If you plan on writing your congressperson...

[Lex Specialis 38]

Hi folks, today I submitted a request to my Congressperson in order to get assistance with the USCIS over my pending petition for my fiancee's K-1 visa. If you plan on doing the same, but don't have the time to write a letter, I am going to post mine as a sample. Feel free to edit, add or take away whatever you wish. Hope this is helpful.

Dear Representative ********:

I am a registered voter and a resident in your district and I am writing to ask for your help in contacting a federal agency, specifically the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). I have filed a petition for a K-1 visa on behalf of my fiancée, a foreign national, so that we may get married here in the United States. The petition, a copy of the receipt of which is attached to this letter, has been pending since ********* 2012.

The USCIS states that its goal is to process visa petitions within five (5) months of receipt. The application has been pending for more than that time. Once cases are outside processing times, the ordinary recourse for a person such as myself is to contact the USCIS Ombudsman. The “processing times” are posted on the agency’s website, which indicates that the processing times charts are updated “on or about the 15th of each month”. I am enclosing a copy the relevant processing time chart which indicates that it has not been updated since February 5, 2013. You will note that the last posting contained data for petitions and applications only up to December 31, 2012.

Because the USCIS has not updated its charts with data for the entire calendar year, the “processing times” have not moved. As a result, citizens such as myself cannot obtain assistance from the USCIS Ombudsman because by violating its own deadlines and procedures, the USCIS artificially makes it appear as though my petition is not outside normal time frames for processing these applications.

I have attempted to call the USCIS customer number and the officers have refused to provide any additional information besides what is on the website. They have been extremely rude, unhelpful and unprofessional. I understand that with President Obama’s Executive Orders authorizing the DACA program and the Provisional Waiver program, the USCIS has been flooded with applications by undocumented workers who have applied for this benefit. However, those applications have brought in extra revenue to the agency which should have been allocated to hire more officers to process the workload. As an agency that is almost entirely self funded through fees, the USCIS is not affected by the nation’s current fiscal issues, be it the sequester or other budget cuts.

While I respect and support the President’s initiatives for undocumented workers, it is outrageous that the USCIS is processing those applications, for people who are already in the United States, ahead of the applications submitted by United States citizens who are trying to legally bring their future spouses to the United States, and must necessarily remain separated from their loved ones for several months at a time during their pendency.

The K-1 fiancée visa was always intended to be an expeditious petition, and it appears that the USCIS has put them in the low priority category. In order to mitigate the strain that the long separation is placing on our relationship with my fiancée, I have had to take extensive time off work in order to travel abroad (my fiancée is not eligible to visit me in the US while the fiancée visa is pending) and as a result have incurred considerable expenses in traveling and time off work, not to mention that it has also taken a considerable emotional toll.

I would kindly ask that your office contact the USCIS and inquire what the status is on my petition and insist that it be expedited. Citizens who are attempting to bring their spouses to the United States within the confines of the law deserve better treatment from our government. Thank you very much for your time and your anticipated assistance.

[Alex&Amy 28]

Thanks for that, hopefully it works! Seems ridiculous that we need to be writing just to get our cases looked at and possibly even approved, but either way you have to do whatever it takes to get this process to work.

[JimmyFromSac 0]

Hi folks, today I submitted a request to my Congressperson in order to get assistance with the USCIS over my pending petition for my fiancee's K-1 visa. If you plan on doing the same, but don't have the time to write a letter, I am going to post mine as a sample. Feel free to edit, add or take away whatever you wish. Hope this is helpful.

Dear Representative ********:

I am a registered voter and a resident in your district and I am writing to ask for your help in contacting a federal agency, specifically the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). I have filed a petition for a K-1 visa on behalf of my fiancée, a foreign national, so that we may get married here in the United States. The petition, a copy of the receipt of which is attached to this letter, has been pending since ********* 2012.

The USCIS states that its goal is to process visa petitions within five (5) months of receipt. The application has been pending for more than that time. Once cases are outside processing times, the ordinary recourse for a person such as myself is to contact the USCIS Ombudsman. The “processing times” are posted on the agency’s website, which indicates that the processing times charts are updated “on or about the 15th of each month”. I am enclosing a copy the relevant processing time chart which indicates that it has not been updated since February 5, 2013. You will note that the last posting contained data for petitions and applications only up to December 31, 2012.

Because the USCIS has not updated its charts with data for the entire calendar year, the “processing times” have not moved. As a result, citizens such as myself cannot obtain assistance from the USCIS Ombudsman because by violating its own deadlines and procedures, the USCIS artificially makes it appear as though my petition is not outside normal time frames for processing these applications.

I have attempted to call the USCIS customer number and the officers have refused to provide any additional information besides what is on the website. They have been extremely rude, unhelpful and unprofessional. I understand that with President Obama’s Executive Orders authorizing the DACA program and the Provisional Waiver program, the USCIS has been flooded with applications by undocumented workers who have applied for this benefit. However, those applications have brought in extra revenue to the agency which should have been allocated to hire more officers to process the workload. As an agency that is almost entirely self funded through fees, the USCIS is not affected by the nation’s current fiscal issues, be it the sequester or other budget cuts.

While I respect and support the President’s initiatives for undocumented workers, it is outrageous that the USCIS is processing those applications, for people who are already in the United States, ahead of the applications submitted by United States citizens who are trying to legally bring their future spouses to the United States, and must necessarily remain separated from their loved ones for several months at a time during their pendency.

The K-1 fiancée visa was always intended to be an expeditious petition, and it appears that the USCIS has put them in the low priority category. In order to mitigate the strain that the long separation is placing on our relationship with my fiancée, I have had to take extensive time off work in order to travel abroad (my fiancée is not eligible to visit me in the US while the fiancée visa is pending) and as a result have incurred considerable expenses in traveling and time off work, not to mention that it has also taken a considerable emotional toll.

I would kindly ask that your office contact the USCIS and inquire what the status is on my petition and insist that it be expedited. Citizens who are attempting to bring their spouses to the United States within the confines of the law deserve better treatment from our government. Thank you very much for your time and your anticipated assistance.

Thank you, I am also thinking of writing my congressman about this.