Why do fingerprints expire?
All of us (in the US) are most likely going to have to have our fingerprints redone.
Which is silly. My fingerprints are the same this year as they were last year.
For us, this involves paying the fees again, both of us taking a day off of work, and a 6.5 hour round trip drive.
The thing that bothers me the most is the wasted day off from work, as that is one less day we'll be able to stay home with our new daughter.
But, the other parts aren't so great, either. It ends up being a lot of money.
I wonder if it would do any good to start a letter writing campaign to our Senators and Representatives? Ask if the fingerprints can be good for 18 months, so they would expire when the I171H does. Or, actually, maybe the fingerprints could be good for 20 or 22 months, since some USCIS offices are taking three or four months to issue the I-171H.
The idea of fingerprints expiring is still silly to me, but if they must expire (and this being a government thing, apparently they must), then at least let them be good for a little longer.
If China is planning on keeping the wait around a year, then this means everyone is always going to have to redo fingerprints. Sounds like it would be worthwhile to try to get it changed.
posted by RumorQueen at 4/05/2006 09:29:00 AM
13 Comments:
Hear, hear. This has always been an irritation to me, even before we had to re-do ours the last time. As it is, all it is to me is a scam for the USCIS to get another quick $750. The people at the offices were nice (in our state), but it requires us driving 250 miles roundtrip, taking a day off work, then waiting, waiting, waiting again.
Kate,
Unless I read it wrong on the USCIS website, the fee for new fingerprints is $70 per person.
When I went in for my second CIS fingerprinting, I asked the fingerprint guy why they couldn't just run my fingerprints (which were digitally taken) through their database again. I'd still pay but wouldn't have to sit in their office for 3 hours to be refingerprinted. His answer was "job security". No joke. I go back in two weeks for my third CIS fingerprinting.
I've been told that they can't rerun them because they don't keep them on file - they run them to make sure we aren't really a criminal and then trash them, we don't go into the FBI Database.
I don't believe them.
I remember seeing someone report that they went in for a high level government job of some sort, and their fingerprints got a "hit" because they'd adopted. It didn't cause a problem, of course, just a notation that he was already there because of an international adoption.
We waited for hours to have our fingerprints taken. I think they have plenty of job security.
At 70.00 per person, I'm wondering just how much the fingerprinter makes. It took them about 5 minutes to do me once I was back there. I know we are also paying for the machine, and for the search itself.. but still, it seems a bit much. But, it's not like we can shop around for it though, they've pretty much got us over a barrel.
Umm yeah, as someone with Security Clearance I know for a fact the FBI keeps them on file. When I applied for a higher security level a couple of months ago, the Secret Service sure had no problems finding them and even mentioned it in their report.
So I guess what I'm saying is "liars, liars pants on fire".
curlylockz - every state has their own rules. Your social worker is probably the one who would know best what the rules in your state are.
Some states only require physicals if the home study has expired, so doing it before it expires saves some money. Some states don't require physicals at all.
Not all states have an expiration date on the home study.
This is very interesting...I called my agency about a month ago because of all the buzz I was hearing on expired fingerprints and I was told that once our dossiers are logged in, our fingerprints don't expire. Could this be a Canadian thing? In fact she said nothing expires once the CCAA has our documents. This was straight from our agency and our FP would be a year old this past Feb (LID May 31). Any other Canadians out there been told this?
Do you need to have your fingerprints taken for your homestudy in the USA? In Holland you don't. This is not something that China wants, so this is an American demand, I think.
silly that fingerprints expire... hope you can change this.
The fingerprint thing is a US requirement. Our USCIS won't let our children into the country if our fingerprints have expired.
Let's start a letter writing campaign. Tell us what to do.
So what would be better... to ask that they last longer, or to ask that they rerun the prints they already have?
I'm thinking we ask that they they expire on the same day as our I171H, which is currently 18 months. If we can get them to make it expire WITH the I-171H then that gives us 19 to 22 months on them (because some offices take months to approve you for the I-171H).
Or, we can ask that when they expire that the same prints be run, and that we just pay for them to be run through the system again.
Which has a better chance of happening?
We need to decide on what we want to ask for, so we're all asking for the same thing, I would think.
RQ, love the site and you for doing it!
I would guess they (USCIS) want them redone or rerun to ensure we haven't become criminals before we get our children. My thought is that we have a better or perhaps I should say eaiser time if we ask that they can be rerun. As much as I prefer they expire at the same time I think when dealing with politians it would be best to not let the perfect stand in the way of the good! JUst my two cents!
Just a little something on the fingerprint issue. We had ours "expire" in 2003 due to a 14 month wait and then SARS. We asked nicely if the orphan officer would reissue fingerprint invitations without recollecting the fee. She did...so it does not hurt to ask and you might find someone with a little sympathy.
Tara
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