MY COMPLAINT TO HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS ABOUT VSC

[Al422 221]

I finally got my final draft of my letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee complaining about the Vermont DIsservice Center.

It is eminently clear that Vermont will do nothing with our files and just let them collect dust if we do not force their hand. There has been no action in Vermont for two weeks except for one VJ member who was neglected for 7 months and did indeed force their hand. If we let VSC act voluntarily, they will not act, not now, and not ever.

I have been told here, time and time again, to be patient. Well, my patience has expired. The time for action has come.

Tomorrow, I will be sending this letter to my Congress Member. I will then wait two weeks for action on his part, and if there is none, it will then go to every Congress Member on the House Appropriations Committee.

If we don't draw attention to our plight, nobody in power will ever do anything, and the Vermont Disservice Center will hold our engagements hostage forever.

Anybody who wants to plagiarize my letter and sent it to his or her Congress Member as his or her own work, changing whatever you like, has my explicit permission to do so.

Together, we can conquer this evil empire. May the force be with you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am a petitioner in a proceeding pending before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to bring my fiancé, ********** here to the United States for marriage. Towards that end, I filed an I129f Petition, which seeks approval for a K-1 fiancé visa.

There are no problems with my own petition, at least not yet, but there are multiple problems with the entire K-1/K-3 system at the Vermont Service Center that are causing needless hardships and delays for thousands of K-1/K3 petitioners and their beneficiaries throughout the entire region served by the Vermont office: First is that the delay in getting our petitions processed is growing every day and is totally out of line with any reasonable USCIS or other governmental need, and second, when a petitioner contacts the service with a legitimate inquiry about his/her case, he/she is met with no information, disinformation, and frequent hostility by USCIS personnel.

I realize that the USCIS is an administrative agency, under the jurisdiction of the President of The United States, but it is the Congress that funds the operation, and the Congress has a right, as well as a responsibility to ensure that the public monies that the Congress appropriates to USCIS are properly and wisely used.

I regret to inform you that this is not the case. Almost a year ago, the Director of USCIS appeared before the House Appropriations Committee seeking his appropriation for the upcoming fiscal year, promising to deliver excellent service and excellent public communication with those monies. Instead, USCIS has delivered poor service, poor public communication, and an endless plethora of excuses as to why it can’t do what the Director promised the Committee it would do.

Up until recently, the system worked well in that a petitioner could expect a decision on his/her petition in a reasonable amount of time, typically 30 to 60 days. But lately, that time frame has totally broken down such that the typical delay is now over 6 months and, in some cases, more than 7 months. And the USCIS’ own website shows a dangerous trend where receipts of I129f petitions remains fairly steady from month to month, but the processing volume is sinking rapidly. See http://dashboard.uscis.gov/index.cfm?formtype=6&office=6&charttype=1

And to make matters worse, when a petitioner inquires about the status of the case, even after what USCIS deems “normal processing time” (5 months), he/she encounters a brick wall of bureaucratic insolence and often downright hostility. We are given an 800 number to call, with operators who have no idea what they are talking about and no better information than a member of the public can get off the USCIS web site. And that website is less than helpful, merely telling you that your case is “being processed”, without any hint as to how close USCIS is to a decision. The only thing the operator offers is a “service request”, which, when issued, gives no information but merely instructs you to call back in 30 days.

Lately, delays in I129f petition processing have gotten completely out of control, and USCIS communication with the public has as well. Petitions sit and sit at the Vermont Service Center, hardly any of them get processed, and backlogs just grow and grow, with no end in sight. Petitioners were being been told 6 weeks ago that the service was working on July 10, 2010, and only recently were they told the service is working on July 24, a mere two weeks of filings processed in that entire time. And for the past two weeks, there seems to be no movement of I129f petitions in the Vermont Service Center whatsoever. This fall off of the proverbial deep end should alarm any administrator, but USCIS seems to have nothing but disinterest in attending to this rapidly escalating processing crisis.

As of this point in time, the California Service Center is processing their petitions at a fairly normal rate and attending to their backlog in a responsible manner. They are already well into August 2010 and will soon start on September, while Vermont struggles to finish July.

Nobody at the Vermont Service Center is willing to tell the public what is going on, almost as if they are doing something wrong and have something to hide. I hear more and more stories about rude and obnoxious service personnel who are mean and nasty to the very petitioners who are the source of these people’s jobs, often making false statements of fact and even hanging up the telephone on them.

And to add more uncertainty and more stress to these United States citizen petitioners, the petitions are not processed in the order received, despite USCIS claims to the contrary. Some petitions are acted upon shortly after 5 ½ months, some are held to 7 ½ months and sometimes longer, and there is no rhyme or reason for this disparate treatment of one U.S. citizen over another. Nobody can determine, based on historical data, even the remotest estimate of when a decision will be reached on their petitions. This disparity would not be quite as bad if the USCIS would offer a reason or rationale for it, but, like everything else, USCIS maintains this part of their operation in secrecy as well.

There is no excuse for USCIS to be secretive. As a governmental agency which serves the public, its operation should be as transparent as glass. And there is certainly no excuse whatsoever for any USCIS personnel to ever be rude and hostile towards the members of the public they are paid to serve who simply want to know what the near future holds for themselves and their fiancés.

The USCIS does not act like it is a branch of the government of the greatest democracy in the world, behaving more like the KGB than anything else. The United States of America deserves much better.

Keeping families separated for months and months, with no end in sight, poses great hardships on these families. And mind you, these are not indigent people looking for handouts. These are families consisting of United States citizens who paid good money to have their petitions filed and who commit themselves on paper to support their new spouses out of their own funds, and foreign fiancés who get thoroughly screened for illness, criminal history and other undesirable attributes.

This failure by USCIS does not only hurt these petitioners and their beneficiaries. It hurts the family unit as well; the very fabric of the strong society the United States is built on. This is not just my own thought. It is, as well, the thought of the drafters of the Utah Compact, a wise and thoughtful group of individuals who were concerned about our broken immigration policy and how it is tearing our society apart. You can read about the group here: http://www.utahcompact.com/

While I cannot be certain as to why the USCIS is delaying I129f petitions for as long as they do since they are so secretive, I have a reasonable idea: USCIS, in their implementation of the Help Haiti Act of 2010, took it much too far. Instead of protecting Haitians legally in this country from having to return to the post earthquake chaos of their native land, USCIS is using the act to give all Haitians, even illegal aliens, broad based priority service, very much at the expense of fee paying United States citizens and their fiancés. Haitian citizens who are already here legally are safe and secure and in no need of any sort of priority. I12f petitioners and their fiancés, on the other hand, are forcibly separated and enduring long and substantial hardships while their petitions collect dust on USCIS shelves.

While USCIS may deny processing TPS claims from illegal aliens, the New York Times discovered otherwise. Here is a link to their article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/world/americas/16immig.html?_r=2

And while it might be argued that illegal aliens need protection too, those people made a conscious decision to operate outside of the law, thereby waiving any protection the laws that they shunned might otherwise have given them.

Now, despite the deadline for new TPS petition applications having passed, our i129f petitions are still collecting dust in the Vermont Service Center and going nowhere, and our fiancés are still exiled in their countries of origin, effectively banned from their rightful marital homes, with no end in sight. I do not know what the Vermont Service Center is doing with its time, maybe more TPS petitions, or maybe something else. But I do know what it is not doing: Attending to its responsibilities to U.S. citizens.

During the upcoming budget cycle, the Director of USCIS will no doubt make his annual appearance before the House Appropriations Committee, requesting his appropriation for the upcoming fiscal year. I ask that you refer this correspondence to the members of that committee so they can ask the Director what the citizens of this country want to know: Ask him why his agency has failed United States citizens so miserably. Ask him why delays in attending to the needs of United States citizens have been spiraling out of control with no sign of any interest by his agency in fixing them. Ask him why USCIS personnel refuse to communicate with fee paying petitioners and give them any meaningful information, not to mention proper courtesy and respect. Ask him why his agency is allowing families to suffer needless months of separation and hardship while persons already safe and secure in the United States get pushed to the front of the line. And ask him when he intends to make his agency responsive to the needs of the public it is supposed to be serving.

I thank you for reading my letter and wish you to know that I will be tracking the budget process as it pertains to USCIS to see if the changes that agency desperately needs become implemented.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

I have been told here, time and time again, to be patient. Well, my patience has expired. The time for action has come.

You have been told this because you are under four months into your process.

Though I must say, I'm glad you seem to be doing something a little more productive than coming up with new "witty" jabs in your signature.

Unfortunately, I believe that your complaints are going to fall upon deaf ears.

Good luck.

[Al422 221]

You should not equate the expiration of my patience with a belief that I should see an NOA2 tomorrow. In a properly run system, I should have seen my NOA2 last October, but in a system as poor as this one, reasonable time frames are a complete fantasy. I know that.

But I want to see movement in Vermont. I want to see 5, 6, 7 approvals a day like I am seeing now in California. That sort of thing would tell me that my NOA2 is coming in March, which I could accept.

But we don't have those 5, 6, 7 approvals a day. We don't even have 1 a week. We have ZERO. At that rate, it will take until Captain Kirk is flying in the Enterprise before I see my NOA2. That is why I am taking action and taking it now.

[Sergi9 110]

I finally got my final draft of my letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee complaining about the Vermont DIsservice Center.

It is eminently clear that Vermont will do nothing with our files and just let them collect dust if we do not force their hand. There has been no action in Vermont for two weeks except for one VJ member who was neglected for 7 months and did indeed force their hand. If we let VSC act voluntarily, they will not act, not now, and not ever.

I have been told here, time and time again, to be patient. Well, my patience has expired. The time for action has come.

Tomorrow, I will be sending this letter to my Congress Member. I will then wait two weeks for action on his part, and if there is none, it will then go to every Congress Member on the House Appropriations Committee.

If we don't draw attention to our plight, nobody in power will ever do anything, and the Vermont Disservice Center will hold our engagements hostage forever.

Anybody who wants to plagiarize my letter and sent it to his or her Congress Member as his or her own work, changing whatever you like, has my explicit permission to do so.

Together, we can conquer this evil empire. May the force be with you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am a petitioner in a proceeding pending before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to bring my fiancé, ********** here to the United States for marriage. Towards that end, I filed an I129f Petition, which seeks approval for a K-1 fiancé visa.

And to make matters worse, when a petitioner inquires about the status of the case, even after what USCIS deems “normal processing time” (5 months), he/she encounters a brick wall of bureaucratic insolence and often downright hostility. We are given an 800 number to call, with operators who have no idea what they are talking about and no better information than a member of the public can get off the USCIS web site. And that website is less than helpful, merely telling you that your case is “being processed”, without any hint as to how close USCIS is to a decision. The only thing the operator offers is a “service request”, which, when issued, gives no information but merely instructs you to call back in 30 days.

Nobody at the Vermont Service Center is willing to tell the public what is going on, almost as if they are doing something wrong and have something to hide. I hear more and more stories about rude and obnoxious service personnel who are mean and nasty to the very petitioners who are the source of these people’s jobs, often making false statements of fact and even hanging up the telephone on them.

And to add more uncertainty and more stress to these United States citizen petitioners, the petitions are not processed in the order received, despite USCIS claims to the contrary. Some petitions are acted upon shortly after 5 ½ months, some are held to 7 ½ months and sometimes longer, and there is no rhyme or reason for this disparate treatment of one U.S. citizen over another.

Ask him why delays in attending to the needs of United States citizens have been spiraling out of control with no sign of any interest by his agency in fixing them. Ask him why USCIS personnel refuse to communicate with fee paying petitioners and give them any meaningful information, not to mention proper courtesy and respect. Ask him why his agency is allowing families to suffer needless months of separation and hardship while persons already safe and secure in the United States get pushed to the front of the line. And ask him when he intends to make his agency responsive to the needs of the public it is supposed to be serving.

I thank you for reading my letter and wish you to know that I will be tracking the budget process as it pertains to USCIS to see if the changes that agency desperately needs become implemented.

I think this is an exercise in futility in discussing the Haiti issue and while it might give you some personal satisfaction to lay blame there, the program is over so why even discuss it?

I am not sure there is evidence of petitions not being worked in order, although it may appear that way from casual inference on visajourney. They deal with mountains of paperwork and from a firsthand account of someone who worked there for awhile, it appears the case workers pick up boxes of files and work one stack at a time, however they have processing time goals as individuals, so if applicants send in a "difficult packet", it sounds like they get put to the side, so the operator can process "easy files".

What does stink and it is not just USCIS, but State and NVC is the treatment of folks who call in. Why have a call in center at all if the information is not available or you get a cranky operator? That treatment is deplorable and should be addressed. That said, if the goal processing time is 5 months, I am not going to be calling when I know the person on the other end is going to tell me to call back in 5 months when there is something to tell me. I am not going to gum up the works with congressmen and senators either. This doesn't seem to stop the vast majority of folks apparently because day after day I see people advising folks to call those numbers and call a congressman.

I see the system as broken on both ends, and there is a little more going on behind the scenes at USCIS with other types of applications, K petitions get one of the fastest processing times from what I see posted here.

I suggest if you want real reform in this area to get folks to get specific recorded examples of obnoxious calls and submit them. Focus on something tangible and submit evidence to prove your point. I don't see your attempt to change US Humanitarian policy as anything more than an exercise in frustration.

[Kevin y Kelly 3]

This is a good letter and I understand your frustration. Me and my fiancee are December filers so we are just starting the long journey. At first I thought this would be a 6-8 month process but now after reading several posts I'm preparing to wait 9 months or more. I'm trying my best to instill patience in Leydy, my fiancee. So far we are doing fine. I just hope we can maintain our patience and confidence as we hit the 5th or 6th month of waiting. I truly hope that Congress takes a long, hard look at the K1 visa process and makes improvements to speed up the application approval process and improve customer service. Not only should more of us write letters to our Congressmen and women we should also get the media involved. It would probably help if a documentary on K1 couples and the visa process were made and put on national television. A good documentary, not a cheesy mail order bride exploitation story. People need to see the true love stories involved in the fiance visa process. They need to see the stress and heart break we experience as we wait to be with the person we love. I urge my fellow K1 couples to come up with ways to make a positive impact and get the USCIS to process our applications faster. The old $455 fee and the new $340 fee that I payed are a lot of money to pay for poor service. We deserve better.

[Al422 221]

Abused brides sold into sex slavery make for sexy television and big ratings, hence they attract advertiser dollars. A legitimate documentary on our plight might make PBS, but I can't see it being picked up by any major network.

I am out to attract attention to USCIS. Once I attract the attention, then those who we attract can sort out the facts. Until we attract the attention, the facts won't matter to anybody, so first things first.

And for sure, the more of these letters go out to Congress Members, the more attention we will get.

I know picking on the Haitians is risque, but I made sure that they were "safe and secure" before denying them anything. So I don't think I came off as some sort of monster.

[cedwards001 18]

You have been told this because you are under four months into your process.

Though I must say, I'm glad you seem to be doing something a little more productive than coming up with new "witty" jabs in your signature.

Unfortunately, I believe that your complaints are going to fall upon deaf ears.

Good luck.

I respectfully disagree 100% with you on the bold part of your statement. I yelled and screamed and tugged and pulled sooooo hard, that they approved my petition shortly after I started complaining. I was persistent and I slammed them very hard. I said before that a few friends of my fiance petitioned right around the same time as I did and they waited over 6 months each to get their NOA2. As of today, they are still waiting for an interview to be scheduled while my wife had her interview last month. Complaining does work.....if you do it right.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Abused brides sold into sex slavery make for sexy television and big ratings, hence they attract advertiser dollars. A legitimate documentary on our plight might make PBS, but I can't see it being picked up by any major network.

I am out to attract attention to USCIS. Once I attract the attention, then those who we attract can sort out the facts. Until we attract the attention, the facts won't matter to anybody, so first things first.

And for sure, the more of these letters go out to Congress Members, the more attention we will get.

I know picking on the Haitians is risque, but I made sure that they were "safe and secure" before denying them anything. So I don't think I came off as some sort of monster.

I'm sorry to tell you that you won't attract any attention at all.

I have experience with congressional staffers and lobbyists for family immigration reform. I am sorry to tell you that your complaint will fall on deaf ears because frankly it hasn't taken that long.

At one point in our immigration journey about four years ago, my husband's name was caught during his adjustment of status. His green card took nearly 18 months to arrive. I was put in contact with staff for a lobbyist in order to tell our tale as "evidence" for a powerful senator. When I spoke to the staffer, although he was very nice, he told me our story was not powerful enough to attract any attention. He gave me three examples that day of people who had been waiting three or more years for green cards.

While I understand your desire to change the system, you don't really have anything powerful enough to bring about change. There are people caught up in this system who are in far worse shape than you are. This does not mean that I wish you anything less than the best of luck and I hope you are reunited with your fiance soon. I just think you should realize what you are up against.

[Darnell 8,478]

I think this is an exercise in futility in discussing the Haiti issue and while it might give you some personal satisfaction to lay blame there, the program is over so why even discuss it?

TPS 'acceptance of paperwork ' is over, sure - but what did that create?

That created a huge queue, which won't (IMO) be finished until 3rd quarter of 2012. If you or anyone else decides to not acknowledge this queue, you do yourself and other K-1 hopefuls a great disservice.

A VSC adjudicator is pegged at 5 casefiles/day - most are contractors who pick up a pile, and take them home to work on them. Some, not all, work on weekends as well.

WHICH petition they pick up is solely determined by the VSC director. It's been like that for a few years now - this 'rush to adjudicate a casefile type'.

I think the letter is a good start, but unless the media gets involved, the VSC director won't really be exposed as the Silly Man he's become. AND THAT, IMO, will be the thing that tips the turnip truck - public exposure of the VSC director, the media finding him to be a Silly Man.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

TPS 'acceptance of paperwork ' is over, sure - but what did that create?

That created a huge queue, which won't (IMO) be finished until 3rd quarter of 2012. If you or anyone else decides to not acknowledge this queue, you do yourself and other K-1 hopefuls a great disservice.

A VSC adjudicator is pegged at 5 casefiles/day - most are contractors who pick up a pile, and take them home to work on them. Some, not all, work on weekends as well.

WHICH petition they pick up is solely determined by the VSC director. It's been like that for a few years now - this 'rush to adjudicate a casefile type'.

I think the letter is a good start, but unless the media gets involved, the VSC director won't really be exposed as the Silly Man he's become. AND THAT, IMO, will be the thing that tips the turnip truck - public exposure of the VSC director, the media finding him to be a Silly Man.

Erm.........he's probably being told what to do?

[Darnell 8,478]

I know of two ways to find out, Ms. Jo...

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I know of two ways to find out, Ms. Jo...

And that would be?

Seriously.

[Shawn-n-Sonoko 9]

I respectfully disagree 100% with you on the bold part of your statement. I yelled and screamed and tugged and pulled sooooo hard, that they approved my petition shortly after I started complaining. I was persistent and I slammed them very hard. I said before that a few friends of my fiance petitioned right around the same time as I did and they waited over 6 months each to get their NOA2. As of today, they are still waiting for an interview to be scheduled while my wife had her interview last month. Complaining does work.....if you do it right.

Well, it is a good thing that everyone doesn't complain and slam the service centers or else there would probably be more of a backlog and much more disorganization. What really gets me is how people like you who get yourself bumped ahead of others who are patient and follow the rules. What makes you more special than everyone else? Especially when it comes to people like me, those who came before me, and those who will come after me, who serve actively in the US Military ensuring you have the right to be a jerk and jump ahead of everyone else. We do not get any special treatment and follow the same rules and timelines as the general public.

It is taking EVERYONE (minus those few who think they are higher than everyone else) 5+ months, but IT DOES HAPPEN! Patience pays off. What is a few months or even a year process compared with a lifetime being with the person you love and will have a family with? To me, the wait for this visa is an insignificant amount of time.

Again, who are you and what makes you so special to jump the line of thousands of others?? Remember that these service centers handle more than just the K1/K3 visas and with the state of the world today our citizens who review these packages have to be thorough to ensure people who immigrate to the US are generally good people. I'm sure it's not a relaxing job, and people like you make it even worse. BTW, most people don't like complainers. I hope all goes smooth with your case, but then again deep down inside I hope you get screwed! Just my personal thought!

-Shawn

[cedwards001 18]

Well, it is a good thing that everyone doesn't complain and slam the service centers or else there would probably be more of a backlog and much more disorganization. What really gets me is how people like you who get yourself bumped ahead of others who are patient and follow the rules. What makes you more special than everyone else? Especially when it comes to people like me, those who came before me, and those who will come after me, who serve actively in the US Military ensuring you have the right to be a jerk and jump ahead of everyone else. We do not get any special treatment and follow the same rules and timelines as the general public.

It is taking EVERYONE (minus those few who think they are higher than everyone else) 5+ months, but IT DOES HAPPEN! Patience pays off. What is a few months or even a year process compared with a lifetime being with the person you love and will have a family with? To me, the wait for this visa is an insignificant amount of time.

Again, who are you and what makes you so special to jump the line of thousands of others?? Remember that these service centers handle more than just the K1/K3 visas and with the state of the world today our citizens who review these packages have to be thorough to ensure people who immigrate to the US are generally good people. I'm sure it's not a relaxing job, and people like you make it even worse. BTW, most people don't like complainers. I hope all goes smooth with your case, but then again deep down inside I hope you get screwed! Just my personal thought!

-Shawn

Let me share MY personal thought with you. You accuse me of jumping thousands in front of me in line. How about the Haitian petitions that jump everybody else in line? What is the justice in that? I don't want to hear about how they are suffering because my fiance suffered too. She lived in fear all her life in Vietnam. Poverty, crime, rape you name it. But somehow everybody else gets thrown to the back while the Haitian petitions get expedited. You tell me how fair it is for those that unwillingly give up their spot in line.

Please don't judge me because you are a stranger on the internet and you don't know me and I don't know you.

BTW, I can't get screwed because since you didn't bother to read my post, my wife already passed her interview and lives with me in the US

[KiwiBird 132]

I am unsure, if I were a VSC adjudicator, that I would want to 'step it up' and work harder for people that bash me publicly for obeying the orders of my boss.. and who are so ungrateful for the work I do just because it takes longer than what they deem as 'reasonable.'

That comment is no way about a single person here, but it about a general attitude as a whole.