Email Response from CIS Ombudsman

MA_Labor

Registered Users (C)
Thank you for your feedback on the CIS Ombudsman's Priorities for Fiscal
Year 2007. Your input is invaluable to our mission of assisting
individuals and employers in resolving problems with USCIS.

Please note that your email pertains to a specific case matter, so if
you have not already done so, please refer to the instructions for
submitting a case problem, which can be found by clicking the following
link: http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/programs/editorial_0731.shtm.

I have brought your concerns to the attention of the relevant officials
at the USCIS service centers. The service centers appreciate the
opportunity to respond, and stated that they strive to provide
outstanding customer service. The service center management and staff
proactively identify cases in their inventory that meet all criteria for
final adjudication. In the first 11 days of June, one service center
requested approximately 7700 visas. The service centers will identify
and process all cases that fully meet the required criteria for
adjudication this month. It is important to note, that, like all
organizations, the service centers have limited resources, so they plan,
coordinate, and implement appropriate strategies to complete goals in a
timely basis. While the service centers are actively processing cases
for June, they are already planning for July.

Thanks again for contacting the CIS Ombudsman.

Sincerely,
Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman US Department of Homeland
Security Mail Stop 1225 Washington, D.C. 20528-1225
Email: cisombudsman@dhs.gov
Web: http://www.dhs.gov/cisombudsman

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxx@xxxx.xxx
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2007 7:53 PM
To: trends, cisombudsman
Cc: USCIS-COMPLAINT,
Subject: Processing Delays at Texas Service Center for EB Cases that have become current on June 1, 2007

Respected Mr. Ombudsman,

I am representing hundreds of Employment based green card applicants who
have become current on June 1, 2007 for final Adjustment of Status at
the Texas Service Center. You are very well acquainted with the causes
of procedural delays in USCIS processing. Apart from procedural delays
due to heavy work loads, there are delays attributable to
security/background checks and delays caused by visa unavailability. The
phenomenon of visa unavailability has caused applicants to apply for
multiple EAD cards, Advance Paroles and Finger printing (a pre-condition
for an officer to consider the case).

In view of the above requirements and circumstances, obtaining an
approval from a service center has become a rare occurrance due to the
number of pre-conditions that need to be satisified. Therefore when a
visa number becomes current for an application on which all processing
is complete, it is reasonable for an applicant to expect that the
service center has sufficient resources to speedily approve the case
before priority dates move back again.

It has been the recent experience of most of us whose cases are with
Texas Service Center, that cases have not even be assigned to an officer
after the priority dates for June were released in May. The reason given
is "we were unaware of the volume of applications that will become
current and do not have sufficient officers to process these cases
speedily".

I wanted to bring this matter to your attention because, this
explanation is completely unacceptable when a legal immigrant has
complied with all pre-conditions imposed by USCIS including but not
limited to the current processing timeline for the case type mentioned
for the service center.

I will appreciate it if you could contact the Texas Service Center and
obtain an explanation for such lack of preparedness on their part. The
service center is currently asking applicants to wait for another 60-90
days for assignment of cases to an officer and processing of the case by
the officer. During this time if the priority dates move back, the
applicant might have to wait another couple of years for an approval.

I will appreciate your response and assistance in this matter.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

xxxxx xxxxxxx
xxx xxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxx, xx xxxxx

Phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Email: xxxx@xxxx.xxx
 
That was some good pro-active action taken by you even though nothing concrete came out of it, except the 7700 visas for first 11 days figure.

One thing you could've raised and would be interesting to get a response to is this: Why should VSC to TSC transfer cases suffer at the hands of TSC which blatantly is preferring cases originally filed at TSC over the transferred ones. What crime have the VSC filers committed to suffer this discrimination? Let us see if they can give a boilerplate response to that!
 
One thing you could've raised and would be interesting to get a response to is this: Why should VSC to TSC transfer cases suffer at the hands of TSC which blatantly is preferring cases originally filed at TSC over the transferred ones.

And what justification does USCIS have to ask VSC->TSC applicants to wait 180 days before enquiring about the case? That's just bogus.
 
:D I wouldn't be too quick to take all the credit. Someone else posted the format of this letter and asked all of us to email to to the CIS Ombudsman. I just did my part. I hope it makes a difference.
 
what other issues / questions?

Post other issues / questions here - once we get a few others, maybe we could specifically ask for answers to these questions

And what justification does USCIS have to ask VSC->TSC applicants to wait 180 days before enquiring about the case? That's just bogus.
 
Sample email draft to send to Ombudsman

Ma_labor,

Can you please paste the sample email /letter draft you sent to Ombudsman?

Thanks
 
Dude,

Read the posting properly..MA_Labor has already posted the letter sent to the Ombudsman. Which World are you in?
 
I got exactly the same response for a similiar letter and wrote back about the CSC>NSC transfer cases problem. Lets see what I hear.

>>>>>>>>
EB3 India
Priority Date --> June 30th 2001
485 applied --> Jan 20th 2005
GC process started Jan 2001 in CSC
CSC > NSC --> Mar 7th 2007
Namecheck pending  Mar’2005
Nightmare continues
 
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