USCIS General Inquiry Mailbox – A Useless Experience

I blogged a few weeks back about a new email address created by USCIS that Canadians can use to ask general immigration questions. I sent an email asking for clarification on some scenarios regarding Canadians speaking at conferences in the US. And then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I checked this morning and noticed that I got a response 23 days after my initial email (so last Wednesday)! Finally, here would be the answers I was looking for! I opened the email and saw this:

Thank you for your e-mail.

You need to contact the nearest US Consulate and/or US Customs and Boarder Protection.

Regards,

USCIS/pfcg

Are you kidding me?! Now, let’s play devil’s advocate here and assume my questions were beyond what’s considered “general inquiry”. If so, why not at least state that? “Sorry, your questions are beyond the scope of this service. I must refer you elsewhere.”

And why not provide the contact information for the US Consulates in Canada, or a link to a website with their collective contact info?

And seriously, US Customs and Border Protection? Where do I call for that? The local border office? And seriously…its spelt “Border” not “Boarder”.

So what we have with the USCIS email box is just another tool to confuse and misdirect those that are trying to get straight answers about US immigration.

How disappointing.