet received theirs.
Guys,
The way I understand it is that the FBI Processing occurs in three stages:
(the second and third are pretty much the same)
- Step I:
First, they open your application, take your money, and enter the details you provided on the form (not on the fingerprint cards) into their system. (Note: This is not the system that was affected by the IT Upgrade.)
Once they do this, your application gets assigned a reference number. In my experience they complete this in 3 to 4 weeks. Hence, I suggest calling them at this point to make sure your application made it into their system.
- Step II:
This is the step where they scan your fingerprints into their system, and then search for any matching criminal convictions. This is the part they upgraded on Sept. 7
The Golden Question is really which applications are they currently processing in this step - because here is where the backlog/bottleneck is.
From speaking to people at the FBI and at the Channelers (who actually use the same system) this step is supposed to take a few hours to a day if it works (if you don't have criminal convictions) Note that the FBI Channelers use their own systems for recording information and taking the fee (Step I), but this system/step is supposed to be common. I have not figured out why the Channelers are still getting results since the IT Upgrade, but the FBI is still stuck at Aug 5.
- Step III:
Here, they print out and mail your results. Nothing special
Hari412 - I am curious if you somehow mistook Sept 8, for Oct 8. If yes, then the person was referring to
Step I i.e. the applications opened and entered into their system - which sounds reasonable. The real mystery is what are the current applications processed in
Step II.
Don't worry, I am sure someone in the forum would call them up in the next week, if not I will