Feature request: Would be awesome to just click on a graph view that shows, say, average length of process from online submission to final approval, based on date applied. For example, a line chart that perhaps would start low, maybe 180 days in total for all of those, back in 2019, that rises to 620 days around 2021, and maybe back down to 250 days now in 2023->2024 (of course none of the 2024 applications will have gone through the whole pipeline yet)… Perhaps when you hover over any particular month it shows how many applications were submitted to this crowdsourced database for that month, and include all the stages–in average across all those submitted that month (perhaps it could be changed with a radio button from [ ] per year, [ ] per quarter, [ ] per month … per week is probably too granular to be of much use) with something like, “44 days app->pre-approve; 195 days pre-appr->bio; 92 days bio->final; 38 days final->card rcv” when hovering over a month (quarter, year)…? Thanks for this amazing service. Btw, I’m wondering about the new law, will we be “guaranteed” (as much as any parliament or law can ever guarantee anything!) that our wait time from application or pre-approval, or shudder, biometrics, is counted as part of the 5 year wait, if we apply before April 1st effective date, or should we wait to apply after April 1, in order to be sure our wait times are counted towards the five years? Cheers!
Just a quick update: I’m currently working on adding functionality to add information about AIMA lawsuits in the GV Timeline DB.
However, since in some cases you have to file more than one lawsuit to succeed, I’m a bit unsure how to best represent it in the form and database without cluttering it up too much.
My current plan is to add a question about whether you filed a lawsuit to each stage (waiting for pre-approval, biometrics, final approval), then if you select Yes show these additional questions:
- Date of lawsuit
- Date of decision
- Outcome of lawsuit
- Won
- Lost
- Lost (but refiling)
- Won (after initial loss)
In the case of multiple lawsuits at the same stage, does it make sense that people are asked to enter the date of the initial suit for “Date of lawsuit” and the date of the final decision for “Date of decision”? Or do you have any other suggestions?
Are there any other important questions to ask about the lawsuits? Or is it OK to just suggest that people add additional details to the “Comments” at the end of the form?
Could you allow people to input data about multiple lawsuits?
Maybe a comments section where people can input arbitrary text to explain anything more complex, but specific to the lawsuit(s)
Thanks for adding this @tkrunning - shame that it’s now become so important.
Couple things seem crucial (so far anyway, new specialised immigration courts may change things) in dictating whether you win or lose:
- Deciding judge (perhaps the most important factor)
- Urgency/hardship argued (e.g. already living in PT, kids starting school soon, etc.)
Appreciate that adding tons of new fields will mean most get ignored, so suggest keep them minimal and include tips for things to mention in their comments.
“Date of 1st lawsuit” and “Date of final decision” seems reasonable, yes.
Fwiw my case had two judges
But only one was the deciding judge, right? Hugo Ferreira handed off to Tânia Felgueiras or something like that?
Not easily, no. It would also create tons of mostly empty columns when viewing the data. There’s already 12 extra columns just to add fields for a single lawsuit for the three main stages (awaiting pre-approval, awaiting biometrics, awaiting final approval).
I’ve already added the possibility to add in data about the lawsuits in the way I outlined in my previous post:
I’ll probably add an extra comment field for lawsuits at each stage like you suggested. So then we’re up to 15 extra (publicly viewable) columns.
Note that for now the extra columns relating to the lawsuits are only available in the detailed view (all the way to the right in the table).
Correct, but the first judge did do stuff for a while
Thomas,
Are you able to link tables, or are you constrained to just a single spreadsheet/table? If you could link tables, why not make a separate table “Lawsuits” with many-to-one relationship back to the applicant? Those who need to add data about their suits would be able to make an entry or multiples entries whilst others, who did not need legal help, would simply have no associated references within this new table. This could reduce GBs-worth of empty data fields.
Just a thought…
The fact that we need a massive database and now this extra fields for lawsuits filed as part of a ‘process’ - absurd 
That would definitely have been a better approach. While it could work with the current tooling I’m using for the database and submissions (Airtable, Paperform), it would be quite a bit more work… Not sure if I’ll do this now or save it for later.
To potentially build this out, I’d love some feedback from those who have gone the lawsuit route.
- Each lawsuit can relate to several applicants (i.e. family members), correct?
- Does that also apply if the family members are at different stages?
- Do the lawsuits have more relevant stages or outcomes than Filed/Pending, Won/Lost? E.g. can they be rejected outright (e.g. for formal errors)?
Let me know if you need help with the database work.