Anyone know how to contact Homeland Security

[LaL 418]

You could try this USCIS department. I have used it in the past and they actually called us in return

IMMIGRATION ASSISTANCE Center

send pertinant information CERTIFIED to:

111 Massachusetts Ave NW 6th Floor

Washington, DC 20539

or fax to: (202) 272-1865

[morocco4ever 63]

When I called the number that I was given for Homeland Security - the person could tell me all about the I-130 and I-129F dates, but not the CRO number.

I called the embassy this morning and they were all out for an outside meeting. I'll try again tomorrow and will ask if it was sent in a diplomatic pouch, etc.

So can you tell me more about your case? Was it denied or did you do things before it had gotten denied?

We were denied a visa at the interview, so it is different than yours in ways because we got the 221g that states it was sent back. My suspicions that they have done the same thing, but since it went through AP first you didn't get the same notice. I am planning to send you our story in a PM so as not bore the ones here that have heard our story a million times, but just to ease your mind we did overcome the denial and he is with me now.

[allousa 1]

I don't know if this will help....but my husband's case was in AP for a year and two months. During that whole time, all we were ever told was that it was under Additional Administrative Processing. Now my husband is actually Palestinian but residing in Morocco so that is why we went through Casa. He has no prior criminal record. We are actually having to file a 601 waiver so that he can re-enter the country.

Our Congress Rep was of great assistance while the file was in the US. The local CIS office sat on his file for 9 months before sending it. They were very helpful getting it to NVC. But once his file went into the black hole of AP after his interview, I was pretty much told there was nothing anyone could do. I also wrote several letters and emails to Condi, the DOS and even the President and our state Senator. Never got a response from any of them. Then all of a sudden he got his 601 interview and Casa promptly sent the waiver application on to Rome where we are stuck in another hideous waiting period.

Our attorney and I have discussed this at length and his opinion is that the entire system is like a massive lumbering bohemoth that is getting ready to crash. He said he has never seen such lengthy waiting times, ridiculous fees and lost paperwork. He has more Mexican and South American clients than Middle Eastern and he says it's a system wide problem, however, he sees the biggest delays with Middle Eastern clients. Hmmm...I wonder why?

I do agree that you must constantly stay on top of your application(s) to make sure they have not been lost or forgotten, but dealing with the Immigration System is an uphill battle all the way.

Best wishes and good luck.

[morocco4ever 63]

I don't know if this will help....but my husband's case was in AP for a year and two months. During that whole time, all we were ever told was that it was under Additional Administrative Processing. Now my husband is actually Palestinian but residing in Morocco so that is why we went through Casa. He has no prior criminal record. We are actually having to file a 601 waiver so that he can re-enter the country.

Our Congress Rep was of great assistance while the file was in the US. The local CIS office sat on his file for 9 months before sending it. They were very helpful getting it to NVC. But once his file went into the black hole of AP after his interview, I was pretty much told there was nothing anyone could do. I also wrote several letters and emails to Condi, the DOS and even the President and our state Senator. Never got a response from any of them. Then all of a sudden he got his 601 interview and Casa promptly sent the waiver application on to Rome where we are stuck in another hideous waiting period.

Our attorney and I have discussed this at length and his opinion is that the entire system is like a massive lumbering bohemoth that is getting ready to crash. He said he has never seen such lengthy waiting times, ridiculous fees and lost paperwork. He has more Mexican and South American clients than Middle Eastern and he says it's a system wide problem, however, he sees the biggest delays with Middle Eastern clients. Hmmm...I wonder why?

I do agree that you must constantly stay on top of your application(s) to make sure they have not been lost or forgotten, but dealing with the Immigration System is an uphill battle all the way.

Best wishes and good luck.

Excuse my ignorance on this, but when you have to file a 601 isn't that like some sort of waiver? Does that mean he was in the US at one time illegally, or what does it mean? After the AP they send it back to the CIS to revoke the petition? Sorry for the questions, I just want to understand what happened in your case. I am confused about it. Was there a name hit? If he was here in the US at one time illegally then wouldn't they have had that information prior to the interview so they would have given you the waiver at the interview? As you can see I know nothing about this...lol....but it never hurts to understand more. And if you have a similar situation as the OP then what you say might be of more assistance than what I know about.

[sarah and hicham 3]

I don't know if this will help....but my husband's case was in AP for a year and two months. During that whole time, all we were ever told was that it was under Additional Administrative Processing. Now my husband is actually Palestinian but residing in Morocco so that is why we went through Casa. He has no prior criminal record. We are actually having to file a 601 waiver so that he can re-enter the country.

Our Congress Rep was of great assistance while the file was in the US. The local CIS office sat on his file for 9 months before sending it. They were very helpful getting it to NVC. But once his file went into the black hole of AP after his interview, I was pretty much told there was nothing anyone could do. I also wrote several letters and emails to Condi, the DOS and even the President and our state Senator. Never got a response from any of them. Then all of a sudden he got his 601 interview and Casa promptly sent the waiver application on to Rome where we are stuck in another hideous waiting period.

Our attorney and I have discussed this at length and his opinion is that the entire system is like a massive lumbering bohemoth that is getting ready to crash. He said he has never seen such lengthy waiting times, ridiculous fees and lost paperwork. He has more Mexican and South American clients than Middle Eastern and he says it's a system wide problem, however, he sees the biggest delays with Middle Eastern clients. Hmmm...I wonder why?

I do agree that you must constantly stay on top of your application(s) to make sure they have not been lost or forgotten, but dealing with the Immigration System is an uphill battle all the way.

Best wishes and good luck.

Excuse my ignorance on this, but when you have to file a 601 isn't that like some sort of waiver? Does that mean he was in the US at one time illegally, or what does it mean? After the AP they send it back to the CIS to revoke the petition? Sorry for the questions, I just want to understand what happened in your case. I am confused about it. Was there a name hit? If he was here in the US at one time illegally then wouldn't they have had that information prior to the interview so they would have given you the waiver at the interview? As you can see I know nothing about this...lol....but it never hurts to understand more. And if you have a similar situation as the OP then what you say might be of more assistance than what I know about.

You should do a search under her name because she has explained it many times. It's a doozy.

[morocco4ever 63]

I just did a search, but there are too many posts to find one that spells it out. Reading her timeline on her footer tells me a lot, but not everything. This case sounds like a freaking nightmare! I hope its over for them soon.

[allousa 1]

Hicham's case is VERY complicated. He is Palestinian but his family resides in Morocco. All of their travel documents have to be Palestinian as they are not considered Moroccan citizens...even though Hicham was born there. His parents fled there from Gaza in the late 60's and have been unable to return. Hicham came to the U.S. on a student visa. It took him longer to graduate because he was working several jobs to put him through school. When he tried to renew his visa, I believe he was having to go through Egypt at the time, for some political reason they were refusing to issue Palestinian documents at the time. Hicham was advised to file for Political Asylum because he was considered then (and still is by the way) as Stateless. This makes no sense to me since he has to have a Palestinian passport, but no country recognizes Palestine as an offical country. Anyway, he was denied. I read through the transcripts of his exchange with the lawyers and judge...they were so nasty that I couldn't believe he was actually treated like this. On the advice of his lawyer at the time, he appealed their decision. Hicham and I met while he was waiting for the appeal.

He was still going to school at the time and finally graduated. We also got married and filed for the I-130. We were approved at the local office in our interview, but they held up the completion of AOS because the appeal for Asylum was still outstanding. We were told by the CIS office that would have to be dismissed in order to proceed. Enter our 2nd lawyer, who we THOUGHT at the time was filing the correct paperwork to dismiss the appeal and help to get Hicham's AOS taken care of in order to get a work permit. Then in November of 2003, Hicham's mother became very, very ill and he flew home to visit her. When he tried to come home, we found out that EVEN THOUGH we had a pending application under review, the Asylum case that was originally denied, had an order of deportation against Hicham...EVEN THOUGH he appealed it, the U.S. considered Hicham as voluntarily deporting himself and because his student visa had expired by the time that he left EVEN THOUGH we had applications pending, he was also considered as overstaying his visa. It took several weeks for me to get my breath back when we found out all of this. Our second attorney said we were screwed and that he couldn't help us.

I really did my homework in searching out a new attorney. I sold our house that we were living in at the time to move in with family members so I could pay for the attorney. We quickly found out that the 2nd attorney never filed the correct paperwork and even filed it with the wrong office. This attorney quickly found out that the reason the Asylum appeal had never been cancelled was because the Atlanta branch LOST his file.

[allousa 1]

In case you don't know what the I-601 and I-212 is, the 601 is the waiver that waives the 5/10 year ban that Hicham has been subjected to. The 212 is the application for his readmittance. The application is first generated in the local CIS office. We submitted the application in August of 2005.

Hicham's file was at the local CIS office in Charlotte, because that is where the I-130 was filed. Our attorney requested that the file be moved to the NVC for the next step. Twice I was told his file had been sent to the NVC, but NVC kept saying that they never received it. I got our local Congress rep involved and they found out that the local office NEVER sent the file and that the two letters of request where actually filed with his paperwork!!!!! The reps office said I could file a complaint but that it would be in our best interest to wait until after our process was done. Can you believe that??? It took 9 months for the file to finally get to NVC. Once his file got there, we were sent a letter that his file didn't contain a letter of representation from our attorney and was missing some other documents. That was ####### because I kept an exact copy of everything that was sent and those documents were in there! After about another 6 months, the file was sent on to Morocco. It was there for a few more months before we found out that Hicham finally had his interview date. We thought at the time this was his 601 interview, but.....

The interview was AWFUL!!!! Hicham had the blonde lady who accused him of not being who he said he was. She made him write his name 3 times because she said his signatures didn't match. The whole time she had our file that had numerous pictures of me and him and both of our families...if she would have just looked at his file. After that interview, his case was under "Additional Administraive Processing" for a year and two months. We made several inquiries to Casa and with our Congress Rep and were always told that his case was under AP. We were NEVER told that there were additional security checks or anything. They never would give us any information about what took so long. When I have contacted the DOS, because his application is a I-601 and file on the Consulate level, they said they couldn't offer us any information.

I went to visit Hicham in the summer of 2005 and came back with a surprise! I was pregnant!!!! We weren't trying and I had been told that I probably never could get pregnant because I've ALWAYS had problems with my "female plumbing". It was a wonderous surprise to us and our families. We had hopes that Hicham would be home by the time our son was born. He wasn't even out of AP before that happened. My best friend served as my birthing partner. Hicham was able to recite part of the Koran in our son's ear through the speaker of the cell phone.

[morocco4ever 63]

Wow, what a nightmare! Sorry to make you explain it again, but I just can't keep up with everyones cases here.

Where exactly is Rome? Why is the case pending there? Again, since you started the process when he was in the US I am assuming that the entire process is different. Is this part of the homeland securities or the department of state?

My heart really goes out to you. We went through our own nightmare, but yours has been just heartbreaking. I hope this is over soon. I can tell that you and your husband are strong, and that you can withstand this pressure because your love for each other is strong. Kudos to you.

[allousa 1]

Part III (I'm posting this in pieces because I don't know how much we can post in one reply)

Finally, Hicham made it through the security checks and was granted his I-601 interview. He was ON THE TRAIN to Casa from Rabat to his interview the day the Casa bombings happened. Casa then shut down their offices for two months. Hicham finally got his rescheduled interview in June. This interview went unbelieveable well. The blonde lady was so nice to him that I asked him if it was the same lady!!!! She had obviously read our file and knew that we really were legit and had a life together. She even wished him good luck. She called back the next day to say that they had forgotten to get his fingerprints and that he needed to come in the next day before his file was sent to Rome. Now what I don't understand is how could he gone through all of that AP and they didn't have his fingerprints???? They did have his fingerprints from the local CIS office when we were going through the I-130 back in 2001!!!!

It took over 6 weeks for his file to be received by Rome. I joked with the people here on VJ that it was sent by diplomatic donkey rather than a diplomatic pouch!!!! We then had to wait for his US file (?) to be sent to Rome in order for them to process the application. That took another month. That was August of this year. We received a letter from Rome that the whole process should take 90-180 days. But I have since found out that they are now saying it's 6-9 months. I've gone through so much stress through this whole process but nothing like I have here at the end. Rome has a website that they are supposed to update every 2 weeks (they rarely update on time). Everyday I look at their site hoping that something has changed. But since they are only on May applications, I don't look for an answer to be received before April. I feel that we have good reasons for proving hardship so that his 601 will be granted...but we just don't know. For them to deny his application after all that we've been through, that would destroy me. It would destroy my grandmother and aunt who adore our son. I'm also the only child in the family that takes care of them.

I've also gone through the death of my father during all of this. I was very close to him and that in itself has brought me to my knees many days since I lost him. My father and Hicham grew very close when he was here and it devastated Hicham that he could not be here to say goodbye to my dad in person. But it's been our precious little boy and the hope of Hicham and I being a whole family again that has gotten me through day by day. A sweet blessing through all of this is that it's brough Hicham and I closer in ways that I don't know would have happened had he stayed in the US and this never happened. Don't get me wrong, I wish this horrible nightmare had NEVER happened, but it's forged a strength in our relationship that might not have happened other wise. I've traveled overseas several times now and gone to places I might not have otherwise. I've learned and am still learning about a culture so different than my own but have come to love as much as my own.

I know this was more than you asked for, but it's such a complicated journey that it's hard to tell and understand in bits and pieces. I appreciate so many people here on VJ who have supported me and keep their fingers crossed for this to be over for us soon.

I haven't posted as often lately because I've just been too depressed lately about how long it's taken.

[allousa 1]

Most of the I-601 waiver applications for MENA countries are processed out of Rome, Italy. I have heard of some being sent to Athens, but their office is apparently having alot of problems and many are being sent to Rome after sitting for months already.

The process IS different and lengthy, but even our attorney is at a loss for how long this has taken. He said that his previous 601 cases would at most take 1 1/2 or 2 years at most. He said he has seen a HUGE slow down in processing for almost all of his cases. We both think the fee increase and people filing to beat that caused part of it. But the whole system is just broken and inept.

Oh, and to answer your question, it's the Department of State that all of this falls under. Once you start dealing with the foreign consulates, that is DOS territory.

[morocco4ever 63]

wow, thanks for the details to your case. I do understand when you say that the problems have built a strong bond between the two of you. My husband and I feel the same. But as you state, I would never want the nightmare again.

One way or the other I just can not imagine they would deny you. If anyone here has proven their love and sincerity it has been you. It sounds like the wait is almost over, and you are right, the last months are absolutely the worst, God bless you.

To the OP, has your husband ever been in the US?

[allousa 1]

I hope that someday very soon I can post that we have an answer "YES" and that he will be coming home! What a party day that will be!!!!!!

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I hope that someday very soon I can post that we have an answer "YES" and that he will be coming home! What a party day that will be!!!!!!

Insha'allah that day is coming very soon, for you and for everyone still waiting.

(F)

-MK

[doodlebugg 10]

I hope that someday very soon I can post that we have an answer "YES" and that he will be coming home! What a party day that will be!!!!!!

Insha'allah that day is coming very soon, for you and for everyone still waiting.

(F)

-MK

Holy ####### that camel's head is HUGE !!!