From: ashish@tfs.com (Ashish Mukharji)
Newsgroups: alt.visa.us
Subject: San Francisco INS News
Message-ID: <1993Jul13.204949.1867@tfs.com>
Date: 13 Jul 93 20:49:49 GMT

Many of you may be unaware that the San Francisco INS has a fast-track
"waiver" program for several categories of people waiting for the final
interview and change of status to PR.

If you qualify, the waiver program eliminates the need for an interview (!)
and in my case (employment based third preference) it cut my wait from a
probable eight or nine months to just over three.  (Actually, their deadline
was exactly three months, but ...)

Some lawyers in the area seem unaware of the existence of this program,
and even the clerk at INS was doubtful - I was lucky to have a
knowledgeable and pushy lawyer.  It's important to make sure your
papers are filed on the waiver track when first submitted - I doubt you
can change after the fact.

Hope this helps.