mind boggling issue with FBI clearance! anyone else?

[bonacker]

has anyone ever had a crazy saga like this??

my application went off in january with the FBI clearance in it. mississauga acknowledged receipt of the complete application. it went next to buffalo. then it went to the NY consulate to be "expedited."

i was very surprised when the NY consulate wrote me to say that they didn't have the FBI clearance. huh? it was with the original application, and at each point I'd been informed my application was complete.

too bad, basically, they said. i needed to re-apply for a totally new FBI clearance certificate, and resubmit it.

arg. but, okay.

i sent a new fingerprint sheet to the FBI on may 12th. someone signed for it on May 17th.

i waited the requisite 10 weeks before i phoned the FBI today -- they couldn't tell me anything about it's status before 10 weeks had passed -- and asked if they could check on the status of my request for a new clearance certificate.

and..... WOW.

they have NO RECORD of it.

they don't have my fingerprints or request.

no record of it whatsoever.

they can see that, sure enough, canada post says the envelope was signed for on may 17th . . . . and they can see i applied for my original one last fall.

but i'm simply not in the system.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRG.

anyone else?

 

[the-fanatics]

Did you pay for it by credit card? If so, maybe you can check and see if they have charged your credit card. This is how I know that they have received my print about 8-10 weeks after I sent them started processing my request.

 

[AllisonVSC]

UGH! I am so sorry to hear this clearance is still a problem for you. I'd love to crack a conspiracy joke, but I am quite sure you are in no mood to laugh about this. Did you by chance ask if they could expedite your next request since it is pretty clear they lost the last one you sent in May? Here's wishing some magic happens. Allison

 

[sbwv09]

I called the FBI about 8 weeks after I sent mine in and they said there would be no record of it for another 8 weeks after that! And then.. I got it in the mail the following week! So.. I guess if it were me I'd send another one JUST to be sure, but I wouldn't be shocked if you still get your background check in a few weeks.

It doesn't seem like anyone knows what they're doing in terms of the FBI clearance.. and I also see a lot of people having the FBI 'mysteriously' lost in the PR application.. so much that I'm going to order another one to have on hand just in case.

 

[minna]

I have had such a variety of responsiveness from the people on the other end of the phone on the customer service line.

I've had different answers on different days, and people who were super helpful to others that were downright nasty.

My only suggestion is to maybe call back until you get someone with either more answers or more willing to help you solve this problem.

Off-topic slightly, but I honestly don't see why they can't re-issue an old report and/or re-do a report. I would imagine that your prints get linked to some kind of database, but it seems so weird to me that the freaking FBI wouldn't assign your prints an ID # or something in their computer system when they are processed - then re-ordering a report could just involve authorizing them to search based on the information from your file already....but I suppose that would be too reasonable.....

 

[bonacker]

The person on the phone at the FBI said they would have their supervisor look into it, and they took my phone and email to get back to me (maybe "next week," yay hurray not). I have the name of the person who signed for it there, tho they didn't seem interested in that. I really don't get it: i mean, if something's just missing from my paperwork --like, did I somehow forget to sign, or something, in my haste?, or in my haste did i fill the credit card form out wrong or something? -- shouldn't they at least have a record of it, after more than 10 weeks? It is totally scary and freaky that the FBI's computerized record keeping should be so slow and inaccurate, right??

PS: I've definitely heard from others whose FBI clearances went missing between Buffalo and the NY Consulate. So either something fishy is going on -- like, is an FBI clearance worth money, or something??? -- or else someone in the NY Consulate is very confused about what the FBI Clearance looks like. (it's just, you know, a letter; it doesn't look like a "certificate," and i've wondered if there's someone just clueless telling people they don't have it when they do.)

 

[minna]

yeah - it seems like there has been a lot of 'dissapearing' FBI records lately.

sorry you have to deal with this. I think you deserve to at least have that supervisor's line so you can hound them until it is easier to find your package in that place then have to face you on the phone again.....

that would be my strategy, anyways...

good luck!!! I'm still waiting for my report from the FBI, but I think I will plan on sending it in with an attached letter that basically says "YES THIS IS AN FBI REPORT"

 

[HBENZ]

Could this be one of the reasons!!!!lol
foxnews.com/us/2010/07/28/fbi-scrutinized-test-cheating/

FBI Scrutinized Over Test Cheating

Published July 28, 2010
| Associated Press

PrintEmailShareCommentsRecommend



In this file photo, FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Justice Department is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test of new rules allowing the bureau to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed. Mueller is scheduled to testify on July 28. (AP)

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test of new rules allowing the bureau to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed.

In some instances, agents took the open-book test together, violating rules that they take it alone. Others finished the lengthy exam unusually quickly, current and former officials said.

In Columbia, South Carolina, agents printed the test in advance to use as a study guide, according to a letter to the inspector general from the FBI Agents Association that summarized the investigation. The inspector general investigation also was confirmed by current and former officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

"There are similar stories for practically every office, demonstrating the pervasive confusion and miscommunication that existed," Konrad Motyka, the association's president, wrote May 13 in the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, agents could be disciplined or even fired.

FBI Director Robert Mueller was scheduled to testify Wednesday before Congress, where the new guidelines and the cheating scandal were expected to come up.

The inquiry threatens to be another black eye for the FBI as it tightens controls after years of collecting phone records and e-mails without court approval. The brewing scandal has already upended management at one of the largest field offices in the U.S.

The FBI had no comment on the investigation late Tuesday.

Motyka's letter urges the inspector general to focus instead on what he called the "systemic failure" of administering the test without consistent rules.

FBI agents should not be punished "because of a failure to effectively communicate the rules," he wrote.

Such testing is unusual. FBI agents are required to take online training courses to stay current on bureau policies, but pass-fail tests are rare. In 2008, however, when the FBI received more leeway than ever in conducting surveillance and opening investigations, it assured Congress that it would train and test its agents to make sure they knew the rules.

The Domestic Investigations and Operation Guidelines allowed the FBI, for the first time, to conduct surveillance for national security purposes without evidence of a crime. Agents were also allowed to consider race when opening early inquiries. For instance, the FBI could look into whether the terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba had taken hold in a city if it had a large Pakistani-American presence.

The new rules gave agents more flexibility to identify and prevent terrorist attacks. They also raised concerns that the FBI would use their new powers to monitor religious organizations or single out certain ethnic groups.

The FBI has a checkered past when it comes to conducting surveillance. From the late 1950s though the early 1970s, the bureau opened hundreds of thousands of files on Americans and domestic groups, including anti-war organizations, civil rights groups and women's movements. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the bureau collected U.S. phone and computer records without court orders.

Lawmakers and civil liberties groups were concerned that the new rules would allow racial profiling and other abuses. The FBI assured them they would not.

"We share the concern and have devoted considerable time and effort to educating our employees regarding how race and ethnicity can -- and cannot -- be used," FBI counsel Valerie Caproni told Congress in December 2008.

But problems with the training and testing programs surfaced quickly. Last year, Assistant Director Joseph Persichini, the head of the FBI's Washington field office that investigates congressional wrongdoing and other crime in the U.S. capital, retired amid a review of test-taking in his office.

Persichini took the test alongside two of his most senior managers and one of the bureau attorneys in charge of making sure the exam was administered properly, current and former officials said. The two agents who took the test with him have been moved to headquarters while the investigation continues.

At the time, the inquiry appeared limited to the Washington field office. But investigators have broadened their inquiry to cover the entire FBI. Among other things, they are focusing on agents who took

 

[minna]

nope- because that is talking about the washington field office, not the CJIS division in West Virginia, which is the division that issues the FBI clearance.

 

[HBENZ]

I completely understand and agree.However this shows how incompetent they are and can be....

 

[bonacker]

too funny!! ;D

 

[heatherusa]

The United States is falling apart bit by bit. IMO it isnt just from the current administration but from years and years of mismanagement that cant be solved in 12 or even 24 months. Sad... Maybe this is why the apps for Buffalo are up and it is taking so long. The FBI is just another arm and I have no doubt that the Buffalo office of CIC is still influenced by every political thing that goes on in the US regardless of what country it involves. Ok that is my conspiracy rant for the decade!

 

[sbwv09]

I talked with family friends who sponsored the husband from the US, and they told them they had lost the divorce paperwork from a previous marriage, which was absolutely included in the application. They know of a few other people who Buffalo claimed didn't send in certain paperwork when they did. They seem to think that they say stuff like that to a--prove that you are dedicated to getting the PR and b--to delay when there are too many applicants.

JERKS! lol

 

[bonacker]

UPDATE: mind boggling issue with FBI clearance! anyone else?

Halle-Friggin'-Luuyah!

I just heard from the FBI that they "found" my application -- the credit card had by now expired. It has now been processed, and the clearance letter will be mailed to me "no later than Monday, August 16th."

I spoke with a super-nice operator, who actually took the time to phone me back a week or two after my initial call, to tell me it had finally been taken care of.

 

[AllisonVSC]

That is great news, Bonacker.