July 2013 I-130 Filers

[meehan 43]

Can someone please update the spreadsheet for me?

[jhonster 23]

Ok. Update on the SLOW processing for TSC (Texas Service Center). Hopefully this means there might be some movement with these people at USCIS. It's so unfair what they've done to i130 filers these past 16 months or so. And no apology, no nothing. But here is the letter that seemed to spark some movement with the politicians that are charged in making USCIS work for us. I faxed this letter to each and everyone who is on the Homeland Security Congressional oversight committee. To both of my Senators and my Congressman's office. My congressman's office wasn't really doing anything for me, but when they caught wind that I sent a fax or email to anybody that would listen to me....I got an email lickty split from my Congressman's office finally.

Why? Because this would make the current administration look bad (and I'm an Obama supporter for the most part....not on everything though) because it was his program (DACA "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals") that caused the back up with i130's. And magically....when I called USCIS today and spoke with a level 2 agent/supervisor, they said they can see my file is now currently with an adjudicator. Wow! And all this time (since last November) they couldn't make up their mind if my file was under a "security check", or if it needed "additional processing" (aka bullcrap). How could it have been under a "security check" if the file wasn't even with an adjudicator? Hmmmmm.........

I think I've learned a lesson from all this though. The ONLY way you'll be able to make either a politician or govt worker do his or her job properly is to go to their bosses. And since politicians really don't have bosses, they fear bad publicity. Especially when you can make it on a grand scale. Like this....

www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/program-benefiting-some-immigrants-extends-visa-wait-for-others.html?hp&_r=1

So. USCIS moves when you get an EFFECTIVE politician to inquire on your behalf (key word effective) and/or the Ombudsman. Here's the link to the USCIS Ombudsman online complaint form.

https://cisomb.dhs.gov/oca/form7001.aspx

And if getting your Congressperson or Senator involved doesn't work....send a fax to the ranking people on the Homeland Securities Oversight Committees. You can get each and every one of their fax numbers here. Just click on their names or pictures.

http://homeland.house.gov/about/membership

And if you want the press to listen in...just send an email to the nice lady who wrote the New York Times article (Julia Preston) on the i130 delays. She would want to hear your horror stories for a follow up story. Send her an email here.

https://myaccount.nytimes.com/membercenter/emailus.html

Anyway....here's the letter I faxed all over the country today. Feel free to do the same.

USCIS i130 delays due to Obama's "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" program AKA DACA

This has been faxed to each and every member on the Homeland Security Congressional committee, the journalist whom wrote the piece about it at the New York Times

www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/program-benefiting-some-immigrants-extends-visa-wait-for-others.html?hp&_r=1

AND to the journalist at the Los Angeles Times who said he'd be interested in piggy backing the New York Times story.

As someone who used to believe in our government being able to properly govern agencies under it's control...over the years, & since I work in govt, I've slowly but surely discovered that because of the sheer size & bureaucracy of our government, that it is it's own worst enemy. When Federal agencies are left without oversight, standards and qualified people who care at the helm (and every step below that), things fall apart.

As of this morning (3/21/14), after speaking to an acting supervisor/agent officer Derango at USCIS's call center, I was told either another lie....or possibly the truth. Who knows anymore. But, as of this morning, USCIS told me that my case has been with an adjudicator as of March 13th, 2013. Very interesting I thought.

USCIS stated my case was under "security checks" for the months of Jan and Feb & pretty much March of 2014. USCIS responded to one of many service requests last week and said they needed yet another 30 days to perform "further processing" of my case. Yesterday I received an email stating it was yet again under "security checks". Well. If I am to believe the "story du jour" they are telling me as of this morning, then that means my case was not with an adjudicator since December when the Texas Service Center issued an RFE (request for evidence of bona fide marriage). And that doesn't include the 4 months my file sat at the Missouri Service Center and did nothing until November when USCIS granted me a "expedite" since my family is in the Philippines for the Typhoon that hit there. Nov 2013 was when my file was transferred to the Texas Service Center and the RFE was immediately issued. Stalling tactic? I say yes.

I've been through the i130 process once before back in June of 2011. I sent USCIS THE VERY SAME information this time as I did for my 1st wife and that i130 was approved in a matter of 4 months. No RFE back then. NO delay.

But here are the facts regarding this dirty little secret of Obama's "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA program). The facts are......resources were diverted from I-130 immediate relative adjudication when service centers began dumping pending cases on local offices beginning September 2012. Completions have fallen from 55,175 completions a month in August 2012 to 29,089 a month August 2013. Each month USCIS has failed to adjudicate at least as many cases as they received.

FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) documents obtained by Judicial Watch, Inc. show USCIS reassigned staff at service centers to process DACA applications BEFORE THE NATIONAL BENEFITS CENTER WAS PREPARED TO TAKE ON ADJUDICATIONS!! (Pages 38-51). THAT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS CALLED BAD MANAGEMENT!!! I couldn't make this up if I tried. Click on the link.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/145514197/2013-HQFO-00304-Combined-Redacted-Part1

For the first two quarters of Fiscal Year 2013 (October 2012 – March 2013) it’s safe to say Overland Park, KS Division 8 was not fully operational. Hiring of adjudicators only began October 25-29, 2012. And when was the DACA program authorized? June 2012. Click on the link.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/PrintPreview/329757100

That hiring process, factoring training and preparation of the office, has exceeded a fiscal year.

Abysmal I-130 performance data posted on USCIS shows the NBC completed 2,755 of 254,890 received I-130 Immediate Relative petitions and had 523,874 cases pending as of March 31, 2013. Read those numbers again. That is just a staggering number by any measurement. And here is the USCIS data from their own website to back it up!!

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports%20and%20Studies/Immigration%20Forms%20Data/Employment-based/I130_performancedata_fy2013_qtr2.pdf

When the next performance report is released we can expect even more dismal completion rates as it is evident the National Benefits Center has done nothing but hold I-130 petitions while field offices try to clear the petitions that were dumped on them. Now that DACA processing has tailed off, USCIS has diverted I-130 petitions back to the service centers.

Now. Even though USCIS is currently showing they're back to a 5 month processing for i130's as of this month, I really don't believe it as I can assure you their next performance report (Mid April 2014) will reveal.

USCIS created this situation by not adjudicating I130′s for months at a time, and moving their adjudicators to deal with the DACA petitions. They could have hired more adjudicators in a timely fashion to deal with the influx load of 527,000 "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA) knew it would cause. They could have opted for mandatory overtime of current USCIS employees stating that this was an emergency situation, which would have actually SAVED them money instead of hiring a bunch of permanent employees. They could have taken some people from different immigrant classes to minimize the impact to any one immigrant type. They could have made a press release so that people would have known this was going to be an issue and made alternate plans, or delayed their plans to move to the US. They could have revived the K3. They could have actually been monitoring the flow throughout the service centers and adjusted where applications went BEFORE the public had to encounter massively long wait times.

They could have told the petitioners the truth at any time in the past 7+ months, but they haven’t. They flat out lied and denied that there was a problem during the AILA conference in the spring, and at every time since then, during every interaction with the public. Including with me personally. They even tried to tell us that their projected 16.6 month processing time (the longest processing time shown in the past 6 months) was normal, just because they said it was, despite the fact that their targeted processing time is 5 months which is stated right on their own website. AND Alejandro Mayorkas (the now director of Homeland Security) testified to in front of congress!

This behavior on USCIS's part is entirely unacceptable. And we should not have to stage an email/fax campaign before we get a response to very basic questions. U.S Citizens trying to get their foreign families into the USA should not be given a back seat to those whom were born here from undocumented aliens. There is no recourse in the system right now which includes broken links at the USCIS website to make "service requests" on their cases, a several month backlog with the USCIS Ombudsman, and basically no congressional oversight to who is running the ship. When you call USCIS, they will give you a host of reasons why your i130 is being held up...but if you ask the level 2 agents. They will tell you that they have no way of communicating to the adjudicator whom is processing your file. They have basically unlimited power when it comes to these petitions, and the future of our lives with our relatives is in their hands. And instead of being responsible with that power, they have abused it to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of US citizens, and their foreign family members. If they can not act responsibly, then they should not have that power. You can read the many (hundreds if not thousands) of peoples testimonies here at the Visa Journey website.

www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/134-ir-1-cr-1-spouse-visa-case-filing-and-progress-reports

Immigration attorney Gary Chodorow who writes his own blog writes that immigration attorneys are being affected by this massive slow down of the USCIS system. Read here.

http://lawandborder.com/abysmal-uscis-processing-times-130-immediate-relative-immigrant-petitions/#comment-178289

Sincerely yours,

ME!!!

[YulingZhu 4]

Anyone has any updates? Mine is still stuck and Nebraska...............

[Luvmytater 88]

Anyone has any updates? Mine is still stuck and Nebraska...............

No updates here. Still stuck at CSC. My services request was to be done by today and still haven't heard anything on that either I'm really starting to lose my mind here

[ColGil 126]

Anyone has any updates? Mine is still stuck and Nebraska...............

No updates here. Still stuck at CSC. My services request was to be done by today and still haven't heard anything on that either I'm really starting to lose my mind here

Nothing from CSC either. Stuck at RFE stage, they received it 2 weeks ago today, but no movement. Good luck everyone, this game of last man standing is surely drawing to a close?

[Luvmytater 88]

So even though I filed a service request on March 10th I still have not gotten a response so today I contacted my Senators office. Cross your fingers for me that this will help. This waiting is really taking it's toll on my sanity

[MelRuiz 2]

We're approved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ??????? I'm crying of joy! I just got the email, the case is approved!!! ? ... Please friends don't loose hope for those who are still waiting for approval. I lift a prayer for all of you who are still waiting for a response, good days are coming!

[cujodu 15]

We got an email today that NVC has input our case (I registered for email notifications as soon as the case was received from USCIS). I went to the website indicated for payment of AOS fee and the AOS fee invoice and the DS-261 electronic filing were already there. I took care of both of them and it says wait 2-3 business days for the fee to change from "in process" to "Paid."

I had called a few times and as recent as the day it was entered at NVC but always got the "wait 20-30 business days..." response. I really don't see the reason to have been calling every day, like it states in the shortcut guides, since one can register for email notifications even before the case is input.

Maybe the process is more streamlined these days?

[LoveExile 27]

We got an email today that NVC has input our case (I registered for email notifications as soon as the case was received from USCIS). I went to the website indicated for payment of AOS fee and the AOS fee invoice and the DS-261 electronic filing were already there. I took care of both of them and it says wait 2-3 business days for the fee to change from "in process" to "Paid."

I experienced the same thing! We got our NVC email on Friday! I really thought they would ignore my "email notification enrollment" email since we didn't have an NVC case number, but they didn't! I'm really pleased with the way the NVC is working so far.

Edited March 30, 2014 by LoveExile

[jhonster 23]

So even though I filed a service request on March 10th I still have not gotten a response so today I contacted my Senators office. Cross your fingers for me that this will help. This waiting is really taking it's toll on my sanity

Call USCIS again and demand a response from your service request. Do not let up on them. Read my next post

[jhonster 23]

We're approved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ??????? I'm crying of joy! I just got the email, the case is approved!!! ? ... Please friends don't loose hope for those who are still waiting for approval. I lift a prayer for all of you who are still waiting for a response, good days are coming!

Even though you got approved, I am not letting up on my efforts to get a response from the Homeland Security oversight committee on this subject. Allowing this slowdown to have happened is, in my opinion, unexcusable. I can understand if USCIS's budget were controlled by Congress. That would be one thing. But it's not. USCIS HAS the money AND the resources to deal with an overload in case work. The lies they have told me are just that, LIES. They lied to my congressman's office and they have lied to me since last year. And now I KNOW they were lies. Read my next post and you will see why I say this.

[jhonster 23]

If you are still experiecing problems with USCIS, you need to call USCIS and demand to speak to a level 2 agent. And if you don't get a good enough answer as to where your case is and IF an agent is ACTUALLY working your case (not in "security check" or some other BS excuse)....then you need to demand they tell you EXACTLY where it's at and when you can expect movement on your case. This is a PAID service and you have the RIGHT to KNOW what is going on.

When you call, you will 1st start with an operator. You must tell the operator that your case is outside of normal processing times because they should have responded to anybodies RFE in 60 days. When you get through to a level 2 agent, don't wait on hold. Opt for the call back feature so that way you don't have to wait on hold. That is provided you are here in the U.S. If you're not in the U.S., then you should probably wait on hold. Do not accept an attitude that USCIS is doing you a favor. You are PAYING for this service from them. And there is NO EXCUSE for them to be taking as long as they are with your case....or quite frankly ANY case. Our case got approved 13 days AFTER they ACTUALLY started working with it.

After I had started filing complaints with my congressman, my 2 senators, the USCIS Ombudsman & then finally faxing the whole oversight committee that oversees the operations of the Dept of Homeland Security which oversees USCIS ....I think USCIS started realizing that they were having a light shined upon them by me because they were doing such a horrible job. Apparently when I called on March 10th, an adjudicator started actually processing my case on April 13th. I got a text on March 27th from USCIS that they had approved my wifes i130. That took them only 14 days, of that which are only 11 working days. So....that means after they got my RFE response back on Dec 31st, 2013. The file sat for 72 days and did pretty much nothing while they said the file was under a "security check" (code for bullcrap). Same for when I 1st submitted my application back on July 25th. My application sat at the MIssouri Service Center until November for about 126 days.

I would suggest calling USCIS and create a service request tomorrow. Tell them you want a decision on your case and that you will also file a complaint with the USCIS Ombudsman. Follow the links I put on the post I made on this thread. You can file a complaint online and don't have to call them. I also suggest you call your local Senators & Congress persons offices. They all have a special division who handles immigration complaints. And they all have liaisons whom they communicate with in USCIS that will work with them. Your congressperson and senator can fax you their official complaint form. They will need your signature to advocate on your behalf. If you get a BS excuse from USCIS, FILE A COMPLAINT with your representatives. That is their job. To advocate for you!!

Only by putting force on USCIS and making connections like we have here on Visa Journey can we all unite together and get what we deserve. A timely processing of our immigration applications.

By the way....if you need an excellent immigration attorney here in California. I know a Filipina lady here who is awesome at getting people's immigration applications processed in a very quick timeframe. If you end up needing that. Her name is Salv. Here is her Facebook as well. She is an awesome lady and very resourceful. I can vouch for her.

www.facebook.com/salv.collantes?fref=ts

[Monica2013 30]

I am so happy we got approved today

[ColGil 126]

I am so happy we got approved today

Congratulations.

[mocanita20057 0]

Finally,today after 9 agonizing long months of wait, my case was approved!! Bring it on NVC !!. Good luck everyone !!