Senators listen to registered voters

[athena_ny 1]

Okay..

I'm gonna open my big mouth again

I'm definately a newbie here too, and know very little about the entire process. I know very little about how long it used to take to process a person through the immigration gates compared to how long it takes now. I don't know anything at all about how necessary it is for it to take this long, why it does, what sort of funding goes into the system, etc.

I DO think it really sucks that everyone filing through the California Service Center have to wait longer, and if it's true that they've just come to a dead standstill then yeh, that's really bad, need to do something about that. And it would be cool if there were any feasible way for it to be more predictable how long it'll take, from day of sending the I-129 to day of getting visa in hand, so people can plan their lives more freely. I don't really know if there's a feasible way to do even that, though, what with everyone's case being very different.

Here's the thing. I don't really think it's that bad to have to wait six to nine months, I guess is the average, to be with the one you love. Don't get me wrong, it's hard, I know it's hard, I've been commuting back and forth with the guy I love for years, and we get to see each other twice a year. My point is that I'll gladly wait that long or however long it takes to be with him and to be able to marry him. I understand there have to immigration rules and policies and securities that take time like this. I'm perfectly OK with waiting all these months or years because I know how strong we are as a couple.

Personally, I'm glad it's a bit hard to get a fiance into the country. I think one of the guides on the site said that almost all, over 90% of the petitioners, do successfully get their fiance in. That's pretty amazing, I think, and I'm really glad that I don't have to worry about us being rejected and us having to find some way to live together. I'm glad it's harder to go through the process and that the process is this long, though, because I don't really want just anybody and everybody that starts up a 'fling' to be able to come into the country no problems, stay a few months until a break up, leave again, whatever, etc. I guess that might cause stability problems for the country, I don't know. I think maybe the government thinks the same way. Maybe the entire process is long and difficult on purpose; maybe the government wants to weed out the couples that think they're in love and think they're committed, but then don't even consider themselves worth all this hassle. That doesn't seem like too awful of a thing to me. Imagine how you'd feel if you gave up your citizenship somewhere, uprooted your whole life to move here, and then found out the whole thing was really just a whim and that you've really, really messed up.

I'll wait in line like everybody else, I'm okay with it. Maybe it used to be tons better but I don't know, as many problems as we have federally right now, I wouldn't prioritize this one.

If there's anybody reading that has been waiting an extremely long time, or is dealing with an embassy that makes it particularly hard for you to get over here, anything like that, I'm not talking about you. I think your cases should be improved, yes, it should be fair for everybody. I just mean the on-average six to nine months isn't that bad.

I agree, to some level. Reasonable wait times for everyone? Fabulous. I do have an issue with the wait times some people get put through after they get in the country, but that's neither here nor there in this discussion.

If people want to improve wait times, I don't think letters saying, "USCIS needs better processing times!" is the answer. USCIS needs more money to pay more people to adjudicate and process petitions and applications - everything costs money and they can only do so much with what is given to them. The government is more concerned with spending money in Iraq than spending money on even giving our own citizens the tools their need to survive, they most certainly aren't as concerned with processing times as we'd like to believe.

Making them concerned is a great idea, but how do we do that? Not sure.

As for not being able to work on a fiance visa...well, that's not really that uncommon. If you go to the UK on a fiance visa, you can't work until you have a marriage visa or some such (ukimmigration.com). Fiances aren't even married yet and the I-94 expires in 3 months, anyway. Work authorization makes little sense with such a short duration of I-94 anyway. Quicker turnaround for EADs, however, would make more sense.

I'm not really sure I think K-1 should have a long duration of permissable stay or be multi-entry, though. Or be automatically work authorized. K-3's are valid for 2 years and are multi entry - but they have to apply for an EAD. Now we're going to give fiance/es more rights than husbands and wives?

Edited January 19, 2008 by athena_ny