dsatish said:
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1) Hire a less capable person
for lesser period (2 months). That means, we should still go ahead with our original plan, but we may have to settle for a cheaper contractor to work for us for 2 months. Many people did not favor this idea.
2) Continue the Fund raising effort and wait till we get the required amount and go ahead with original plan (without diluting it).
3) Keep the money with the organization and use it for long term goals and also for advertisement etc.
4) For those who have contributed larger amounts (more than $50) , return the money over the $50. This way, we might be left with around $12,000 and that can be used for long term goals. That means, those who have contributed $70 should be returned $20 and those who have contributed $100 should be returned $50 etc.
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There are four key questions that you want to answer whenever you embark on a new project:
1) Where are you today?
2) Where do you want to be tomorrow?
3) How do you get there?
4) How do you know you got there?
In the current context, it is easy enough to answer the first 2 questions.
1) Stuck in the backlog black hole
2) Reduce backlog to less than or equal to six months
What about question 3? Unfortunately, there is no single correct answer. Just look at the sheer number of parameters involved:
i) USCIS has to improve processing efficiency
ii) USCIS needs more resources
iii) USCIS needs to stick to backlog reduction plan
iv) Congress has to hold USCIS accountable
v) Security climate
The list was just a teaser. You and I know that there are more. But you get the picture.
I would say our best bet for finding a solution is to seek help from Congress. Why in the world will they be interested in helping us?
i) I may be naïve, but I believe most in the Congress will help the citizens and constituents whenever they can, because they are fundamentally decent human beings who have chosen to serve the public.
ii) Most of them are a lot smarter than you and I. They recognize an opportunity (gain new voters, funds, etc.) when they see one.
iii) All said and done, a million people are granted permanent residency every year. I think this symbolizes the spirit and generosity of the Congress.
Now, how many Congress members are aware of our problem? I have no idea. But I can only assume that not a whole lot. If we expect the Congress to do something, we need to make them aware that there is a problem and people are hurting. We need to reach all the 100 Senators and 434 Congress(wo)men, even though a bill proposal starts from a subcommittee. I think if they all received about 50 faxes from different people within a span of a week, the impact would be stunning. How soon that would result in some tangible action leading to backlog reduction is another matter. There have been several admirable efforts such as Project Ocean email and fax campaigns to Congress that have attempted raise the awareness and the level of debate. Also, I think 485-litigation has raised the level of awareness. In my view, that is one of several reasons why we are seeing some pickup in pace of late.
For better success with the Congress, high profile lobbyists need to bat for us. 21K is hardly sufficient for this purpose. Media ads will also be expensive. Perhaps, we should try to get onto serious shows such as Meet the Press and 60 Minutes that have a loyal audience with a political bent.
This is a true catch-22 situation. The general expectation of people who contributed probably is some tangible action that results in backlog reduction. I don’t know if anyone contributed with the expectation of pushing only his or her case. On the other hand, if there is no tangible action, not enough new people are interested in contributing.
In the end, we have to play with the cards we are dealt with. If 21K is all we have, it should be used to at least ensure all the members of Congress are aware of our problems and request Congress to hold USCIS accountable by specifically pointing out past promises and disappointments. If the general population agrees, we can discuss then the best way to reach the members of Congress.
Question #4: How do we know we got there?
It is easy enough to gauge the # of approvals of cases that are older than 6 months using some of the scanner projects, but the question is how do we know to what extent our efforts succeeded. I would like to believe that our efforts significantly contribute to the process. But it would be nice to be able to measure our success. I know it is hard to measure, but people will always be second-guessing no matter how successful our efforts are. Depending on what we decide to do, it would be good to come up with ideas to measure our success.
Regards!
PS: In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I am already approved. But still I believe I am expressing my opinions in an objective way. But I will let you be the judge of that.
