Participate in teleconference to talk to USCIS/DOS guys about F2A retrogression

[benefit 0]

Hi friends,

I filed F2A petition for my wife and we are suffering from the long waiting. I will call in to participate in the upcoming teleconference:

http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/gc_1171038701035.shtm

I prepared the following questions to ask USCIS and DOS guys. Any comments are welcome:) Everyone of us should participate to push USCIS/DOS!

PS: The Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CIS Ombudsman) provides recommendations for resolving individual and employer problems with USCIS. CIS Ombudsman is an independent office that reports directly to the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Last year, CIS Ombudsman found out that there were many F2A visas going to be unused, thus pushed USCIS/DOS to advance the cutoff dates rapidly.

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1. Now we are suffering from excessive waiting time due to the huge backlogs. However, the 88, 000 annual quota for F2A visas has not been fully utilized in the recent years. In the fiscal year 2010, only 60,652 F2A visas were issued. That means nearly one-third of visas are given to other categories, while a lot of families are suffering from separation. It is obviously not fair to F2A petitioners. I understand that DOS advanced the cutoff dates rapidly last year in order to reduce unused visas, but it seems that the results are disappointing. Will DOS/USCIS propose a better way to make sure visas will not go unused? Is it possible to recapture the unused visas in past years in order to reduce the backlogs?

2. Is it possible to let LPR's spouses/minor children a legal status to stay in U.S.? Even the spouses/children of students, visiting scholars, or temporary workers could obtain a legal status (F2, J2, or H4), there's no reason that LPRs have to be separated with their spouses and kids. I want to find out possibilities of the following ways to achieve family unity: (1) Reinstate V visa, which allowed the beneficiaries to stay in US while the immigration process takes its course (It's currently only valid for whose priority dates prior to year 2000); (2) Launch a “family reunification parole program” to allow all the F2A participants to be paroled into the United States before the visas are approved. USCIS has launched such program for Cuban applicants in 2007; (3) Reclassify F2A as immediate relative, thus no longer subject to the numerical quota.

3. How will you predict the cutoff date movement in the following months?

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[RICARDO4EVA2 194]

i'm interested in question 2 and 3 only. I think those questions would be great...!

[mawicho 1]

GOOD QUESTIONS!!!

[Frank_kay 0]

I think that's a great really productive idea, for any change to happen you have to push and commit to change.

These things seem to happen in various waves due to the political climate. Let us F2A people be heard!

[Darnell 8,479]

adjudicators handle all casefile types.

Suggest a question for the teleconference:

IF all H1/B visas were eliminated, how many F2-A visas could then be adjudicated in real time? 3 months? 6 months?

[uwmouse 0]

All F2A filers: let the government and its agencies know that you're suffering, this is inhumane and we want CHANGES!

[RICARDO4EVA2 194]

All F2A filers: let the government and its agencies know that you're suffering, this is inhumane and we want CHANGES!

yes i agree also

Welcome to VisaJourney

[Frank_kay 0]

How would you let the government/agencies know your suffering? writing to congress? any other suggestions for letters, petitions etc?

[benefit 0]

How would you let the government/agencies know your suffering? writing to congress? any other suggestions for letters, petitions etc?

I have written to the senator of my state, but did not get any response except an auto-reply. I think we should have an organization and let the government and media know our situations. I know that the EB2/EB3 applicants from China and India have their unions to lobby the government (they are suffering from the excessive waiting time too). I think we have more reasons to convince the government:

1. Separating husband & wife/parents & kids are very inhumane and conflicts with human rights and family unification (one of America's core values).

2. Unlike EB applicants, our beneficiaries are mostly not competing jobs with American citizens, instead will spend more to stimulate the economy.

3. The beneficiaries will immigrate after all (in the worst case after 5 years when the petitioners become citizens), and most likely they (and their petitioners) will finally be US citizens. Thus, I do not see the reason to keep the future citizens waiting and being upset.

4. We have much more suffering applicants than those in EB categories, from all over the world.

5. Our petitioners will have vote rights sooner than those who are still waiting for GC.

Please let me know your comments on these.

[Darnell 8,479]

How would you let the government/agencies know your suffering? writing to congress? any other suggestions for letters, petitions etc?

There are open meetings held throughout the USA this year with USCIS, where anyone is invited to show up.

The links were posted about 10 days ago - have you seen them ?

[Frank_kay 0]

There are open meetings held throughout the USA this year with USCIS, where anyone is invited to show up.

The links were posted about 10 days ago - have you seen them ?

No what forum were they in?

[Frank_kay 0]

I just sent a letter off to local congress off a template i got off a website called "uniting families"

http://www.unitefamilies.org/eng/home/index.html

Which is a movement designed to help unite families of permanent residents.

I guess it's better to at least attempt to do something rather than just whinging about how long the wait is... Meanwhile I reserve my right to whinge about the wait

[listeria 14]

Did anyone attend this teleconference today?

I RSVP to ombudsman yesterday but never got an reply e-mail with call information to attend.

Guys please share your experience if u attended.

[RICARDO4EVA2 194]

I signed up on thursday and got an email on monday and today saying the rsvp list was long and would only be given a spot if someone dropped out.

[benefit 0]

I attended the conference yesterday. However, I did not get a chance to ask questions. The host explained that there were too many people waiting in the line. I share the notes I took in the conference below. They may not be accurate and complete, as I could not catch their words 100% over the phone. Please just treat them as your references. I hope complete official meeting minutes will be published in http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/gc_1171038701035.shtm soon.

The host interviewed Charles Oppenheim who is responsible for controlling the cutoff date in Department of State, and another officer from Nation Visa Center.

Charles first explained how the retrogression happened. During 2009-2010 he noticed that the demand for family immigration visas were very small; the low response rate from the documentary qualified applicants may be due to different reasons, such as poor US economy, lack of affidavit support, or lack of filing fees. Thus he advanced the cutoff dates rapidly in order to use up the annual quotas, and he managed to do so. However, starting from September 2010, he saw huge spikes of demands. he hoped the peak would disappear so he continued to move cutoff dates forward for three months. But the demand continued to be high and used more quotas in the first three months of FY2011 than they should be allocated, thus he had no choice but retrogress the cutoff dates from January."

The host then asked the one-million-dollar question: when will the retrogression end? Charles said he has no prediction on that, and emphasized that people should not trust any predictions from blogs or forums, because only he himself can see the most accurate data.

During the public Q&A session, I recorded down the several questions.

One immigration lawyer said many clients filed immigration petitions for their relatives. During the long waiting time, their beneficiaries were unable to get visitor visas to enter US, due to the immigrant intent. She then asked Charles whether there are any ways to resolve this conflict. Charles responded that filing immigration petitions does not preventing get visitor visas absolutely, as well as they can convince the visa officers, which is case by case. But he admitted that immigration petitions have negative effects on getting the visas.

Another lawyer said a lot of clients approached her last year when the F2A waiting time seemed to be only 5 months. But the sudden retrogression was not foreseen and ruined a lot of families' unification plans. She suggested Charles should make the cutoff dates more foreseeable, from a lawyer's perspective. Charles' reply, as usual, is that he determines the cutoff dates solely according to the demands, which are not predictable. He emphasized, a common misunderstanding is that all the applicants before the current cutoff dates have ALL been processed; however, it's not the case. Many qualified applicants were not responding NVC due to various reasons.

There was a question about whether DOS/USCIS could give those waiting beneficiaries a parolee status to stay in US with their families. Charles responded that this change would require a legalization process; and he thinks who would be qualified to get the status is unclear to him. He then added, they can remain in US to wait as well as you keep another legal status.

There were also a couple of questions about CSPA, address change and NVC fees. I did not take notes because I am not familiar with those issues.

Hope the above helps.

Edited March 16, 2011 by benefit