Hi All, After 11 months waiting I’ve received my for first waiver Approval for 5 years. Hoping all the best for the ones still waiting!

11/14/2024, 01:00 PM EST : Status changed to Completed
12/13/2023, 11:09 AM EST : Status changed to Submitted to ARO
11/26/2023, 06:04 PM EST : Status changed to Paid
11/26/2023, 05:58 PM EST : Status changed to Signed
8/23/2023, 10:02 PM EDT : Application Created

Good Afternoon
I received my first renewal today. My first waiver was for one year which expired in July.
Today’s approval is for 5 years.
My application was submitted to ARO on Jan 9 2024
This forum has helped me stay calm for 10 long months of nervous waiting and worrying.

Good luck to you all
R

5 year waiver - first waiver

Documents Shared With You
ARO Decision
Please review the documents
Status History (5)
11/13/2024, 09:00 AM EST : Status changed to Completed
1/4/2024, 09:06 PM EST : Status changed to Submitted to ARO
12/6/2023, 11:34 AM EST : Status changed to Paid
12/6/2023, 11:32 AM EST : Status changed to Signed
12/4/2023, 03:43 PM EST : Application Created

@J Rogers no waivers being posted in a week is rather concerning, isn’t it?

@Curiousmind No. I am confident you will get a 5 year waiver again. I am just not confident in WHEN.

@J Rogers thanks for the quick response. My charge is not Drug trafficking but Drug “Possession” (in 2010) Was reduced to a Class A misdemeanour. I previously got a 5-year waiver on my first try in 2019 - under trump ironically. I’m not a few months into waiting for a renewal. Should my level of concern raise? Or was that specifically for “trafficking” ? Thanks.

@Curiousmind I responded directly on his post so people will not be sucked in.

In 2016 the only differences seemed to be sexually based convictions were turned down EVERY TIME, even if clients had a waiver previously. Kristi Noem is going to be the new Homeland Security head. When Trump tried to give more funding to ICE in 2020 before he lost to Biden, the fee was going to go up to $1400USD. So that is a concern despite the recent fee increase.

Most other applications I saw a small increase in concern about drug trafficking but its wasn't that much.

Ken basically wants to lie/exaggerate, and scare clients into paying more money because he doesn't want to work to get a decent sized client base. He can;t get accreditation to fingerprint like me and Michelle have, and he doesn't want to do actual WORK to do pardons. He wants big fees for little work and to make videos. (he is much better at videos than me)

I charge what I think the TIME and EFFORT is worth. I am sure I could charge more but I want to make it affordable, fair and when clients see HOW MUCH work, I don't think it is worth thousands of dollars. I charge a fair fee for the actual work produced and I treat everyone the same.

Anyways, if someone has to be deceptive to win business, then they don't deserve your business.

@J Rogers hey is there any merit to Ken Scott’s post in the other thread? About tougher / stricter rules under Trump? My understanding is Ken is a bit of a grifter but I am worried as the waiver approvals have ostensibly come to a complete halt.

No waivers approved in 5 days???

@Raymond The misrepresentation is regarding a job opportunity

@abhi what was the misrepresentation about . Thanks

5 year waiver - First waiver
Misrepresentation 15 years ago

I thank each and everyone in this forum for their insights . Without this forum i would have been completely blinded on the current wait times.
Thank you @rogers
Status History (5)
11/8/2024, 12:00 PM EST : Status changed to Completed
1/2/2024, 03:08 PM EST : Status changed to Submitted to ARO
12/27/2023, 12:00 AM EST : Status changed to Paid
12/26/2023, 11:55 PM EST : Status changed to Signed
12/24/2023, 07:43 PM EST : Application Created

5 year waiver 1st waiver

Documents Shared With You
ARO Decision
Please review the documents
Status History (5)
10/21/2024, 10:30 AM EDT : Status changed to Completed
12/15/2023, 11:07 AM EST : Status changed to Submitted to ARO
12/1/2023, 02:42 PM EST : Status changed to Paid
12/1/2023, 01:58 PM EST : Status changed to Signed
11/28/2023, 09:45 AM EST : Application Create

@appliedjanuary I didn't say waiver are not going through. I posted a waiver YESTERDAY. On top of that, Trump doesn't take office until Jan.

I did say I thought it was more likely that "Homeland Security officers might be shorthanded due to other factors" (like being sick etc) but that was at the beginning of the slowdown. Ana had speculated that they were sending more support to the border (because of the election) and then I teased her about "the deep state".

The truth is "sending more people to the border" doesn't affect waiver processing, which is done by office workers who live and work in Virginia. I had also seen YouTubes clearly done by conspiracy nuts who had talked about this. The truth is all we can do is speculate. But clients of mine who cross at Buffalo and process waivers there said the guys in the office simply said they heard it was volume. But, it is POSSIBLE that Ana was completely right, we just don;t have proof either way.

What I can SEE is that something has changed since the fee went up. The lineup is all over the place. I used to be able to predict roughly (which you can clearly see if you look on this forum) the month a waiver would come in, with a few exceptions. Now I get a December, and a July on the same day. Then a November and a February. I look for patterns but there are none that I can see.

Just for the record, Trump is a corrupt person. He is clever and is good at exploiting the "dumb" in people. And the rise of social media has made it easy to pretend "we are all the same", when in fact, that is far from true. Republicans all took turns calling him everything from Hitler to a bozo including his VP, then they all saw he had a cult following and suddenly would literally support him to the gates of hell. Now Ukrainians are going to have to fight, mostly alone. I get upset when I see women and children dying just because Russia decided to invade. So yes, Republicans are pretty awful people and I won;t take that opinion back, but I am happy to listen to alternative opinions.

If you think Trump is "good" for waivers, then you know nothing about waivers. Homeland Security had FAR fewer waivers to deal with then. Trump defunded Homeland Security to the point where BEFORE covid Pearson Airport, the busiest airport for waivers in Canada, had to stop doing them. I used to go every Tuesday morning and sit with the people applying. The Supervisor TOLD me the Administration could not care less, and his officers were upset and refused to work the extra hours so he closed it. Waivers were faster, yes, but during covid I also got many waivers in LESS THAN A WEEK. Did Trump do that? Or covid?

@Loisgh based on what J Rogers just said it seems like our waivers aren’t going to go through now???

@J Rogers lol literally a few weeks ago you said that the slow down was because of “cold and flu” season and that we’re conspiracy theorists for thinking otherwise and then went on some weird anti Republican rant. Now you’re admitting we were right???

@J Rogers so where does this leave the folks waiting to hear back based on GOP and folks like Elon musk / trump

5 year waiver

Documents Shared With You
ARO Decision
Please review the documents
Status History (5)
11/4/2024, 02:48 PM EST : Status changed to Completed
7/17/2024, 02:00 PM EDT : Status changed to Submitted to ARO
6/7/2024, 12:12 PM EDT : Status changed to Paid
6/7/2024, 12:10 PM EDT : Status changed to Signed
5/30/2024, 11:04 AM EDT : Application Created

@appliedjanuary That isn't because of BIDEN-HARRIS. And Trump made this process harder on certain clients. The speed at which it is processed is all about Homeland Security. What have the GOP bitched about constantly? The Border. You think Trump is a good thing for waivers? NO.

Trump simply had less volume of waivers and before the recent problems they were coming in just as fast. Unfortunately this slowdown seems to coincide with the GOP complaining about the border and stopping legislation.

Trump doesn't make things move better. He simply appoints stooges like Elon Musk because they PAID him to. Then he washes his hands.

@Ana1 I wouldn’t speculate on that. My last application in 2019, during the Trump administration, got processed in 7 weeks, and landed me a 5-year waiver in my first try. In the Biden-Harris administration I’ve been waiting almost 10 months for a renewal. Despite the scary “Hitler” rhetoric that gets said from the Left, it was much much easier to get a waiver from Trump.