The I-140 California thread has begun a fax backlog campain to congress and senate and I think it would be a great think if we would join the effort.
Here is the link for the thread:
http://immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=137934
Below is the draft letter they have been sending to their congress/senate elected officials.
I would suggest that everybody posts the people to whom they send the fax so we can spread the effort.
So here is the fax they are sending (of course, to be adjusted to our Service Center):
Dear Congress man/Woman....,
We are writing to you regarding the unreasonable delays in adjudication of the Employment-Based I-140 cases at the California Service Center (CSC) of the USCIS. According to CSC’s progress report, is adjudicating the I-140 cases filed before July 2003. Also USCIS has not shown any progress for most of the I-140 cases since August 2003. Congress has expressed repeatedly that the reasonable adjudication period is 6 months for immigration cases.
As per new USCIS memo of concurrent filing for I-140 and I-485, the cases will be adjudicated concurrently. Even if I-140 is filed concurrently, it will take the same time as adjudicating I-140 and I-485 filed non-concurrently. Since I-485 is taking anywhere between 24 - 36 months to process in CSC, not adjudicating I-140 before hand will not allow candidates to use AC 21. This defeats the purpose of the AC-21 law. Since security check can take anywhere from a few month to a few years, I-140 can wait for I-485's adjust-ready for a few years. If for some reason, the candidate loses the job during this period, which in the current economic situation is quite likely, his/her green card processing stops, leaving no option to fallback on AC-21 provisions. The caveat here is, USCIS interpretation, that candidates could change jobs only if their I-140 petition is approved and I-485 petition is pending for over 180 days. Ideally the candidate should be allowed to use AC 21 i.e. change jobs after 180 days has passed by after filing I-140 and I-1485 concurrently, irrespective of I-140 status.
We, as immigration portal community request you to please expedite I-140 processing so that it will give required relief to I-140 filers as well as I-140 and I-485 concurrent filers. It will provide a required relief to a lot of people who have been waiting so long for their approval. Even though the USCIS is a government agency, it should never be above the law. Thus, we urge you to enforce legislations passed by members of the Congress and hold the USCIS to higher standards of service. <As a member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, we believe you will take appropriate actions.... may not true for other congressmen>.
In summary, we would like to request your help to 1) contact the CSC of the USCIS and express frustrations with the I-140 processing delays; 2) USCIS interpretation of AC 21; and 3) request Mr. Don Neufeld to move some reasonable number of adjudicators from other operational units to the I-140 unit.
Sincerely,
Name
I-140: Case Number
Here is the link for the thread:
http://immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=137934
Below is the draft letter they have been sending to their congress/senate elected officials.
I would suggest that everybody posts the people to whom they send the fax so we can spread the effort.
So here is the fax they are sending (of course, to be adjusted to our Service Center):
Dear Congress man/Woman....,
We are writing to you regarding the unreasonable delays in adjudication of the Employment-Based I-140 cases at the California Service Center (CSC) of the USCIS. According to CSC’s progress report, is adjudicating the I-140 cases filed before July 2003. Also USCIS has not shown any progress for most of the I-140 cases since August 2003. Congress has expressed repeatedly that the reasonable adjudication period is 6 months for immigration cases.
As per new USCIS memo of concurrent filing for I-140 and I-485, the cases will be adjudicated concurrently. Even if I-140 is filed concurrently, it will take the same time as adjudicating I-140 and I-485 filed non-concurrently. Since I-485 is taking anywhere between 24 - 36 months to process in CSC, not adjudicating I-140 before hand will not allow candidates to use AC 21. This defeats the purpose of the AC-21 law. Since security check can take anywhere from a few month to a few years, I-140 can wait for I-485's adjust-ready for a few years. If for some reason, the candidate loses the job during this period, which in the current economic situation is quite likely, his/her green card processing stops, leaving no option to fallback on AC-21 provisions. The caveat here is, USCIS interpretation, that candidates could change jobs only if their I-140 petition is approved and I-485 petition is pending for over 180 days. Ideally the candidate should be allowed to use AC 21 i.e. change jobs after 180 days has passed by after filing I-140 and I-1485 concurrently, irrespective of I-140 status.
We, as immigration portal community request you to please expedite I-140 processing so that it will give required relief to I-140 filers as well as I-140 and I-485 concurrent filers. It will provide a required relief to a lot of people who have been waiting so long for their approval. Even though the USCIS is a government agency, it should never be above the law. Thus, we urge you to enforce legislations passed by members of the Congress and hold the USCIS to higher standards of service. <As a member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, we believe you will take appropriate actions.... may not true for other congressmen>.
In summary, we would like to request your help to 1) contact the CSC of the USCIS and express frustrations with the I-140 processing delays; 2) USCIS interpretation of AC 21; and 3) request Mr. Don Neufeld to move some reasonable number of adjudicators from other operational units to the I-140 unit.
Sincerely,
Name
I-140: Case Number