A Guide to Writing Your Elected Representative(s) About the I-129F Slowdown at the CSC

[B&L 19]

Great post. Very informative. It would also apply to the plan to send the Director a letter about slow processing times at the CSC. For information on that, which I hope you'll all participate in, head to this thread: Letters To Director

[Kastrs 723]

Wow this is so incredibly helpful and informative thanks fr taking the time to write it all up!

[jac13 0]

This is by far the most helpful and fantastic post I've seen regarding our problems with CSC! Thank you.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

In the end, it’s all about getting our applications back under active review as soon as possible.

Wow, that a great write up for something that usually doesn't do any good.

Just to clarify, "our" applications (they are actually called petitions) and not under inactive review, it only takes 15 minutes to adjucate a properly filled out case. There is just that much backlog in USCIS....the only solution would be to add more adjucators.........or to not given preferential priority to one type over another.

The last comment may be the truest and may be what you'd ask is for them to investigate if this if indeed true....and if it goes against any ISCIS directive....It may be by Presidential decree from your elected President.

For what is worth: When we were in the waiting game (we are past that now), and our case hit the service time given by service center at the time, I contacted TX representative Cornyn. His web site has the info on the disclosure so I sent all together. I followed up a couple of days letter by phone, 3 days letter our petition is approved. Coincidence maybe, but a call placed to USCIS just the day before I sent the letter informed me that I should wait 'at least 90 days and then call back'

This OP post (the one with the charts and analysis) provides very good data and possible evidence that could be used.

You lose nothing, except a 45c stamp and maybe a few minutes on a phone call.....

[Heather&Ramy 22]

Thank you for this very constructive post. I fully plan on putting that information to use.

I said this elsewhere, but I really hope that VSC filers will get active in this too, it's not just a CSC problem!

[pachacuti 154]

For what is worth: When we were in the waiting game (we are past that now), and our case hit the service time given by service center at the time, I contacted TX representative Cornyn. His web site has the info on the disclosure so I sent all together. I followed up a couple of days letter by phone, 3 days letter our petition is approved. Coincidence maybe, but a call placed to USCIS just the day before I sent the letter informed me that I should wait 'at least 90 days and then call back'

This OP post (the one with the charts and analysis) provides very good data and possible evidence that could be used.

You lose nothing, except a 45c stamp and maybe a few minutes on a phone call.....

I strongly agree. Take action. You lose very little in taking action. The accumulated effect of all of us taking action will be much greater than any single action. Think about it. Only through concerted mass effort will we have any chance of seeing any change happen.

[vegas12 12]

I & B

Great job showing all the in and out. I hope this will be saved in the Guides sections. I think we may need this for awhile. I am just starting my journey with my I-130's visa NOA1 March 22. I hope in 5 months I see my approval but if not I will be writing my Representative Harry Reed and Dean Heller Senator. Thanks for everyone hard work

Edited March 28, 2013 by vegas12

[serioja123 2]

I already sent email to 3 senators, however I believe, that will be much better if we will mail the letters

[odellmar 6]

How about someone with that creative writing mind. Puts together a letter to be sent off to CNN,CBS,NBC,ABC. We all copy and paste and send to CNN,CBS,NBC,ABC. It seems When one class of petitioner becomes so favored to the detriment of another, as has happened with the quickly processed DACA petitioners at the expense of I-129F. They might report on this. We have to flood their in box though.

[diamondfloor 10]

I will write it - I have journalism training. Let me get a rough draft built from the letter my fiance sent to his senators and I'll post it here for review.

[I & B 273]

I will write it - I have journalism training. Let me get a rough draft built from the letter my fiance sent to his senators and I'll post it here for review.

If I can be of any help in writing about the issues I have covered in this or my data thread, please just let me know.

[diamondfloor 10]

If I can be of any help in writing about the issues I have covered in this or my data thread, please just let me know.

I&B, I have 'borrowed' some of your words and incorporated it into the letter. Let me know if you are not comfortable with this, or if you want me to change anything. Here it is as a first draft, please post your comments about amendments, further points to add and I will get them done. I have written it from the perspective of my fiancee in the first instance, as we are happy to go public with the facts of our specific case, but that can be changed also.

[leeannakondor 7]

My fiancee says she don't want to contact any representative reasons only left with her and the last time I ask her why we had a fight about it.I&B your analysis are correct and my question is would I be able to go on and write her congressman if I can find her address online?bcos on 30th March we will be in my 8months since my NOA1.

[diamondfloor 10]

I&B, I have 'borrowed' some of your words and incorporated it into the letter. Let me know if you are not comfortable with this, or if you want me to change anything. Here it is as a first draft, please post your comments about amendments, further points to add and I will get them done. I have written it from the perspective of my fiancee in the first instance, as we are happy to go public with the facts of our specific case, but that can be changed also.

Dear Sir,

I am in need of assistance. I wish to gain your support and action in regards to ongoing issues with our USCIS California Service Center. My fiancée and I made the decision to get married in June 2012 with the intention of her relocating from her home in the UK to live with me in the US. The K1 visa process seemed the most appropriate for us with a 6-9 month time frame that would enable us to plan her relocation and our wedding in time for the summer of 2013. It was my understanding that the family based visas, specifically the K1, were designed to speed up the bureaucratic process involved in order to unite families within a reasonable time frame. I therefore filed a petition for my fiancée in September 2012.

The K1 process involves an I129F petition filed with USCIS by the US citizen, followed by a further processing step at NVC and finally an interview at US Embassy in the beneficiary’s home country.

At that time, the CSC had published processing times for the I129F petition of 5 months, short of the national average of 7 months, with the entire K1 visa process taking an average of 6-9 months. In fact, many of these I129F petitions were being processed within 90 days at the CSC at this time.

We have been waiting patiently for processing for more than 6 months now and have seen an increasingly worrying decline in the rate of petitions processed by the California Service Centre.

In March 2013, the most recent update to I129F processing times, published on the USCIS website, states that the CSC was processing applications up to July 18th 2012 as at Jan 31 2013. This is a date that has not changed from the previous update relating to December 2012. This suggests that the CSC did, in fact, all but cease action on I129F applications during December and January.

Average processing times for I129F petitions, as stated on the USCIS website, state are now showing as 10.2 months (as at Jan 31st) with a CSC average processing time of 6.6 months.

We only have published data through January, 2013, but, based on that data, we know that the completions per receipts of I-129F visas were 33% below their two year average from August, 2012 to January, 2013.

For the last two months of reported data—December and January—completions per receipts were down over 60% from their two year average, the lowest they’ve been on record. This has allowed a substantial backlog of apps to build up very quickly, guaranteeing long delays for anyone who filed since the summer of 2012 and there have likely been no improvements to completions per receipts since January, making the current period of inattention to I-129Fs the longest on record in recent years.

It was my understanding that the family based visas, specifically the K1, were designed to speed up the bureaucratic process involved in order to unite families within a reasonable time frame. I do not consider 10.2 months a reasonable time frame, especially as there is then an additional wait for processing at NVC and then with the Department of State at Consular level.

What concerns me even more is that, at the same time as processing times for K1 visas have increased, the California Service Center have been processing a large number of undocumented immigrants via the Dream Act (DACA) within an average of 100 days, and I am concerned that these cases are being given priority over US citizens who have chosen to follow the rules in the first instance and apply for valid visas for their family members prior to entering the US.

I-129F petitioners are being delayed not just so another application class can be processed—but so they can be processed quickly.

Whilst I appreciate that there may be a political urgency to process DACA cases, it seems grossly unfair that these cases should take priority over petitions where families of US citizens are living apart whilst waiting a decision on their case and who have done everything possible to follow a legal route to immigration.

Furthermore, procedure for following up on individual cases with USCIS involves filing a service request which will not be accepted in the event of the petition having being filed within the national average processing times. However, USCIS is free to change these processing times as it sees fit and the current jump from a national average of 7 months to 10.2 months renders every USC with a petition filed after July with no alternative but to wait and see indefinitely.

USCIS gets to set its own “processing time frame” dates without any apparent oversight or accountability. This means that, if they are running behind in processing a class of applications, they need not worry or respond to customer demands for better service; all they have to do is not update the “processing time frame” date and they will never have to even respond to customer complaints. Customers (i.e., US Citizens who have paid a fee and are relying on this government service), meanwhile, are left to turn to support forums on the internet such as visajourney.com to guess about the true situation.

Therefore, as the USCIS has deliberately shifted resources away from their processing, it has simply stopped updating the I-129F’s processing time frame date, meaning that even customers delayed up to 2-3 months longer than their “target” processing time cannot demand an answer from the USCIS. In fact, the USCIS has not updated their “processing time frame” date for I-129Fs in over three months; it has been July 18, 2012 since December, claiming to the world that it has been processing applications filed on July 18, 2012 for over three straight months without finishing them.

USCIS is manipulating the processing time frame date to avoid accountability. And they are doing so in a way so blatant that it is nothing short of an insult to both their customers and to the elected representatives who should be overseeing their operation.

Hours and hours were spent combing through USCIS data and past practices to demonstrate the current situation.

• Why do they make it so difficult to find out what is going on?

• Why can’t they publish honest time frames so that people can plan their lives accordingly?

No government service should be run in a way where it is actively hiding its inner-workings from the very people who rely upon its services. The USCIS works for us but the only way they get away with it is because they know we can’t fire them. We need our representatives to get serious about firing somebody on our behalf if this continues. We deserve better.

USCIS data indicates that no other category of petition has been affected by the processing of DACA cases and it is my firm belief that this category of petition has been singled out due to the fact that K1 petitions are of a temporary nature and therefore can present no sustainable lobbying power.

I have at all times followed due process and my fiancée has always acted with the best of intentions and has always endeavored to secure the most appropriate visa for the circumstances at the time. She has never overstayed and has never violated the terms of her stays in the US. I do not understand how people such as us who choose to follow legal routes to immigration meet with such hostility, long processing times and high costs when it seems as though others who have entered the US illegally are given priority. As a US citizen I am horrified by the experiences I have encountered, by the unprofessional conduct of the USCIS and DOS, and by the fact that these entities are not held accountable for the way in which they operate and treat individuals. It is unconstitutional at best, and I query how effective it can be when it appears as though illegal entries are rewarded and people following the rules are penalized.

The current situation is patently unfair to I-129F petitioners and borderline outrageous from a political standpoint. Someone has got to start asking the USCIS tough questions about why they have put so much priority on a certain application class and then singled out another class so disproportionately to bear the cost.

[I & B 273]

I&B, I have 'borrowed' some of your words and incorporated it into the letter. Let me know if you are not comfortable with this, or if you want me to change anything. Here it is as a first draft, please post your comments about amendments, further points to add and I will get them done. I have written it from the perspective of my fiancee in the first instance, as we are happy to go public with the facts of our specific case, but that can be changed also.

feel free to borrow away. i dont care how the word gets spread--i just want it spread. i'm also happy to check your writing, but i think you forgot to link it. EDIT: I see you just posted the draft simultaneously with this post. i'll check it out now.

Edited March 28, 2013 by I & B