Any letter templates to help me write a letter to my congressman?

[Tree 0]

Well were going on our 7th week of not receiving Packet 4. Islamabad embassy keeps telling us the same thing everytime we call and e-mail them, that they have received packet 3.5 and have not reviewed it yet. A worker at the embassy told my husband that they will give our case to a supervisor since it has taken so long. Regardless i'd like to write a letter to my congressman.

Are there any templates for a letter to send to my congressman? I'm not very good at letter writing.

[Y's_habibitk 2]

I'll get back to you, when i get home from work

Lisa

[Ning 619]

Well were going on our 7th week of not receiving Packet 4. Islamabad embassy keeps telling us the same thing everytime we call and e-mail them, that they have received packet 3.5 and have not reviewed it yet. A worker at the embassy told my husband that they will give our case to a supervisor since it has taken so long. Regardless i'd like to write a letter to my congressman.

Are there any templates for a letter to send to my congressman? I'm not very good at letter writing.

First go to your senator or congressmans web site. There you will find a form you have to print, fill out & send to them. They will not do anything before you do that. On the form it askes you to state the problem. Just tell them you want help contacting the Embassy to find out what the problem is with getting an interview date. You will find that it takes about a month to get a reply. That reply will simply tell you your case is under review. There is nothing these people can do to speed up your case no matter what you think . They just dont get involved too much unless there is a seriouse problem.

I know you dont want to hear it but as I told you some weeks back your just a victum of a busy Embassy & they are not going to give you a date until they have a place in thier schedual for your case. This is exactly why they have not sent you the packet 4.

I have done all of the things I explained to you. You may have better luck than I did but it doesnt seem so from what you say. The only difference is you are working thru a different Embassy.

[Alli and Léo 0]

An actual letter is not really required. What I did was download or print the consent/release form for my senators/congressman and fill it out. There will be a place to state what is needed and any complaints. The fewer the words the better. Just make a clear statement about what you want your senator/congressman to do. This is all they really want and your case number. The form can be found on their websites. Good Luck!

[Y's_habibitk 2]

I would totally recomend a letter and make sure that you mention that you have already received the canned standard answer and you need a more detailed inquiry.

IMHO, filling out a form, or writing a sentence long plea will get you nowhere....

They will put in an inquiry and wont care about the response. Mention that you need a reason other than "they're working on it"..

Lisa

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Dear _________________,

I am writing in regards to the ____________embassy. I have petitioned for my husband to join me in the US on a _____visa. The petition was approved on______, by USCIS. The __________embassy has had my husbands petition for _________days. They sent out our ____packet and we promptly returned all of the required forms and documentation.

Their website states that they will schedule and interview in "a few days" (feel free to copy and paste the info i posted on another one of your threads from your embassy's website)

We have yet to hear from the embassy. We have contacted them on numerous occasions, only to be told that they are "working on it" (isnt this what they have said?)

I am asking you to please inquire as to what the issue may be and why the embassy has not scheduled my husbands ____vis interview. It is of high importance that we know why they have not sent the interview schedule packet(??). We have already inquired and received no definitive answers. If they are lacking information from my husband we should know, so we can rectify it.

My husband and I would greatly appreciate any information you can find out on our behalf. We have been seperated for _______months/years and desperately need to be together as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance for your time and efforts,

______________________

personal contact info

and your reciept numbers

This is what i would write

Lisa

Edited November 18, 2008 by Y_habibitk

[Rabi 0]

Actually Your Approval month is September SO it takes some time..Becuase i M August Approval but till Now recvd any packet 4 answr is same theyrecvd but not review so be patient U will get ur packet may be Nov end or Dec strat..I m Sure...

[Ning 619]

Well were going on our 7th week of not receiving Packet 4. Islamabad embassy keeps telling us the same thing everytime we call and e-mail them, that they have received packet 3.5 and have not reviewed it yet. A worker at the embassy told my husband that they will give our case to a supervisor since it has taken so long. Regardless i'd like to write a letter to my congressman.

Are there any templates for a letter to send to my congressman? I'm not very good at letter writing.

Take a look at Lisas advice & do as she says. In her case her Congressman only took 2 months to get her the same answer she would have gotten from USCIS. That was after she wrote several letters to them.

I would take a more realistic approach & not believe in some idea that these Congressman have some influence they just dont have. Remember they are the ones that refuse to reform these immigration laws from 1952.

By the way my efforts with a Senator were much the same as Lisas Congressman. Although mine sent the letters to the wrong address even after I called & gave them the correct address when I realised thier mistake.

By the time I got the letters from the Senators office saying USCIS was moving forward on my case, the case was thru NVC & at the Embassy. I learned a lot in my experiance with Senators ect. Its all just smoke & mirrors to placate the tax payer.

Here on VJ I have seen very few rare cases where the politicians actually did something to change a difficult situation.

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Well were going on our 7th week of not receiving Packet 4. Islamabad embassy keeps telling us the same thing everytime we call and e-mail them, that they have received packet 3.5 and have not reviewed it yet. A worker at the embassy told my husband that they will give our case to a supervisor since it has taken so long. Regardless i'd like to write a letter to my congressman.

Are there any templates for a letter to send to my congressman? I'm not very good at letter writing.

Take a look at Lisas advice & do as she says. In her case her Congressman only took 2 months to get her the same answer she would have gotten from USCIS. That was after she wrote several letters to them.

I would take a more realistic approach & not believe in some idea that these Congressman have some influence they just dont have. Remember they are the ones that refuse to reform these immigration laws from 1952.

By the way my efforts with a Senator were much the same as Lisas Congressman. Although mine sent the letters to the wrong address even after I called & gave them the correct address when I realised thier mistake.

By the time I got the letters from the Senators office saying USCIS was moving forward on my case, the case was thru NVC & at the Embassy. I learned a lot in my experiance with Senators ect. Its all just smoke & mirrors to placate the tax payer.

Here on VJ I have seen very few rare cases where the politicians actually did something to change a difficult situation.

Do you think I contacted my congressman before I tried to get answers from USCIS? Anyone who has called there knows the responses they give. Im sorry you had a bad experience with your rep.

Anyway,

I agree that sometimes, its of no use to write letters to certain congressmen. However, the problem is that calling USCIS and/or the embassy only gives you a canned answer. They are more inclined to give a detailed response to a member of congress or senate. It doesnt mean that they have the power to move a case faster. But, if you have a compitent constiuent services rep, you can gain some piece of mind and maybe some "pressure" on the USCIS or embassy to at least LOOK at your case.

Lisa

[Ning 619]

Well were going on our 7th week of not receiving Packet 4. Islamabad embassy keeps telling us the same thing everytime we call and e-mail them, that they have received packet 3.5 and have not reviewed it yet. A worker at the embassy told my husband that they will give our case to a supervisor since it has taken so long. Regardless i'd like to write a letter to my congressman.

Are there any templates for a letter to send to my congressman? I'm not very good at letter writing.

Take a look at Lisas advice & do as she says. In her case her Congressman only took 2 months to get her the same answer she would have gotten from USCIS. That was after she wrote several letters to them.

I would take a more realistic approach & not believe in some idea that these Congressman have some influence they just dont have. Remember they are the ones that refuse to reform these immigration laws from 1952.

By the way my efforts with a Senator were much the same as Lisas Congressman. Although mine sent the letters to the wrong address even after I called & gave them the correct address when I realised thier mistake.

By the time I got the letters from the Senators office saying USCIS was moving forward on my case, the case was thru NVC & at the Embassy. I learned a lot in my experiance with Senators ect. Its all just smoke & mirrors to placate the tax payer.

Here on VJ I have seen very few rare cases where the politicians actually did something to change a difficult situation.

Do you think I contacted my congressman before I tried to get answers from USCIS? Anyone who has called there knows the responses they give. Im sorry you had a bad experience with your rep.

Anyway,

I agree that sometimes, its of no use to write letters to certain congressmen. However, the problem is that calling USCIS and/or the embassy only gives you a canned answer. They are more inclined to give a detailed response to a member of congress or senate. It doesnt mean that they have the power to move a case faster. But, if you have a competent constiuent services rep, you can gain some piece of mind and maybe some "pressure" on the USCIS or embassy to at least LOOK at your case.

Lisa

No I sure dont. I can read your time line. As you say anyone that calls USCIS knows what they will get but we all start there.

If I told anyone what actually happened during my case they wouldnt believe it.

As far as my rep as you call her, she is one of the most experianced people in any of the many offices of Senators or Congressman. It is all she has done for more than 20 years.

I read the responces she got from USCIS & NVC about my case. They were far from detailed. They couldnt even acknowledge to her that they had found my case. The fact turned out to be that the case wasnt even at USCIS as USCIS said nor was it lost at NVC as NVC said.

It took me writing 8 letters to all of those incompetent SOBs of which I got absolutly zero responces to realize the only chance I had was to ask the staff at the Counsulate to help.

A Deputy Director there decided to look into my case. He in turn had a duty officer assigned to help me. They emailed me with completly different info than USCIS, NVC, or the Senators office.

The case wasnt lost. It was in fact approved by NVC & sent to the Embassy.

I called the Senators staff member & told her what was actually happening & asked how they all could be so screwed up. She said I have given you the info I recieved from the two agencys just as I recieved it.

So Lisa if it helps you to believe they can "pressure" the agencys I guess thats good. But your experiance with them isnt too much different than mine. Your Congressman has taken 2 months just as my Senator did with a little better info from yours. Or is it just a coincidence that your case is being adjudicated?

Have you read in the GUIDES the Q & A from the former adjudication officer about how the cases are handled?

There are so many variables in these cases that I dont think much that happened in one can really relate to the other.

I have been thru 3 personal face to face meetings in USCIS offices. Seven meetings with Embassy officers in Bangkok, asked a million questions & thru those experiances feel I have some insite.

Nessie or who ever just doesnt want to accept the fact that the Embassy isnt going to send them the packet 4 until they have a time in thier schedual to do the interview. In the mean time I think they should do as you say & contact the Congressman because they will feel that something is going to change.

It will take 2 months to get any answer & in that time they will get thier interview anyway. I hope so because the waiting coupled with the lack of info is the worst part of this journey.

Too bad the Embassy there wont take 5 minutes to tell them whats up.

[KandD 1]

Nessie

For some reason the ISL embassy is running very slow. Chaingang was on AP and was called to resubmit his medical and police record along with his passport; this was the end of October. He is still waiting, when he called them they told him they only have ONE person reviewing all the police certificates and medical. This may be the hold up.

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Well were going on our 7th week of not receiving Packet 4. Islamabad embassy keeps telling us the same thing everytime we call and e-mail them, that they have received packet 3.5 and have not reviewed it yet. A worker at the embassy told my husband that they will give our case to a supervisor since it has taken so long. Regardless i'd like to write a letter to my congressman.

Are there any templates for a letter to send to my congressman? I'm not very good at letter writing.

Take a look at Lisas advice & do as she says. In her case her Congressman only took 2 months to get her the same answer she would have gotten from USCIS. That was after she wrote several letters to them.

I would take a more realistic approach & not believe in some idea that these Congressman have some influence they just dont have. Remember they are the ones that refuse to reform these immigration laws from 1952.

By the way my efforts with a Senator were much the same as Lisas Congressman. Although mine sent the letters to the wrong address even after I called & gave them the correct address when I realised thier mistake.

By the time I got the letters from the Senators office saying USCIS was moving forward on my case, the case was thru NVC & at the Embassy. I learned a lot in my experiance with Senators ect. Its all just smoke & mirrors to placate the tax payer.

Here on VJ I have seen very few rare cases where the politicians actually did something to change a difficult situation.

Do you think I contacted my congressman before I tried to get answers from USCIS? Anyone who has called there knows the responses they give. Im sorry you had a bad experience with your rep.

Anyway,

I agree that sometimes, its of no use to write letters to certain congressmen. However, the problem is that calling USCIS and/or the embassy only gives you a canned answer. They are more inclined to give a detailed response to a member of congress or senate. It doesnt mean that they have the power to move a case faster. But, if you have a competent constiuent services rep, you can gain some piece of mind and maybe some "pressure" on the USCIS or embassy to at least LOOK at your case.

Lisa

No I sure dont. I can read your time line. As you say anyone that calls USCIS knows what they will get but we all start there.

If I told anyone what actually happened during my case they wouldnt believe it.

As far as my rep as you call her, she is one of the most experianced people in any of the many offices of Senators or Congressman. It is all she has done for more than 20 years.

I read the responces she got from USCIS & NVC about my case. They were far from detailed. They couldnt even acknowledge to her that they had found my case. The fact turned out to be that the case wasnt even at USCIS as USCIS said nor was it lost at NVC as NVC said.

It took me writing 8 letters to all of those incompetent SOBs of which I got absolutly zero responces to realize the only chance I had was to ask the staff at the Counsulate to help.

A Deputy Director there decided to look into my case. He in turn had a duty officer assigned to help me. They emailed me with completly different info than USCIS, NVC, or the Senators office.

The case wasnt lost. It was in fact approved by NVC & sent to the Embassy.

I called the Senators staff member & told her what was actually happening & asked how they all could be so screwed up. She said I have given you the info I recieved from the two agencys just as I recieved it.

So Lisa if it helps you to believe they can "pressure" the agencys I guess thats good. But your experiance with them isnt too much different than mine. Your Congressman has taken 2 months just as my Senator did with a little better info from yours. Or is it just a coincidence that your case is being adjudicated?

Have you read in the GUIDES the Q & A from the former adjudication officer about how the cases are handled?

There are so many variables in these cases that I dont think much that happened in one can really relate to the other.

I have been thru 3 personal face to face meetings in USCIS offices. Seven meetings with Embassy officers in Bangkok, asked a million questions & thru those experiances feel I have some insite.

Nessie or who ever just doesnt want to accept the fact that the Embassy isnt going to send them the packet 4 until they have a time in thier schedual to do the interview. In the mean time I think they should do as you say & contact the Congressman because they will feel that something is going to change.

It will take 2 months to get any answer & in that time they will get thier interview anyway. I hope so because the waiting coupled with the lack of info is the worst part of this journey.

Too bad the Embassy there wont take 5 minutes to tell them whats up.

Well, like I said.. Im sorry you had a bad experience.

I didnt say that in my precious post to be an *ss.

And yes, it does help. It also helps alot of people to feel as if they are at least doing something other than sitting and twittling their thumbs and feeling powerless. Even if you get information that is not what you want to hear, the fact that you got AN answer is better than "we're working on it" or "you are just going to have wait a little longer".

Is it a coinsedence that we are now in adjudication? Maybe, but who's to say it isnt. Who's to say I wont get approved before others with similar timelines because I was a squeaky wheel? We will see.

Im sorry it took almost two years for your spouse to get here. That sucks, and Im sure you fought and did everything you could to expedite that. It sounds like you guys went through h*ll to be together and Im glad that you finally made it!

Lisa

Ricker, I just want to add that I read your first post totally wrong and Im sorry for my tone.

Edited November 19, 2008 by Y_habibitk