Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center Tracking

Hi You Might be right

whatheheck said:
You are wrong Saknia,
It may take anywhere between 2 to 3 months for the status change from Final review to certify.

Also add another 2 to 3 months to receive the hard copy.(2 to 3 months for the luckiest ones). For the unlucky ones only God knows.

Hi You Might be right

But I am always Optimistic on things . (Otherwise waiting here one can die)

Let us wish things will improve at PBEC with all Letters being sent today by some many and our Friend gets his approval in 30 days like I said
 
I am totally getting frustrated and going crazy!!!!!!!!!!

Guys,
I really dont know what to say, but when i called my adovcate he is telling he cannot do anything and even he is in the same pit and he is also on H1 visa and he is also planning to go back.
Please spread the news that "8000 legal immigrants are going back to there home countries" and lets make it official news and lets spread this news every day with more emails and more people.
Atleast then this people will understand and they might try to change this stupid immigration terms.
Even if your labor is approved, then you should wait for 5-6 years to get your green card.
 
Letter suggestion

Writing letters in template gives the impression that we are just writing letters for the sake of it. It looks like we are even trying to harass them and eventually the letters will be ignored. If you write a more personalised letter its more effective.. especially please dont send template letters to the same person with different names..

I know the story is similar but using template doesnt rock at all..
 
ItsTough said:
Writing letters in template gives the impression that we are just writing letters for the sake of it. It looks like we are even trying to harass them and eventually the letters will be ignored. If you write a more personalised letter its more effective.. especially please dont send template letters to the same person with different names..

I know the story is similar but using template doesnt rock at all..
But do you really think that they will go through each and every "different" letter, read it, analyze and address it? If they were so meticulous, they would have been far ahead of Dallas BEC....
 
PBEC is our priority

Call me selfish. I think this retrogression somewhat makes the process fair before the BPCs clear all the LC cases: everybody has to stand in a line and wait by the strict FIFO rule. Let's say the visas become current now and we are still stuck in PBEC. Thousands of people will get their GCs before us even if they file their LCs much later than us. What can we in PBEC do? Even if the visas are not current, people with approved LCs can still file I-140 and possibly I-485 right away. Once the visas become current, they can get their I-485 approved in no time while we still have go through I-140 and I-485 with thousands of people before us.

I am not saying retrogression is not a problem. But it is so obvious that the BECs are definitely the priority for us. RETROGRESSION and PBEC SHOULD NOT BE IN PARALLEL!
PBEC SHOULD BE THE FIRST AND RETROGRESSION THE SECOND FOR US!

stucklabor said:
GCTitan,

I am one of the people stuck at PBEC with 1 year extensions. I can't even convert to PERM as recruitment was completed in my case and the case forwarded to the Region. I am one of the people that you and USCISM claim to speak for.

You are missing the point. I am not saying that solving retrogression alone with solve the issue for us. I am saying that retrogression is one of the problems facing us. If retrogression is solved, we will still need to get out of PBEC.

As I said earlier, without the I485 being opened up, even if I got labor in a year I would have to wait 3/4 years for I485/EAD/AP while the Apr 2001 people clog up the queue for years.

I said in my earlier post that we need to work on retrogression and PBEC in parallel. Your and USCISM's contention is that working on retrogression will HARM us PBEC captives. I couldn't disagree more.

This is my last post on the matter, I can't make myself any clearer than this.
 
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I also depend on a case filed in PBEC. I will be living off a h1 yearly extension in a few months. Here is what I think:

Yes. PBEC delay is a big problem we are facing. And visa retrogression is another problem we will have to face once we get our lc. But whether the reduction of retrogression is going to be fair and harmless to me is really a matter of timing.

Consider this: If the retrogression reduction bill becomes law next month. Lets say the visa numbers got a boost and move to May. 2005, or even current. Everybody who has a lc approval in hand including perm approvals, as long as their case has a pd no later than may 2005, will be able to file 485. And once they are eligible to file, USCIS will process their cases. If you read the messages or talk to lawyers about how USCIS process 485, you will find that it is not FIFO (based on your PD date) once it is filed. Especially when visa number is current. So, all eligible guys will have their cases lined up. Each of them claims a visa number. We all know the visa number, although it can be increase thru this proposed bill, is not unlimited. It will be used up again at some point. And all the guys with PD of 2004, 2005 got their gc in 2006 or early 2007.

For us we are deep in PBEC hole, if we don't get our lc, we are far from filing 485. Yes, my PD is 2002. but So what. I'm stuck. With PBEC working 1 case per month, I'm gonna get my lc in 2009, maybe? By then the benefit of this immigration bill is long gone. So how is that fair? well I don't even ask for fairness anymore, but it would too unfair!

We have not a tiny bit of ill wish for people who filed later than us. We wish everyone could go through this in the smoothiest way. When you say they got luckier, it is really the product of an unfair system. We are picking battles to fight the unfairness. It is not against any one person.

I'm not saying we should not fight for the retrogress reduction effort. I'm saying, for me, and many others who are deep in PBEC hole and don't know when they can get their lcs. fighting for awareness on PBEC is the number one priority.


stucklabor said:
GCTitan,

I am one of the people stuck at PBEC with 1 year extensions. I can't even convert to PERM as recruitment was completed in my case and the case forwarded to the Region. I am one of the people that you and USCISM claim to speak for.

You are missing the point. I am not saying that solving retrogression alone with solve the issue for us. I am saying that retrogression is one of the problems facing us. If retrogression is solved, we will still need to get out of PBEC.

As I said earlier, without the I485 being opened up, even if I got labor in a year I would have to wait 3/4 years for I485/EAD/AP while the Apr 2001 people clog up the queue for years.

I said in my earlier post that we need to work on retrogression and PBEC in parallel. Your and USCISM's contention is that working on retrogression will HARM us PBEC captives. I couldn't disagree more.

This is my last post on the matter, I can't make myself any clearer than this.
 
Spread Awareness about PBEC's Ineffectiveness

Folks,
Here is the letter that I just sent. The message is very clear i.e. to highlight the PBEC's ineffectiveness. I do not want to confuse/smear this matter with Retrogression (which is another separate but important issue). PBEC needs to be dealt with first and with iron hands now.

See the attached word document that you can print/fax to your senators.

I have taken the perspective to paint the big picture of this BEC's mess:
- How many people affected
- Very clear msg to expedite the "PBEC" processing times
- How are we mobilizing awareness to let the word out about the PBEC cases adjudication slowness

Guys - we have to create the noise now or we will very quickly loose the pace on this since the holiday season is around the corner. I encourage that you fax this letter to -
- DOL officials
- State Senators (Senators Contact Info Link)
- News media i.e. Your local news channels, new-papers, journalists, etc


I urge everyone to customize the letter to their needs and fax it to the senators of their own state. It will take 5-10mins of your time, but this act could turn out to the most productive for our community.

Many Thanks !

====================================================

Reg: Extreme slowness in adjudicating Labor Certification Cases at Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center

Dear Sir/Madam,
We are writing you to highlight the appalling situation at Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center (PBEC) in adjudication of Labor Certification (LC) cases of millions of people. As you may know, LC is the first step towards becoming a ‘Permanent Resident’. There are about 400,000 people affected by these BEC’s. Now, there are individuals who have been awaiting adjudication for last 4-5 years. The original intent of these backlog centers was to clear the backlog in 2 years or less. But with the current processing speeds, we are looking at another 4years for adjudication. This has to STOP.

FAST FACTS -
- 400,000 people affected
- Very slow pace of approvals from Philadelphia BEC
- Not following any national 'FIFO' order, as promised earlier
- Not able to know the case status and adjudication time-estimates
- PBEC has given excuses from time and time again sighting system issues, which are totally false
- Dallas BEC uses the same system and their approval rate is four times better than Philadelphia BEC
- DBEC has approved far more applications than PBEC

Philadelphia BEC
- Processing Feb-March'2002 (as of 11/05)
Dallas BEC
- Processing Dec'2003 (as of 11/05)

We hope you will understand and respect the stress and countless ill-effects this backlog has on our families. We are legal, tax-paying community and we deserve the same rights as normal citizen’s demand from any system. We are highly educated individuals working in so many reputed organizations throughout the United States and deserve to be treated with more attention and sense of responsibility from the DOL officials. Our demands are very fair and reasonable.

Now we are forced to contact the Senators, government organizations and news-media and make everyone aware about these inefficient procedures. We believe it is our duty to duly inform you and give you our constructive feedback and express our dire straits.

We thank you for taking time to read this and we would greatly appreciate any efforts on your part to expedite the processing times. We urge you to look into this matter ASAP and take action to expedite the Labor Certification processing times at Philadelphia BEC.


Sincerely,

<Your Name>
 
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Spoke to my lawyer

I just spoke to my lawyer and what she basically said was that
they have not received any 45 day letter or approvals from PBEC
however they daily receive approvals from DBEC.

She also said that there is no way to get any information and
even the people close to DOL get: "Leave us alone we work
on this as much as we can"

We were speculating that PBEC has decided to send all the
45-day letters and approvals in large mass mailings to avoid
critisism about not keeping FIFO. At this point no one knows.
However I hope that's the case. Just a wishful thinking.

In a mean while I am working on my Master's degree to
take advantage of my employer's tuition reimbursment, take
my mind of the immigration process and have my Master's
degree along with the GC to position myself for a better job.
Most of the time this works.

Anyway, you guys all have great weekend and don't worry.
Every day we are all one day closer to our GC.

:)
 
Did fax

VAhoper said:
I emailed Leticia Sierra with a personalized letter just now.

Everyone, please do this for all of us.

Just now I have emailed as well as sent by Fax.

Thanks to PCChandra for posting the letter template.
 
I think, Fax will have a better effect than an Email ! An email is easy to be junked away,even there is a risk of getting mail box full!
Also, as some members pointed out, it is wise to personalize the letter...
Keep it going !!
 
Hello XXXXX:

We do no have an update for you at this time. The BEC does not provide the status inquiries on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the BEC does not review the cases on the first in, first out basis as they originally planned. That being said we are seeing the approval of the applications filed in 2002-2003. We should hear on your application shortly.

Please rest assured that we will let you know as soon as we hear from the DOL.

Regards,


This is the reply I got from my lawyer for my case. She responded to the enquiry email I sent to her regarding my LC.... As I get to know more, I will keep you posted....

- Kiran
 
"8000 legal immigrants going back" where did you get th number from.Lets not spread rumours with some random numbers.It is of no use.As some in this forum have suggested lets try sending mails to the senators explaining our difficulties due to PBEC's slow processing.Relax and have a good weekend kasid...my case is one of those like yours which was transferred from Atlanta.


kasid said:
Guys,
I really dont know what to say, but when i called my adovcate he is telling he cannot do anything and even he is in the same pit and he is also on H1 visa and he is also planning to go back.
Please spread the news that "8000 legal immigrants are going back to there home countries" and lets make it official news and lets spread this news every day with more emails and more people.
Atleast then this people will understand and they might try to change this stupid immigration terms.
Even if your labor is approved, then you should wait for 5-6 years to get your green card.
 
Phily Backlog Center Only

Friends:

My LC is struct in Phily BEC with no 45 day letter or no case number.
My PD is Oct 2003.

Is there a way to contact law makers or phily BEC folks to petition to make the process faster? Some what similar to what we all did to "Byrd" amendment to that retrogression bill. Please let me know. We need to get out this black hole of stupid Phily BEC

Thanks
 
Please make sure you only quote REAL numbers

"8000 immigrants going home" and "4 million people" effected by BEC backlog???

Where did these numbers come from???
 
Defeating Byrd amendment was a victory mainly by Lawyer groups. That's where their profit lies. They don't care for PBEC and so no improvements.......

Also dude, use the regular PBEC forum instead of starting a new one....will u?
 
HondaRider said:
"8000 immigrants going home" and "4 million people" effected by BEC backlog???

Where did these numbers come from???

I stand corrected - its not 4 million, its actually ~400k cases. Thanks for that correction. I've updated the wording in the letter.
 
For wahtever its worth

One thing I have observed in the priority tracker is a small but substantial number of NY/NJ SWA cases who have received 45-day letter....2 months back there were just a few.like 2/3 ....Now there are more....
 
status checking

Can anybody tell me which email address I can use for status checking? Thanks.
 
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