Employment based immigration backlog petition

[Edison]

Petition Version 1.0:
-------------------------


To Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman
BCIS

Subject: Employment based Immigration backlog

Dear Mr. Prakash Khatri,
First of all we would like to congratulate you on your appointment as the Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman at Department of Homeland security. We, the immigrant community, have long awaited for someone with deep experience and liasons with the industry to be appointed so that we could communicate effectively with Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

We are writing this to request you to device proper measures to reduce the perpetual delays for processing the employment based immigration applications and to convey the hardships caused to the individuals and the United states due to the perpetual delays for processing the employment based immigration applications.

Immigration is not undermining the American experiment; it is an integral part of it. Since the inception of this country, the people and customs of America have been built by immigrants. Even today, immigrants play an important role in the economy, communities, and everyday life of America. It is important to understand that immigrants, particularly those with high skills, are not just critically important to the success of some of the large corporations of the United states but are benificial to the economy as a whole. Contrary to the popular myth, Immigrants do not take American's job but infact immigrants have developed new products and started new business ventures that have created employment opportunities for millions of Americans. Immigrants stimulate the economy in general. Immigrants have enriched American culture and enhanced the United states influence in the world. It is important to maintain the United states long tradition of welcoming immigrants to the United states to pursue the American dream. The success of the United states rests upon its successful pro-immigration policy.

However, in the wake of September 11, 2001, the immigration policy of the United States has changed drastically. And this has affected the employment based immigration application processing and it has caused immense hardships for the applicants. In late 2002, Legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service (Legacy INS) has temporarily freezed all immigration application processing due to the audit process which was followed by the newly enforced FBI security check impacting the immigration application processing time negatively. Earlier this year, the INS was disbanded and incorporated into the Homeland Security Department as Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service(BCIS) causing even further delays in processing employment based immigration applications. In June 2003, BCIS has terminated the customer service at all service centers and centralized it to National Customer Service Center (NCSC) and it became difficult to obtain the case specific information at NCSC. Lately, various service centers announced that they planned to halt the processing of employment based immigration applications to expedite processing of religious worker's immigration applications and also to meet deadlines related to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programs. Recently, Mr. Eduardo Aguirre, director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services explained the reason for backlog of immigration applications and expressed that his main priority is to reach the goal set by the President of the United states of America, Mr. George W. Bush to reduce wait times on immigration benefit applications to no more than 6 months by the end of 2006. To achieve the BCIS goal by the end of 2006, we would welcome some positive actions right now to reduce the backlog of employment based immigration applications.

We would like to suggest few measures which would advocate the backlog reduction of employment based immigration applications at BCIS. We request BCIS to consider employment based immigration applications as high priority and expedite processing of the employment based immigration applications affected by the interminable delays. BCIS should consider the adversity of the employment based immigration applicants due to the perpetual delays for processing their immigration applications and it should recommend the interim Permanent residence for them or it should consider issuing the Employment Authorization Document(EAD) and the Advanced Parole for travel with multiple year validity which will also stimulate the backlog reduction of immigration applications at BCIS. Also the cost saving measures like extending the validity of Finger printing report, enhancing the online case status by providing the detailed information about the present status of the applications and accelerating the security check process will contribute towards the backlog reduction of immigration applications.

Immigrants have been crucial to America's dominance and dynamism in the global economy. Immigration policy must focus on the admission of individuals with the high skills that will benefit American society. The legal immigration process has to be reformed and implement steps to reduce massive backlog of employment based immigration applications, so that we could continue America's tradition of welcoming immigrants in to the United states while also providing proper comfort and security for all American citizens.

Sincerly,
Immigration applicants and their well wishers

[Edison]

To all,
Please review the initial version of the proposed petition and post your comments.

Actually the original idea of this petition started at the below mentioned link:

http://boards.immigration.com/showth...threadid=93662

This separate thread was started for comments since the main thread was too long for everyone to follow.

Related link for voting:
http://boards.immigration.com/showth...threadid=93774


It was suggested by few members to shorten the immigration benefits and include the hardships faced by applicants in the main petition. I'll consider this along with other suggestions when I re-work on this.

In addition to the main letter we will have various appendix.
Cinta, please post your initial version of appendix-a describing hardships faced by Employment based GC applicants.

[dsatish]

OK, since you have already created this thread, i will not create another one. Can you please post a link to this thread from other service center forums ?
I have prepared my own version (i have written on a piece of paper) and i have to type it and post here. I will do it in the afternoon. Then we can discuss all the versions. I think it's going to take 3 to 4 days for the final draft. Let's go steadily.

[Chuck2003]

Perfectly stated and down to the point.

Perhaps second paragraph could be revised as follows:

“We are writing this to request you to device proper measures to reduce the perpetual delays for processing the employment based immigration applications and to convey the hardships caused to the individuals and the United States due to the continuous interruptions for processing the above mentioned applications.”

Again, great job.

[Edison]

Originally posted by dsatish
OK, since you have already created this thread, i will not create another one. Can you please post a link to this thread from other service center forums ?
I have prepared my own version (i have written on a piece of paper) and i have to type it and post here. I will do it in the afternoon. Then we can discuss all the versions. I think it's going to take 3 to 4 days for the final draft. Let's go steadily.

Posted link to this thread at I-485 forums for CSC, NSC and TSC.

[Edison]

Chuck2003,
suggestion accepted. Let's wait for all the suggestion.

[cinta]

Appendix B: Draft version. Contributions and role in US Economy.

1: All of us work in high-tech jobs thus contributing to an ailing US economy. The cultural diversity of us contributes to all aspects of American life today. Continuation of our jobs and the GC would help our companies and fellow American employees.
2: All of us pay Federal, State, City and propery taxes.

Please add, modify, comment. Thanks

[dengdeng]

Please don't say hi-tech jobs, not all of us are in this area, and recently congress/senators are proposing to limit hi-tech H-1.

[Edison]

cinta,
Let's do all the review under one thread. So let's merge this thread with main review thread.

Thanks.

[cinta]

Appendix C: draft version. Causes for Processing delays.

1: INS/BCIS reorganisation failures.
2: Resources. Not enough money even though a budget was appropriated by the President.
3: Not enough experienced adjudicators.
4: Ever changing low priority. Totally unfair.
5: Anti-immigration climate.
6: Security checks. FP repeats, repetition of different security checks by different federal agencies.
7: ZERO TOLERANCE. The legacy of the previous chief, created fear among BCIC. The result is obvious. More denials, RFEs and Transfers. The adjudicators have become so fearful!

[Edison]

cinta,
Let's merge this with our main review thread.

[Atri123]

Originally posted by Edison
Petition Version 1.0:
-------------------------

However, in the wake of September 11, 2001, the immigration policy of the United States has changed drastically.
............................... applicants. In late 2002, Legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service (Legacy INS) has temporarily freezed all immigration application processing due to the audit process which was ......

Edison,
Good job!!

In the above paragraph, i feel it would be enough if i goes like ..
"In late 2002, ........(Legacy INS) temporarily froze all immigration............."

Pls dont feel I am picking on you. You are doing a great job.

[Edison]

Atri123,
I understand that you prefer not to include the below mentioned excerpt:
"However, in the wake of September 11, 2001, the immigration policy of the United States has changed drastically. And this has affected the employment based immigration application processing and it has caused immense hardships for the applicants."

Please explain why your prefer not to state this.

Before I accept your view I would like to hear from dengdeng and other forum members about the same.

[mogli]

Good job Edison and everybody involved with this effort. Applaud your initiative and drive.

Here are my suggestions:

The following sentences could be moved to beginning of 3rd para.

"In the wake of September 11, 2001, the immigration policy of the United States has changed drastically. And this has affected the employment based immigration application processing and it has caused immense hardships for the applicants."

Few sentences could be rephrased

Para3:

* "the people and customs"
-> "people and customs "
* "Immigrants do not take American's job"
-> "Immigrants do not take American jobs"
* "Immigrants stimulate the economy in general. Immigrants have enriched American culture and enhanced the United states influence in the world."
->"Immigrants stimulate the economy in general, enrich American culture and enhance United states' influence in the world. "
* "The success of the United states rests"
-> "Success of the United states rests "

Para4:

* (Legacy INS) has temporarily freezed
-> (Legacy INS) froze
* In June 2003, BCIS has terminated
-> In June 2003, BCIS terminated

Para5:

* few measures which would advocate the backlog
-> few measures which advocate backlog
* We request BCIS to consider employment based immigration applications as high priority and expedite processing of the employment based immigration applications affected by the interminable delays.
->We request BCIS to consider employment based immigration applications as high priority and expedite their processing, which are affected by interminable delays.
* BCIS should consider the adversity of the employment based immigration applicants due to the perpetual delays for processing their immigration applications and it should recommend the interim Permanent residence for them or it should consider issuing the Employment Authorization Document(EAD) and the Advanced Parole for travel with multiple year validity which will also stimulate the backlog reduction of immigration applications at BCIS.
-> above sentence is too long. Please rephrase
* Also the cost saving measures
-> Also, cost saving

Para6:

* individuals with the high skills that
-> individuals with high skills that
* The legal immigration process has to be reformed and implement steps
-> Legal immigration process has to be reformed and steps implemented

Typos.

Para1: liaisons not liasons
Para2: devise not device
Para3: beneficial not benificial

Bear with me if my response was too long.

[Edison]

mogli,
Thanks for correcting the mistakes and rephrasing some. I didn't even run spell check or grammar check. I just posted the document I prepared before I rushed to work this morning.
Thanks again.

[YJay]

Edison,

Thanks for doing a great job.

I have modified your version, trying to make it shoter while not loosing the focus. It's just for your reference.

===================================
First of all we would like to congratulate you on your appointment as the Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman at Department of Homeland security. We, the immigrant community, appreciate the potential of more effective communication with Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS).

We are writing this letter to request you to device proper measures to reduce the processing time for employment based applications to Register Permanent Residence or to Adjust Status and to convey the hardships caused to the hundreds of thousands applicants due to the perpetual delays to these applications.

Immigration has been an integral part of America since its inception. New immigrants contribute greatly to the US economy, enrich American culture and enhance the US influence in the world. Contrary to the popular myth that immigrants may take American's jobs, they have created employment opportunities for millions of Americans by developing new products and establishing business ventures. The continued success of the United States largely rests upon its successful pro-immigration policy.

However, the radical change in the US immigration policy has severely affected the employment based immigration application processing. The process was further delayed due to 1) temporary freeze of all immigration application processing for auditing and the enforcement of FBI security check in late 2002; 2) incorporation of former INS into the newly created the Homeland Security Department as Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service(BCIS); 3) termination of customer service at all service centers and establishment of the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) which made it difficult to obtain the case specific information; and 4) shifting priority, by some service centers, to expedite processing of religious worker's immigration applications and to meet deadlines related to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programs. All these have caused immense hardships for the employment-based applicants.

Recently, Mr. Eduardo Aguirre, director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services explained the reason for backlog of immigration applications. We are glad that he would give priority to reach the goal set by the President of the United states of America, Mr. George W. Bush to reduce wait times on immigration benefit applications to no more than 6 months by the end of 2006. However, we would welcome some imminent and intermediate actions to reduce the backlog of employment based immigration applications.

We would like to suggest the following measures that would advocate the backlog reduction of employment based immigration applications at BCIS.
1) give high priority to and expedite the process of the employment based immigration applications;
2) introduce interim permanent residence;
3) issue multiple year Employment Authorization Document(EAD) and Advanced Parole for travel;
4) extend the validity of Finger printing report;
5) enhance the online case status by providing the detailed information about the present status of the applications;
6) accelerate the security check process
7).....
8)......

...mention appendices ...



quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Edison
Sure. I'll rework based on all your suggestions.

Originally posted by Edison
To all,
Please review the initial version of the proposed petition and post your comments.

Actually the original idea of this petition started at the below mentioned link:

http://boards.immigration.com/showth...threadid=93662

This separate thread was started for comments since the main thread was too long for everyone to follow.

Related link for voting:
http://boards.immigration.com/showth...threadid=93774


It was suggested by few members to shorten the immigration benefits and include the hardships faced by applicants in the main petition. I'll consider this along with other suggestions when I re-work on this.

In addition to the main letter we will have various appendix.
Cinta, please post your initial version of appendix-a describing hardships faced by Employment based GC applicants.

[GCExplorer]

Great Job!!! Edison,dengdeng and all others for contributing their time and effort.

I feel this may sound more intimate.

We are pleased to congratulate you on your appointment as the Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman at Department of Homeland security

instead of

First of all we would like to congratulate you
on your appointment as the Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman at Department of Homeland security

[cinta]

Edison, please merge. I also put another Appendix B somewhere. Sorry! It is a dreadful environment here in my work.
I will try follow consistency. These Appendices (A, B, C) are drafts. People can add, modify, comment and post their individual experiences. I saw one about the Driver Licences. The discrimination is rampant unfortunately! We need to point this out. I will post some comments about the letter in the afternoon. Let us be together. The fight is more important than any outcome!
Cheers to the one year anniversary for EAC-02-263-XXXX.

Originally posted by Edison
cinta,
Let's merge this with our main review thread.

[ar888]

Originally posted by dengdeng
Moderator, please move this thread to top.

Moved to top.

[Edison]

GCExplorer,
I agree about your comment regarding welcome note.

[gcgcgcgc]

Hi guys
Wouldn't it be a good idea to mention how many immigrants(not only Indians, we can include everyone here) so that he will get a feel how bigger the problem is and also include the benefit he is going to get by doing this favor, nicely into our message.
Suppose say, if we add up all the 485 applications starting from Jan'2002 till now, assuming that there 6000 apps per month, 20 months * 6000 = 120,000.
So if you say over 120,000 immigrants are currently affected and phrase that in our petition as:
'your efforts and involvment are going to benefit 120,000 immigrants immediately + many more immigrants to come into the country in the coming future. Your efforts and achievements will remian historical and be remembered by the people for ever."
And also you can so, "Here is the oppurtunity for you to tackle one of the most critical problems that many of immigrants are facing and prove your distinction among others."

Just my ideas, include this if you feel appropriate. . .

[Edison]

gcgcgcgc,
Good suggestion.
I think there are about 1.2 million applications pending which might include about 300,000 to 400,000 employment based.
But please provide some document to prove statistics, we can't write something based on assumption.

[kjkool]

Hi Edison,
See this:

http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/...03/BENEFIT.HTM


1,182,467 I-485 permanent resident adjustments were pending at the end of June 2003. It doesn't say how many are employment based.

[Edison]

kjkool,
Thanks for the link and also for the initial draft of the petition.

[dengdeng]

Hey, I think we forgot to add this part

Clearing the backlog delay of employee based 485 petition will have following benefits:
1) Less EAD, AP renewal, that can dramatically save BCIS officers time
2) Less Finger print redo, that can save FBI time
3) Easier to identify terrorists, with the backlog, even if there's a terrorist, will take BCIS several years to find out the document of terrorist and arrest him
4) Less AR-11 update during pending time. Less file will be misplaced.
5) Less RFE needed, if there's no backlog, then no RFE is needed for employment verification. The longer the delay is, the more RFE will be issued, the longer backlog will be.
6) Benefit immigrants and their citizen relatives in US.

[jerry421]

Edison, good job!!!

I think we'd better give him an easy-link to this thread at the end of the letter.

http://www.immigrationportal.com/sho...5&pagenumber=1

[Edison]

dengdeng,
clearly specify where you would like to see the benefits? Appendix or main petition????????

I like your comment about security check(terrorist), you would like to get the things done using the same tactics used by BCIS to delay the decision on our applications.

[Edison]

jerry421,
I understand that you would like to have reference to the link when we post our final petition.

[dengdeng]

this should be in main letter not appendix.

Appendix should list all common problems.

Appendix
Common problems of EB based I-485 petition are listed as below:
1) ..
2) ..
3) ..

proposals of efficient way to clean backlogs
1) Increase FP effective time to 18 months
2) name check months before a case is assigned(I don't think they are doing right now)
3) EAD, AP valid till green card approved/denied
4) second FP sent when first FP half month to expiration date
5) Allocate time for RFE case, and adjudicate immediately. (thus u still have memory of the case)
6) Automate name check and provide FBI phone to check if your name check has passed
7) Quarterly conference call with public to discuss backlog
8) Approve 2nd FP case immediately when 2nd FP is done.
9) Store images of FP (future project)
10) Improve case online status, provide more details
11) Expedite all long delayed cases.

Edison, please consolidate what I wrote to some nice words. You can also list the backlog causes the mistake of issuing visa and green card to terrorists, so clean backlog is a must.

[cinta]

Originally posted by dengdeng
Please don't say hi-tech jobs, not all of us are in this area, and recently congress/senators are proposing to limit hi-tech H-1.

dengdeng,

The purpose of my lists is just that. Add your comments. Please say, suggest other generic terms, inclusive to our group. This is important as we need to show who we are and what we are doing, thus the benefit to the American economy.
I think we need to provide a sample of this in the "Petition" with actual job names and fields we are working on. Say, Phds, Medical doctors, Masters, Bsc, Biotechnology, Sciences, Engineering, etc.
We also need to stay away from the fray of H1-b and L visas. We are different as we have gone through the LC and I-140. We need to point this out so the confusion and the smoke goes away. Even Congress may not know who we really are!