Anyone with a lawsuit against USCIS or thinking about a lawsuit (Merged)

[barani1000]

Greetings,

I am from Middle east, born in Iraq and have been living continuously in the US for past 16 years working in software industry. My name check is pending for more than 1 year and have contacted my congressman few times but no results.

Can anyone provide info if I have a chance by filling 1447B or I should not try because of my background.

Can someone recommend an attorney in Bay Area California who have filled 1447b?

Regards

 

[barani1000]

Can someone recommend an attorney in Bay Area California who have filled 1447b? And knows cases from Middle Eastern background

Regards

 

[newdawn]

Saarlaender and kefira, thanks for taking the time to clarify my misconception about name check.

 

[peaceman57]

re: attorney in bay area

Peace,

I had made several inquiries for lawyers in the bay area. Most of the lawyers stated that they don't deal with litigation, and wouldn't take the case. Some of the lawyers that I inquired from, surprisingly even though being immigrations lawyers, had no idea what 1447b was. One of the lawyers asked me to give him $1000 bucks to do a foipa request, before preceeding to any further steps.


(I apologize to the maintainers of this forum for listing other lawyers, however I do not think its against their posting guidelines.)

From the responses I got, lawyers in the order:

1. "Shah Peerally" <peerallylaw@sbcglobal.net> he is a good muslim, and very responsive, and reasonably priced (the one I went with) .

2. "Tricia Wang" <tricia@wangslaw.com> nice, and reasonably priced.

3. "Lamar Peckham " Crimigration@aol.com

4. "Zaheer Zaidi Attorney At Law Zaidi" <zaheer_z@pacbell.net>

5. "Saad Ahmad" <saadahmad27@hotmail.com>


The other attorneys I contacted either did not respond, would not take the case, or were unknowlegable of 1447b.

However for your situation, you should do the following,
This is really good advice, and you ought to listen to it:

1. Read all the posts on this thread from beginning to end, even if takes you months. After you finish reading for the day, click on favorites, add to favorites, and bookmark the place where you left off. The next time you could do the same, and overwrite the previous bookmark entry.

2. If you are not in too much of a rush, wait for a little, and perhaps CAIR or the ACLU, or some other social organization would file on your behlaf. This way you would get put under expedite, and not have any expenses, and have a team of lawyers working for you. There have already been several Social orgs filing on behalf of their constituents in this area, including Russian and Shia muslims, and I believe Chinese as well.

3. Subscribe to Pacer and keep up do date with the local cases, if the fees are not too expensive for you. Its 8 cents per page, including search page results.

4. This should be number one, make a lot of prayers.

5. Always use wisdom, and be peaceful, and talk about the afterlife in all your emails, and postings on forums, etc. and don't dwell into politics. Don't respond to any poltical messages from email lists.

6. Make a foipa request, and talk to congressman, and keep records of all your efforts to get your naturalization resolved.

7. Stay in the Bay area, and try not to move to a different area. This area is good to immigrants.

8. Do not transfer money overseas, or domestically to people that may be perceived as criminals or gangsters.

9. Keep relations with your colleagues overseas, so that just in case things don't work out here, you could easily go there.

10. Try to always be humble, and try to avoid getting into the discussions that are political, with the people around you.

----

Good luck my friend.

Can someone recommend an attorney in Bay Area California who have filled 1447b? And knows cases from Middle Eastern background

Regards

 

[zlin]

Should I file dismiss now.

Hello, this is the update of my case. My 485 AOS is approved last Fri after interview with immigration officer. My AUSA is trying to catch the deadline of my case which is Feb. 15. For this deadline, she has been working very hard and pushed my interview date to Feb 9th. She faxed my approval notice and dismissal document to me this morning and she wants me to sign the dismissal and mail to her. My AUSA is extremely nice, she also told me if I don't receive my card in 3 weeks, just give her a call and she will check with CIS. My detail is in my signature. Since I haven't gotten my card yet, and my on line status only says that I-130 is approved and mailed, do you think the faxed welcome notice is good enough to sign the dismissal? Thank you very much!

 

[paz1960]

Hello, my 485 AOS is approved last Fri after interview with immigration officer. My AUSA is trying to catch the deadline of my case which is Feb. 15. For this deadline, she has been working very hard and pushed my interview date to Feb 9th. She faxed my approval notice to me this morning and she wants me to sign the dismissal and mail to her. But I haven't gotten my card yet, do you think the faxed welcome letter is good enough to sign the dismissal? My AUSA is extremely nice, she also told me if I don't receive my card in 3 weeks, just give her a call and she will check with CIS. My detail is in my signature. Thank you very much!

If you asked in your prayer to compel USCIS to adjudicate your petition (you obviously could not ask to give you the plastic green card, because approving your petition is discretionary, adjudicating is not), you got what you wanted and you can get a stamp in your passport, which has the same value as the plastic card.

So, in my opinion, you can't hold back dismissing the WOM lawsuit till your plastic GC is mailed to you.

 

[zlin]

Thank you paz. You are right. Maybe I should trust USCIS this time. I learned whole lot from this forum. Without you guys, I wouldn't even start my WOM. Good luck to everyone who is still waiting.

If you asked in your prayer to compel USCIS to adjudicate your petition (you obviously could not ask to give you the plastic green card, because approving your petition is discretionary, adjudicating is not), you got what you wanted and you can get a stamp in your passport, which has the same value as the plastic card.

So, in my opinion, you can't hold back dismissing the WOM lawsuit till your plastic GC is mailed to you.

 

[DUDE12190]

please reply!

I didn't read anywhere reliable information about doing the name check differently depending on the type of immigration benefit sought by the applicant. Most of the details how this name check is performed, are unknown for us and probably there is a reason for that. The problem is that this whole name check is not very reliable and it is very resource consuming in many cases. Here is a lot more relevant testimony about this, than my opinion or guess:

After an analysis comparing name-based and fingerprint based checks of criminal history records, the FBI reported, “The great weight of the evidence supports the FBI and the CJIS APB's [Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board] conclusion that a name check of criminal history record systems is a ‘rough’ process which produces many ‘false negatives’ (in which a criminal is not identified) and ‘false positives’ (in which an individual without a criminal record is identified as having a record).”

From the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime Regarding H.R. 3410 and Name Check Efficacy, Hearing on Crime Regarding HR 3410 and Name Check Efficacy, May 18, 2000 (statement of David R. Loesch, Assistant Director in Charge, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, FBI).

Obviously, many people at different levels are aware about this bottleneck in the immigration process; the problem is that I don't see yet the sign that somebody with actual power would try to fix this broken system. If the anticipated application fee raise would be used to streamline this process, people who don't have anything to hide would benefit from this because they would not sit forever at the bottom of this black hole called name check. I am rather pessimistic now, but let's wait and see. In the meantime, I still believe that the only way to get out of this black hole is to file a lawsuit and defend vigurously your just case.

Dear Paz,
I believe you are doing fine. can you tell me where did u get this FBI statement from and do u think it can be used againist them in the court when someone is defending his case infront of a judge. Thank you!

 

[wenlock]

I do not agree. Read Class Act petition for delayed naturalization that was submitted 3 days ago (somebody posted here links to this document 3 times, including me) and in paragraph 35 p.8 is written:
"18. Plaintiff are informed and believe that the FBI name check requirements is implemented in such a manner that it is highly likely that in applicant may be identified erroneously as a person “of interest” to the FBI, thereby delaying adjudication of the status, even though the applicant has committed no crimes and is not a suspect. For example, the name check may identify a different person with a name similar to the applicant’s, or result in a “hit” when the applicant has been an innocent witness or victim of crime."

I saw you sent me message I tried to send you email few times and it bounced back as non delieverable.

 

[kefira]

I saw you sent me message I tried to send you email few times and it bounced back as non delieverable.

kefira@gmail.com

Thank you in advance

 

[akram88]

Ready to file

Hello all,
I am ready to file my complaint (1447(b)) in NJ tomorrow.
here are the files I am taking with me to court please let me know if I'm missing anything:

1- 9 copies of lawsuit + exhibits = 5 for defendants and 4 for court (as per NJ pro se guide)

2- 5 summons (one for each defendant)

3- 1 civil cover sheet.

the defendants on my complaint are :
-Alberto Gonzales, United States Attorney General
-Michael Chertoff. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
-Andrea Quarantillo. District Director, USCIS Newark, New Jersey
-Emilio T. Gonzalez. Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
-Robert S. Mueller. Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation

Should I print an extra copy for the US Attorney?
and do all the copies have to be identical? I am planning to print them from my PC and sign all of them, don't know if I should sign one and photocopy the rest (or at least the signature page)

Regards

 

[kefira]

Motion to dismiss

As I mentioned before I received a motion to dismiss my case. It is scary and very unpleasant. Basically they want to dismiss my case because they do not want that somebody else will use my case as an example how to fight with FBI.
Interestingly that INS already initiated two name checks for me and none of them did return anything yet. Second one was initiated on Nov 1, 2006.
Yesterday I tried to write an oposition, but I believe and sure that my chances to win is equal to 0%.
I remember that somebody else was writing an oposition (I485), but do not remember a name. Could you please compare AUSA motions? Or could u please post yours here?
I am telling you again, that the document is very very long.. much longer then my original complain including all attachments and evidents.

For everybody else who is filing for WOM (Green Card), please think again before doing this. There is no more expedite name checks and filing the case you just put yourself in more trouble and a lot of waisted time, unless you have enough money to risk and spend with the lawyers. IMHO

 

[weiyuzhu]

Urgent!!! Seek Help

Sorry that I might have posted this message in a wrong place since I couldn't figure out how to start a new message so I chose to reply the current one.

I filed WOM on Dec 13, 2006 (for I-485) and my court hearing is Feb 14, 2007 (this Wednesday). Today (Feb 12, 2007) I was told by my AUSA that they haven't heard anything from the immigration office yet so I have to attend the court on Feb 14, 2007. I really have no idea what will happen in the court and what I am supposed to do there. Any help will be highly appreciated. Thank you very much.

-Weiyuzhu

 

[wenlock]

As I mentioned before I received a motion to dismiss my case. It is scary and very unpleasant. Basically they want to dismiss my case because they do not want that somebody else will use my case as an example how to fight with FBI.
Interestingly that INS already initiated two name checks for me and none of them did return anything yet. Second one was initiated on Nov 1, 2006.
Yesterday I tried to write an oposition, but I believe and sure that my chances to win is equal to 0%.
I remember that somebody else was writing an oposition (I485), but do not remember a name. Could you please compare AUSA motions? Or could u please post yours here?
I am telling you again, that the document is very very long.. much longer then my original complain including all attachments and evidents.

For everybody else who is filing for WOM (Green Card), please think again before doing this. There is no more expedite name checks and filing the case you just put yourself in more trouble and a lot of waisted time, unless you have enough money to risk and spend with the lawyers. IMHO

I would not worry about this Motion to dismiss. This is very ordinary motion to dismiss they use in I-485. You should be easily able to draft good opposition to this one.

Arguments that you need to tackle.

defendents duty to adjudicate is not descretionary.
Defendents claims you are trying to "cut the line" by filling madamus.
They explain background process.

These issues are addressed in many motion to dismiss cases filled by attorneys. You should be able to handle it. I am still sure you have 95% chances of winning if you think properly. You are sitting in nations most liberal court districts who are immigrants friendly. Put your good opposition together you will be fine.

 

[wenlock]

Sorry that I might have posted this message in a wrong place since I couldn't figure out how to start a new message so I chose to reply the current one.

I filed WOM on Dec 13, 2006 (for I-485) and my court hearing is Feb 14, 2007 (this Wednesday). Today (Feb 12, 2007) I was told by my AUSA that they haven't heard anything from the immigration office yet so I have to attend the court on Feb 14, 2007. I really have no idea what will happen in the court and what I am supposed to do there. Any help will be highly appreciated. Thank you very much.

-Weiyuzhu

Don't worry just dress professionally and show up. Just go throught all the Laws you mentioned in lawsuit in case you have to explain. Usually judges under stand you are prose they hardly ask you any thing just what was your nature of urgency that make you cause this law suit.

It is Valentines Day take some flower for the the Judge Just Kidding

 

[yvesliu]

Congratulations! Did you sign up the e-mail status auto update? If yes, did you receive e-mail about it? Did you check your on-line status?

Hello, this is the update of my case. My 485 AOS is approved last Fri after interview with immigration officer. My AUSA is trying to catch the deadline of my case which is Feb. 15. For this deadline, she has been working very hard and pushed my interview date to Feb 9th. She faxed my approval notice and dismissal document to me this morning and she wants me to sign the dismissal and mail to her. My AUSA is extremely nice, she also told me if I don't receive my card in 3 weeks, just give her a call and she will check with CIS. My detail is in my signature. Since I haven't gotten my card yet, and my on line status only says that I-130 is approved and mailed, do you think the faxed welcome notice is good enough to sign the dismissal? Thank you very much!

 

[786riz]

Do not be discourage, you will make it

Hey come on kefira, do not be discourage with this motion to dismiss. You still have very bright chances of wining this case. I know you can do it, just come into fighting mode, get some good opposing motions (I know wenlok will help you in it), spend some nights and you will be done. Believe me USCIS still expediting name check but now case by case. We all know that automatic name check expedite is gone but per my AUSA, USCIS is putting everyone’s name in a list who file a suit and following this list for name expedite, but again if a court order come then they are taking the name of that person from the list and putting in front of the list. I read the motion to and there are same arguments presented as I seen in previous motions, therefore the answer should be the same.
Please do not be frighten and dishearten, I know at the end you will be prevail.
Let me know if you need any help.
Thank you.

As I mentioned before I received a motion to dismiss my case. It is scary and very unpleasant. Basically they want to dismiss my case because they do not want that somebody else will use my case as an example how to fight with FBI.
Interestingly that INS already initiated two name checks for me and none of them did return anything yet. Second one was initiated on Nov 1, 2006.
Yesterday I tried to write an oposition, but I believe and sure that my chances to win is equal to 0%.
I remember that somebody else was writing an oposition (I485), but do not remember a name. Could you please compare AUSA motions? Or could u please post yours here?
I am telling you again, that the document is very very long.. much longer then my original complain including all attachments and evidents.

For everybody else who is filing for WOM (Green Card), please think again before doing this. There is no more expedite name checks and filing the case you just put yourself in more trouble and a lot of waisted time, unless you have enough money to risk and spend with the lawyers. IMHO

 

[paz1960]

Dear Paz,
I believe you are doing fine. can you tell me where did u get this FBI statement from and do u think it can be used againist them in the court when someone is defending his case infront of a judge. Thank you!

The quotation about the name check effectiveness is from the attached document. You certainly can put that in your opposition, but I think that there is a very little chance that you can convince the judge that the name check is ineffective and useless (first it is not useless, just needs to be done differently, second, neither the judge or us, Plaintiffs will be able to change the rules. Only Congress can amend the statue and define better how, who and when should be the "full criminal background check" done).

 

[786riz]

Here's What I did in Michigan

I think this will help:

a. 10 complaint (one original sign other copies) {5 defendants + 1 court + 1 judge + 1 AUSA + 2 for me)
b. Two exhibits (took 10, clerk said give me only 2 send others yourself with the complaints)
c. Two civil cover, one original sign and other copy
d. Two set of summons, each has six (5 defendants + 1 AUSA). One original will go to defendants and she need back one original and one copy as return service.

Thank you.

Hello all,
I am ready to file my complaint (1447(b)) in NJ tomorrow.
here are the files I am taking with me to court please let me know if I'm missing anything:

1- 9 copies of lawsuit + exhibits = 5 for defendants and 4 for court (as per NJ pro se guide)

2- 5 summons (one for each defendant)

3- 1 civil cover sheet.

the defendants on my complaint are :
-Alberto Gonzales, United States Attorney General
-Michael Chertoff. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
-Andrea Quarantillo. District Director, USCIS Newark, New Jersey
-Emilio T. Gonzalez. Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
-Robert S. Mueller. Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation

Should I print an extra copy for the US Attorney?
and do all the copies have to be identical? I am planning to print them from my PC and sign all of them, don't know if I should sign one and photocopy the rest (or at least the signature page)

Regards

 

[gctarget06]

Dear Paz and other seniors...
I have one question and I've been thinking about it but couldn't conclude from my end.
The question is " Can I file an exhibit or some additions to previous complaint once the complaint has been filed with the court ?? " I just wanted to add few more things to my filed complaint and provide some more exhibits in support of it. to me it appears that I should be able to, but Not sure if I could do that ??

Please comment...
Thanks a lot for doing the good work...