Senator's response about USCIS

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

The problem was you included your case number at the end of your letter. That changed your letter from a general letter of complaint into a letter appearing as if you are requesting casework assistance from the office.

The problem is there is nothing the Senator CAN do. Everything is being handled normally and within the law. The OP needs to wait patiently. Frustration is generally caused by unrealistic expectations. After the petition is approved, there will be more waiting (we waited 50% longer from the NOA2 to the interview, than we did for the NOA2), after she arrives, there will be more waiting, for the AOS, the ROC and citizenship. 4-5 years after she arrives the waiting will be over.

[DukeOfYork 28]

You are right Dream Act was going back and forth and Obama signed it right before the election.

Now you do the the math if it was right or wrong timing.

Obama did NOT sign legislation called the Dream Act. That would make it law and presumes it passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Obama signed an executive order effectively deferring deportation for those who arrived in the US as children who meet certain requirements. This is not law and effectively bypassed Congress. The timing of this order, right before the election, is dubious in its motivation at best and at worst it is an abuse of his executive powers.

Since this is an administrative change, USCIS [which is not funded by Congress but only by the fees we pay] processes those deferral applications without assessing a fee. Therefore, USCIS can't hire more people which is delaying all of our petitions, conditions removal, etc.

Welcome to Obama's America. It only gets worse.

[Villanelle 4,121]

The problem is there is nothing the Senator CAN do. Everything is being handled normally and within the law. The OP needs to wait patiently. Frustration is generally caused by unrealistic expectations. After the petition is approved, there will be more waiting (we waited 50% longer from the NOA2 to the interview, than we did for the NOA2), after she arrives, there will be more waiting, for the AOS, the ROC and citizenship. 4-5 years after she arrives the waiting will be over.

I understand theres nothing the Senator can do for her case as the OP is not outside the normal processing time. The issue is the OP wrote a letter of complaint, not a request for service. Her letter was viewed by the Senators as a request for service and replied to as such. She was inquiring and expressing frustration as to why something like this occurred and I answered her.

It was because she included at the end of her letter her case number. This changed her letter from a general letter of complaint into a possible letter requesting case assistance. It was a simple misunderstanding.

Shes well within her rights to go down to the Senators office and voice her general displeasure with congress. If she feels congress should better staff the USCIS, which would cause petitions to move faster, then she can tell her Senator that. She can tell her Senator anything she wants. Whether or not he or she actually has the power to do anything about it is another story...

[Christi and Ian 24]

Back in the day I had to request assistance from Boxer and Feinsteins offices for our CR-1, and I also contacted my representative, Mary Bno-Mack. Bono-Mack's office contacted USCIS within 24 hours of receiving my letter. Both Feinstein and Boxers office contacted me after our approval. My suggestion is to contact your local rep and see if you can get the ball rolling a bit faster. Our senators are either too busy or we are too low of a priority for them to commit to any action in a timely manner.

[Cathi 5,715]

He contacted his senator because the new timeline are now 6 to 8 months because of the back log Obama has caused with the illegal amnesty act. So you can thank out Wonderful President for making everyone's life miserable.

Really? I'm thinking you can thank the millions of illegal immigrants who came here illegally with their children in tow. Obama is merely trying to help those children who grew up here and consider this their home!!!!

[ChristianZane 70]

Wow very sad this thread has become a source of political bickering, finger pointing and pitting members against each other. I guess when people get frustrated and lose patience they want to blame someone, unfortunately we're dealing with a bureaucracy, whether it's the DMV, FAA, TSA etc it's the way it is.

[AmericanExpat 18]

I'm impressed you got a response at all!

When I first started the process (after my wife was denied a tourist visa when we wanted to visit family), I got no response at all. I suppose they are too busy gathering campaign contributions for their re-election fund already...

You said a lot that thousands are already thinking! Keep pushing, you can become the spokesman!

[Andreea&Kevin 38]

The problem is there is nothing the Senator CAN do. Everything is being handled normally and within the law. The OP needs to wait patiently. Frustration is generally caused by unrealistic expectations. After the petition is approved, there will be more waiting (we waited 50% longer from the NOA2 to the interview, than we did for the NOA2), after she arrives, there will be more waiting, for the AOS, the ROC and citizenship. 4-5 years after she arrives the waiting will be over.

Ok, let me address a few things before this gets way off track.

I appreciate your response on what a Senator can do and realize they can not take direct action. However I think it is still worth while to try to make them aware of a problem. They may not have time or care about what I see is a problem, but it is still their job to represent me as a tax payer.

I think I can "wait patiently" and still do something. I realize I probably have at least a couple months before I hear anything on a NOA2. I also realize I'm still within "normal processing times", but would have writing them next week made any difference?

[rkj082000 11]

Obama did NOT sign legislation called the Dream Act. That would make it law and presumes it passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Obama signed an executive order effectively deferring deportation for those who arrived in the US as children who meet certain requirements. This is not law and effectively bypassed Congress. The timing of this order, right before the election, is dubious in its motivation at best and at worst it is an abuse of his executive powers.

Since this is an administrative change, USCIS [which is not funded by Congress but only by the fees we pay] processes those deferral applications without assessing a fee. Therefore, USCIS can't hire more people which is delaying all of our petitions, conditions removal, etc.

Welcome to Obama's America. It only gets worse.

They are collecting a $495 fee for the deferrals:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/domesticpolicy/-dream-act-deferrals-could-top-1-7-million-20120807

"From a logistical standpoint, launching a program with 1.76 million applications and no additional resources is virtually unprecedented in the history of immigration-processing systems"

But even if they hire a few more people they will still not be able to keep up with the workload. It's beyond frustrating to think it will be a 6-8 month process just for a NOA2, then another 1-2 months for interview and visa. With all the fees they will be collecting, they should open a office just to process the deferrals, and let the other processing centers focus on everything else. I will be writing my Senator as well to voice my opinion and as a tax payer I have every right to do so. Telling the OP that it's within the normal time, and to be patient is easy for the ones that are already here obviously. If enough people complain to their Senators maybe something will change, if we all just sit here and shrug our shoulders and be "patient", you can be sure nothing will change. As more deferrals apply, what if the normal time goes to 10-12 months? 14-16 months? Are we still to be patient then?

[cdneh 3,112]

USCIS are not answerable to elected officials. Feel free to vent, to complain, but do it with the understanding that they are unable to change the waiting times.

[rkj082000 11]

USCIS are not answerable to elected officials. Feel free to vent, to complain, but do it with the understanding that they are unable to change the waiting times.

They may not be directly answerable, but they are indirectly, they are part of the federal government which is made up of elected officials. And no individual elected officials can not change the wait times, but the federal government can if they decide its necessary to hire more people to deal with the much larger number of cases. If enough people write to their local elected officials, we may at least draw some attention to the issue.

[Villanelle 4,121]

The above I agree with.

While its significantly different, there currently is a VAWA petition that I would urge anyone who has not signed to consider signing. Its basically the same issue.(understaffed processing centers causing a backlog)

There are currently only 60 specialized processors at the USCIS Vermont Service Center. They are so understaffed that they are running 12-18 months behind in processing VAWA cases. A VJ member has created an online petition to the Obama admin asking for additional processors to be hired. You can find a link to the petition under the news tab here- http://www.visajourney.com/news/. They are looking for 25,000 signatures by Jan 21.

So it is possible to rally and urge lawmakers to act and hire more processors to make a difference in processing times. But it takes more then one person speaking up.

[cdneh 3,112]

They may not be directly answerable, but they are indirectly, they are part of the federal government which is made up of elected officials. And no individual elected officials can not change the wait times, but the federal government can if they decide its necessary to hire more people to deal with the much larger number of cases. If enough people write to their local elected officials, we may at least draw some attention to the issue.

I think that given the present economic problems, huge crippling deficit, healthcare issues and the latest frantic blah blah about gun control, this request will get pretty much triaged out of the queue. By all means, go ahead.

People wait. They have always waited, and will continue to wait, no matter who many petitions get signed and how much hue and cry there is. We don't have to like it, but we do need to understand they are the only game in town. USCIS are not answerable, not transparent, not concerned about divided families, your 'rights', weddings already planned and paid for, babies due.

[lierre 224]

Thank you for sharing this with us, OP.

Makes me more resolved to prepare for the wait that the Deferred Action policy will cause us

[Darnell 8,478]

As I stated before, this was introduced under the Bush Administration, under Republican Orrin Hatch, it's been in and out, on and off for a decade, Obama starting up the process again is not news. When he is gone someone else will have to address the 11 million illegals in this country. Be thankful you have your K1 submitted now, because Immigration reform is the top agenda this year and soon ISCIS will be flooded with millions of applications, not just the 500k under Dream Act revival.

Sorry, I care not what you've stated before.

Deferred Adjudication, signed into being by an executive order from The President, last year,

has opened the floodgates and has caused a huge influx of casefiles with no additional staff being hired to handle the tide.

Sure, new hires @ USCIS are coming on NOW, but - I do apologize profusely to you - I am NOT paying attention to what you've stated before.