Can We settle on These Bases?

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Question

Once the I-485 has been pending for 180 days, the applicants should receive a conditional approval of the green card, there being no further evidence of employment required, evidenced by a stamp on the passport valid for 5 years, subject to revocation only on security grounds . This “conditional” approval would carry with it all rights and privileges of Lawful Permanent Residence (green card), including commencement of the time required for naturalization;
</RAJIV'S COMMENTS>

Hello Rajiv,

1) What happens if the passport stamp expires at the end of 5th year and INS has still not completed I485 processing. Is it understood that we can automatically get another passport stamp?

+++++++++++++++++++We apply for naturalization.

2) In followup to question 1 above. If the stamp expires and the end of 5th year would the person holding the stamp still be eligible to file for citizenship. I see a gap of one day before a person can file for citizenship

++++++++++++++++++You can file after 4 years and 9 months - 90 days before the 5th anniversary of approval. no gap.

3) Question 1 and 2 as the apply in case of people who are interested in retaining their original citizenship.

++++++++++++++++++++We will fill in the details later. Good point. Right now, I just want the basic agreement evaluated by them.

4) Is there a need to include some wording regarding how long INS may take to provide stamps on our passports. Otherwise, INS may take forever to implement the settlement and we have nothing "measureable" to make INS stand by the settlement.

++++++++++++++++++We will.

I am sure you have already pondered over these. It would be great if you could shed some light on this for our understanding and education.

Once again, lots of thanks for bringing about and persuing this lawsuite. [/B][/QUOTE]

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Originally posted by swingall
Thanks Rajiv for everything. Your effort is greatly appreciated.

I have a question for you on item #4, which is clearly the most important item for most of us.

Do you think USCIS has the authority to provide us this kind of stamping (GC)? Does Congress need to grant USCIS any addtional authority to do this? If USCIS is willing to consider this item, I think we can even go get a stamp every year. It's still much, much better than filing EAD and AP every year.

I thought this lawsuit covers only I485 applications. Can we mention I140 applications at all? I am not trying to be selfish. My I140 has been pending at TSC for about 10 months already. But I was just wondering if it's ok for us to mention I140 applications in the settlement.

One final thing, do we need to add something like "Once One's I-140 has been approved" and the I-485 has been pending for 180 days......?

Regarding authority, I do not know for sure. But I think we can find a way. The iportant thing is for them to know what we need and for them to consider if they are willing to work towards it.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Originally posted by hidden_dragon
This looks great. I have one question, what is the current portability after GC approved. It is not clear to me (or anyone maybe) how long one has to stay on the job once the PR is granted, so no question will be asked when applying for citizenship.

So we need clarify in case we are granted "conditional" PR, what would be the portability restriction. Or is it a portability issue (AC21) or not. How long we have to stay on the job? what we should ask for?

We are covered because we have all rights of a green card holder.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: When is a settlement expected

Originally posted by smisra
Dear Mr. Khanna,

When is a settlement likely to be expected? Any guidance on timeline with your best estimate will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks and regards,
smisra

Not a clue. I am sorry. But as soon as I can form a reasonable estimate, I will let you folks know.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: GOOD DISCUSSION

Originally posted by cinta
Rajiv,

I think we are having a good discussion. It is apparent that most of the people who support all these eight points are new to the forum, which is O.K. and I think are just getting the bitter taste of the US CIS. It is also true that more opinions of people who got their GC are missing for obvious reasons...
Le us take a total approach to cover all applicants in a fair way. Past, Current and Future.

Thanks Cinta. I was wondering only this morning about lack of comments from you. Usually, you have some good points to add to our repertoire of comments.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Re: Re: Re: GOOD DISCUSSION

Originally posted by ar888
I agree with Cinta, the points by Rajiv are well thought of (THANK YOU RAJIV, as always). But, if we have a chance of presenting our demands, we should cover all the groups.

Basically, we are asking them to issue conditional GC after a wait period of 6 months, but we should also consider the people, who are already waiting for more than 2 years to get the 485 approved. We should include 'citizenship clock should be started from the 181st day of 485' (to take care of the guys who are aleardy waiting).

Point 4 covers those people. Not to worry.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Originally posted by frantic
Should there be any mention of money in the settlement for all the mental agony and the amount the applicants spend for EAD and AP renewals?

No money. That is not usually available against he govt, except in very limited circumstances.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Re: Re: Re: GOOD DISCUSSION

Originally posted by PhillyJulyLC
Thanks for the clarification. LC processing has been taking up to 24 months in some cases. It is certainly a great thing if the citizenship clock starts ticking on the priority date. I am sure Mr. Khanna has a better idea what is within the control of USCIS and is OK to ask for...Mr. Khanna, please clarify if possible.

Only Congress can do that.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Re: can we settle on ..

Originally posted by suman_ojha

4. Once the I-485 has been pending for 180 days, the applicants should receive a conditional approval of the green card evidenced by a stamp on the passport valid for 5 years, subject to revocation only on security grounds;
------------------------------------------------------------

My thoughts on #4 is that we need to be very clear what that "conditional approval" would mean. It could, in my view, mean one or more of the following:
[a] no need for EAD/AP or it could mean no need for annual renewal of EAD/AP.
Will this also allow one to change jobs without AC21 ? What happens to AC21 then since it is presently used (with lots of conditions) to change jobs 180 days of I-485?
[c] Would the State residency conditions automatically apply?

Also please note that point above does not automatically follow from point [a]. They are mutually exclusive and should be mentioned explicitly.

Since we have 8 different points that we plan to present, I am damm sure that there would be heavy bargaining from across the table, so it would help us to decide the priority on them and make sure we sing in chorus.
Not discounting the need for addressing all the 8 points raised here, I would still say #4 (if it provides all the benefits of GC) would be ONE that we should fight to death, for.

Keep these thoughts handy. We will flesh out the details later.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Originally posted by dipc
Thank You Mr. Khanna for whatever you are doing for the community.

I have a little suggestion to make regarding Item#4, which nevertheless seems to be the only panacea for this ailment.

The recently concluded fiasco a.k.a. ‘NSEERS’ had a provision that excepted the ‘parolees’ from registering- apparently considering these individuals as non risk entities (no disrespect meant please) as they were already inspected within the recent past.

As I can make out there are great many amongst us who have used the ‘Parole’ in the recent past too– can we not enforce the same logic to grant them the ultimate relief instead of the Interim one. This stem from a feeling that sort of Legality/Background Checks are always performed while in the secondary inspection waiting to be paroled in.

Regards
DC

So how would you draft that? Show me some language that I can work on.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Recommendations....?

Originally posted by dtrxc
Thanks you for the initiative Mr. Khanna, you are doing an excellent job.

I have 2 questions with recommendations:

1. If CIS doesn't have the power, CIS should recommend the Congress to change the law.

Question:

•Would we have to provide the timeframe for CIS to recommend to Congress? They may take their time.

+++++++++++++++++++That is a black well. CIS can never gurantee any times.

•What are your estimates of the passage from recommendation to Congress approval? Will it end up being another tussle especially in an election year???

+++++++++++++++++++++A month to ...never.

2. Regarding Point # 4.
Once the I-485 has been pending for 180 days, the applicants should receive a conditional approval of the green card, there being no further evidence of employment required, evidenced by a stamp on the passport valid for 5 years, subject to revocation only on security grounds . This “conditional” approval would carry with it all rights and privileges of Lawful Permanent Residence (green card), including commencement of the time required for naturalization.

Question:

Could we include a line ‘the I-140 & I-485 receipt’ should be considered as sufficient proof for stamping the passport? This would eliminate any additional steps that may propose would save us time and money too. As pointed out earlier any further steps it would take at least 6 month from the day they say ‘Yes’ assuming 100 IIOs per center and each officer approves 20 cases per day and 22 days per month. We could say:


++++++++++++++++++++What if someone cannot get these documents form the employer or has lost them? Too replcae them, the 824 would take a year. I say they have the info on their computers. I should just be asked to present my ID (passport, etc.), that is it.

Once the I-485 has been pending for 180 days based on I-485 receipt date, the applicants should receive a conditional approval of the green card evidenced by a stamp on the passport valid for 5 years, subject to revocation only on security grounds.

Thanks.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Originally posted by whats_in_name
Thanks Mr. Khanna and other members for the hard work.

I want to suggest one additional point for the demand list,

INS/USCIS should instruct all Federal and State govt agencies (for example MVC/DMV) to recognize this type of conditional GC, so that bare minimum things like drivers license can be obtained with maximum allowed validity.

WIN

When you have a green card stamp, that should ne enough, but we can add this in the contract a a further detail.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Time Frame for implementing the settlement

Originally posted by Permanand
I agree with the settlement framework...the only thing that I would like to add is that there should be a time frame specified within the settlement as to when USCIS will implement these changes.
How about something adding with "immediate effect" to all the settlement points that Mr. Khanna has listed...and adding a that all pending employment based applications will be beneficiary of this settlement and that there is no cut off date or anything like that

Done. Thank you.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Re: Re: Re: can we settle on ..

Originally posted by PhillyJulyLC
I would call the proposed GC after 180 days of I-485 filing an "interim GC" rather than a conditional GC. It'd work like an interim EAD does (of course not valid for 1 but 5 years). The security check can hardly be catergorized as a condition, as in any case even you are natralized, if found a national threat (say, a terrorist), you'd lose what you have. So this interim GC works exact like a plastic card nowadays. Correct me if I am wrong...

OK.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: point 4 with some suggested detail

Originally posted by functionalalert
original point 4

Once the I-485 has been pending for 180 days, the applicants should receive a conditional approval of the green card evidenced by a stamp on the passport valid for 5 years, subject to revocation only on security grounds;


my suggestion:

Once the I-485 has been pending for 180 days and if the 1-140 has not been denied or issued an RFE and 180 days have passed since the receipt date of the I-140,all applicants should be entitled to receive an immiadete conditional approval of the green card,evidenced by a stamp on the passport valid for 5 years,subject to revocation on security grounds. This stamp must be issued no later than 30 calendar days after the I-485 has passed 180 days and the 181st day that the I-485 has been pending shall be for all practical purposesshall be counted as the day the person was admitted as a lawful permanent resident unless such approval is revoked on the grounds of national security

comments regarding my suggestion for point 4

1. the employee should not be burdened after 180 days for uscis to iniitate a premiumn processing of i-140 whioch again they can keep issuing rfe and delaying further by not responding to our response to rfe

2. a maximun time frame for issuance of the stamp on passport needs to be established


point 9: (suggested by me)

9. If the I-140 has not been denied and there is no RFE issued and 180 days have passed since the receipt date AND the i-485 is 180 days old,the applicant is not subject to limitations of the AC21 rule. This does not however, undermine the applicant;s right in point 4 above to receive the temporary green card within 30 days



COmments regarding point 9

this is needed till they establish firm procedures assuming that they will agree to issue a conditional approvazl. in the interim,the applicant should not be made to suffer


point 10 : suggested by me

10. The USCIS agrees to implement these recommendations for relief within a 30 day window begining on ___ (date agreed)

I do not believe they can agree to approvals without adjudication (RFE). Illegal.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: for rajiv

Originally posted by I140helppls
the first point in the settlement is regarding I140s be approved ...
so should people like me who have not file 485 but have a 140 pending sign the petition.

No. The reason that is the first point is that most people all are filing concurrently. The class action requires a pending 485 on the date you sign the petition.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Re: Can We settle on These Bases?

We are adding "immediate action" items. Wait for the final draft. At the rate we are going, I should have it to you by Monday.

Originally posted by feb6361
Dear Mr. Rajiv & core team,

Every thing looks good...but I think this will take some time to resolved all the issues say more than 6 months (I wish not) and it won't help to those who are suffering over 6 years like me. I think, we have to add something as an immediate action items until our all the issues gets resolved such as:

(1) Either we have to ask USCIS to remove 90 rule to issue interim EAD (in case of renwal or when EAD expires or any other emmergancy situations) or we need to get stay order from the court to remove 90 day rule to issue interim EAD at the local service center. I think USCIS has 30 day rule for assylee to issue interim EAD. Why different rule for EB 1-485? I think, we should propose 30 day rule as an interim basis.

(2) Any other important issues..

also for the point # 4, we should ask USCIS that they shold not use random order as they are using random order to approv I-485 cases.

Thank you so much again..

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Helpful mail from one of us

Dear Rajiv,

Please see the 2nd paragraph on 2nd page of this letter signed by several senators. There is a precedent here that INS allowed simultaneous I-140, I-485, EAD and AP filing after being told and realizing the administrative backlog issue. So the chances are very bright that the settlement proposal #4 (automatic issue of conditional GC after 180 days) would be accepted.

Letter is attached.

As you would notice in the same paragraph another suggestion is to “allow the receipt for I-485 adjustment filing to serve as both work and travel authorization”. So the proposal #4 of out lawsuit is something that is backed by these senators as well. It just happened that at that time INS accepted concurrent filing but not the conditional GC.

Another point, which may not be relevant for the lawsuit, is INS exceeding 90 days federal regulatory deadline. I am not sure if we can show this as their violation of existing law.

For some reason I cannot post on the settlement suggestion thread but I am monitoring is regularly. Would it be possible to post this information for others to read as well?

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Re: Conditional GC and Follow to Join

Originally posted by mereguru
What about the people who are single and planning to bring the spouse on H4 during the 485 process? What happens to that by this conditional green card? Also, do we have to wait for the follow to join process till actual green card or is this conditional gc sufficient? Could we cover this point?

Good point. I will cover it.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Originally posted by cinta
This is a good point; after 180 of the i-485 pending, we should be FREE to change jobs as we like (and this should be at anytime after that, GC or interim GC)with no AC-21 limitations and future employment prospects. We can go home and stay home until we decide we need another job, if we do with no effect on the GC or even later with citizenship. All these should be captured in one item, say #4 with directly naming AC-21.
Wrt Citizenship and possibly the Congressional prerequisite, the lawsuit gives us the chance and the forum to present the demands with visibility, which it would be difficult under any other circumstance. It also shows that we really care about the country and patriotic values..

Put like this, that could be a violation of AC21, which permits porting to "similar jobs."