Everyone wants to sound like they know what they are doing. While that is laudable, you need to make sure that you are using terms properly. Failure to do so can lead to confusion at best, and (more likey) serious problems at worst.

The single worst misuse of immigration terminology is the way most people use the word "visa." Most people in the immigration community confuse the term "visa" with the proper term "status". This confusion often leads to disasterous results.

When asked about overseas travel, I tell people that as long as they have an unexpired, valid visa in the proper classification, they may go abroad and return. I am always careful, however, to make sure that they understand what I mean when I use the word "visa." Unfortunately, only about 25% have a correct understanding.
Without a clarification, the other 75% would likely go abroad, only to find that they had no travel document with which to re-enter the U.S.

Perhaps the second most misunderstood term is "interfile." You can drop the "inter" off of this word and it will not lose its meaning. Interfiling simiply means placing a document into an existing file. It should not be confused with what you want the agency to do with that document, once it is in the file.

Think of the analogy of driving and destination. If you get in a taxi and tell the driver to "drive," that is the functional equivalent of telling the CIS to interfile something. What you want to tell the taxi driver is the destination you want to reach. The "drive" part is understood.

With the CIS, if you simply tell them to interfile something, that's what they will do. They will place the new document into an existing file. If you want them to do something more, like substitute it for another document, or transfer a priority date to a document in the file, then you need to tell them that explicitly. The "interfile" part is implicitly understood.

Everyone likes to use technical jargon. It makes us sound like we know what we are talking about. The only problem is that when we use technical jargon improperly, it really underlines the fact that we have no idea as to what we are talking about.