Let's fight againt CSC's pilot program
I have drafted the letter below to fight againt CSC's stupid pilot program. Anyone who are capable of writing, please polish it as much as you can.
I suggest we send the letter to as many congressmen as possible, in order to seek a solution. As AILA points out, CSC's unfair practice will create a class of application who file I-140/485 earlier. I assume we can find a way to sue CSC as a class if our seek of solution does not work.
Dear Honorable Senator/Congress(wo)man <XXXX>
Subject : Request for addressing the backlog for Employment based I-140/485 applications
We want to draw your attention to the excruciatingly slow and random progress of I-140/485 applications California Service centers.
We are happy that the congress men like you have put enough pressure on US CIS (formerly known as INS) to reduce the backlog of immigration applications. We are aware of the recent presentations of Mr Eduardo Aguire, the honorable director of Unites States Citizenship and Immigration Services, about the backlog reduction plan. After reading the backlog reduction plan and the milestones, we would like to make the following submissions to you.
1. Random Processing
In May 2004, California service center (CSC) introduce a pilot program for concurrently filed I-140/485. CSC has stated that people who concurrently filed I-140/485 cannot even withdraw and refile to take the advantage of the pilot program. Therefore, the total effect is that CSC process new filed I-140/485 while leaving many more old applicantions on the shelf. This is totally unfair for those who have waited there for years. We have seems quite a few people who wait for their I-140 for a year or so (the whole waiting on green card for four years or so) got layed off and the whole four years of waiting is wasted. We have also saw many people who filed in 2004 got all their I-140/485 approved.
The logic of I-140/485 is to process new cases first so that they do not have to file EAD/AP application, that will save CSC resources. However, leaving the old I-140/485 on the shelf for years will force many of them to file EAD/AP more than once, which will create CSC the same amount of work. Therefore, I think they idea of this pilot program is totally unreasonable and should be stopped as soon as possible. Basically, CSC serves the people who comes later and lets those on the front of line wait for more years. This simply does not make logical sense.
2. Manipulating Average Cycle Time
In their recent backlog reduction plan milestones, US CIS has shown that they will bring down the average cycle time to 20 months by the end of FY2004. The average cycle time was defined as the average time taken, over the last 12 months, to approve an application. Currently Vermont Service Center is showing the official processing date as 02/15/2002. That means that on an average, official time taken to approve the application, is more than 28 months. We are wondering how the average can come down to 20 months within the next 3 months . If the applications are processed in a serial manner, then to achieve the average processing time of 20 months by September’30 of 2004 (FY2004), the official processing date has to advance to 01/31/2003. It is just hard to believe that they can advance the current processing date by almost 1 year within the next 3 months. Based on recent approval trend, we believe that US CIS is trying to achieve the target results by approving a large number of very recently filed applications so that it will bring down the average cycle time because the average cycle time depends on the wait times of the approved cases in the last 1 year. This is a highly manipulative method chosen by US CIS to show the congress that the backlogs are reducing where as the applications pending for more than 2 years are not going to see much change in the pace of approvals.
3. RFE Delays
In most of the cases, US CIS is asking the applicants to submit certain documents before approving the case. We have recieved several complaints from our members who have submitted all the required information in a timely manner and still could not get any decision from US CIS for more than 3 months. We request that US CIS should adjudicate such cases within 30 days of receiving the response from the applicants.
We believe that US CIS, especially CSC with the unreasonable pilot program is accountable to the United States Congress and our only hopes of justice in this land of fairness, rest with a representative like you. We request you to ask US CIS to address the above concerns correctly. We will be looking forward to favorable action from US CIS. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Regards,
( )
