Employment based immigration backlog petition
- Thread starter Edison
- Start date
Bold_Trueth
Registered Users (C)
Are we writing a book ? Please leave the stories part. We can utilise it later in some other way.
I fully agree with dengdeng that "it is not simply story tellling". Petition backed with real-time incidents definitely adds weight & strength to it. Folks, lets also explore about the "press" aspect also, 60 mins. etc. If we can figure out that they'll will be honest towards this .. the more we can have visibility towards this attitude of bcis, the better are our chances of drawing attention of the app. authorities.
Let's keep focused
Hi Guys,
Now that the Petition is more or less ready and likely to be hosted soon, let us keep focused on the “Road Map” (quoted above) proposed by Rajiv earlier.
Also, couple of other issues coming to my mind: -
1) When will we send the petition: Shall we wait for minimum number of signatures or should we decide on a specific date to send it to all recipients.
2) To whom all, a copy should be marked?
Thanks all
Hi Guys,
Now that the Petition is more or less ready and likely to be hosted soon, let us keep focused on the “Road Map” (quoted above) proposed by Rajiv earlier.
Also, couple of other issues coming to my mind: -
1) When will we send the petition: Shall we wait for minimum number of signatures or should we decide on a specific date to send it to all recipients.
2) To whom all, a copy should be marked?
Thanks all
Hi Topaz, here are my thoughts :
1. I think we will not wait for specific number of signatures. We will go by agreed timelines.
2. This petition is for Mr Khatri only. He will any how submi it to BCIS. It is better if the petition goes to BCIS through Mr Khatri than directly from us. (because BCIS is somewhat answerable to him where as they need not care us)
1. I think we will not wait for specific number of signatures. We will go by agreed timelines.
2. This petition is for Mr Khatri only. He will any how submi it to BCIS. It is better if the petition goes to BCIS through Mr Khatri than directly from us. (because BCIS is somewhat answerable to him where as they need not care us)
Re: Re: I was traveling, and I am back
I have no problem with that. Go ahead.
I have no problem with that. Go ahead.
Re: Re: where is the link for the petition?
Tuesday or Wednesday.
Tuesday or Wednesday.
Rajiv, I have just read AILA survey of BCIS phone service,
http://www.aila.org/fileViewer.aspx?docID=11035,
at the end, it seems the article quoted some typical "personal stories". I found those personal stories very similiar to what I have worked on. And I would like to know if we will include the personal stories in the petition. (Appendix B). Basically, detailed
stories are more convincing than simple lines signed by petitioners, such as " my case has been pending for 20 months, please clean backlog". Most ppl will say something like this, but some typical, moving stories can be separated into an appendix
page. We can collect the stories during the time of signing. And if someone post a detail story in the petition, we can copy it to the story appendix. Many people don't want to share their stories, because they are afraid that their identities will be revealed to the government, and they would like to know if you will protect our privacy on this board. (not revealing our email address to the government).
Please take time and read my current story collections. We could
get rid of the person name and use the format in AILA's survey.
That will protect our privacy.
Thanks!
http://www.aila.org/fileViewer.aspx?docID=11035,
at the end, it seems the article quoted some typical "personal stories". I found those personal stories very similiar to what I have worked on. And I would like to know if we will include the personal stories in the petition. (Appendix B). Basically, detailed
stories are more convincing than simple lines signed by petitioners, such as " my case has been pending for 20 months, please clean backlog". Most ppl will say something like this, but some typical, moving stories can be separated into an appendix
page. We can collect the stories during the time of signing. And if someone post a detail story in the petition, we can copy it to the story appendix. Many people don't want to share their stories, because they are afraid that their identities will be revealed to the government, and they would like to know if you will protect our privacy on this board. (not revealing our email address to the government).
Please take time and read my current story collections. We could
get rid of the person name and use the format in AILA's survey.
That will protect our privacy.
Thanks!
Testimonials from EB 485 applicants
Career hardships - Mr Cinta of Pennsylvania, works for a major Defense contractor specialized satellite communications. Even though his kind of expertise is extremely useful to Homeland and National security, his pernament residency petition can not be adjudicated in a favorable way. Till today, his EB based 485 case has been pending at Vermont Service Center for 12 months. He is not treated fairly at workplace because of his alien status and even worse, the delay has impacted his personal life drastically. At workplace, He has to carry different color badge, indicating his status as a "foreign" person. He is only allowed to enter through designated entrances and exits and have access only to his office and a lab. He is only allowed to stay in the building from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, otherwise he needs to be escorted by others. Due to all the physical restrictions, he cannot visit the in-house cafeteria, unless escorted by a US citizen. He can not access company's network, intranet, etc, can not look, touch or have any material other than the project he is working on. Because of the backlog, he has been working on H-1B for six years and seven year extension by AC21, two I-140s (approved, one was amended) and also a year waiting on I-485 petition! There is not genuine recognition or promotion at work because of his immigrant status. His company claimed it's not possible to ask for expedite at VSC. His wife cannot get her driver license for a second year in a row because she is on EAD, by Pennsylvania state law, she can't get either driver license or learning permit. He has to drive his wife to work and home everyday. Stress, anxiety and anger become part of their daily lives. The multi-year process delay results in no sense of security as he and his family have been treated like "guilty" always though they are innocent, hard working and talented foreign workers.
EAD inconvenience - Mr. Sai of NY state works as a software architect for a fortune 500 company. He has been waiting for EB I-485 approval since the last 20 months. Mr. Sai has had a clean driving record for several years. Unfortunately, a few months ago, he had a car accident that damaged his car. He decided to buy a safer car. He approached the bank for a loan. Unfortunately, the bank would only give him a loan for 6 months as his EAD expires in 6 months. Not having that kind of money for monthly payment (loan amt. / 6 = approx. 3000$), he has to take the bus to office everyday. This has caused great inconvenience to him since he cannot work late, and has to loose couple of hours everyday trying to take the bus. Approving his 485 petition in a timely fashion would have prevented these hassles. Mr. Sai strongly urges BCIS to clear the 485 backlog and extend the EAD validity to multiple years. The difficulties in providing bank loans for EAD workers have affected the US auto and financial industries greatly.
Frustration of contacting NCSC - Mr. Deng of Massachusetts had a frustrating experience in contacting NCSC, the newly established customer service for applicants to get case status. Mr Deng had a Dec/2001 RD case, which has been pending for nearly two years. Mr Deng called NCSC in June, at that time, the published processing time was 18 months, but NCSC representative who answered the phone insisted the processing time was 19 months and asked him to call back in July. The representative had little knowledge of immigration policy. Instead of asking Mr.Deng his EAC number, she said what is your green card number. Without knowing his EAC number, she said since your case is still pending, you need an interview. Mr. Deng was very frustrated in the end when the phone representative refused to send a status request to Vermont service center. A month later, Mr. Deng called NCSC again, this time the phone representative said the current processing time is 24 months, call back in Dec, which is inconsistent with the published processing time. Mr. Deng had to call again, he finally reached someone reasonable and she took down his name, EAC number, address and promised to send him a case update letter in 3 to 4 weeks. But 7 weeks have passed Mr. Deng hasn't received anything from the service center. Mr. Deng was very frustrated by this new service and strongly urge BCIS to restore service center customer services. The representatives who answer phones are not trained with immigration knowledge. Most of them are rude, impatient and inconsistent. One person Mr. Deng knew called NCSC, and the phone representative asked him to seek physical therapy, don't bother calling us. The whole delay has already caused great mental distress for every applicant, not mention such poor customer services, which is in conflict with BCIS's goal, improving the immigration system. What a waste of tax payers' money for this kind of inferior service, and yet it represents the government of a superpower country.
Children's education affected - 1) Mrs. Luisa Vallejo of Michigan State filed her EB1 485 case at Nebraska Service Center back in Oct 2001. Se has two talented daughters who graduated from high school with GPA of 3.98 and 3.99 respectively. They were both rewarded merit based scholarships to study at Univ. of Michigan. However, since the whole family is waiting on green card approval, the two daughters were told that they would not be qualified for the scholarship. The girls had to apply for student loans and since they were not be able to pay the debts they have to stop studying. Both girls have high GPA at Michigan, GPA 3.95 and 3.97 respectively. The young kids' hearts were broken and so did Mrs. Vallejo and her husband. Mr. Vallejo has a EB1 category case which should be adjudicated in a favorable way. However, because of the strict security check and technology alert policy, their cases can not be adjudicated in time. BCIS's unaccetable delay has affected thousands of innocent children's lives, who become the victims of the backlog. 2) Mr. Kashimir of California state, filed his case in Feb 2002. His daughter will go to a university this fall. However, her financial aid application was rejected because she was not a permanent resident and therefore not qualified. For illegal students, DREAM Act and Student Adjustment Act may help them to get financial aid. But for legal workers and their dependents, there're really no hopes.
Second fingerpint pain- Mr. Forum of New Jersey state has a RD of 10/01/2001, so far he has not heard anything from BCIS regarding his case which has been pending for nearly 2 years. He has already filed for third EAD and second Advanced Parole last week. Last month after calling NCSC he got a response that "First fingerprint has expired and BCIS has sent a notice to the applicant, and should complete it in order to get his application processed". Almost 8 weeks have passeded, neither him nor his lawyer's office has received the second fingerprint notice. He has to contact local congressman office for help. His case is delayed further because of no communication can be done between applicants and service centers. Many others like Mr. Forum have reported similiar problems. They have never received second fingerprint notices, while BCIS is waiting for the responses. We strongly urge BCIS update the online case status with appropriate information when fingerprint notice is issued. Some applicants have reported that while primary applicant received second fingerprint notice, beneficiary applicant has not. This inconsistency has brought great pain to all EB-based applicants.
Service Center error - Mr Anamaica of New Jersey state applied I-140 in Feb 2002 and got approved in May 2002. He then applied I-485 in May 2002. His company change name after he filed 485 but remained same tax ID. Mr Anamaca's lawyer suggested him filing an I-140 Amendment for company name change in July 2002. In May 2003(almost after 10 months) he got I-140 amendment RFE requesting that "provide legal doc to show company name change happend legally". RFE response replied and received by BCIS in the first week of June 2003. In the second week of 2003 INS denied his former approved I-140 stating that Employer try to substitute new Alien for the Labor Certification, which in turn denied his I-485, which is soley a mistake. In the fourth week of June 2003 his I-140 Amendment got Approved. Mr Anamaica then filed MTR(Motion to Reopen) in July 2003. Because of this severe Service Center error Mr Anamaica and his wife are going through tremendous pressure and anxiety. They lived in despair everyday. He haven't heard from BCIS ever since and is seeking congressional help.
Local Interview Nightmare - Mr. xxx of New York state filed his 485 case in Nov, 2001. His case was transferred to Buffalo district office on July 18, 2003 and received a notice from Buffalo dated August 25, 2003 which reads as follows: "The application for permanent residence you filed has been received by the office listed below for processing. Once All processing and background checks have been completed, you will be scheduled for an interview to discuss your application. The normal processing time for this type of application is 9 months. Please do not contact this office unless you have received a notice of interview by May 21, 2004." Moreover, the Buffalo Notice assigns a new case number to his case with the Receipt date August 25, 2003 not the real RD which is November 19, 2001. After 21 months of long waiting, yet he has to wait 9 more months to get an interview. This is devastating news to Mr. xxx and his family. We urge BCIS to expedite those kind of cases at local offices. An interview won't take more than 10 minutes and Mr. xxx has been waiting for his green card for 21 months. It's unfair to ask him wait 9 more months.
Career hardships - Mr Cinta of Pennsylvania, works for a major Defense contractor specialized satellite communications. Even though his kind of expertise is extremely useful to Homeland and National security, his pernament residency petition can not be adjudicated in a favorable way. Till today, his EB based 485 case has been pending at Vermont Service Center for 12 months. He is not treated fairly at workplace because of his alien status and even worse, the delay has impacted his personal life drastically. At workplace, He has to carry different color badge, indicating his status as a "foreign" person. He is only allowed to enter through designated entrances and exits and have access only to his office and a lab. He is only allowed to stay in the building from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, otherwise he needs to be escorted by others. Due to all the physical restrictions, he cannot visit the in-house cafeteria, unless escorted by a US citizen. He can not access company's network, intranet, etc, can not look, touch or have any material other than the project he is working on. Because of the backlog, he has been working on H-1B for six years and seven year extension by AC21, two I-140s (approved, one was amended) and also a year waiting on I-485 petition! There is not genuine recognition or promotion at work because of his immigrant status. His company claimed it's not possible to ask for expedite at VSC. His wife cannot get her driver license for a second year in a row because she is on EAD, by Pennsylvania state law, she can't get either driver license or learning permit. He has to drive his wife to work and home everyday. Stress, anxiety and anger become part of their daily lives. The multi-year process delay results in no sense of security as he and his family have been treated like "guilty" always though they are innocent, hard working and talented foreign workers.
EAD inconvenience - Mr. Sai of NY state works as a software architect for a fortune 500 company. He has been waiting for EB I-485 approval since the last 20 months. Mr. Sai has had a clean driving record for several years. Unfortunately, a few months ago, he had a car accident that damaged his car. He decided to buy a safer car. He approached the bank for a loan. Unfortunately, the bank would only give him a loan for 6 months as his EAD expires in 6 months. Not having that kind of money for monthly payment (loan amt. / 6 = approx. 3000$), he has to take the bus to office everyday. This has caused great inconvenience to him since he cannot work late, and has to loose couple of hours everyday trying to take the bus. Approving his 485 petition in a timely fashion would have prevented these hassles. Mr. Sai strongly urges BCIS to clear the 485 backlog and extend the EAD validity to multiple years. The difficulties in providing bank loans for EAD workers have affected the US auto and financial industries greatly.
Frustration of contacting NCSC - Mr. Deng of Massachusetts had a frustrating experience in contacting NCSC, the newly established customer service for applicants to get case status. Mr Deng had a Dec/2001 RD case, which has been pending for nearly two years. Mr Deng called NCSC in June, at that time, the published processing time was 18 months, but NCSC representative who answered the phone insisted the processing time was 19 months and asked him to call back in July. The representative had little knowledge of immigration policy. Instead of asking Mr.Deng his EAC number, she said what is your green card number. Without knowing his EAC number, she said since your case is still pending, you need an interview. Mr. Deng was very frustrated in the end when the phone representative refused to send a status request to Vermont service center. A month later, Mr. Deng called NCSC again, this time the phone representative said the current processing time is 24 months, call back in Dec, which is inconsistent with the published processing time. Mr. Deng had to call again, he finally reached someone reasonable and she took down his name, EAC number, address and promised to send him a case update letter in 3 to 4 weeks. But 7 weeks have passed Mr. Deng hasn't received anything from the service center. Mr. Deng was very frustrated by this new service and strongly urge BCIS to restore service center customer services. The representatives who answer phones are not trained with immigration knowledge. Most of them are rude, impatient and inconsistent. One person Mr. Deng knew called NCSC, and the phone representative asked him to seek physical therapy, don't bother calling us. The whole delay has already caused great mental distress for every applicant, not mention such poor customer services, which is in conflict with BCIS's goal, improving the immigration system. What a waste of tax payers' money for this kind of inferior service, and yet it represents the government of a superpower country.
Children's education affected - 1) Mrs. Luisa Vallejo of Michigan State filed her EB1 485 case at Nebraska Service Center back in Oct 2001. Se has two talented daughters who graduated from high school with GPA of 3.98 and 3.99 respectively. They were both rewarded merit based scholarships to study at Univ. of Michigan. However, since the whole family is waiting on green card approval, the two daughters were told that they would not be qualified for the scholarship. The girls had to apply for student loans and since they were not be able to pay the debts they have to stop studying. Both girls have high GPA at Michigan, GPA 3.95 and 3.97 respectively. The young kids' hearts were broken and so did Mrs. Vallejo and her husband. Mr. Vallejo has a EB1 category case which should be adjudicated in a favorable way. However, because of the strict security check and technology alert policy, their cases can not be adjudicated in time. BCIS's unaccetable delay has affected thousands of innocent children's lives, who become the victims of the backlog. 2) Mr. Kashimir of California state, filed his case in Feb 2002. His daughter will go to a university this fall. However, her financial aid application was rejected because she was not a permanent resident and therefore not qualified. For illegal students, DREAM Act and Student Adjustment Act may help them to get financial aid. But for legal workers and their dependents, there're really no hopes.
Second fingerpint pain- Mr. Forum of New Jersey state has a RD of 10/01/2001, so far he has not heard anything from BCIS regarding his case which has been pending for nearly 2 years. He has already filed for third EAD and second Advanced Parole last week. Last month after calling NCSC he got a response that "First fingerprint has expired and BCIS has sent a notice to the applicant, and should complete it in order to get his application processed". Almost 8 weeks have passeded, neither him nor his lawyer's office has received the second fingerprint notice. He has to contact local congressman office for help. His case is delayed further because of no communication can be done between applicants and service centers. Many others like Mr. Forum have reported similiar problems. They have never received second fingerprint notices, while BCIS is waiting for the responses. We strongly urge BCIS update the online case status with appropriate information when fingerprint notice is issued. Some applicants have reported that while primary applicant received second fingerprint notice, beneficiary applicant has not. This inconsistency has brought great pain to all EB-based applicants.
Service Center error - Mr Anamaica of New Jersey state applied I-140 in Feb 2002 and got approved in May 2002. He then applied I-485 in May 2002. His company change name after he filed 485 but remained same tax ID. Mr Anamaca's lawyer suggested him filing an I-140 Amendment for company name change in July 2002. In May 2003(almost after 10 months) he got I-140 amendment RFE requesting that "provide legal doc to show company name change happend legally". RFE response replied and received by BCIS in the first week of June 2003. In the second week of 2003 INS denied his former approved I-140 stating that Employer try to substitute new Alien for the Labor Certification, which in turn denied his I-485, which is soley a mistake. In the fourth week of June 2003 his I-140 Amendment got Approved. Mr Anamaica then filed MTR(Motion to Reopen) in July 2003. Because of this severe Service Center error Mr Anamaica and his wife are going through tremendous pressure and anxiety. They lived in despair everyday. He haven't heard from BCIS ever since and is seeking congressional help.
Local Interview Nightmare - Mr. xxx of New York state filed his 485 case in Nov, 2001. His case was transferred to Buffalo district office on July 18, 2003 and received a notice from Buffalo dated August 25, 2003 which reads as follows: "The application for permanent residence you filed has been received by the office listed below for processing. Once All processing and background checks have been completed, you will be scheduled for an interview to discuss your application. The normal processing time for this type of application is 9 months. Please do not contact this office unless you have received a notice of interview by May 21, 2004." Moreover, the Buffalo Notice assigns a new case number to his case with the Receipt date August 25, 2003 not the real RD which is November 19, 2001. After 21 months of long waiting, yet he has to wait 9 more months to get an interview. This is devastating news to Mr. xxx and his family. We urge BCIS to expedite those kind of cases at local offices. An interview won't take more than 10 minutes and Mr. xxx has been waiting for his green card for 21 months. It's unfair to ask him wait 9 more months.
Last edited by a moderator:
First person would be better
I think. First person narratives are a lot more personal IMHO.
I think. First person narratives are a lot more personal IMHO.
**********Final Draft*************
I have just sent out the final draft. Also attached to this. You will see the draft makes room for including personal stories.
I have just sent out the final draft. Also attached to this. You will see the draft makes room for including personal stories.
Petition Promotion
Rajiv,
To promote the petition, Is it possible to provide a facility to
e-mail our friends about the petition so that it will be very easy to gather lot of signatures?
Example:
Referral Blast
http://www.referralblast.com/default.htm
click on button "Click here!/Send this site to a friend"
Rajiv,
To promote the petition, Is it possible to provide a facility to
e-mail our friends about the petition so that it will be very easy to gather lot of signatures?
Example:
Referral Blast
http://www.referralblast.com/default.htm
click on button "Click here!/Send this site to a friend"
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: Petition Promotion
Monica, work this up with our programmers or by yourself if you have the time. Let me know whts up.
Monica, work this up with our programmers or by yourself if you have the time. Let me know whts up.
Rajiv,
Thank you VERY much for your service to us. We can see the amount of time you have spent on the letter. We are greatful that a busy lawyer like you has taken keen interest in our initiave without expecting any monetary returns.
To fellow members,
what shall we do now ? Should we include Appendix B ,prepared by dengdeng ? Let's decide quickly about adding this appendix and then let's ask Rajiv to put the petition on the main page. All of you, Please take active part from now onwards. We got to finish it off as early as possible.
Thank you VERY much for your service to us. We can see the amount of time you have spent on the letter. We are greatful that a busy lawyer like you has taken keen interest in our initiave without expecting any monetary returns.
To fellow members,
what shall we do now ? Should we include Appendix B ,prepared by dengdeng ? Let's decide quickly about adding this appendix and then let's ask Rajiv to put the petition on the main page. All of you, Please take active part from now onwards. We got to finish it off as early as possible.