March 2009 k-1 people

[strega 1]

My reply to my congressman's letter relating USCIS's utterly inadequate "response" to his office's inquiry:

Dear Representative:

I have received your letter of July 9 regarding the status of my I-129F petition as reported to your office by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I am grateful to you and your staff for your efforts to advocate with USCIS on my behalf thus far. Nevertheless, I still have significant concerns regarding USCIS’s response.

First, the statement that USCIS is currently processing I-129F petitions received on or before November 28, 2008 is no different than the information posted on the agency’s website—and is only current as of April 30, over two months ago. Further, USCIS’s online case status system indicates a “Last Updated” date of April 1. These updates are commonly referred to as “touches,” as this data is supposed to be updated whenever a USCIS adjudicator touches the file, even just to move it from one desk to another. The fact that this date was not updated subsequent to your office’s inquiry strongly suggests that USCIS did not even bother to check the actual file. Based on this perfunctory—if not outright dismissive—response from USCIS to your office’s inquiry, it would appear that the agency does not consider itself accountable to elected Members of Congress, much less the United States citizens the agency purports to serve (and whose taxes provide its budget and salaries). This is simply unacceptable.

Moreover, according to your letter, “… the USCIS must follow all U.S. Laws and regulations related to adjudicating visa and immigration cases.” In our phone conversation of July 13, your staffer Betty Lou elaborated on this point, stating that USCIS adjudicates cases in the order they are received. This is simply not the case. I am personally aware of at least two I-129F petitions filed in May that have already been approved. I understand that certain circumstances (e.g., impending military deployment of the U.S. citizen petitioner) qualify petitions for expedited processing; no such circumstances applied to these two cases, however. While USCIS may claim to adhere to a fair and reasonable “first in, first out” policy, in reality the process is by all appearances arbitrary, capricious, and accountable to no one. Once again, this is not acceptable.

In light of the above concerns, I respectfully renew my request that you intervene with USCIS on my behalf—if not to directly expedite the adjudication of my petition per se, then at minimum to transfer it to the California Service Center, which is currently approving petitions filed in March on a daily basis. Considering USCIS’s arbitrary, capricious, and opaque standards for determining the order of processing, and the agency’s dismissive and disrespectful response to your office’s initial inquiry, I believe this request to be eminently fair and reasonable. By aggressively pursuing the remedy outlined above, you will assert appropriate oversight and supervision of an executive branch agency that has hitherto demonstrated a lack of respect and accountability to the legislature; moreover, you will secure fair and equitable treatment for a constituent who is currently inequitably served by USCIS.

Once again, I thank you for the efforts that you and your staff have devoted to this matter thus far; despite USCIS’s unsatisfactory response to this point, I remain hopeful that your office can intervene to bring a fair and expeditious resolution to my case. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.

Respectfully,

(me)

da*n right!!! give it too them!!! they deserve it

[strega 1]

i just think that this RIGHT way of bringing your SO to america, is so ridiculas!!! we have to wait so long for it and we are not getting any younger........makes me understand why people just come over on a travel visa and get married and stay...........why not?? its too long of a wait and to me its just a money making scheme...........money for this, money for that////////its like, OK, you can pay us and you can come to america, but when you get here, you still will pay us more..until you get it....omg, im am so getting tired.....pretty soon im opting for plan B

Edited July 16, 2009 by strega

[newlyweds 0]

i just think that this RIGHT way of bringing your SO to america, is so ridiculas!!! we have to wait so long for it and we are not getting any younger........makes me understand why people just come over on a travel visa and get married and stay...........why not?? its too long of a wait and to me its just a money making scheme...........money for this, money for that////////its like, OK, you can pay us and you can come to america, but when you get here, you still will pay us more..until you get it....omg, im am so getting tired.....pretty soon im opting for plan B

lol we actually planned on getting a tourist visa for me to go to okinawa but then we thought it would be better to see each other in the states rather than there, saves money too lol there's a recession so we'll just wait and it's annoying..i havent seen him since forever!

[R&AINC 1]

!

Edited July 16, 2009 by R&AINC

[Rebeca&David 0]

hi everyone!

its been a long time since ive came on.

update on my fiance is ex fiance.

sunday she had told me she had gotten a really good

translation job in fortaleza,brazil and she

didnt want to move to the usa and leave everything and everyone.

i did all i could to make it work but she wasnt helping out any.

she chose money and work over her "soulmate" and person she cant live without.

HA

im not going to cancel it bc i wanna know how long it wouldve took for the NOA2

but she will get it in her mail and probably throw it out.

thanks to everyone, your advise helped me alot ,

AT LEAST I CANT SAY I DIDNT TRY!!

Carpe Diem

seize the day becuase you never know when your life will be flip flopped!

tchau!

david wilkerson ( no more Rebeca cavalcante barbosa)

it must not of meant to be

David,

First let me say how sorry I am that this has happened... truly I am.

Being older than the average bear here... and... well.... frankly almost as old as dirt itself... Let me also say... give it some time. Obviously we are not privy to all that has transpired for her and with the two of you and maybe there is even things happening that you are unaware of. All that aside, give it some time and try not to burn any bridges.

I remember talking with my SO early on about how brave she was for thinking about leaving everything and everyone behind to start a new life. To be honest, I am not sure I could do it. In fact, I am sure I couldn't do it. Maybe time will help things to work out between you... so I wouldn't cancel the application either. Maybe it will not work out, but you have nothing to lose by keeping the file active.

Keep the communication between you two open, honest and sincere. Try to be understanding (I know, easier said than done), try to be reassuring as well.

I truly wish you the best of luck in what ever you decide is best for you.

Richard

its been since saturday that i havent talked to her.

i just got a Carpe Diem / Dei Gratio latin anigram tattoo yesterday.

"by the graces of god, seize the day"

i prayed with all my heart and soul for him to not take my rebeca away from me and to help her be strong and he took her from me.

live each day to the fulliest becuase your under his graces!

Think this for a second. Would you leave everything to go to Brazil?Be honest to yourself. You do not need to write the answer here.Just answer to yourself. Would you leave everything to go to Brazil? Maybe the answer will make you feel better.

Take away the prejudice that US is better than Brazil if you have it.

You would be leaving your family, your friends, your job, what made you what you are.

and if she has doubts now, imagine what can happen if she does come. She will miss home she will be sad, and she will make you sad.

If she decided not to come now, respect her decision. Once i heard:

let the cage open and let the bird free, if she comes back ... ...if not...

i wish everyday we could switch.

i would leave here to be with her

thats it!

i love her so much!

[melanne 0]

Does anyone know anything about the K-1 and the whole work permit in the US thing?

WE have applied for the K-1 but now my fiance has been approached about a job in the US to start as soon as October, Nov. or December. Our NOA-1 date is March 12th. We are hoping to get married in the fall, but what are the rules with working in the US with the K-1?

I am so confused...

[Stephen + Elisha 92]

Does anyone know anything about the K-1 and the whole work permit in the US thing?

WE have applied for the K-1 but now my fiance has been approached about a job in the US to start as soon as October, Nov. or December. Our NOA-1 date is March 12th. We are hoping to get married in the fall, but what are the rules with working in the US with the K-1?

I am so confused...

Slightly but...

K1 holders are authorized to work—but remember that the visa itself only permits a 90-day stay in the US for the purpose of getting married. Hence, the employment authorization is also only good for 90 days. In order to stay authorized to work, you have to apply for an Employment Authorization Document concurrently with the I-485 AOS filing.

[Richard-Joanna 1]

Does anyone know anything about the K-1 and the whole work permit in the US thing?

WE have applied for the K-1 but now my fiance has been approached about a job in the US to start as soon as October, Nov. or December. Our NOA-1 date is March 12th. We are hoping to get married in the fall, but what are the rules with working in the US with the K-1?

I am so confused...

It is my understanding that you can no longer get authorized at POE and have to wait for the AOS... I think there is a thread on it here somewhere.

[AmyStan 0]

Does anyone know anything about the K-1 and the whole work permit in the US thing?

WE have applied for the K-1 but now my fiance has been approached about a job in the US to start as soon as October, Nov. or December. Our NOA-1 date is March 12th. We are hoping to get married in the fall, but what are the rules with working in the US with the K-1?

I am so confused...

Might check the thread below. If it's not in there, check other "pinned" posts under the major topic. Best of luck!

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=180237

[Stephen + Elisha 92]

It is my understanding that you can no longer get authorized at POE and have to wait for the AOS... I think there is a thread on it here somewhere.

Ooops, I think you're right. USCIS's page on the I-765 Application for EAD says that fiances of US citizens have to apply for an EAD in order to work legally in the US.

On the other hand, I've also read recent reports of (some) POEs that are still stamping the employment authorization into the passport or I-94 at entry.

So, I think the "rule" is that K-1s now have to file an I-765 to work. But we all know how well USCIS follows its own rules—"petitions are processed in the order they are received," right?

[missmissy 38]

There is a HUGE debate about this issue in another thread or 100 here on VJ. It is my understanding that you can't work until you have the EAD, but there are some that say you can under certain circumstances. I would start reading everything I could around here about it.

[AmyStan 0]

How many days before you leave to see Lars, Missy? I know the answer, but want to read it. I imagine you can tell us how many hours.......

[melanne 0]

Thanks for everyone for your response.

As far as it being 'slightly off topic' I didn't think it was; we can all complain, vent, and question anything about the K-1 visa on this forum, right?

Thanks everyone! Hope everyone is having a great week and hanging in there! We are certainly trying our best.

[Stephen + Elisha 92]

Thanks for everyone for your response.

As far as it being 'slightly off topic' I didn't think it was; we can all complain, vent, and question anything about the K-1 visa on this forum, right?

Thanks everyone! Hope everyone is having a great week and hanging in there! We are certainly trying our best.

I only meant by the "slightly off topic" remark that you might get more/better info in the Process & Procedures forum than here in the March 2009 VSC forum, where none of us have actually gotten a K-1 visa yet (thanks a pantload, VSC!).

I wasn't trying to be snarky... sorry if I came off that way

[sensetarget 0]

anyhow , back on topic ? Hopefully we all pass through