****Hearing date rescheduled to June 3, 2004****

I think its about time that ImmigrationPortal.Org start preparing for the first battle and put the funds into use. I think this will help it to attract new donors/contributors. Lets not create backlog in fighting the backlog...

dsatish said:
Good question. I have prepared a FAQ document on fund collection. It is currently under review by core team. I will post it by Wednesday.
 
kailashr said:
I think its about time that ImmigrationPortal.Org start preparing for the first battle and put the funds into use. I think this will help it to attract new donors/contributors. Lets not create backlog in fighting the backlog...

Yes, Intial expense has already been planned. Our first expense will be to support any activity(ads...) for class action lawsuit which will be started immediately after court hearing this week. Second we have to work with Congress, we can't hire a person for this at this stage due to obvious reasons.
I request people like you to join our team as volunteer and work with us.

Thanks.
 
Is donation tax deductible?

I'm sorry if someone's already asked this question, but I haven't seen it before.

Since immigrationportal.org is a non-profit organization, are donations to it tax deductible? If so, you might get more people donating.
 
mustbepatient said:
I'm sorry if someone's already asked this question, but I haven't seen it before.

Since immigrationportal.org is a non-profit organization, are donations to it tax deductible? If so, you might get more people donating.

We'll clarify this with our accountant.
 
Why do we need Fund collection : Complete FAQ

Friends,
During the ongoing fund collection drive, some people have requested for more details about targets, timelines and action plan. So far this information has been lying at different places and now we have prepared a comprehensive document outlining all our plans in details. Please read this. I once again request those who haven't joined us so far, to JOIN NOW.

Immigrationportal.org Fund Collection FAQ
------------------------------------------------------

Q1) What is the purpose of the fund collection ?
As you all know, things(GC processing speed) were going hopelessly slow in 2003. We all have seen a marked improvement in speed after the lawsuit is filed. The lawsuit itself was a result of continuous discussions and efforts in this forum by some committed members who believed in fighting the injustice rather than waiting hopelessly for things to improve . We all had played a role in melting the kind heart of our host 'Rajiv' who has decided to help us out, free of cost.
Now what will happen if we don’t win the case ? It is very simple. Unless significant improvement can bee seen in the near future, the back log will take many years to clear.
You all can understand what it means for all of us if USCIS were to win this lawsuit ? Also the lawsuit might get dragged for long time in the courts. So we need a back up plan. We need to take our problems to the congress men as a united organization. Now comes the big question mark : WHO WILL DO THIS ? There is no answer to this. Every body in this forum has a job to do and we can't really put serious full time efforts . That's why we need to have an organization representing us with proper office address, letter heads, web site, membership, staff etc. All this needs funds and that's why we are before you. The core team members are all putting part time efforts on the organization side and we need to hire at least one person to work full time for the organization. This obviously costs money to the organization.

Q2) What are the short term and long term plans of immigrationportal.org and what are the expected timelines for action and results?
Long term Plan : Immigrationportal.org is incorporated not just to fight the I140 and I485 backlogs. The mission is to help the legal immigrant community when ever they face discrimination or neglect. We will send representation to the US congress to help improve all the immigration laws governing legal immigrants. We will work with individuals who faced discrimination because of ignorance of officials on immigration law. A case in point: DMV problems faced in various states.

Short Term Plan : Due to shortage of funds, our current focus is exclusively on fighting the I140 and I485 backlogs for employment based permanent resident applicants. We give equal importance to changing the INA act so that we don’t need to wait for another 5 years after getting the GC to apply for citizenship. We are going to ask congress to change the INA (Immigration and Naturalization Act) to count the period we have spent in AOS status towards the 5 year waiting requirement. This will enable a lot of us to vote for the 2008 elections. The money collected will be mainly used towards hiring a Liaison Officer who represents Immigrationportal.org at all levels. The person might be hired on a 3 month contract and given specific tasks by the board of directors of ip.org. The tasks mainly involve meeting various congress men to explain about the problems we are facing due to the GC delays and also expose the insensitivity and irregular procedures of USCIS. He will also work with congress men to introduce a bill to amend the INA act.
We will also use the money to reach out to more victims. Members of Immigrationportal.com are only a fraction of about a million victims. We need to advertise and make us more available to general community.

Targets and Timelines : The hiring of the person might start when the amount collected reaches around $30,000. This can be considered as the minimum target amount. A target of $40,000 to $50,000 will be good for the long term. As of 5/11/04, we have collected $15,000. We might be able to reach the minimum target amount of 30K in the month of June’04. At this time our planned hiring takes place. Once we have a full time person working for our organization, we will apply relentless pressure on USCIS through congress men. Usually congress men give importance to organizations with membership of thousands of people. We will publish the names and photos of the congress men who supported our cause, on the immigrationportal.org web site. This will encourage more congress men to support us because this will be an opportunity for them to get close to thousands of immigrants who will support them in their future elections. So during the period June’04 to Sept’04, we are likely to achieve our objective of faster GC processing and amendment to INA act. If there is a delay in collecting the minimum target amount, that will delay our plans accordingly.

Q3) Who owns/maintains this fund and how can we trust them ?
The fund is maintained by the board of directors of immigrationportal.org. They are all members of immigrationportal.com discussion boards for the past year and more. Their names are listed on www.immigrationportal.org web site in the “About Us” page. They have been actively involved in the petition effort, lawsuit effort and other campaigns. It is up to the individual person to decide whether he can trust these people or not. These people have been working with Rajiv for the past 8 months on core team activities. Rajiv himself joined the organization as a director to help us carry our mission to fight for the rights of legal immigrants.

Q4) Do I need a Paypal account to make an online donation? How safe is online payment using PAYPAL ?
You don’t need a Paypal account for using Paypal. You just need a Visa / Mastercard / Amex credit card. Paypal is a payment processing product and it accepts money from the donors and deposits it into the organization’s bank account. Paypal does not provide us your credit card number. So your privacy is protected. More over, paypal belongs to Ebay. So you can trust the security level. It is very easy to use. Just click on the Paypal button on www.immigrationportal.org and follow the instructions.
Those who want to make a check payment may send a check in favor of “immigrationportal.org” to the following address :
ImmigrationPortal.org
Attention : Vijay Sharma
5225 N. Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22205-1148

Q5) What will happen if ip.org (immigrationportal.org) fail to get enough funds ?
Also how can I believe that ip.org will not misuse the money ?
Since we have already collected 50% of the minimum target, the chances of failing to collect the minimum target, are slim. How ever in the eventuality of such a scenario, the board of directors will make a decision and convey it to the contributors by Email. In all likely hood, the opinions of the contributors will be taken into account in making the final decision. We have decided not to pay any type of compensation to any member for the time or effort spent for this organization. It is expected that no travel is necessary by the executive committee members for running the organization and as such we do not see any necessity for travel expense reimbursements. So there is absolutely no scope for any misuse of funds. Now the expanded core team has about 20 members. We are a team of committed volunteers.
The members will publish the balance and expense details on immigrationportal.com forums. As explained earlier, the money will be solely spent on hiring people, paying to Accountant, maintaining the web site, advertising about our struggle and lawsuit, stationary etc.

Q6) How much amount each person should contribute ?
People should contribute as much as they want. Lot of factors like their financial position, their belief in the organization, their pending case status etc control the contribution amount. A majority of people have contributed around $100, but there are quite a number of people (including all core team members) who have contributed $200 or more. Please do not treat this as a charity organization. We are fighting our own battle here. The core team members role is only limited to providing the platform for this fight.
 
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Thanks Gusy for this great effort.
You have my vote, support and confidence for this tough task.
I would also request that you be more aggressive with your fund collection. My personal opinion is that 30K is nowhere near enough. It should be 30K per month, till all the issues get resolved. I for one is willing to start contributing, monthly 30 bucks, and would urge you to add 1000 more guys ( I have requested this before) for this effort.
Then you will have sufficient funds to enter immigration committees, White house, BCIS meetings and influence their decisions to be realistic ones. Right now they seem to be sleeping at best.

Best of luck
Great work
You make me proud and feel good.
 
vi00 said:
Thanks Gusy for this great effort.
You have my vote, support and confidence for this tough task.
I would also request that you be more aggressive with your fund collection. My personal opinion is that 30K is nowhere near enough. It should be 30K per month, till all the issues get resolved. I for one is willing to start contributing, monthly 30 bucks, and would urge you to add 1000 more guys ( I have requested this before) for this effort.
Then you will have sufficient funds to enter immigration committees, White house, BCIS meetings and influence their decisions to be realistic ones. Right now they seem to be sleeping at best.

Best of luck
Great work
You make me proud and feel good.

Yes, You are right. I wish we get 1000 contributors. We need people like you to achieve that target.
 
Count me as one plaintiff

Due to numerous INS/BCIS errors and impotency, our cases are still pending name checks after one year of interview.

The BCIS put the burdon on FBI for the delay in name check, but the fact is that even after FBI finished our name checks ( my wife's and mine), BCIS still have no actions on our cases as of today.

2004 marks the 8th year of our GC process.
We filed I-140 in March 1997 and got approval within three weeks.

We filed our first I-485 in June 1997 and was denied in Aug 2000. INS denied our cases as self-abandoment because they told me we did not respond to its REF of April 2000 when I made a phone inquiry to Vermont after receiving the denial notice. In fact, neither my attorney nor me received the REF. Ironically, It should be me to charge against the INS for abandoning our cases because it did not inform us in writting of any case status for three years, during which it put all healthcare workers' I-485 cases on hold in abeyance due to its failure to establish regulations to immplement the law IIRIRA of 1996.

We filed our first Motion TO Reopen in October 2000 and it was dismissed in Feb 2001 because it was filed out of 33 days. (We did not realize that the INS count its processing time from Oct 2000 to Feb 2001 as part of our out-of-status for over 180 days until we got a denial notice to our second I-485, which I'll get to next. )

We filed our 2nd I-485 in April 2001 and INS sent us two Intent to Deny in March 2002, giving us two options-----either paying $1000 penalty fee or providing evidence showing we had been keeping our legal status since we came to the US in 1991. I responded with the later option and got denial in May 2002. The Intent to Denial letter did not explicitly point out that we were out of status due to first I-485 denial. Instead, it listed 245a, 245b, 245 c, 245k and 245 i. I thought we were either still in status or out of status for less than 180 days so that 245K might applied to us. Then we do not need to pay the $1000 fee for each of us. From first I-485 denial in Aug 2000 to second I-485 filing in April 2001, the INS took five months from the 8 months for our first motion. So I thought the motion processing time was beyond our contol and the five months of INS processing time should not be counted as part of our out of status. 245K states that you do not need to pay $1000 fee if your aggregate out of status did not exceed 180 days.

We got denial to our second I-485 in May 2002 just because I chose the later options in their Intent to Deny notice. I still consider the Intent to Deny as a trap of INS. I am still wondering why the INS did not explictly tell us that we had been out of status of over 180 days by checking its own records and its own judgement rather than putting the burden of prividing proof on us.

We filed our Motion to Reopen for our second I-485 denial in June 2002 with two checks of $1000 each as penalty fees enclosed, because we did not want to spend time with INS regarding who was wrong or right as to our status issue. However, with a month, the INS sent our two checks back with a notice saying "We do not need the fee at this time.....". The checks, the notice and other couple of returned documents already had INS June 4 2002 stamps. Notice that the INS did keep the Motion To Reopen letter and $110 processing fee. I thought INS either would waiver the fee for our case or it might ask for it later. However, to our surprise, in Aug 2002 the officer reviewd my Motion TO Reopen in which we stated that $1000 fee was enclosed, and did find the fee, so he sent me another Intent to Deny in which he says "INS record did not show we have submitted the fee ". Apparently he did not realize the INS had returned our fee in June 2000. To our shock, the officer working on my wife's motion sent another denial notice with the same claim that "INS has no record showing we submitted the $1000 fee". And later on in Oct 2002 I found out by calling Vermont that my wife ( primary applicant)'s case was closed and transfered to INS archive center in MN. I responded to the Intent to Deny by resending the same check and got my case reopened in Aug 2002. The INS ordered my wife's files back from the archive center in Nov 2002.

My wife's case got reopened in Jan 2003. An supervisor in Vermont called my attorney saying they were to approve our cases. But at the end of January 2003, the INS online message showed our cases were transferred to local office.

We were interview in April 2003 and our cases were pending name check since. The interview office told us one our name check is cleared, he would send us approval notice. But BCIS has not sent us any letter even though my wife's name check was cleared on Nov 5, 2003. We pushed the CIS to stamp my wife's passport on March 4, 2004 after notified by FBI, not CIS, that her name check was cleared. Even after the date of passport getting stampped, we have not got offical approval notice as of today. This caused the Social Security Administration not be able to get update information for my wife's status to allow it to issue a new social security card to her ( without "not permitted to work without INS authorization" words on her current one). Apparently, BCIS is delaying most cases pending name checks by its own problems, not FBI's problem, although it always claims that " It is another government who does the name check and the time is beyond its control".

I have visisted the Newark, NJ office for at least 6 times.
Last June the CIS Newark told me I can not make inquiry until 6 months have passed after our interview date.

Last July I called the 1-800 number and later received an out of date notice saying "your case was tranferred to local office and it took several months for it to schedule your interview".

Last November, the information officer gave me an inquiry receipt with her writting that my case pending name check.

On the lates inquiry on May 10, 2004, they gave me another receipt saying the same thing.

On the date of March 4, 2004, when my wife got her passport stampped, the information officer told me that my fingerprint was going to expirt in March 17, 2004 and scheduled another fingerprint for me on April 17, 2004.

I sent FBI a fax on March 5, 2004 and FBI informed me on March 11, 2004 by email that FBI did a record search of me on March 9, 2004 and has forwarded my name check result to CIS. So before my fingerprint expired, everthing was cleared. Why did not CIS have no approval notice sent to me. When I went to Newark CIS office on April 2, 2004, they told me that " My fingerprint has expired". I then did my fingerprint on the same day rather than waiting till the scheduled date (April 17, 2004). I have to mention that I went to China from March 8 to April 1, 2004 to see my mother who is diagnosed as cancer, so I could not wait to get everything done before my fingerprint expired.

My family and I have suffered tremendously. It is the strongest case against the BCIS you can find.
 
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Unbeleivable ................

:mad: :mad: :mad:
7yrGC said:
Due to numerous INS/BCIS errors and impotency, our cases are still pending name checks after one year of interview.

The BCIS put the burdon on FBI for the delay in name check, but the fact is that even after FBI finished our name checks ( my wife's and mine), BCIS still have no actions on our cases as of today.

2004 marks the 8th year of our GC process.
We filed I-140 in March 1997 and got approval within three weeks.

We filed our first I-485 in June 1997 and was denied in Aug 2000. INS denied our cases as self-abandoment because they told me we did not respond to its REF of April 2000 when I made a phone inquiry to Vermont after receiving the denial notice. In fact, neither my attorney nor me received the REF. Ironically, It should be me to charge against the INS for abandoning our cases because it did not inform us in writting of any case status for three years, during which it put all healthcare workers' I-485 cases on hold in abeyance due to its failure to establish regulations to immplement the law IIRIRA of 1996.

We filed our first Motion TO Reopen in October 2000 and it was dismissed in Feb 2001 because it was filed out of 33 days. (We did not realize that the INS count its processing time from Oct 2000 to Feb 2001 as part of our out-of-status for over 180 days until we got a denial notice to our second I-485, which I'll get to next. )

We filed our 2nd I-485 in April 2001 and INS sent us two Intent to Deny in March 2002, giving us two options-----either paying $1000 penalty fee or providing evidence showing we had been keeping our legal status since we came to the US in 1991. I responded with the later option and got denial in May 2002. The Intent to Denial letter did not explicitly point out that we were out of status due to first I-485 denial. Instead, it listed 245a, 245b, 245 c, 245k and 245 i. I thought we were either still in status or out of status for less than 180 days so that 245K might applied to us. Then we do not need to pay the $1000 fee for each of us. From first I-485 denial in Aug 2000 to second I-485 filing in April 2001, the INS took five months from the 8 months for our first motion. So I thought the motion processing time was beyond our contol and the five months of INS processing time should not be counted as part of our out of status. 245K states that you do not need to pay $1000 fee if your aggregate out of status did not exceed 180 days.

We got denial to our second I-485 in May 2002 just because I chose the later options in their Intent to Deny notice. I still consider the Intent to Deny as a trap of INS. I am still wondering why the INS did not explictly tell us that we had been out of status of over 180 days by checking its own records and its own judgement rather than putting the burden of prividing proof on us.

We filed our Motion to Reopen for our second I-485 denial in June 2002 with two checks of $1000 each as penalty fees enclosed, because we did not want to spend time with INS regarding who was wrong or right as to our status issue. However, with a month, the INS sent our two checks back with a notice saying "We do not need the fee at this time.....". The checks, the notice and other couple of returned documents already had INS June 4 2002 stamps. Notice that the INS did keep the Motion To Reopen letter and $110 processing fee. I thought INS either would waiver the fee for our case or it might ask for it later. However, to our surprise, in Aug 2002 the officer reviewd my Motion TO Reopen in which we stated that $1000 fee was enclosed, and did find the fee, so he sent me another Intent to Deny in which he says "INS record did not show we have submitted the fee ". Apparently he did not realize the INS had returned our fee in June 2000. To our shock, the officer working on my wife's motion sent another denial notice with the same claim that "INS has no record showing we submitted the $1000 fee". And later on in Oct 2002 I found out by calling Vermont that my wife ( primary applicant)'s case was closed and transfered to INS archive center in MN. I responded to the Intent to Deny by resending the same check and got my case reopened in Aug 2002. The INS ordered my wife's files back from the archive center in Nov 2002.

My wife's case got reopened in Jan 2003. An supervisor in Vermont called my attorney saying they were to approve our cases. But at the end of January 2003, the INS online message showed our cases were transferred to local office.

We were interview in April 2003 and our cases were pending name check since. The interview office told us one our name check is cleared, he would send us approval notice. But BCIS has not sent us any letter even though my wife's name check was cleared on Nov 5, 2003. We pushed the CIS to stamp my wife's passport on March 4, 2004 after notified by FBI, not CIS, that her name check was cleared. Even after the date of passport getting stampped, we have not got offical approval notice as of today. This caused the Social Security Administration not be able to get update information for my wife's status to allow it to issue a new social security card to her ( without "not permitted to work without INS authorization" words on her current one). Apparently, BCIS is delaying most cases pending name checks by its own problems, not FBI's problem, although it always claims that " It is another government who does the name check and the time is beyond its control".

I have visisted the Newark, NJ office for at least 6 times.
Last June the CIS Newark told me I can not make inquiry until 6 months have passed after our interview date.

Last July I called the 1-800 number and later received an out of date notice saying "your case was tranferred to local office and it took several months for it to schedule your interview".

Last November, the information officer gave me an inquiry receipt with her writting that my case pending name check.

On the lates inquiry on May 10, 2004, they gave me another receipt saying the same thing.

On the date of March 4, 2004, when my wife got her passport stampped, the information officer told me that my fingerprint was going to expirt in March 17, 2004 and scheduled another fingerprint for me on April 17, 2004.

I sent FBI a fax on March 5, 2004 and FBI informed me on March 11, 2004 by email that FBI did a record search of me on March 9, 2004 and has forwarded my name check result to CIS. So before my fingerprint expired, everthing was cleared. Why did not CIS have no approval notice sent to me. When I went to Newark CIS office on April 2, 2004, they told me that " My fingerprint has expired". I then did my fingerprint on the same day rather than waiting till the scheduled date (April 17, 2004). I have to mention that I went to China from March 8 to April 1, 2004 to see my mother who is diagnosed as cancer, so I could not wait to get everything done before my fingerprint expired.

My family and I have suffered tremendously. It is the strongest case against the BCIS you can find.
 
Horrible

7yrGC,
Your's is one hell of a GC journey. The most unfortunate thing is we as individuals are completely helpless when INS subjects us to this type of atrocities. This is one of the main reasons behind the formation of immigrationportal.org. Rajiv himself is very passionate about the new organization (immigrationportal.org) helping individual cases like your's. As of now we do not have enough funds to help people like you (it can happen to any one of us), but hopefully we will be able to help others in similar situations in future.
I request every one to support immigrationportal.org, the symbol of our unity.
 
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Something nice to to warm up Rajeev

Not that you need anything Rajeev, but this just to lighten your mood and at the same time pump up your adrenaline.
Best of luck.
I will remember your effort for the good part of my life.

Here is a quote for you from the person of the century ( I am a fan of Einstein). ( and a couple more)

There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
- Albert Einstein, 1932.
( Morale -- Anything is possible -- just have the will)

There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp.

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

And finally my favotire sher from Mirza Ghalib's work ( see this in perspeptive to Immigration and GC) -- Also Amitabh said this in Sharaabi.
"Aaj ittna bhi nahien maykhaane mein,
jitna kabhi chhod diya karte thein paymaane mein"

maykhaane ( bar )
Paymaane ( good times)

Best of luck
 
Thanks

vi00 said:
Not that you need anything Rajeev, but this just to lighten your mood and at the same time pump up your adrenaline.
Best of luck.
I will remember your effort for the good part of my life.

Here is a quote for you from the person of the century ( I am a fan of Einstein). ( and a couple more)

There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
- Albert Einstein, 1932.
( Morale -- Anything is possible -- just have the will)

There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, 1977, President, Digital Equipment Corp.

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

And finally my favotire sher from Mirza Ghalib's work ( see this in perspeptive to Immigration and GC) -- Also Amitabh said this in Sharaabi.
"Aaj ittna bhi nahien maykhaane mein,
jitna kabhi chhod diya karte thein paymaane mein"

maykhaane ( bar )
Paymaane ( good times)

Best of luck


:) Interesting.
 
That is sad!

So, what are the reasons for rescheduling the date of the court?
So many people tried to make their arrangements to travel to Washington DC on May 14.
But, on the up side :cool: I will be able to convince MUCH MORE of my friends to join the support of the litigation.
 
No reason

o1eb1 said:
So, what are the reasons for rescheduling the date of the court?
So many people tried to make their arrangements to travel to Washington DC on May 14.
But, on the up side :cool: I will be able to convince MUCH MORE of my friends to join the support of the litigation.

No reason was given by the court. I feel so badly about attendees who may not get this message on time. We are trying to get in touch with the people we do know.
 
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