Vermont, 5 months is up

[Tero 105]

Maybe we all should just physically go to Vermont and protest one weekend.

That is going to be good ...I can tell!

[Al422 221]

Now that sounds like a good idea!!!

Count me in! When do we want to go?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Count me in! When do we want to go?

The snow has been a little light so far, but if you wait a couple weeks you would at least be able to get some great skiing in. JayPeak is pretty close to St Albans. The people inside VSC would likely not know you were there and you would be protesting mainly the mail room. The adjudicators and supervisors are in other offices in Essex, VT. They don't give you that address.

[thaiv 15]

The snow has been a little light so far, but if you wait a couple weeks you would at least be able to get some great skiing in. JayPeak is pretty close to St Albans. The people inside VSC would likely not know you were there and you would be protesting mainly the mail room. The adjudicators and supervisors are in other offices in Essex, VT. They don't give you that address.

Sounds like a fun itinerary:

1. Protest by their mail room and see if anyone notices anything.

2. Go ski a bit to work out some stress.

3. Travel to Essex, VT and try to find their office. By the time we find their office to protest we might have some NOA2's. So its a win-win situation. You either get your NOA2 in the meantime or you find the office and protest a bit.

4. Say cheers with a wine glass filled with the government's kool-aid.

[thelastpetitioner 218]

as much as i understand what you guys are going through ( hell im not done with the process yet,and i waited nearly 5 months to just HEAR i was approved ) protesting ( or even joking about it )is taking a bit too far,write to the first lady or something.

protesting wont get you anywhere because there is the five months goal and you guys havent passed it,if you want a big change,contact a big person with a LOT of pull

Edited December 13, 2010 by thelastpetitioner

[thaiv 15]

Maybe we should contact Obama. He seems to be doing a lot for the US nowadays.

[The Clown 1]

I just had a little look online about this haitan thing thats holding us back. I never said anything on it before as although I had my own opinion I thought it may sound a bit crass if I start bumping my gums about disaster victims getting visas before me. I may be totally misinterpreting this but as far as I can see visas are being given to haitans already living illegally in the US to allow them to work legally and send money back home to their loved ones in need. WOW.. I fully sympathise with said loved ones but the people living illegally in the US are no doubt working illegally in the US and are still sending money home regardless.. Am I wrong about this.. it seems so absurd that Im surely picking it up wrong? can anyone advise me on this?

ALso, I respect everyones decision to go about things in whichever way they see fit but I don't think the advice with regards to "have patience" "concentrate on other things" "get a hobby" is right after 5 months. Fair enough within the 5 but now is the time for all of us to focus on NOTHING BUT getting this N0A2. If we all keep calling and our calls are logged the penny has to drop sometime. Yeah some approaches may not work but the one way I can guarantee will not work is sitting in silence waiting for it to come to you.. Come tommorow, ITS ON!! good luck everyone, lets keep each other informed and remain supportive..

Thanks !!! Calling USCIS tomorrow again !!!

[thelastpetitioner 218]

Maybe we should contact Obama. He seems to be doing a lot for the US nowadays.

or a couple of congressmen and women from different states

[staceluvyou 6]

Amen to that Hank....I am so tired of reading fraudulent applications on here and other groups.

me too it's really sad and it makes it even harder for ppl who genuinely wants to b with their loved ones

[Zharren Young 32]

Another "oh poor Haitians" post by another member who already completed his journey and who is not being hurt by them. We seem to have a lot of this here.

I never said I had a problem waiting in line behind other AMERICAN CITIZENS who have been waiting longer than I have. But I do have two problems:

1. Giving priority to ANY foreigner, Haitian or otherwise, over American citizens.

2. In general, not having enough staff despite the enormous fees we pay them to process our applications in a reasonable (i.e. 60 days) amount of time.

EVEN IF the Haitians should someway, somehow deserve priority over taxpaying, voting American citizens, THEY ARE ALREADY HERE. My Elena is trapped in Russia.

So no matter how you look at it, the claim that Haitians deserve priority over us is BS, plain and simple.

:thumbs:

kudos!!!

us too is over the 5month time frame & called USCIS and the operator said the actual wait is 6mos-9months. very frustrating

emailed them last friday but still no reply at all

[Oasis 0]

I feel your pain but take a look at my timeline to see what I went thru !!! And that was not the end of it, my fiance also required a waiver.

So waiting 5 months should be a piece of cake for everyone... seriously I wish all I would had to wait was 5 months.

Soooo..... everyone, be patient, stop calling the VSC - it does not do you any good, your NOA2's will come, sooner then later.

[Afrikan Queen 11]

:thumbs:

kudos!!!

us too is over the 5month time frame & called USCIS and the operator said the actual wait is 6mos-9months. very frustrating

emailed them last friday but still no reply at all

I hope it's not really taking that long. If that is true, why don't they update their website? Getting everyone's hopes up for nothing.

[Jun&Scheillo 6]

I hope it's not really taking that long. If that is true, why don't they update their website? Getting everyone's hopes up for nothing.

some operator read somethingbfrom a script about the national average wait. That's all!

[Jun&Scheillo 6]

One thing I would like to add here. . . The squeakiest wheel does not get the grease with USCIS. USCIS ignores the squeakiest wheel unless it is the case that is in front of them at the time. USCIS handles hundreds of thousands of visa requests every year - and the Haitian situation is miniscule when looking at the overal picture.

A while ago we had an adjudicator who works for USCIS going through the process himself. He posted some very interesting insights into how cases are adjudicated. Basically, files are received at an intake center and given a quick summary. If they are incomplete, they are returned to the sender. If they appear to be complete, then the check is cashed and they are sent into a line up. The line up is huge - forget huge - it is humungous. USCIS allocates the time it has its workers spend on applications dependent on what ones are most immediate in need. Employment type visas are a higher priority than family based visas (a few years ago I saw a summary of 'priority' ratings for the different visa types - fiance visas were near the bottom). It is a good idea to remember that what is your highest priority is actually not very high with USCIS and complaining about it won't make an iota of difference to them. The employment visa year starts in October so virtually every October nearly all of the family based applications come to a near halt while USCIS processes the employment visas to get on top of them. The family based visas then become backlogged and around the end of the year they seem to start working through that backlog again. An adjudicator does not know from day to day what types of applications they will be processing - that decision is made higher up the ladder. There are not nearly enough Haitians in the whole country if each and every one of them were applying for some sort of immigration benefit to interfere with the processing schedules set by USCIS. Don't blame the Haitians - blame the priority lists of USCIS which puts money making, investment, employment type of applications at the top and family related applications at the bottom. That is the culprit.

Secondly, I do understand exactly what you are going through. 7 years ago that was me, crying in anger and frustration as our wait times changed from 160 days then when that time passed, became 220 days and then 280 days. Other people who were similarly delayed (this was the Texas Processing Center in those days) actually picketed the TSC and made the news. It didn't make a difference - not the picketing (although a few people were arrested), not the adverse media, not even public letters to the then Director of Immigration. One of the hardest lessons you will learn through this process is that USCIS - especially with the I-129f - is impenetrable and unperturbable - they move on their own schedule and they lose no sleep over how much frustration, anxiety, fear and heart-break they cause. It took more than 6 months to get my I-129f NOA2, so you can see, these delays are nothing new. Those of you who applied in June will probably be receiving your NOA2s over the next 5 to 6 weeks. Those that are approved earlier than that are usually cases that are pulled out of line to be used as a training case for new adjudicators. While it only takes 15 minutes to read and approve your application it spends the rest of its time waiting its turn in line behind all of the other thousand of applications that have also been submitted.

This is just your first stage of waiting. Once the NOA2 is approved, most of you will be in for a wait until the Consulate can schedule an interview. For some Consulates this will happen quickly - for others it will be another 5 or 6 months (Canada, for instance). Then after you are together, you apply for a green card - that is another wait. For me, it was just short of 2 years (no RFEs, no problems, just waiting its turn in line). Then you have a 2 year wait before you again have to wait for Removal of Conditions. Ours took 1 year to be removed. You finally get your last - and shortest wait - when you apply for citizenship.

So, yes, it isn't fair; it isn't right and it is extremely frustrating. Get angry, write letters, make your problems public (which has happened several times over the years I have been here as well - lots of media coverage of the horrible waiting times for fiancees and spouses) but don't go blaming one group of people or one disaster or another for the wait. It is irrelevant. USCIS is understaffed and overworked. You are on the bottom rung of their priority ladder. It is as simple as that.,

All I can promise is that the waiting does end eventually and tell you that this is, indeed, the absolutely worst part of the whole process because of the uncertainty and the distance from the one you love.

Hang in there everyone. Vent away - but please vent your frustration in the right direction - at USCIS.

Thanks a million for the info.

I have tried to tell people here that the USCIS have always been making changes. one filer could go thru this with no delays if lucky, but other than that there is always extra work to shift over.Vermont for instance, seems to be fastest and therefore most of the xtras get dumped on them. It looks like they are catching up now with the majority of TPS cases. Soon they will be ahead of the other SCs ...That's until the USCIS decides to dump on them AGAIN!

Thanks!!!

[Woofi 0]

how much more time