July filers at TSC

[ayla_42 39]

I was thinking about that too. It worked for 2 days they approved so many people. And now it's barely 2 or maybe 3. If I look on Igor's list.

Maybe doing that again will help.

?

[JamesRenee 47]

When I began reading about the obvious discrepancies not only between the CSC and TSC processing times- but the expediting of all Phillipine visas- I contacted my local Congressman because I wanted answers. I was told that they will do a congressional inquiry into my petition when and if I feel that the process is taking too long. I plan on doing that if I've not heard anything after 3 months. And my reasoning will be for the above mentioned. If you are the United States citizen- I encourage you to do the same. Especially because it is an election year- you'd be surprised how willing the staff who work for your local congressman will be. If enough people begin making congressional inquiries into the status of their petitions as well as making those congress members aware of the discrepancy- I believe they will have to listen. And again, as American citizens we are supposed to have certain rights afforded to us....such as being able to marry the person we love without waiting 7 or 8 months while others wait 2 months or less, and without having other nationalities petitions put before others. I agree that making calls- writing email/letters- and asserting our rights is the way to go. Because I know I'm not the only person fed up with this joke of a system.

[ayla_42 39]

When I began reading about the obvious discrepancies not only between the CSC and TSC processing times- but the expediting of all Phillipine visas- I contacted my local Congressman because I wanted answers. I was told that they will do a congressional inquiry into my petition when and if I feel that the process is taking too long. I plan on doing that if I've not heard anything after 3 months. And my reasoning will be for the above mentioned. If you are the United States citizen- I encourage you to do the same. Especially because it is an election year- you'd be surprised how willing the staff who work for your local congressman will be. If enough people begin making congressional inquiries into the status of their petitions as well as making those congress members aware of the discrepancy- I believe they will have to listen. And again, as American citizens we are supposed to have certain rights afforded to us....such as being able to marry the person we love without waiting 7 or 8 months while others wait 2 months or less, and without having other nationalities petitions put before others. I agree that making calls- writing email/letters- and asserting our rights is the way to go. Because I know I'm not the only person fed up with this joke of a system.

Would you be willing to write a sample letter. That would be great ? it sounds like a great plan. I doubt I will be able to put that down nice. We have been waiting a little over 3 and a half months.

[JamesRenee 47]

You can just call your local congressman's office or go to see them in person (that's what I did) and if you request a Congressional inquiry, they will write to TSC for you. That's where I would start. Getting a letter from a Congressman or Senator will definitely be more influential. And I would continue to keep in touch with your congressman as to what progress they made with TSC until you get your NOA2. Again, this is an election year so they will help you. The woman I'm in touch with at my Congressman's office was very helpful. Explain to them your situation...the fact you haven't seen your finance in almost a year is heart breaking to me, I have no idea how you're doing it. Tell them that you would like an inquiry into your petition & mention some of the information you have, i.e. the expediting of all Phillipine visas and the discrepancy between CSC processing times & TSC processing times. I think what's happening is that people are just settling for having to wait and wait and wait- not knowing when they will be approved. And it's wrong what's happening. I don't really care at this point about opinions....I want facts from the government that overseas these petitions and the people in charge of approving them. But in order for that to happen people need to start asserting their rights & contacting their local government agencies to look into what's going on. To me, there is no "worse situation" in terms of marrying your loved one. Everyone should be treated equally and it's not happening.

[Guigui&Arlee 6]

When I tried to do a congressional inquiry the representative was very rude, and said she would not do one for me until 6 months. She also basically said I have no reason to complain about the wait, since it hasn't been 8 months, and went on about how she can't do anything.

[JamesRenee 47]

Try your state senate office....or go down to your congressman's office in person. For them to say 8 months is still a decent filing time is ludacris and she absolutely can do something about it. Maybe there's someone else you can talk to. Is she aware of the filing times at CSC?

[REHollier0626 4]

This post is what I propose in a letter to a local congressman / woman and was written by the UK Beneficiary (Ross), any negative backlash on this is to come to ME and ME alone.

The parts I have enclosed in * * will change depending on your situation or because I am uncertain of the information at this moment in time.

Dear Sir/Madam/Conress Person,

I am writing to see if you can assist in a matter that is extremely important and I feel needs addressing.

I am currently waiting on an outcome of the *K1* visa I submitted so that I can marry the person whom I fell in love with (have the persom whom i married live with me here).

I filed on *date* and received my Notice of Acceptance 1 on *date*.

Since this time i have heard nothing back. I am aware the national average wait time is currently *X* months, of which I am currently in month *X* of waiting.

The issue I wish to raise is that we currently have two visa processing centres, one in Texas, the other in California.

The California processing centre currently processes applications within an *X* month timeframe, whilst the Texas processing centre processes in a *X* timeframe.

Due to my locale I fall into the Texas processing centre's remit.

Whilst i appreciate that there are thousands of applications for visas every day I wish to point out the VAST difference between the two centres.

Recently a percentage of the backlog was transferred from the Texas processing centre in order to even out the wait times and this did work for a time but the California processing centre is back to approving (or rejecting) applications within a *X* month timeframe whilst the wait times for the Texas processing centre are currently *X* months.

Secondly, I am aware that Phillipino nationals have had the luxury of expediated visa applications due to a natural disaster that happened almost a year ago, I again appreciate this is a touchy subject but honestly it's beginning to become an issue with more and more people becoming angry and frustrated at processes that seem massively unfair.

I fail to see how either of these points are fair on the ones of us that have to wait purely based on where we have lived our whole lives or where we have moved to in order to better our way of life.

Would it be possible for you to raise the questions as follows:

1. Can more applications be tranfsferred to the California processing center to again alleviate more backlog at the Texas processing centre.

2. Ascertain why Phillipino nationals are still getting expediated a year on from the event, if this cannot be changed due to agreements or other political agendas I am unaware of can they at least be limited?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely

Disgruntled Visa Applicant

[JamesRenee 47]

I think that's perfect & I intend to send a similar letter....if people are offended by what you say, I would ask that they turn the tables and think about how they would feel being separated from their loved ones for 6-8 months rather than 1-2 months. I read on the forum where another woman called someone "bitter" because she raised the same concerns you and I have. As I've said, being away from your fiancé for 1-2 months is vastly different than being separated for 7-8 months or longer and those that would use the term "bitter" should consider and acknowledge that difference. I don't see anything wrong with what you wrote and think more people should raise the same questions.

[Texasav8r 183]

Looking back, I really wish I had engaged my representative at the 3 month mark rather than waiting until 6 1/2 months had passed. I really didn't feel it would help to send in a letter 2 1/2 months before the stated processing time (5 1/2 months at the time) as it would require adjudicators to put mine ahead of others that may have been waiting longer and didn't seem fair to them. HOWEVER, hindsight being 20/20, I really should have. There was another March filer that did just that and her fiance POE'd a while back and I am still waiting for NOA2 at 7 months, 2 days. Bottom line, you have to do what is right for you and your situation. If you feel it is time to write your congressman then by all means do so. I really wish I had as it will now be approximately one year since I have seen my fiance by the time we get this all done with (Dec 27)

Don't kick yourselves like I am....do what is right for you and don't worry about what others have to say about it...they aren't you. Good luck.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Texasav8r

[Megan & Luke 93]

That looks like a very straightforward letter to use, REHollier0626. I may just need to employ that soon. I have been watching the immigration timelines lately and am not liking what I'm seeing. Our date on our 'estimated adjudication' is now December 2 - December 18. I know VJ overestimates these dates but... looking at the timelines, there's been barely any straight, non-transferredTSC filers approved since the beginning of the month. Not looking good and I may start making some noise soon as we'll hit 3 months. I am also hesitant to wait until 5 months just to have it take another 3 or 4 months.

It looks like that batch transfer helped out those waiting at TSC and were coming up on their five months, which is awesome. Unfortunately it's also done very little for those filing at TSC, it's back to a crawl. The new processing times were released today and they're listing 'March 4' as their most recent file touched, even though we know that isn't a definite date since others past that time have been approved (non-expedited).

Good luck everyone!

Edited October 8, 2014 by Megan & Luke

[IcezMan_IcezLady 582]

you know the feeling you get when sitting in traffic and that merging lane drivers are looking pissed and honking their horns because it is too slow for them to cut in front of those with the right of way?

That's how I feel about my wonderful Philippinos complaining about expedited process getting slower... On a bright note, A lot of April filers are getting aprroved so it will soon hit June then us.

[tarzan31 27]

As a July filer with a fiance who has never left their home country, and has been denied a visitor visa, I have to respond to the CSC vs TSC approvals. If you actually research , you will find that TSC receives three times as many applications as CSC does, therefore, theyCSC will always be ahead of the game for dates. And those statistics are based on VJ members. Change the filters to Approved petitions, and you will see that TSC processes way more than CSC. I also, am not happy that CSC VJ members from September are already being approved, while TSC is still doing May... maybe, if we get lucky, some cases will be transferred to CSC. If you look at the actual approvals, many of the April petitions sent to CSC in August are just now being approved. If you go outside VJ and search for national statistics regarding K-1 visas, there are more than 30,000 a year !!! Just how fast do we expect these people to work????? Not happy to have to wait until Spring, but the whole TSC vs CSC is really not a fight you will ever win.

[IcezMan_IcezLady 582]

On a brighter note, I found this website to have the must updated approval yethttp://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=6726

I think I first saw it on this forum.

So that just for those of us, a little obsessed with processing times

[Megan & Luke 93]

Well, Texas seems to have just given up trying at this point. Our timeline has fluctuated ridiculously since the beginning of the month. We were hovering around mid-December to beginning of January... now it says 'estimated' October 8 - November 7. Well that's nice. Mainly the dates are taking a huge leap forwards because either 1. A bunch of people filled out their timeline incorrectly or 2. The only ones being approved were all TSC transferred to CSC.

Then I just noticed that a CSC filer was approved in 13 days... 13 days? Clearly CSC needs some more petitions to work with because they're running out of their own!

Man I hate sounding so negative, but this is wearing on me. I have a visit scheduled to see my love next week and we were hoping for an approval on the trip - that would be great! At this rate though, plus the holiday slowdown, TSC is starting to look like a no-go until the beginning of the year! I will just start getting my letters to my Congressmen/women prepared.

Good luck!

Edited October 23, 2014 by Megan & Luke

[Guigui&Arlee 6]

Yeah, I think I am going to try and stop looking at Igor's list. Texas is at a standstill pretty much. All the the petitions that show up are almost always CSC people not knowing how to correctly fill in the timeline. I think TSC should send half of its petitions to CSC if they are able to get through them so quickly. It is getting really annoying seeing people getting approved in less than 2 weeks, when I am getting closer to 5 months. Everyone should have to wait the same amount of time. I also don't understand why TSC seems to have more peitions they put aside due to security checks, and then it takes them 2 months to approve it. That doesn't really happen at CSC. Well at least I get to go visit my fiance next week!