Good news for us going through VSC

[John and Luda 0]

http://www.samessenger.com/index.php?optio...iew&id=1773

200 new INS jobs for St. Albans

Monday, 01 October 2007

Additional 100 positions for Williston, says Leahy

ST. ALBANS CITY –– St. Albans received a major economic boost today with the announcement that as many as 300 federal jobs will be added to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Center’s (USCIS) Vermont facilities, 200 of them in St. Albans.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., made the announcement today in Burlington, during a press conference at the University of Vermont (UVM).

Leahy’s staff said Emilio T. Gonzalez, USCIS director, notified the senator of the expansion Thursday, via letter.

“Vermonters have built a solid work record, earning confidence in what we can do with bigger challenges,” Leahy said in a prepared statement issued Friday afternoon.

“These new jobs will ease strains in the immigration system and on workers in Vermont who have been facing a rising workload,” the senator said. “This is a good day for Vermont’s economy and a vote of confidence in Vermont’s workforce.”

In his letter to Leahy, Gonzalez wrote that 1,500 new federal positions would be created in fiscal year 2008 to “enhance service delivery by providing more efficient and customer-oriented immigration and naturalization benefits processing.”

Gonzalez said that of those 1,500 jobs, 300 would come to Vermont. Leahy staff member confirmed that 200 of those jobs would come to St. Albans City, and the rest would go to the Williston facility.

Additionally, the Vermont centers can expect to see a higher complement of contracted worker to support the new positions, according to Gonzalez.

Leahy’s staff could not determine today just how many contracted workers were expected as part of the expansion.

Twenty new fraud detection and immigration officers also will be deployed to Vermont to detect combat immigration benefit fraud.

“Because the majority of immigration benefit fraud begins with the filing of an application or petition with USCIS, it is essential to identify suspect cases as early in the process as possible …,” Gonzalez wrote to Leahy.

On Aug. 1, 2007, the Office of Security and Integrity’s Personnel Security Division was reorganized. The result was a move to centralize all federal and contractor suitability adjudication functions in Burlington, to improve efficiencies and cycle time in the adjudication process.

The current Burlington staff consists of six federal employees and 34 contractors. That will increase to 25 additional federal workers and 15 new contractors in the Burlington area. Those new employees are expected to start by December.

Gonzalez also said the “… additional resources specifically being provided to the Vermont Service Center are required to address the need to reduce waiting periods associated with the determination of benefits, as well as provide for the relevant training required to equip adjudications personnel with the requisite knowledge and skills to timely and accurately process the substantial and complex workloads that are administered through the Vermont Service Center.”

Leahy’s office said the new jobs were the result of the department’s recent hike in adjudication fees – passports, visa applications, changes in status applications, green card applications, and other records.

The federal government is using the associated income to fund the new positions, according to Leahy’s office.

Liz Gamache, interim St. Albans City manager, first learned the news from the Messenger on Friday afternoon. She was thrilled and welcomed the expansion wholeheartedly.

Gamache said downtown businesses would benefit tremendously with more employees in the area.

“To say that the addition of these jobs is a significant boost to the economic vitality of St. Albans is an understatement,” Gamache said in a prepared statement. “This underscores the importance of developing and marketing the City of St. Albans to be an attractive prospect to employers.”

-- -- --

Emerson Lynn, Messenger publisher and editor, and Leon Thompson, staff writer, contributed to this report

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

That's really great! I bet there will be a learning curve though once the highering begins.

[Frank+Jocelyn 1]

That really is great news. The new workers probably wont be in place and trained soon enough to help me, but it will be great for those who follow.

I'm glad they are putting my $455 to good use!