Monthly Transfer Spreadsheets in order

[thedude6752000 360]

I want to do something, but a video is not it. It needs to be strategic and correct, we need someone big on board or its just another letter...

Saying that, we should send a new letter anyway, just to show we are still thinking of them, and we know the promises they made!

"Something, but a video is not it." So what is it???

[Eastyo 100]

"Something, but a video is not it." So what is it???

Not sure, i need to think. Whats the rationale in doing a video? who would see it?

[thedude6752000 360]

Obama is *not* giving citizenship to "illegal aliens" and I think that by trying to pitch that story, we will lose any support that we have from people on the Left, Moderates, and plenty of Republicans. The only ones you will appeal to are the Tea Partiers. I don't at all support that line of publicity, and don't want to participate in that in particular. As I've stated before, nothing good will come out of attacking either the President OR the DACA filers. The people whose feet need to be held to the fire are the upper management in the USCIS.

I have to take issue with this though. "we will lose any support that we have from people on the Left, Moderates, and plenty of Republicans." What support do we have from ANYONE, right, left, center, or on the moon? Which major media figure, group, or movement have you ever head discuss us or our plight in the last 10 years?

And why do you think anyone would care about the malfeasance of the lords of the USCIS, which they have never even heard about? I guarantee you if you ask 75% of people on the street who have never dealt with it they will not be able to tell you what the USCIS is or what it does. If you asked people who handles US immigration (id est which agency), probably 60% will not know and most of the other 40% will tell you the INS (which of course no longer exists).

Any publicity is good publicity. We need to raise awareness. Highlighting how the administration has favored unlawful immigrants over us is, IMO, an attention grabbing strategy that would at least let people know we exist, and that marrying a US citizen is nothing like "an instant Green card" to the US. We have almost nothing to lose, as it seems impossible to me that people could care less than they already do, or that in fact anyone would want to make things harder for us.

Edited January 13, 2014 by thedude6752000

[thedude6752000 360]

Not sure, i need to think. Whats the rationale in doing a video? who would see it?

The idea behind the video was to VERY quickly and efficiently introduce people to the main problem (USC alien spouses and kids waiting months and year to be reunited while illegal aliens quickly get granted status) and then introduce people to actual couples suffering separation. We could follow up with a more wonky video giving all of the facts and figures and a series of videos profiling the stories of different couples hurt by the USCIS. We would then put the videos on Youtube and other video sharing websites in an attempt to get them to go viral. Basically going to the American people after this country's institutions have failed so miserably to come to our aid.

[Eastyo 100]

The idea behind the video was to VERY quickly and efficiently introduce people to the main problem (USC alien spouses and kids waiting months and year to be reunited while illegal aliens quickly get granted status) and then introduce people to actual couples suffering separation. We could follow up with a more wonky video giving all of the facts and figures and a series of videos profiling the stories of different couples hurt by the USCIS. We would then put the videos on Youtube and other video sharing websites in an attempt to get them to go viral. Basically going to the American people after this country's institutions have failed so miserably to come to our aid.

The trouble is.... the average american doesn't care, they are facing their own problems, especially around money, and extra immigration will not help that...

[thedude6752000 360]

The trouble is.... the average american doesn't care, they are facing their own problems, especially around money, and extra immigration will not help that...

That's not true. From all my experience, people are shocked to find that US citizens cannot get their spouses here in a timely manner (and even more shocked and, I dare so, outraged to find that it's easier to get a unlawful relative citizenship that it is to bring a spouse living in a foreign land to live with you, legally). People would be outraged if they knew the truth. The problem is that everyone thinks that marriage to a USC is an "instant Green card." It's this lie we have to break, after that the USCIS's game all comes tumbling down, since it realies on public apathy and indifference.

Edited January 13, 2014 by thedude6752000

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

That's not true. From all my experience, people are shocked to find that US citizens cannot get their spouses here in a timely manner (and even more shocked and, I dare so, outraged to find that it's easier to get a unlawful relative citizenship that it is to bring a spouse living in a foreign land to live with you, legally). People would be outraged if they knew the truth. The problem is that everyone thinks that marriage to a USC is an "instant Green card." It's this lie we have to break, after that the USCIS's game all comes tumbling down, since it realies on public apathy and indifference.

That`s so very true ...My parents and brothers in law just could not believe when we told them about the waiting time,Our families and friends think the entire thing should take no more than 6 months,people we know were outraged when i explained why i`m not with my husband.why ? cause like you said everyone thinks you get an instant Green Card once married to a USC.

I`m not saying USCIS should just give away approvals ,but waiting 9 + months just for the first stage,while i see others getting accepted in less than a month is just not fair .

This entire thing is robbing us from our sleep, it is making us very irritated and it is costing us allot of money ,Honestly you cannot expect loved ones to be apart for months even years

My English is not the best ,i do i do apologize if i said something out of place.

Izzy.

[Kaylara 814]

My whole family and everyone in my social circle is horrified that it's been taking this long, and many of them have told me that all I need to do is tell them how to help. And when I have explained my situation in the comments section on immigration stories online, I've actually gotten pretty much the SAME response. I don't need to be misleading, I just tell them the truth of my situation, and they agree and say it's wrong and something needs to be done to fix our immigration system so that we don't have these problems anymore.

I detailed what I thought was a good course of action in (I think) the March thread. I also think making more noise on social media will definitely help. I mean, I don't have a lot of twitter followers, but the ones I have include news people from Fox, CNN, MSNBC, a Former Ambassador, and several Immigration Lawyers. If we can get our stories out there properly, we can get the attention of people. I think we need to renew our efforts. Possibly agree on the hashtags to use, and get the word out. And I think that we also need to contact the people who respond to the USCIS on their social media, because the USCIS doesn't, and it WILL get more petitioners who are going through the same thing as us involved. Many of them have no clue what's going on, and are surprised and happy to know that there are efforts to try to improve the situation.

My other suggestion is a legal solution. If we want to really make it so that the USCIS is unable to do these things in the future, then we need to work on writing a bill that accomplishes exactly that. While many of the other bills about immigration are considered controversial, I truly believe that most Americans will be very much in favor of US Citizens bringing their Spouses, Fiancees, and Immediate Family Members to the US quickly.

[kssette 30]

I think most USC don't really care about the wait times it takes to get our spouses here. Most of the people I talk to (co-workers, friends, family, even strangers) will ask me when my husband is coming to live with me in the USA. When I explain the process the usual response is shaking of the head and why didn't you just marry someone here instead of from another country. Sometimes i just want to say.....oh well, you know, I planned it that way. I just love being miserable without my husband. Unless an American is going through this process personally or someone close to them is going through it, they just don't care. They have their own issues. And of course, there are also those people who see another immigrant admitted to this country as another job taken away from them. I really get sick of hearing that stupid excuse.

[Eastyo 100]

I think most USC don't really care about the wait times it takes to get our spouses here. Most of the people I talk to (co-workers, friends, family, even strangers) will ask me when my husband is coming to live with me in the USA. When I explain the process the usual response is shaking of the head and why didn't you just marry someone here instead of from another country. Sometimes i just want to say.....oh well, you know, I planned it that way. I just love being miserable without my husband. Unless an American is going through this process personally or someone close to them is going through it, they just don't care. They have their own issues. And of course, there are also those people who see another immigrant admitted to this country as another job taken away from them. I really get sick of hearing that stupid excuse.

exactly, unless it is happening close to them, what do they care? While i totally agree this is wrong, america is much more flexible now than the new UK immigration

rules for non EU spouses, they are tough!

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

I think sadly that although people would be surprised and possibly angered if they knew it took so long to unite families legally when the government can move fast to help illegals (DACA for example) they just don't care enough as long as it doesn't effect them. I'll be honest and admit that before I met my wife I'd not have given a huge amount of thought and concern to the process if I'd read about it in the press. Like most of the general public I had my own concerns... the economy, wars, cost of living etc. Going through this process has changed my perspective on immigration but we can't really expect unaffected people to take more action than liking a Facebook status to help. We even had some resistance from people who had been though the process on here remember, people calling us "rabble rousers" etc and those who had already got the Visa in hand not caring about the current issues. It's human nature. To get any action we need to make influential politicians aware of the situation and the problems with the process and put pressure on USCIS. The lack of accountability in the system is something that really needs to be fixed.

[Amanda & Tayo 6]

Do these links work?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anpi244OAt_IdHotcTd6dmNNTkh6QlJ1YTRkWDZUSEE#gid=0 May

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anpi244OAt_IdENRYm1EZW1KVS1lUC1qaXh6Q09ReGc&usp=sharing#gid=0 - April

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anpi244OAt_IdDBlVllzeFdwSWxqamJFLUxaNjJzUGc#gid=0 - June

Much better!! Thank you

[bkghosh 121]

That`s so very true ...My parents and brothers in law just could not believe when we told them about the waiting time,Our families and friends think the entire thing should take no more than 6 months,people we know were outraged when i explained why i`m not with my husband.why ? cause like you said everyone thinks you get an instant Green Card once married to a USC.

I`m not saying USCIS should just give away approvals ,but waiting 9 + months just for the first stage,while i see others getting accepted in less than a month is just not fair .

This entire thing is robbing us from our sleep, it is making us very irritated and it is costing us allot of money ,Honestly you cannot expect loved ones to be apart for months even years

My English is not the best ,i do i do apologize if i said something out of place.

Izzy.

Not only you did not say anything out of place, USCIS is directly causing a lot of newly wed couples to go thru' month's and sometimes years of separation. And I bet many of them did not realize and account for the extra-ordinary delay in the process and the huge backlog.

[aditya3245 113]

Not only you did not say anything out of place, USCIS is directly causing a lot of newly wed couples to go thru' month's and sometimes years of separation. And I bet many of them did not realize and account for the extra-ordinary delay in the process and the huge backlog.

Also, some of us are IR-1.

It sucks for us too

bigtimeeee

Edited January 18, 2014 by aditya3245

[Jamie & Izzy 98]

Not only you did not say anything out of place, USCIS is directly causing a lot of newly wed couples to go thru' month's and sometimes years of separation. And I bet many of them did not realize and account for the extra-ordinary delay in the process and the huge backlog.

We thought it would be 7 month for the entire thing ...we filed our i130 a bit too late cause we honestly thought it would not take that long,Yesterday we missed out on our first Wedding anniversary ...and on all fun holidays of 2013, our dogs have not seen me in 7 months ,i`m hopping by July 4th we can be together ,that is Jamie`s Birthday,these are just little things,and those little things do count,i love VJ it helps me allot cause we know what we will have to do and get ready for the big day but sometimes...when i hear someone say suck it up or be patient that just drives me mad !,we he even tried to move to Morocco but it did not work in the end,too much paper work and Tangier my city are not very dog friendly ...but i mean it is way too long ! i never thought i would say this but i`m really glad i don`t have a job i am 6 hours ahead of him makes it really hard to stay intouch ,I`m very glad we have skype we use it 24/7 and if not that Facebook or whatsapp and World of Warcraft at night and its still not enough i became like a vampire sleep all day stay up until sun comes up ...,it literally gives me physical pain as dramatic as it sounds ...I used to visit him every 3 month before but they gave me trouble last time,that`s when we decided to file for spousal Visa ,he visited me 4 times but its getting to expensive almost 1000 $ each time ..,and with the US short vacations days makes it extremely hard

Wish us all Luck !

Izzy