2nd Senator Contact

[I & B 273]

A lot of people say it's no use to call Senators and Congressman and the reason why I say that is because of how arrogant he was responding. So yes he's just trying to jump in line.

I'm not going to explain why I take it personally but I know some people who haved babies and who'd be the ones to complain.

And for a K1 yes we have to marry.

If you're going to jump down someone's throat, you should probably extend the courtesy of explaining why. But, whatever. You seem very frustrated, and justifiably so. Everyone around here is.

There are definitely quite a few stories of senators/congressmen helping people out on this board, though. But if you are truly just resigned to being helpless, I suppose I can understand why you carry a chip on your shoulder and vent at those who refuse to be similarly helpless. And, if you truly thought that a senator or congressperson would do nothing, why do you even care how someone else wastes their time writing to them? In your world, it should be impossible to "jump in line."

Edited March 23, 2013 by I & B

[Ronn63 41]

Hi! You haven't seen you honey since October? I haven't seen my man since end of July. Why don't you wait your turn??? It's just whining....

Now you're whining. God!! Why can't you people just shut up and let me do what I want in my own way?

[Ronn63 41]

If I could close this thread now, I would. Like I said before, I'm not apologizing for my actions. It's your choice to do what you want. It's my choice to do what I want.

[Oregon Bound 30]

I don't think it matters how long you have been waiting. I should imagine a lot of new filers are seeing how long some of us have been waiting and are considering writing letters way before they get to 7 or 8 months of waiting. I don't blame them. If I had known back in August 2012 that the 5 month processing date was going to extend so much, I too would have urged my fiance to write letters way before now.

As the beneficiary, my voice may well not be heard but my fiance has written to his congressman and I am going to send in a supporting letter which will be more personal than just evidence. Maybe it will help us stand out from the crowd and have the congressman's office look into it. We may just get ignored, we may not. We won't know until we try.

All I know is this procedure is making me ill. The stress is intolerable and for my own sanity I have to atleast try to get things moving and help raise awareness of just how badly we are being treated by this whole process.

[bigdog 376]

Our congressman was a waste of time, FYI. You should be DACA then you will get action.

[Mumu 10]

If you're going to jump down someone's throat, you should probably extend the courtesy of explaining why. But, whatever. You seem very frustrated, and justifiably so. Everyone around here is.

There are definitely quite a few stories of senators/congressmen helping people out on this board, though. But if you are truly just resigned to being helpless, I suppose I can understand why you carry a chip on your shoulder and vent at those who refuse to be similarly helpless. And, if you truly thought that a senator or congressperson would do nothing, why do you even care how someone else wastes their time writing to them? In your world, it should be impossible to "jump in line."

We did our papers with the help of a company, we paid them. For many reasons, we couldn't do any other way. And this lady was very firm in saying that in no way senators will help and we have to wait.

So instead of doing things personally, why don't people just make a thread saying : ok folks let's all do contact Senators Congressmen so we can make things move?

By way of giving links, letter type, etc...

I just discovered that it was possible to do that and many people are ignorant of this too. So it'd be nicer to help each other instead of doing things on our own...

I've sent some mails to some people to see why they were having their NOA2 before me and all of them said because they contacted the Senator. But then, I discovered that some of them were military.

But some people also contacted their Senators and the CSC did nothing.

Yes I'm bitter as some man said recently on his thread We paid 435£ for a service that is not there.... The promise was 6 months and now I'm entering the 8th month and in 3 months I'm kicked out of my house and nowhere to go!!! Not even allowed to see my man and this, since end of July!

[Mumu 10]

I don't think it matters how long you have been waiting. I should imagine a lot of new filers are seeing how long some of us have been waiting and are considering writing letters way before they get to 7 or 8 months of waiting. I don't blame them. If I had known back in August 2012 that the 5 month processing date was going to extend so much, I too would have urged my fiance to write letters way before now.

As the beneficiary, my voice may well not be heard but my fiance has written to his congressman and I am going to send in a supporting letter which will be more personal than just evidence. Maybe it will help us stand out from the crowd and have the congressman's office look into it. We may just get ignored, we may not. We won't know until we try.

All I know is this procedure is making me ill. The stress is intolerable and for my own sanity I have to atleast try to get things moving and help raise awareness of just how badly we are being treated by this whole process.

I agree with you.

Me too it's making me ill. I'm 50 and we don't handle stress the same way. I sold my house, will get kicked out soon with furniture in a container, no more job either... And a 17 year old daughter coming with me and I have to find a school for her as soon as I arrive plus another move because my man has a small apartment... I'm supposed to move out June 20th and in May the Embassy will have American/French days off which means it's not the right moment to go to the Embassy due to many people who ask for Visas to go study... Fortunately, with the agreements with USA/France we can travel without visa.

Finally since a lot of people seem to be dependant on CSC, we should ALL write letters!!! Maybe it'll change something.

[Ronn63 41]

I agree with you.

Me too it's making me ill. I'm 50 and we don't handle stress the same way. I sold my house, will get kicked out soon with furniture in a container, no more job either... And a 17 year old daughter coming with me and I have to find a school for her as soon as I arrive plus another move because my man has a small apartment... I'm supposed to move out June 20th and in May the Embassy will have American/French days off which means it's not the right moment to go to the Embassy due to many people who ask for Visas to go study... Fortunately, with the agreements with USA/France we can travel without visa.

Finally since a lot of people seem to be dependant on CSC, we should ALL write letters!!! Maybe it'll change something.

I'm sorry for your situation. I can't imagine what you must be going through. But, you also have a great point!! If more of us would contact our representatives and display a united front, perhaps something would have to happen.

[Mumu 10]

I'm sorry for your situation. I can't imagine what you must be going through. But, you also have a great point!! If more of us would contact our representatives and display a united front, perhaps something would have to happen.

That's what I'm trying to make people understand, with my own words of course. And of course, I don't tell everything of my life. There's more that bugs me. I can't even work here neither in the USA... No one here would hire me knowing I'm leaving and I would not even think about lying to a company and put them in a #######. As we say in France : no one can live with water and love....

And I didn't even know how to contact for help if I didn't ask questions around me.

[loladolly 51]

The thing is this whole process is really frustrating and stressing. The real problem is that CSC has just stopped working on I129F for months now. The only few people that skip through are people who get help from their senator or congressman. This is what happened to me, thanks to my congressman who emailed us on tuesday, our case is now with an officer for adjudication. I am now waiting for an answer (which will probably be a RFE)

The only thing that really bugs me is the same thing as Louis&Mumu. Some people who are from later receipt dates such as end of august or september, who are lucky to have a senator or congressman helping them get their approval or RFE while some others with earlier NOA1 date are still waiting and even with the help of a representative. USCIS is the one to blame because for some reasons they get along better with some of our representatives than others and are the ones who decide to accept a request or not. I first contacted a senator and we just heard the same ole answer about them processing july18th cases while someone i talked to at the time with a later receipt date than ours had their approval with the help of their senator from a different neighbour state. And when i contacted the congressman it just worked and only God knows why.

So yes this is really frustrating when you see that july/august filers don't get through anything and are feeling helpless while others filers from september and beyond who have been waiting less time just get through this whole mess. Of course we feel happy for you guys but there is a bitter feeling with it. But for sure it is not because USCIS expedites your case (can we even talk about expedite after 6 months or more?) that it keeps them from working on earlier cases because they just have been idle on k1 for months. When i joined VJ back i september, they were starting to approve some early july cases and here we are in end of march and still the same BS.

Also some people are probably feeling more stressed out because they have outside conditions that make them in a hurry and have more to lose. Personally, i have a 22 months old son that has seen his father 3 times for a few weeks since we have started this process (we were living together in the US before), he is growing up fast and this mess with CSC is making me angry as well.

[Mumu 10]

The thing is this whole process is really frustrating and stressing. The real problem is that CSC has just stopped working on I129F for months now. The only few people that skip through are people who get help from their senator or congressman. This is what happened to me, thanks to my congressman who emailed us on tuesday, our case is now with an officer for adjudication. I am now waiting for an answer (which will probably be a RFE)

The only thing that really bugs me is the same thing as Louis&Mumu. Some people who are from later receipt dates such as end of august or september, who are lucky to have a senator or congressman helping them get their approval or RFE while some others with earlier NOA1 date are still waiting and even with the help of a representative. USCIS is the one to blame because for some reasons they get along better with some of our representatives than others and are the ones who decide to accept a request or not. I first contacted a senator and we just heard the same ole answer about them processing july18th cases while someone i talked to at the time with a later receipt date than ours had their approval with the help of their senator from a different neighbour state. And when i contacted the congressman it just worked and only God knows why.

So yes this is really frustrating when you see that july/august filers don't get through anything and are feeling helpless while others filers from september and beyond who have been waiting less time just get through this whole mess. Of course we feel happy for you guys but there is a bitter feeling with it. But for sure it is not because USCIS expedites your case (can we even talk about expedite after 6 months or more?) that it keeps them from working on earlier cases because they just have been idle on k1 for months. When i joined VJ back i september, they were starting to approve some early july cases and here we are in end of march and still the same BS.

Also some people are probably feeling more stressed out because they have outside conditions that make them in a hurry and have more to lose. Personally, i have a 22 months old son that has seen his father 3 times for a few weeks since we have started this process (we were living together in the US before), he is growing up fast and this mess with CSC is making me angry as well.

Well said Lola!! Or more acurately : Well written!!

[Gosia & Tito 199]

I'll wait a couple of weeks to see if I get a response, then it's on to plan B. If anyone from his office responds, I will provide more information as needed.

You can contact by phone and check if your letter has been received. The added personal contact can actually help; most often, it is an aid who answers the phone, but there is often someone that is directly taking your request and working on it; if you get with this person, you would have a bigger chance to explain fully your situation and create a level of empathy that is not possible with just a letter.

They can only do an inquiry, but it is an inquiry with a nudge; and while they can't force USCIS to do anything, it often helps to move things along.

Wish you the best

[Darnell 8,478]

I'm sorry for your situation. I can't imagine what you must be going through. But, you also have a great point!! If more of us would contact our representatives and display a united front, perhaps something would have to happen.

Absolutely agree !

A United Front is useful.

These DACA petitions and the subsequent reshuffling of adjudication priorities for OTHER visa types (mine, IR-1, yours, K-1, for two examples) is absolutely shameful !

All petitions require intake of monies, adjudication is done by people who are paid from our fees, not paid directly by yearly budget for human resources.

So if more petitions, is more fees. More fees? Can have more humans working, so the lag should not even exist

The problem, as I see it, is that USCIS never ramped up properly to handle DACA. And it shows, across all processing facilities. I'm so pissed off about this, I want the 11 responsible USCIS directors and sub-directors FIRED, as they made the wrong choice for DACA adjudication implementation.

If there were a united front on this, and enough congressmen stood together to facilitate the change, we'd have something.

I'm sorry, I really was trying to ascertain if you were writing a letter of complaint or writing a request for congressional inquiry on your casefile status.

Good Luck, whatever your doing, however it turns out.

[Darnell 8,478]

You can contact by phone and check if your letter has been received. The added personal contact can actually help; most often, it is an aid who answers the phone, but there is often someone that is directly taking your request and working on it; if you get with this person, you would have a bigger chance to explain fully your situation and create a level of empathy that is not possible with just a letter.

They can only do an inquiry, but it is an inquiry with a nudge; and while they can't force USCIS to do anything, it often helps to move things along.

Wish you the best

Yup, each congressman's office has this human,

is called: Immigration Liason Staffer human.

Is very useful to have direct contact with this human, and each ILS Human is actually reachable via telephone, email, fax and postal letter. I not suggest postal letter, as all postal letters going to congressmans' offices are delayed for 2 weeks for white powder scanning by trained usps and fbi personnel.

I've done 2 congressional inquiries so far, and I never speak with congressman. I always get the ILS human. In fact, I knew to ask for the ILS human for the first contact, and talked a bit about these processing redirections and DACA in some depth.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Darnell

[pachacuti 154]

Wow. What a weird thing for you to take so personally for some reason. You don't have to marry him. And he's not trying to jump in line; he's trying to make the line move faster, something everyone around these parts should be doing. It sounds like it'd be healthy for you to constructively vent like Ronn did.

I totally agree with this sentiment. While on an individual basis it may "seem" selfish, it is not. Each of us is responsible for our own cases. We need to make sure they are adjudicated in fair and swift manner. We are the only people who really care about our cases. The effort required to do this is monumental, and often appears futile. But, don't focus on the individual here, focus on the composite. If all of us are complaining and pushing and making this inequity and injustice known, this is the only real shot we have to make a difference. Complacency is getting us nowhere.