..."return to being a full-time husband and father..."

[Karaoke 0]

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments...hly_April08.pdf

Just came across Gonzalez' farewell letter.. "About time!!:, many of us probably feel.

In my opinion Gonzalez retires with a heavy responsibility: messing up USCIS with a fee increase that was ill-timed and especially not planned for properly. He had been warned that raising fees like that would spell havoc for many million people. It did.

We can discuss whether he did anything good before then; from the little research I did in the last months, I dare say yes; honestly I do not feel we cannot blame him for not fixing something that was already in a pitiful state. In fact he had been doing ok until 2006. But the fee increase huge blunder is totally his fault. Someone MUST take responsibility, they cannot always pass the buck like that! The advisors, the director, the secretary, Congress, the president.

I do not disagree with raising fees to fund efforts toawards modernization (another "about time"), but concede me that the way they did it is utterly stupid. As I always say, if a private company were in charge, half of these people would be fired, starting from the top...

Call me rethoric but, I think that if Mr. Gonzalez had never forgotten he is a husband and a father perhaps he would have given more thought about USCIS' priorities and he would have done a better job. I have nothing against K-1 filers, but I can't understand why they are privileged over already-formed families. In fact, I feel we should all get the same priority K-1 and Immigrants.

As I stated before, I think the process should be reorganized and decentralized to the periphery, keeping only coordination, intelligence and fraud control at the core. This will never be possible until they understand that IT and better processes are the key.

On a final note, although I have nothing against religion, I can do without Mr. Gonzalez' blessings: all I want is that he moves out asap and that someone smart, active, and especially sensitive to the sufferings of all the families and people involved in immigration take the lead and sorts out this mess. I hope the new director never forgets he is a husband and perhaps a father. Dear Mr. New Director, every morning when you get up, remember about how lucky you are in having your wife and sons and daughters by your side, and give thought to how important that is to the well-being of your country and countrymen.

My "grumble allotment" for the week is over, now back to my drug: checking the web for a touch! At least until next week! Next week I'll be in the US (hopefully!) and for at least a few weeks, I won't check too often!

Good luck to us all.

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I will not say that everything that is wrong with the immigration system is his fault, I can only say that the fee increase could have been handled much better. In my opinion they gave people way too much advance notice, one thing that every single lawyer said to me was "you better start the process before July because the fees will be going up". The end result of everyone trying to save a few bucks cost them precious time with their families. Dont get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with trying to save a few dollars on an already expensive process but I am sure that the time lost was not worth that little bit of money saved. The immigration system needs some serious improvement in many different areas. The ideas and goals that Mr . Gonzalez had were good ideas and goals that really did need some funding. If we look at what NVC is trying to do with the online pay system I am sure we can all agree that once it is up and running it will be a wonderful thing, I believe that USCIS had plans to utilize their computer software a bit more too . I can only imagine that the payments sent before the fee increase only pay for the amount of overtime that USCIS is forced to impose because they are being attacked from many different angles. Having all those potential voters still waiting for the case to be approved has caused some complaints for sure, Congress men getting letters left and right because applications are taking longer than they should, certain media such as the NY Times pointing out every mistake they make , and the list could go on. Everyone who filed after the fee increase will be funding some of the new systems they plan on putting in place but most of us will never see what changes have been made because by the time they are done with this backlog and start making changes for the better most of us will be done with the immigration process.

Now about that K1 visa comment, I have to say that I agree with you 100%, before the fee increase the average wait time for a K1 visa was 3 months. Now K1's might be about a 6 month wait while people with a family need to wait 6 months just to get the I 130 approved. Granted that they will have to do AOS processing as well but who cares because they will have their spouse with them, where is the stress in that? It is true that if you were not already married to your spouse and spoke with a lawyer as to what would be the best path they would suggest the K1 because your loved one would be here much sooner but where is the logic in that. I feel the same way about work related visas, if one family member gets their work visa it is a much faster process for them to get their family here with them as well.