USC Green Card Petitioners' Committee

[I & B 273]

Perhaps we should contact people ahead of time and set a date to start the petition for the white house on a particular day to try to ensure that we'd have enough signatures? I think that if we can get the word out to the right places, we'd be able to do it. Social Networking could definitely work in our favor.

Honestly, my experience with the 129F delays at the CSC last year makes me very wary of trying to use those public petitions. As with the 129F'ers, I'm sure those waiting for their at this particular I-130s are far fewer than 100,000. Even with publicity and planning, you likely cannot count on getting to sign the petition more than a large minority of those who are still pending. It's an effort that is doomed to fall short.

I think the best thing you can probably do at this juncture is to reach out to congresspersons and senators. You should focus on truly getting people to take the extra step of reaching out to both of their senators and their congressperson. I know for a fact that at least two congresspersons took a special interest in the 129F delay situation, and at least one of them called the CSC directly on behalf of one of the VJ members. It was only a week or two after that call that the petitions started being processed at their fastest rate in history. Did it matter? It's hard to say, but I believe it did.

Due to the shutdown shenanigans, I suspect it isn't going to be very productive to contact elected reps this week. But I'm sure they are gonna solve all of that mess in the next few days and be on the first plane back to their districts. I suggest taking this week to (1) drill down into the published data and define the issue with a few hard numbers (it seems you've already done a lot of that), and then (2) write a guide to help people craft letters including those numbers to their elected reps. Once the shutdown is over, post that work here and other immigration sites and encourage 130s en masse to reach out to congressional offices. Believe me, at least some of those offices do notice and you will just need one rep to go to bat for you.

You can dig down into how I did that with the 129Fs by following the links I still have in my sig, by the way.

[deleteme 34]

Honestly, my experience with the 129F delays at the CSC last year makes me very wary of trying to use those public petitions. As with the 129F'ers, I'm sure those waiting for their at this particular I-130s are far fewer than 100,000. Even with publicity and planning, you likely cannot count on getting to sign the petition more than a large minority of those who are still pending. It's an effort that is doomed to fall short.

I think the best thing you can probably do at this juncture is to reach out to congresspersons and senators. You should focus on truly getting people to take the extra step of reaching out to both of their senators and their congressperson. I know for a fact that at least two congresspersons took a special interest in the 129F delay situation, and at least one of them called the CSC directly on behalf of one of the VJ members. It was only a week or two after that call that the petitions started being processed at their fastest rate in history. Did it matter? It's hard to say, but I believe it did.

Due to the shutdown shenanigans, I suspect it isn't going to be very productive to contact elected reps this week. But I'm sure they are gonna solve all of that mess in the next few days and be on the first plane back to their districts. I suggest taking this week to (1) drill down into the published data and define the issue with a few hard numbers (it seems you've already done a lot of that), and then (2) write a guide to help people craft letters including those numbers to their elected reps. Once the shutdown is over, post that work here and other immigration sites and encourage 130s en masse to reach out to congressional offices. Believe me, at least some of those offices do notice and you will just need one rep to go to bat for you.

You can dig down into how I did that with the 129Fs by following the links I still have in my sig, by the way.

That is impressive work... a professional social scientist, I assume. I agree about white house petitions. We are few in number but high in intensity - the white house petitions favor large numbers of whatever intensity. And they are time-constrained. We can't muster enough numbers to gain their attention within their canned time-frames.

But, I think we still can try social media in a more effective way... the more our story gets out, the more multi-channel pressure descends on USCIS.

Would you like regular non-influential non-politician people to be able to sign their support for us? Because I can get butt loads of those people to back us up.

Yes. Let's get their eyeballs on it. Thank you.

[quitepainful 56]

happy 2 month anniversary for me since NOA1...

[lucybelle 453]

happy 2 month anniversary for me since NOA1...

I'm almost 7 months.

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

I'm not a US citizen but how much is reaching out to politicians going to help? Even if everyone wrote to their senator/congressman they wouldn't get a huge amount for each state and there are going to be other issues voters are bugging them about more. I have, however, been waiting 4 months already with probably a huge wait to come still and agree that doing anything is better than nothing. Is there a way to get petitions debated politically if there are enough signatures? I know in the UK for example if a petition gets a certain amount of signatures it has to be debated in Parliament. I'm glad this thread exists as my wife and I are as frustrated as everyone else!

[Ryan H 3,818]

Is there a way to get petitions debated politically if there are enough signatures?

No

If petitions on the White House site receive 100K signatures within a certain timeframe from when the petition is first launched, an official response to that petition must be made. Keep in mind any response may not be what the signers want to hear.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Ryan H

[Blueberry Pancake 311]

Just wanted to post it here as well.

You do not need to copy and send the letter that you see. All you need to do is find the emails of influential people or organizations to whom you will send a link to the web address where this letter to Ms. Blackburn is.

Then, give me the names of those influential people or organizations that you will be emailing.

I see that you are from Washington state. So, you could plan to email Sen. Patty Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell. The letter could go something like this:

Dear Senator Murray,

I wish to call your attention to egregious, recent failings of USCIS in adjudicating green card petitions (I-130s) for U.S. citizens, like myself, on behalf of our foreign spouses. The effect of their negligence has resulted in a vast increase in the waiting period for us. Based on what they are telling us now, people like me are expected to remain separated from our spouses for two years.

You might not be aware of what they have done, because these changes are new. So, with others in my same situation, we joined together and have written an open letter to the director of the facility that is responsible for adjudicating our green card petitions. That letter is here:

http://uscgreencardpetitionerscommittee.blogspot.com/

I respectfully urge you to please put pressure on USCIS to alter their practices so that we can again expect reasonable processing times from them.

Sincerely,

XXXXX

You can email this letter to your Senators, and to any other person or organization whom you think might be influential. You can revise this letter and send it to your local news organizations, for example, to a news editor at the Seattle Times.

Alter the cover letter, like this:

Dear Mr. XXXX,

I am a Seattle area resident. I am writing to call your attention to a newsworthy matter that I believe deserves coverage - egregious, recent failings of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) in adjudicating green card petitions (I-130s) for U.S. citizens, like myself, on behalf of our foreign spouses. The effect of their negligence has resulted in a vast increase in the waiting period for us. Based on what they are telling us now, people like me are expected to remain separated from our spouses for two years.

You might not be aware of what they have done, because these changes are new. So, with others in my same situation, we joined together and have written an open letter to the director of the facility that is responsible for adjudicating our green card petitions. That letter is here:

http://uscgreencardpetitionerscommittee.blogspot.com/

I hope that you might cover this story. The USCIS will then know that they cannot mistreat us and get away with it, and that will put pressure on them to alter their practices so that we can again expect reasonable processing times from them.

Sincerely,

XXXXX

Just find and save the email addresses of everyone whom you will be emailing the cover letters with the web link. Give the names of the people/titles/organizations to me so that I can add them to the list of people to whom the online letter is cc'd. Then in about a week or two, we will email out the cover letters.

Let me know if you have more questions.

--Alaskafan

[Blueberry Pancake 311]

I just posted the link to the blog and to this thread on: immigrate2us.net, trackkit.com, immigration.com. Will try to find more forums.

[Blueberry Pancake 311]

I just posted the link to the blog and to this thread on: immigrate2us.net, trackkit.com, immigration.com. Will try to find more forums.

Would be great if moderators on some of these forums wouldn't call it a "propaganda".

[YulingZhu 4]

We should let the head of USCIS know about this letter as well:

Alejandro N. Mayorkas

Director

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

20 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20529

Alejandro.Mayorkas@uscis.dhs.gov

[Ana&Sean 5]

Great job guys great work so far in what 2 days? ive sent an email to both nevada senators...

[Kaylara 814]

I've sent a copy to all of the reps (congressmen and senator) from NJ, and also Joe Biden, the Huffington Post, Cory Booker, and everyone on my FB friends list.

[En-oh-eh-to now 147]

I thought we were waiting for the right time to make a coordinated effort. Only then would the campaign begin. I thought we would wait until the timing is right. Have I missed the boat?

I'm planning on sending it off to Senators Mark Kirk and ####### Durbin, and also to my congresswoman, Tammy Duckworth. For good measure, I'll include the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and Daily Herald.

Anyone want to do a mashup Youtube video? It could be all us Vj'ers reading the letter. You know, one of those vids with very moving music playing in the background, as the video cuts from Vj'er to VJ'er explaining the sad state of affairs with our petitions. I would volunteer to read a section, assemble all other pieces, and if anyone could create or provide the music, that would be good. I've got some experience with Cyberlink PowerDirector, though I will be the first to admit that I am not professionally trained in the art of video production. Such a video could really help the US Citizen Green Card Petitioners' Committee page get a lot of hits, and maybe a lot of petition signatures, if we go that route.

[Kaylara 814]

Oh, I misunderstood. I thought that we weren't coordinating anything as far as date or intent and were just contacting everyone we could with it. Ah well, I needed to write my reps anyway about my case. If we are actually coordinating, then let's come up with the plan here. And who is going to be the main coordinator?

[ainsleyw 8]

I just stumbled across this article whilst looking for news on the government shut down:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24501030

Maybe we can send the letter or some email to the author of this article? Seems to be at least some interest there.