Formal call for immigration reform...

[kitkat1 5]

On the bright side, I would not have met you guys!!

Aw William, you always see the silver lining!

[meauxna 15]

I think we would all use that approach, if practical and moreover possible. I tried and failed miserably.

Came up short on evidence of the Ceremony. Would have saved many months of this BS.

On the bright side, I would not have met you guys!!

Poor William.. you would've met *me* sooner!

Can you give me the 2 minute tour of why your I-130 didn't fly in Jakarta? I was just looking, and it seems like they will still accept a locally filed petition without restrictions. License wasn't sufficient, they were looking for a particular ceremony?

Just curious, and it may help others in the future. PM is ok if you don't want to post it for all and sundry. Or not, if you don't want to post it for me!

[William33 110]

I think we would all use that approach, if practical and moreover possible. I tried and failed miserably.

Came up short on evidence of the Ceremony. Would have saved many months of this BS.

On the bright side, I would not have met you guys!!

Poor William.. you would've met *me* sooner!

Can you give me the 2 minute tour of why your I-130 didn't fly in Jakarta? I was just looking, and it seems like they will still accept a locally filed petition without restrictions. License wasn't sufficient, they were looking for a particular ceremony?

Just curious, and it may help others in the future. PM is ok if you don't want to post it for all and sundry. Or not, if you don't want to post it for me!

It was simple really. We conducted a ceremony in a rather remote part of Indonesia, among family and friends.

When it came time to get the "marriage books" from the local office (all in attendance by the way), it was the "deer in the headlights syndrome".

They had never processed a foreigner before! We even offered a huge gratuity, "to grease the skids". Nope.

The head guy would not budge.

Later on, I went to the Embassy Jakarta and spoke with several Consular Officers. Their response, sorry to hear about that, you need to file K-1.

Edited August 30, 2006 by William33

[meauxna 15]

I think we would all use that approach, if practical and moreover possible. I tried and failed miserably.

Came up short on evidence of the Ceremony. Would have saved many months of this BS.

On the bright side, I would not have met you guys!!

Poor William.. you would've met *me* sooner!

Can you give me the 2 minute tour of why your I-130 didn't fly in Jakarta? I was just looking, and it seems like they will still accept a locally filed petition without restrictions. License wasn't sufficient, they were looking for a particular ceremony?

Just curious, and it may help others in the future. PM is ok if you don't want to post it for all and sundry. Or not, if you don't want to post it for me!

It was simple really. We conducted a ceremony in a rather remote part of Indonesia, among family and friends.

When it came time to get the "marriage books" from the local office (all in attendance by the way), it was the "deer in the headlights syndrome".

They had never processed a foreigner before! We even offered a huge gratuity, "to grease the skids". Nope.

The head guy would not budge.

Later on, I went to the Embassy Jakarta and spoke with several Consular Officers. Their response, sorry to hear about that, you need to file K-1.

ungh!

I guess a civil service was out of the question? Ah well, you have certainly made the most of your wait time and have been a great help and comfort to others here. I always admire an attitude as great as yours.

LOVE Indonesia! Can't wait til we get to go back.

[William33 110]

ungh!

I guess a civil service was out of the question? Ah well, you have certainly made the most of your wait time and have been a great help and comfort to others here. I always admire an attitude as great as yours.

LOVE Indonesia! Can't wait til we get to go back.

Civil would have been possible, had my employer not relocated to Singapore. I ran out of time. I should not have waited until the last minute, but did not realize it was the last minute at the time. Thus my return to the good ol USA.

Indonesia is great, Bali in particular!! Well, I like all of Indonesia actually. We will retire there!!

Edited August 30, 2006 by William33

[Kirsten L 0]

DCF = Direct Consular Filing.

In a nutshell, you go to France, get married, file petition I-130, new spouse applies for Immigrant Visa, return to US within 30 or so days and immigrant visa becomes permanent resident status at entry (aka a 'green card').

It's not available to non-resident USCs (normally they must live overseas to qualify) but in the few places that it *is* available, it's sort of, well, wonderful. My husband went petition-->visa in 33 days (Athens2002).

You can read the Guide for a better (well, longer) explanation: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...om&page=dcf

France *is* one of the countries, and there are a few couples posting their story in the DCF Forum currently.

Interesting. Had no idea it made a difference timewise whether one filed at the embassy or not. The difficulty now is that I've got rent and tuition to pay, a full-time job, and not a lot of spare income if I take off for a month or two. I do have a chunk of data I still have to gather for my dissertation, and my employer has agreed to let me take time off for that early next year--if I can scrape the money together to return to Paris. I guess if worse comes to worse, Laurent and I could get married then. But at that point, we may already have an NOA2...Who knows. I wish it was possible to know. I wish the timing on everything had been different...When we decided to get married, when I got a job, when I have to pay tuition again...Man, I wish I were independently wealthy...I wish, I wish, I wish...

Thanks for the information, in any event. I truly appreciate it and will mull it over to see if I can actually find a way to use it.

[meauxna 15]

DCF = Direct Consular Filing.

In a nutshell, you go to France, get married, file petition I-130, new spouse applies for Immigrant Visa, return to US within 30 or so days and immigrant visa becomes permanent resident status at entry (aka a 'green card').

It's not available to non-resident USCs (normally they must live overseas to qualify) but in the few places that it *is* available, it's sort of, well, wonderful. My husband went petition-->visa in 33 days (Athens2002).

You can read the Guide for a better (well, longer) explanation: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...om&page=dcf

France *is* one of the countries, and there are a few couples posting their story in the DCF Forum currently.

Interesting. Had no idea it made a difference timewise whether one filed at the embassy or not. The difficulty now is that I've got rent and tuition to pay, a full-time job, and not a lot of spare income if I take off for a month or two. I do have a chunk of data I still have to gather for my dissertation, and my employer has agreed to let me take time off for that early next year--if I can scrape the money together to return to Paris. I guess if worse comes to worse, Laurent and I could get married then. But at that point, we may already have an NOA2...Who knows. I wish it was possible to know. I wish the timing on everything had been different...When we decided to get married, when I got a job, when I have to pay tuition again...Man, I wish I were independently wealthy...I wish, I wish, I wish...

Thanks for the information, in any event. I truly appreciate it and will mull it over to see if I can actually find a way to use it.

Yeah, the time difference is significant, especially if you are apart. We were both overseas at the time, which is the normal use of DCF.

The USC does not have to be there for the entire process.

From the DCF Guide:

4- The foreign spouse has the final interview. The US citizen spouse does NOT have to be present at the final interview.

Often, the USC will simply go to the consulate, file the petition and return to the US.

There are additional expenses with this route, but it is the final step in that the immigrant visa gives you the final result of a K-1+AOS, so the savings on that end may balance it out.

You do need to be able to complete the I-864 for the visa interview (instead of for the AOS application) so I'm not recommending that you quit your job.

Have a think and see if it helps--it's not right for everyone. I often say, fastest isn't always bestest.

[Kirsten L 0]

Thanks again for the information, meauxna. I am definitely mulling things over...

Now, on to what's been on my mind the last day or two...

I’ve followed this thread all the way through and contributed a bit. Now I’m ready to say my own full piece. Though I haven’t yet been waiting long, I sure don’t like the likelihood that this process will likely take much longer for me and many others than it should. I don’t ask anyone to agree with my thoughts and assessment or suggestions, but I do think I've been logical and more than fair.

I’ve heard some of you argue that USCIS and its service centers are understaffed. I’ve heard others say that we have no real grounds to complain since wait times have been clearly declared. I’ve read still others of you saying that those of us voicing unhappiness with the current situation and lack of information are spoiled by the speed of the information age. Frankly, none of these statements holds water. I’m not a hot head. I’m not unreasonable. But I do believe strongly in accountability. The people of the USCIS work for the people of this land, as does any federal office, department, or body. As employers, we are entitled—not privileged—to any or all information that concerns us or current operations. We are also entitled to timely execution of work. We are the dog. USCIS is the tail. It is time that the tail stopped wagging the dog.

Anyone who has ever read Ayn Rand is familiar with a thread that runs through much of her work: Tolerate mediocrity, and you should learn to expect it. It is clear to me from the way many of you write that you have indeed become accustomed to mediocrity and are complacent in the face of it. You don’t like it, but you don’t really see that anything can be done about it. Well, here’s another important truth: People will only rise to the level to which they’re challenged. USCIS must be challenged to do better, and we are the only ones who can pose that challenge. Is the USCIS understaffed? Probably. Are their resources stretched? Almost certainly. Whose aren’t, I ask you? I work in a highly successful, privately held company of 900 employees. Nearly all of my colleagues and myself are overworked and underpaid. The execs are currently navigating a recapitalization of funds so that individuals who invested in the company in its infancy can now receive a return on their investment. New investors need to be found. There’s a high need to be fiscally conservative and responsible. Our job descriptions and lists of things to do get longer and longer while our pay stays the same or increases by negligible amounts. Still, we are expected to produce quality results on deadline—and we find ways to do it. There is little or no difference between the public and private sectors in this regard. Therefore, while I have for USCIS administrators and workers a degree of empathy born of understanding, I have no tears to spare for them. They face nothing that is not expected of me, too.

I'm not blind or stupid. Much of what is going on at USCIS, and at the CSC in particular, is no longer explainable by anything but poor strategic planning and management, something for which none of us should have ANY tolerance. For example, whoever it was that recently said the workload was divided evenly—east and west—between the VSC and the CSC is very much mistaken. Do the math. Vermont is processing thirteen states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. California, meanwhile, is currently absorbing petitions from the remaining THIRTY-SEVEN states, plus Guam. That either Texas or Nebraska’s petitions have not been sent to Vermont to even things up is perhaps one of the greatest travesties of administrative mismanagement imaginable. The current differential in both processing times and percentage of approvals says it all. This issue ALONE is enough reason to demand an explanation.

For those of you who want to believe that IMBRA alone has caused the problem (and I’ve read such posts), nuts to that! I don’t buy that malarkey for a second--though I know the March debacle made things much, much worse. The truth is that USCIS has had admitted backlog problems for some time now or President Bush and the former USCIS director wouldn’t have advanced the 2001 “Backlog Elimination Plan.” Fat lot of good it’s done.

Spoiled by the speed of the information age? My sweet patoot! The speed of the information age is a reality. The USCIS is lollygagging in the dark ages. I work for an IT company. An extremely cost-effective system could indeed be devised whereby petition filers and their beneficiaries could have access to much more data than USCIS presently makes available. And if we did have that data at our fingertips, most of us wouldn’t need to call and bother our governmental employees. Programs to run and update weekly statistics and progress are standard for most businesses. My guess is that USCIS already regularly runs the very statistical reports we’d like to see on an internal basis. Sending out a brief explanatory message to explain daily or weekly delays is also a breeze. I send out company-wide updates all the time at my place of work. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Necessity is the mother of invention. If USCIS administration won’t move in more ingenious and productive directions of their own volition, if they’re going to brush us off and move dates backwards to shut us up, if they’re going to insist on keeping us in the dark, then, frankly, they deserve every bit of pressure we can muster to corral them into greater informational accountability and efficiency.

The suggestion raised about filing online is feasible...very feasible. The company for which I work uses a system called VurvExpress to input applicant information. Anyone interested in working for us MUST initially apply online. Applicants express interest in a particular job, enter their personal information, and upload their resumes—all electronically. Then we update their personal file with information concerning their interview process...first interview, technical testing, second interview, job offer, disqualification, etc. Applicants get a password with which they can update their contact information and resume, as well as view their current status in the hiring process. This is basically the type of system to which USCIS needs to upgrade. They could then tell people more specifically: “initial screening,” “security check,” “verifying employment history,”etc. Certain examiner’s case notes could be made viewable while others could remain necessarily confidential. Photographs and other types of supplemental documents would still need to be sent by mail in order to verify authenticity, obviously. But once received and examined, many of those documents could subsequently be quickly and easily scanned or PDF’d and attached to the online case file. Again, I do this all the time with interview notes, test results, etc. It would make information storage and transfer far more quick and efficient and go a long way toward offering filers more access to their case status.

These ideas are just a beginning. There’s much, much more that could be done to save money in the long run, provide greater accountability, disseminate information more effectively, and streamline the entire visa process without compromising either quality or national security. Yes, reform is definitely in order. And I for one intend to push for it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. We all want our government to work for us? Well then, we’re going to have to insist, put in some effort. Employers have always had ultimate responsibility for company output. Let’s form a board of directors and start influencing and steering policy like we should. Not willing to put in the effort? Stop whining.

That’s my two cents worth. Thanks for reading.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Thanks again for the information, meauxna. I am definitely mulling things over...

Now, on to what's been on my mind the last day or two...

I’ve followed this thread all the way through and contributed a bit. Now I’m ready to say my own full piece. Though I haven’t yet been waiting long, I sure don’t like the likelihood that this process will likely take much longer for me and many others than it should. I don’t ask anyone to agree with my thoughts and assessment or suggestions, but I do think I've been logical and more than fair.

I’ve heard some of you argue that USCIS and its service centers are understaffed. I’ve heard others say that we have no real grounds to complain since wait times have been clearly declared. I’ve read still others of you saying that those of us voicing unhappiness with the current situation and lack of information are spoiled by the speed of the information age. Frankly, none of these statements holds water. I’m not a hot head. I’m not unreasonable. But I do believe strongly in accountability. The people of the USCIS work for the people of this land, as does any federal office, department, or body. As employers, we are entitled—not privileged—to any or all information that concerns us or current operations. We are also entitled to timely execution of work. We are the dog. USCIS is the tail. It is time that the tail stopped wagging the dog.

Anyone who has ever read Ayn Rand is familiar with a thread that runs through much of her work: Tolerate mediocrity, and you should learn to expect it. It is clear to me from the way many of you write that you have indeed become accustomed to mediocrity and are complacent in the face of it. You don’t like it, but you don’t really see that anything can be done about it. Well, here’s another important truth: People will only rise to the level to which they’re challenged. USCIS must be challenged to do better, and we are the only ones who can pose that challenge. Is the USCIS understaffed? Probably. Are their resources stretched? Almost certainly. Whose aren’t, I ask you? I work in a highly successful, privately held company of 900 employees. Nearly all of my colleagues and myself are overworked and underpaid. The execs are currently navigating a recapitalization of funds so that individuals who invested in the company in its infancy can now receive a return on their investment. New investors need to be found. There’s a high need to be fiscally conservative and responsible. Our job descriptions and lists of things to do get longer and longer while our pay stays the same or increases by negligible amounts. Still, we are expected to produce quality results on deadline—and we find ways to do it. There is little or no difference between the public and private sectors in this regard. Therefore, while I have for USCIS administrators and workers a degree of empathy born of understanding, I have no tears to spare for them. They face nothing that is not expected of me, too.

I'm not blind or stupid. Much of what is going on at USCIS, and at the CSC in particular, is no longer explainable by anything but poor strategic planning and management, something for which none of us should have ANY tolerance. For example, whoever it was that recently said the workload was divided evenly—east and west—between the VSC and the CSC is very much mistaken. Do the math. Vermont is processing thirteen states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. California, meanwhile, is currently absorbing petitions from the remaining THIRTY-SEVEN states, plus Guam. That either Texas or Nebraska’s petitions have not been sent to Vermont to even things up is perhaps one of the greatest travesties of administrative mismanagement imaginable. The current differential in both processing times and percentage of approvals says it all. This issue ALONE is enough reason to demand an explanation.

For those of you who want to believe that IMBRA alone has caused the problem (and I’ve read such posts), nuts to that! I don’t buy that malarkey for a second--though I know the March debacle made things much, much worse. The truth is that USCIS has had admitted backlog problems for some time now or President Bush and the former USCIS director wouldn’t have advanced the 2001 “Backlog Elimination Plan.” Fat lot of good it’s done.

Spoiled by the speed of the information age? My sweet patoot! The speed of the information age is a reality. The USCIS is lollygagging in the dark ages. I work for an IT company. An extremely cost-effective system could indeed be devised whereby petition filers and their beneficiaries could have access to much more data than USCIS presently makes available. And if we did have that data at our fingertips, most of us wouldn’t need to call and bother our governmental employees. Programs to run and update weekly statistics and progress are standard for most businesses. My guess is that USCIS already regularly runs the very statistical reports we’d like to see on an internal basis. Sending out a brief explanatory message to explain daily or weekly delays is also a breeze. I send out company-wide updates all the time at my place of work. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Necessity is the mother of invention. If USCIS administration won’t move in more ingenious and productive directions of their own volition, if they’re going to brush us off and move dates backwards to shut us up, if they’re going to insist on keeping us in the dark, then, frankly, they deserve every bit of pressure we can muster to corral them into greater informational accountability and efficiency.

The suggestion raised about filing online is feasible...very feasible. The company for which I work uses a system called VurvExpress to input applicant information. Anyone interested in working for us MUST initially apply online. Applicants express interest in a particular job, enter their personal information, and upload their resumes—all electronically. Then we update their personal file with information concerning their interview process...first interview, technical testing, second interview, job offer, disqualification, etc. Applicants get a password with which they can update their contact information and resume, as well as view their current status in the hiring process. This is basically the type of system to which USCIS needs to upgrade. They could then tell people more specifically: “initial screening,” “security check,” “verifying employment history,”etc. Certain examiner’s case notes could be made viewable while others could remain necessarily confidential. Photographs and other types of supplemental documents would still need to be sent by mail in order to verify authenticity, obviously. But once received and examined, many of those documents could subsequently be quickly and easily scanned or PDF’d and attached to the online case file. Again, I do this all the time with interview notes, test results, etc. It would make information storage and transfer far more quick and efficient and go a long way toward offering filers more access to their case status.

These ideas are just a beginning. There’s much, much more that could be done to save money in the long run, provide greater accountability, disseminate information more effectively, and streamline the entire visa process without compromising either quality or national security. Yes, reform is definitely in order. And I for one intend to push for it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. We all want our government to work for us? Well then, we’re going to have to insist, put in some effort. Employers have always had ultimate responsibility for company output. Let’s form a board of directors and start influencing and steering policy like we should. Not willing to put in the effort? Stop whining.

That’s my two cents worth. Thanks for reading.

Lots of good thoughts here kirsten... CSC is lucky it wasn't you calling their customer service line today!

[Kirsten L 0]

Lots of good thoughts here kirsten... CSC is lucky it wasn't you calling their customer service line today!

Damn straight!!

Thanks, ready4ONE!

[onyxrev 0]

redtapeknot -

That's some great information you gave about the process of government petitions. Thanks for your reply! Do you see how powerful that perspecitve, that information, is? The problem with USCIS, as I've been saying, is that information is repressed.

The thing is, you are not helpless, you can complain -- but only if you have a legitimate complaint, and usually "I want it NOW!" Veruca Salt-style won't help very much, because guess what, EVERYONE wants it NOW! The internet, along with the microwave and other nice gadgets, have led people to believe that almost anything can be gained instantaneously, and IRL, this just isn't so.

Well, this is the reality of our age. Any private company that cannot provide that level of customer support simply doesn't get my business. Many of them are as 'big' as USCIS. And very few cannot live up to at least that standard of customer service. This isn't crazy talk.

I wrote this out one night not intending to be a rebuttal but instead just my perspective on how I would run a petitioning office if I were put in charge...

I really fail to see why people think that just because something is status-quo and has been so for all eternity that this is the way things have to be in the future. Sure, it makes sense that the task of running a government agency that deals with this sort of task would be complex and misunderstood.

The solution isn't very different from a set of project management tools that some of my friends and I are designing.

I've never seen the work flow in USCIS first hand, but, bear with me for a moment while I give an example of the framework I would establish if I were given the task of creating a work flow...

A petition is received in the mail room. It is opened, placed in a folder, and immediately passed to a processing room. In this room is a row of really snazzy copy machines (we have machines with this functionality in my corporation's office). These copy machines can take a stack of paper of any size, work through the stack unsupervised, digitizing the material. The machine then stores the data on a network drive with its own folder and metadata indicating that the status of the document is 'in between processing and adjucation'. The processing room gathers the documents and files them in a vault for safekeeping. A USCIS agent logs onto their computer, grabs the digitized petition in the cue, and opens it up. As they look over the documents they can highlight areas that are of concern. A list of requirements for the particular petition type can be checked and unchecked corresponding to whether the submitted petition meets the requirements. Areas of concern of the digitized document can be highlighted and notes can be typed in the highlighted space. The officer can do whatever work they deem necessary on that one window. On their desktop are groups of status folders such as 'waiting for RFE', 'waiting for background check', 'ready to go', etc. etc. When the officer has finished the session, they simply drag the document into the appropriate folder. At the end of the night a system wide, automated script scans all the documents in the system for changes. It notes that the document was taken from the cue and is being worked on by an officer. It notes that regions of the forms were highlighted and takes snapshots of those regions in question. It notes what is missing and what is present and what the current status of the petition was at the end of the night. It then updates the petitioner's account so that the petitioner can log in, see their digitized petition, see what is missing and what is present, exactly where in the process they are, etc. In the petitioner's information window there is a timeline showing them exactly what stage of the process they are in (mail room, processing room, officer, mail room, in the mail to NVC, NVC mail room, NVC officer, en route to consulate).

The digital media can be backed up. No more losing documents... you've always got the hard copies in the vault and the digital copies are available in the back up medium. As soon as a flag is raised for an RFE the petitioner can submit their document in a secure browser, which is then converted to the right format and added to the petition information. When the officer logs in the next day he or she is alerted that a petition has been updated with additional information and they continue their work.

This process would be simple to implement, from a technical perspective. And there are, increasingly, functional and free or very cheap Internet connections everywhere, including at libraries. And one could always submit forms via mail as a last resort and have them digitized at USCIS...

But do you see the potential in just this one area? There's so much less footwork involved. This is one instance where computers are not an evil to be avoided...

The suggestion raised about filing online is feasible...very feasible. The company for which I work uses a system called VurvExpress to input applicant information. Anyone interested in working for us MUST initially apply online. Applicants express interest in a particular job, enter their personal information, and upload their resumes—all electronically. Then we update their personal file with information concerning their interview process...first interview, technical testing, second interview, job offer, disqualification, etc. Applicants get a password with which they can update their contact information and resume, as well as view their current status in the hiring process. This is basically the type of system to which USCIS needs to upgrade. They could then tell people more specifically: “initial screening,” “security check,” “verifying employment history,”etc. Certain examiner’s case notes could be made viewable while others could remain necessarily confidential. Photographs and other types of supplemental documents would still need to be sent by mail in order to verify authenticity, obviously. But once received and examined, many of those documents could subsequently be quickly and easily scanned or PDF’d and attached to the online case file. Again, I do this all the time with interview notes, test results, etc. It would make information storage and transfer far more quick and efficient and go a long way toward offering filers more access to their case status.

These ideas are just a beginning. There’s much, much more that could be done to save money in the long run, provide greater accountability, disseminate information more effectively, and streamline the entire visa process without compromising either quality or national security. Yes, reform is definitely in order. And I for one intend to push for it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. We all want our government to work for us? Well then, we’re going to have to insist, put in some effort. Employers have always had ultimate responsibility for company output. Let’s form a board of directors and start influencing and steering policy like we should. Not willing to put in the effort? Stop whining.

That’s my two cents worth. Thanks for reading.

Awesome thoughts. I agree completely, although I think that many of the petitioners don't have as much tech savvy as you or me - so the paper will never go away. But automation and better use of technology would be huge for USCIS.

Edited August 30, 2006 by onyxrev

[Canuck Carrie 1]

It would be great if 'they' could instantly update their processes to provide the instant information you want, but seriously, look up what's happened with the FBI and their software upgrades--it just doesn't happen (and I'd rather have the FBI updated than the CIS).

Anyone have more info on this?

NM, I googled.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Canuck Carrie

[meauxna 15]

I'm having a bit of a laugh to myself because you all seem to be under the assumption that 'more' or 'faster' processing is in the best interests (or is of ANY interest) to CIS.

These same arguments have played out over the many years I've been watching and realists are invariably called apologists. It doesn't hurt my feelings--I figured that my job was to work within the system I had to get what I wanted. I've read the words of wise people with dozens of years of experience working with the agency and I realize that some things just may not change and that's how it is.

It doesn't make it 'right' or 'wrong', it just 'is'.

There are forces and influences (not to mention implications) far beyond what we deal with in a simple family based case.

Example: If you make cases only available by electronic submission, what of those without access? I've lived in places with hardly any phone service let alone internet access. The DV lottery (for immigrant visas) was under a black cloud for that very issue.

[onyxrev 0]

It would be great if 'they' could instantly update their processes to provide the instant information you want, but seriously, look up what's happened with the FBI and their software upgrades--it just doesn't happen (and I'd rather have the FBI updated than the CIS).

Anyone have more info on this?

NM, I googled.

Yeah. As far as I'm concerned that was a problem with government contracting practices, hiring a piss poor firm to write your system. It's not a problem with the technology itself. Who plans these things??

[Keith & Xiang 0]

What do you think our options are for formally petitioning to reform the system, specifically for higher priority for K visas?

The thing that pains me more than the details of my individual USCIS trial is knowing that there are thousands of people out there experiencing the same thing and that there appears to be no accountability or checks and balances. There will be thousands and thousands of people affected in the future.

I feel that I would be morally negligent to allow this to happen without speaking up.

What can we do? Can we create a genuine petition for reform, submit it to all of our Congressmen? Senators? Mr. Gonzalez? Mr. Chertoff? Mr. Bush?

No sugarcoating. This is a genuine problem.

We can petition but it will do little good. 1. We have no funds to lobby congress and the senate with as the large corporations do (example, guaranteed 15 day turn around on bringing foreign workers to the United States). 2. They'll claim that security checks must be done and this takes time, reference item #1 (15 day turn around on foreign workers). 3. Even though our fiancees have skills, work experience, talent (my fiancee is certified to teach Mandarin abroad, a much needed skill in the United States), again reference item #1. 4. Yes, I would gladly pay to have my fiancee here in my loving arms in 15 days but then again I'm not a large corporation that has the means of making this happen so.......

My friends, it all comes down to one thing and one thing only, having the clout to get it done!!! I'm military holding a security clearance, my fiancee is an English teacher in China (past 16 years), our daughter just turned 12, we should have easily have passed the security checkpoint, which we did. Still all in all it's taking us 8 months to finally be together, then then again 8 months waiting versus a lifetime of being together, it's just a small wait!

Have patience all, you will soon be holding your baby in your arms once more!!

Thanks,

Keith & Xiang