Here is the letter that you may want to fax to USCIS director to raise your concerns. Please go through it and make modifications as necessary.
To: USCIS Director Mr. Eduardo Aguirre
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
20 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20529
Immigration.reply@dhs.gov
Title: Inconsistencies in processing of EB3 I-140 applications at VSC
Dear Mr. Eduardo Aguirre,
We are writing to you regarding the unreasonable inconsistencies in adjudication of the Employment-Based I-140 cases at the Vermont Service Center (VSC) of the USCIS. According to VSC’s progress report, is adjudicating the I-140 cases (EB3) filed in April 2004. This is despite the fact that approximately 50% of the cases filed in prior months (some as early as August 2003) are still pending. Congress has expressed repeatedly that the reasonable adjudication period is 6 months for immigration cases.
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. 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.
In summary, we would like to request your help to 1) contact the VSC of the USCIS and express frustrations with the I-140 processing inconsistencies; 2) Inquire how many cases filed prior to their current processing date of April 2004 are still pending, their percentage and the reason they are still pending 3) expand USCIS interpretation of AC 21 to include I140 which has been pending more than 180 days. and 4) request Mr. Don Neufeld to move some reasonable number of adjudicators from other operational units to the I-140 unit.
Sincerely,
