curiousGeorge said:
The backlog has never affected VSC and NSC people at the current scale. That is why they are so "up in arms" over it, and TSC folks may have come to terms with it a bit more, in a realistic kind of way. The wiating time at TSC has been 999 days for alomost 2 years until just yesterday. VSC has suddenly been thrust into a similar world, and they are learning to deal with that reality just now by trying to start a movement.
George,
I thought of giving a detailed reply to you on the day you have posted your thoughts, but i waited because i first wanted to complete my FAQ document and present it so that people know what exactly we are trying to do and they will be in a better position to understand this fight and judge us better. After days of thoughts, writing, consultations and reviews behind the scenes, i have finally published the Fund collection FAQ document. So now i would like to answer all your fears and thoughts. Let me assure you that i am not trying to argue with you or trying to show my smartness here. We are all in the same boat , frustrated and suffering due to these GC delays and that makes all of us as one big family. Please treat this as a dialogue and see if it makes any sense.
You are right that VSC has just got into this mess which TSC has got into long back. I wonder why you guys never tried to organize and fight this. I think that a few of you like tr22 , ayansgp etc did some work which has brought some improvement at TSC. There was of course more improvement after the lawsuit is filed. This clearly shows that if you fight you will get results. The moment the backlog started increasing, we at VSC forum have started group activities. The petition that every one signed last year and the current lawsuit are all results of our struggle in the VSC forum. Since the discussion forums are arranges such a way that we all visit different forums daily, we are somewhat divided till now. But once immigrationportal.org is formed with core team members from all the forums, we are all one. From TSC forum, we have tr22, ayansgp. goastros and tomban in the core team. As an executive member of immigrationportal.org, my responsibility is to get every one behind the organization. Believe me, united effort pays.
It has always been much longer in TSC. We have become accustomed to the backlog. It is part of the TSC culture now. We have become complacent. We have accepted that TSC is slow, and is always going to be the slowest center in the country. VSC consistently gets there cases' online status updated. TSC cases are randomly updated. VSC consistently gets fingerprints sooner than TSC. VSC consistently gets approvals sooner than TSC. We cannot change their priorities. TSC sucks, but that's the way it is. We have tried way too many times with no avail, just to have TSC put another priority in front of us again. The backlog will not get reduced by us, we have no say in this. They will not listen to us. We are not the voting population. We are aliens in a country who graciously has us as her guest. We are lucky to be here in the first place.
I completely and strongly disagree with each sentense in the above paragraph. The backlog can be reduced by us. We just have to FIGHT THE RIGHT WAY. Nobody listens to us if you go alone and ask for something. But go as an organization representing thousands of people and then see what the congress man says. You don't need a voting right to catch the attention of congress man. Any congress man with a long term plan can not effort to ignore and alienate thousands of potential future supporters. We are just 5 yrs from becoming citizens. Finally, when the congress man takes us seriusly, you will see the real movement at TSC.
You bring up the backlog, but the only backlog that USCIS is ever going to notice is the family category backlog. Why? Because the sponsors of those family based petitions are American Citizens eligible to vote, not some corporation trying to make money by hiring talented individuals from overseas who also give the impression to be taking away jobs from other US citizens. That is the view of the average US citizen, and they are the ones who will vote to reduce the backlog or not. Not us.
Absolutely wrong and terribly pessimistic(understandable for some one who was beaten so badly by TSC
). Have you not noticed the flurry of activity by INS in the recent days (after the lawsuit is filed)? The backlogs will not disappear overnight but when you fight and put proper pressure, then they WILL ACT. We can put much higher pressure (than lawsuit) if we can get a few congress men behind us. That is what ommigrationportal.org is trying to do
Sure there are hardships caused by the backlog. I personally live them everyday. I hear them everyday from my colleagues and people on this forum. Personally I will sit and wait, but stressing myself over such a thing is not worth my health, especially when I've seen other efforts fail time and again.
Sitting and waiting does not help,my friend. Every effort does not fail. You just think about how much time, effort, planning and execution was required to come to the stage where we (immigrationportal.org) have come. We have already collected 50% of the minimum target fund.
The Green Card is not life. Just as TSC has higher priorities, so do I. It will come when it comes and I have very little control over that.
Call me negative, I think I am realistic....but those are just my 2 cents.
your state of mind reflects 'pessimism' not 'realism'. Accepting fate is not called 'realism'. Ofcourse you have every right to believe that our efforts will not bring any changes. After all different people think differently. I for one, always believe in correcting things as much as i can rather than not attempting to correct things in the assumption that it can't be corrected.
NOW THAT I HAVE PRESENTED MY VIEWS AND DETAILED FAQ, IT IS UPTO PEOPLE TO DECIDE WHETHER BELIEVE IN OUR EFFORT OR NOT. Please make your judgement and if you believe in what i say, please contribute today at
www.immigrationportal.org