Hope Texas will start working fast after a long time

[msbau764 245]

I am married to a Filipino, and the latest Typhoon to hit that country, did almost as much damage as the 2013 one did.

People have no where to live, nothing to eat and my wife's Uncle and Aunt's house, had water up to the ceiling, inside the house.

They lost most everything, as did hundreds of thousands of people.

I agree with "one poster" just because a country is getting its petitions, approved very rapidly, this IS NO place, to be "crowing about it".,.,. some people are suffering, waiting on TSC for 6-9 months, and more.

Expedited K-1's, should just be posted on your time line (IF you use the one on this site) and that should be it.

We were 186 days until NOA 2 and my wife is from Cebu, and we know the feeling! (Was no Expedited for us)

It is no fun, BUT oh so worth it when it does happen.

I don't buy it. You can't convince me that every Philippine deserves to be expedited because of a typhoon. It would be like expediting every American (if roles were reversed) because of hurricane Katrina.

[msbau764 245]

You go April! Your comment about throwing rocks made me laugh!

BTW, I mentioned this to msbau764, but I'll be coming back through IAH on the 13th in the afternoon, so if there are any Houston VJers who'd be interested in a late lunch/early dinner that day, I'd be up for it. If not, I'll just plan on heading back to Austin. Just a thought...

I'd say something like keep the faith or stay positive, but those phrases have kinda started to bother me lately, so I'll refrain from doing so at this point. lol :D

ps-Yes, petitions in which the beneficiary is from the Philippines are still being expedited....

I would like to but I am working full time and starting a master's program next week -- my schedule is packed. I say let's get together in late January, February, or March? Maybe in the future we'll take turns babysitting or something too lol. How is your girl? I imagine she is showing a bit more.

[raven52 233]

USCIS answers to no-one, and as far as I know, only the director of the USCIS. who he answers to, maybe Homeland Security.,.,just not sure of the political makeup.

To an average person, just looking at the situation, if CSC is 2 -3 months ahead of TSC, you simply move more work load to CSC, even the work load out, to each agency, has approximately the same case load, it would have to help.,.,.,would it not?

USCIS is self supporting, and not dependent on tax payer dollars, "THEY" could care less what we think! What we say , do, or call, such as Senator. They need nothing from the govt., so I do not think they really care!

Philippines is definitely on expedited, as my friend just had a K-1 approved at TSC, in 26 days.

His "Visa Company" is on the same street as the Embassy their. Their owner, is an attorney, and has been there 10 years doing business, and says the expedited K-1's will last the rest of this year! She is in the "loop" and is most often very accurate.

That does not help the long suffering people of TSC, only the director of USCIS can shift the work load.

Most of this is just my opinion. I wish not to offend anyone, I just speak the truth, as I know it.

[av8or1 246]

I would like to but I am working full time and starting a master's program next week -- my schedule is packed. I say let's get together in late January, February, or March? Maybe in the future we'll take turns babysitting or something too lol. How is your girl? I imagine she is showing a bit more.

Ok I'll plan on driving back to Austin after landing at IAH then. We can meet a little later on, sure. I can pop down to Houston no problem. I look forward to meeting you and April and any other VJers, I think it would be beneficial. So everyone just let me know your schedules and we'll work something out.

Thanks for asking about my fiance. She is doing well, as is our son. That said, the pending separation is beginning to wear on her a bit. I gotta tell y'all ... seeing an expectant mother cry is a difficult, grueling thing. I feel horrible about it, but there isn't anything I can do. I've written to my representatives about the processing time difference to make my complaint well known to them. And as others have said the USCIS answers to no one, so there isn't much recourse about the unfair processing times. Anyway, all I can do is remain strong, positive and supportive for her. I feel guilty about it all, especially about not being able to be present the last few months of her pregnancy to help out with whatever she might need. So I at least stocked up on supplies while I was here, buying 120 bottles of water (she drinks a lot with the vitamins, etc.), all of her medicine that she will need throughout the balance of the pregnancy and a few other items. Basically anything that wasn't perishable I bought tons of. And I've told her that she doesn't need to work the last couple of months if she feels like concentrating on the pregnancy is more important to her and/or if she just doesn't feel up to it.

Anyway. Sorry for pouring all of that out. This forum is a support mechanism sometimes and I guess I needed it. Seeing her cry, even though she's done relatively little of it (what a trooper), has been particularly gut-wrenching, so I just started typing...

How's your finace?

[av8or1 246]

USCIS answers to no-one, and as far as I know, only the director of the USCIS. who he answers to, maybe Homeland Security.,.,just not sure of the political makeup.

To an average person, just looking at the situation, if CSC is 2 -3 months ahead of TSC, you simply move more work load to CSC, even the work load out, to each agency, has approximately the same case load, it would have to help.,.,.,would it not?

2-3 months? Try 6-7+. I still don't understand why the lockbox isn't used to route petitions based on workload. Back in the day you simply mailed your petition to the service center that was responsible for the petitions from the state in which you resided, but getting that correct that was the responsibility of the petitioner. I guess they had too many petitions sent to the incorrect service center, so they created the lockbox. But heck, it isn't difficult to get metrics regarding the processing times and use those to distribute the workload appropriately.

Ah, don't get me started. I'm so frustrated, disillusioned and angry with the overall process and with the processing time difference that it's beyond annoying and/or irritating at this point. As April said, I stay away from VJ for short bursts of time but end up returning because there are others here who are in the same boat, and so they can empathize...

Edited January 11, 2015 by av8or1

[usmsbow 801]

USCIS answers to no-one, and as far as I know, only the director of the USCIS. who he answers to, maybe Homeland Security.,.,just not sure of the political makeup.

To an average person, just looking at the situation, if CSC is 2 -3 months ahead of TSC, you simply move more work load to CSC, even the work load out, to each agency, has approximately the same case load, it would have to help.,.,.,would it not?

USCIS is self supporting, and not dependent on tax payer dollars, "THEY" could care less what we think! What we say , do, or call, such as Senator. They need nothing from the govt., so I do not think they really care!

Yes, USCIS is a part of DHS, so the director of USCIS reports to the Sec. of DHS.

But as you said, USCIS receives nearly all its funding through "user fees" and not from government appropriations, and yes, that's why they can generally ignore Congress. Of course Congress could rescind USCIS' ability to keep those fees, but many members of Congress love "user fees" because it enables Congress to look like it is keeping taxes low and being fiscally prudent. Of course they ignore the fact that it makes this system totally messed up since it eliminates any accountability USCIS might have to those above it...

One "solution" would be for TSC and CSC to compete with one another. That is, an applicant could pick which center to send his/her application to. That would a) provide an incentive for each center to be more efficient b) probably would balance the workload out in the long term.

Of course that "solution" will never happen for a number of reasons, but it is good to dream sometimes!

[Wooderz 314]

If uscis could move into the 21st century and scan the petitions and work completely electronically, that would be great. Then service center wouldn't matter. Batches could be created based on the date scanned at the lockbox and that would be noa1 date. Then all petitions would be in the same pool and picked up by an adjudicator regardless of petitioners state.

[TabeaK 517]

You both got a point - one could argue that they are funded by user fees hence should be accountable to providing good user service. Alas, it is still an intransparent government agency.

I do believe however, based on what I've heard/read, that if you get your congressman to escalate an "congressional enquiry" (might be a different term, idk) - that gets them moving as it impacts the individual adjudicator's/department's target. That can only be done once the normal processing times (5+ months) are reached of course.

Well, I am only 2+ weeks from NOA1, so still a long road ahead - let's hope Obama's executive order doesn't cause any more backlogs once the first provisions go into effect end of February. I am sure USCIS and NVC are still feeling the impact of DACA. Obama's order could multiply the case load much, much more.Or at least that petitions related to this primarily get routed to CSC. On the other hand, as they are funded by fees, more fees means more budget for additional resources - of course there will be a 6 months lag at least until those resources would be working effectively.

The sad thing is, that these executive orders targeted at illegal immigrants, while certainly well intentioned, do penalize those of us who go down the legal route by getting our cases stuck in the queue and de-prioritized. Add on top the inefficiencies of the process. If only the entire process was electronic these days.... It is certainly a broken system...

I do wonder if nominally TSC and CSC have the same population to serve or at least the same # of cases/adjudicator. Texas seems to be serving the densely populated East Coast states - I wonder if that is reflected in personnel...

Edited January 11, 2015 by TabeaK

[usmsbow 801]

You both got a point - one could argue that they are funded by user fees hence should be accountable to providing good user service. Alas, it is still an intransparent government agency.

I do believe however, based on what I've heard/read, that if you get your congressman to escalate an "congressional enquiry" (might be a different term, idk) - that gets them moving as it impacts the individual adjucator's/department's target. That can onlz be done once the normal processing times (5+ months) are reached of course.

Well, I am only 2+ weeks from NOA1, so still a long road ahead - let's hope Obama's executive order doesn't cause any more backlogs once the first provisions go into effect end of February. I am sure USCIS and NVC are still feeling the impact of DACA. Obama's order could multiply the case load much, much more.Or at least that petitions related to this primarily get routed to CSC. On the other hand, as they are funded by fees, more fees means more budget for additional resources - of course there will be a 6 months lag at least until those resources would be working effectively.

The sad thing is, that these executive orders targeted at illegal immigrants, while certainly well intentioned, do penalize those of us who go down the legal route by getting our cases stuck in the cue and de-prioritized. Add on top the inefficiencies of the process. If only the entire process was electronic these days.... It is certainly a broken system...

I do wonder if nominally TSC and CSC have the same population to serve or at least the same # of cases/adjucator. Texas seems to be serving the densely populated East Coast states - I wonder if that is reflected in personnel...

1. The upside to user fees is USCIS will be charging fees for those who can now change their status due to Obama's order, so the agency should have sufficient resources to handle the upsurge. USCIS has already decided to open up a center in Arlington, VA that is going to be 100% devoted to those applicants, so k-1 petitions should not be affected too much. Of course the keyword there is SHOULD. Also, I think USCIS' problem isn't a lack of resources, it is more due to poor (project and personnel) management.

2. Yes, you can contact your Senator, congress(wo)man and make a constituent request. I have done so myself. People on VJ have had a wide range of experiences. It really is dependent on how good a congressional office you have. Mine, unfortunately, sucks. Probably because I live in DC, which doesn't have any vote in Congress...

3. Yeah, TSC covers a more heavily populated part of the country. That's probably a big reason for the problem. On the other hand, CSC handles the most populated state in the country, and the one that has the most immigrants...

[7monthsTSC 2]

Gulya, look at my time line,, we applied on December 2013 and got our NOA 2 only in 8 months later, i got to the US finally in November. Almost one year of the whole process. It is a long journey, and quite unfair time wise. So patience and patience. Calling them wont do anything unless you are beyond the normal processing time posted by USCIS on the website. But you ll get approved eventually if you have all documents right, your relationship is genuine and you have no bad immigration or criminal background. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions, since we are both from KGstan, yu might have some specific questions

[Ontarkie 14,218]

~~One post removed for not being in English. Non English post can be posted in the appropriate regional forum. ~~

[Gulya 13]

Gulya, look at my time line,, we applied on December 2013 and got our NOA 2 only in 8 months later, i got to the US finally in November. Almost one year of the whole process. It is a long journey, and quite unfair time wise. So patience and patience. Calling them wont do anything unless you are beyond the normal processing time posted by USCIS on the website. But you ll get approved eventually if you have all documents right, your relationship is genuine and you have no bad immigration or criminal background. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions, since we are both from KGstan, yu might have some specific questions

Hello again, my previous message was moved as it was in russian , so glad you replied, i might need some advise from you and have some questons:

In which clinic did you get you medical and which hotel did you stay closer to clinic? did you have kids with you or it is just you? and do you know any good hotels closer to us embassy? i know it is early but i am just hoping that we get approved soon

Thank you for our time