The truth behind the i130 hold ups at USCIS (what they wont tell you)

[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. Just go down to the bottom of her bio and click on "Email Julia Preston" and include her name in your message.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/julia_preston/index.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=Byline&region=Header&pgtype=article

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

http://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!!!

[britishdakota 18]

From the article: "The law prohibits foreigners who want to become residents from entering as tourists while their documents are in process."

You would think they could at least fact check before printing.

[Ning 619]

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. Just go down to the bottom of her bio and click on "Email Julia Preston" and include her name in your message.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/julia_preston/index.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=Byline&region=Header&pgtype=article

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

[jhonster 23]

From the article: "The law prohibits foreigners who want to become residents from entering as tourists while their documents are in process."

You would think they could at least fact check before printing.

Yeah. Not sure how she figured that one out.

[Darnell 8,478]

IMO, the whole thing was a cluster_f.....

back in the day, sept/oct/nov 2012, I wrote a lot about this DACA stuff , especially in the OCT 2012 I-130 filers topic.

I did make a timeline of the silliness that happened with us, you can see it in my profile.

[jhonster 23]

IMO, the whole thing was a cluster_f.....

back in the day, sept/oct/nov 2012, I wrote a lot about this DACA stuff , especially in the OCT 2012 I-130 filers topic.

I did make a timeline of the silliness that happened with us, you can see it in my profile.

Wow. I just took a look. You're being very kind using the word "silliness". These people outta be hung out to dry!!

[Darnell 8,478]

Believe me, I was tempted daily to fire off a fax-blast to all 535 members o congress (I had the gear then, all zip through in under 2 hours) , for about 3 months .... It was a daily temptation, I drafted over 100 different versions of the same letter, documenting what's going on.

In the end, I gave up on sending it, sold my company in Irving, and scampered south. I felt lucky that we got out of USCIS - I think I might have helped train up some ISOs on how service requests got mismanaged for 2 quarters.

But I digress - I'm super proud o you for sending this out... F DACA <EOM>

[GreenMetro 5]

Well put. And props for actually going through and sending this out instead of sitting idle and complaining but doing nothing. Hopefully more will follow suit and raise some hell. USCIS is nothing more than a bunch of lying shitbags. And the bad part is they get paid to do it!

[Livelyjo 15]

Im glad you wrote this. Im just starting in this process and it feels like it has been months. I realky wonder if any of the USCIS employees have been in this situation and how long they had to wait. "Do unto others as you would like them to do to you"

[No name 88 48]

Being that that back log is subsiding this is a mute point.

[UncleBeer 244]

Put the blame where it rightly belongs: Obama, and his executive order forcing DACA on the American people, even though Congress had roundly rejected identical legislation numerous times. He's power-drunk and not awfully interested in the will of the people.

[Maria and Jason 55]

It angers me greatly to sit in a queue behind illegals when we are law abiding citizens. I'm honestly afraid to officially complain as my fear is it could cause more delays with my petition.

[Abby&Mario 100]

I am a CR-1 filer from a border state and I have no problem with DACA. I am not sitting here grinding my teeth because "illegals" (don't like that term) are ahead of me in line. These people came to the U.S. as children under the age of 16. How many of them actually had a say in the matter?

What does makes me grind my teeth is that the government did not prepare for the sheer amount of petitions they'd have to process. Maybe they honestly couldn't predict how many would roll in, but more likely, they simply didn't have the time or the budget to prepare. There haven't been enough people working on these cases. That is what is wrong here.

As someone already said, the backlog is subsiding. It's too little too late for many, but at least they are doing something. The media attention surely didn't hurt. The OP is being proactive, which is awesome, and a great example for us all.

[JTTJ 6]

I petitioned for my wife and stepson to join me last June. At the current moment the paperwork is still being processed and are still currently on time but I got a letter this January stating that there was in fact a backlog and that in order to speed up the process for me, they were sending it to a local office in Nebraska. Just last night I got a text for a RFE (request for evidence). Not sure what more they can possibly want because I submitted almost everything but I will look into the matter. This by the way is 24 days before I am schedule to visit my wife again before she is to come and join me. And as they say "not to worry". I may be wrong but a lot of this backlog business has to do with the fact that there are lots of us citizens petitioning for loved ones which is understandable, the government shutdown last year played a role despite the fact they say USCIS was not affected and this new initiative DACA. Because this country has been so divided ordinary soil born US citizens like myself have to go through the bureaucracy. The system that is in place for US citizens is slowly deteriorating as we take on more and more of the burden. My assumption is that if the paper work is legit then something must be wrong. Its been a very teeth grinding experience and the system doesn't make things better.

Edited March 22, 2014 by JPatton

[JTTJ 6]

I petitioned for my wife and stepson to join me last June 2013. At the current moment the paperwork is still being processed and are still currently on time but I got a letter this January stating that there was in fact a backlog and that in order to speed up the process for me, they were sending it to a local office in Nebraska. Just last night I got a text for a RFE (request for evidence). Not sure what more they can possibly want because I submitted almost everything but I will look into the matter. This by the way is 24 days before I am scheduled to visit my wife again before she is to come and join me whenever that might be??. And as they say "not to worry" and I wont because alot of people had to submit more evidence so that's not really a big concern. My concern is and I may be wrong but a lot of this backlog business has to do with the fact that there are lots of us citizens petitioning for loved ones which is understandable, the government shutdown last year played a role despite the fact they say USCIS was not affected and this new initiative DACA. Because this country has been so divided ordinary soil born US citizens like myself have to go through the bureaucracy. The system that is in place for US citizens is slowly deteriorating as we take on more and more of the burdens of a failed immigration system to begin with. And by the way I am totally not one of those fanatics who are against immigrants when them themselves are a descendant of one because most of us are I know I am one. My assumption is that if the paper work is legit then something must be wrong. Its been a very teeth grinding experience and the system doesn't make things better.