Ganesh Ranganathan
Member
I tried sending emails to all the folks who were signed up for the petition. Here is the email that I sent. I was only partially successful in sending it to a few people and that too it took several hours. Looks like all the emailing programs have good anti spam capabilities (found it the hard way 
. So I have posted the letter that I sent to the folks. Please reply on this posting and I will remove the names of the folks who don’t want to join the next mailing campaign.
Here is the letter I managed to send to a few 10’s of people.
Sub: Regarding the 485 petition you signed at immigration.com website. Please read. Your reply is requested before Tue June 3rd 5pm CST.
Dear Fellow TSC I-485 filer/sympathizer and petition signer:
This letter consists of the following subsections
1) Update on the petition
2) Further action needed
3) What do you have to do if you don’t want to include your name in the next mailing.
4) Draft of letter that you can send to congressperson/senator
1) Update on the petition:
The petition was sent out by Mr. Khanna’s office more than 2 ½ weeks ago. It was sent to TSC director and BCIS director. If a reply is received it will be posted on the forum by Mr. Khanna’s office. So far no reply has been received.
2) Further action needed.
Our collective 800+ signatures for the petition has not elicited a prompt response from BCIS. This shows their attitude towards us. In order to keep the momentum going with the government bodies until something positive happens, the folks at immigration.com forum have decided to do the following on the first week of June, 2003:
a) Call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283
and rather than asking about the case details are planning to complain about TSC delays and ask them to do something about it quickly.
b) Send a letter to their congressperson and senator and in that letter point to the petition we had signed in immigration.com website. Along with the letter they are planning to attach a print out of the excel spreadsheet which has all our names. This is also hoping that our collective voices will be heard better than our individual voices.
3) What do you have to do if you don’t want to include your name in the mailing that folks are going to send to the senators/ congresspeople.
If you have any concerns about other folks using your name in the list please take a look at the attached excel spreadsheet and send me back an email saying that line number xxx name xxx has to be deleted.
4) Draft of letter that you modify to send to congressperson/senator
Here is the draft of a letter that folks might use to send to the senators/congresspeople. If you decide to mail to these folks please feel free to modify what you feel is necessary.
Here is the link to find your congressperson
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Here is the link to find your senator
http://www.senate.gov
Honorable Mr. XXX,
Congressman XXXX
Sub: Started Green card process in 1998/1999 time frame, still waiting for approval. Delays in I-485 processing (Green card approvals) at BCIS (INS) Texas Service Center (TSC). 800 + signatures attached. Several hundreds from XXX state. Please help us.
Dear Sir:
In this letter I would like to highlight a serious problem at BCIS Texas Service Center that an immigration committee member like you can help.
It has been more than three months since BCIS has formed and we are still seeing that I-485’s are approved in the Vermont and the Nebraska Service Centers but not in Texas Service Center (TSC). Seems like a penalty for living in your state. The date for 485 approvals has not moved from Nov 1, 2000 for the past seven months. In addition to not approving 485’s TSC is also an year behind in processing I-485’s compared to the other service centers.
No one would argue, in light of the terrorist threats, the need to more fully verify potential immigrants into the United States. And if the additional checks required some additional time, so be it, the benefits far outweigh the small price in waiting.
However, when the average waiting time for a relatively simple approval process has gone from 6 months to approximately 33 months (stated by TSC as of now and could possibly extend to longer time periods), there is something sinisterly wrong with BCIS operating procedures. And for BCIS to cloak themselves under the guise of performing additional security checks is deliberately misleading.
In a post 9/11 environment, in spite of INS past embarrassments of approving terrorists posthumously, the President has given a mandate to the organization to ensure I485 approvals be completed within 6 months with all necessary security checks. Yet, in practice the complete opposite has happened, stretching approvals to an average of 30 + months as of now and possibly even further. In addition, BCIS specifically Texas Service Center has virtually stopped processing applications from Nov 1, 2002, first denying there was a freeze then later acknowledging there was a freeze when they upgraded their computer systems and then citing funding problems. In the face of a mountain of backlogged un- approved 485 applications no action has been done on the part of TSC to reduce the backlog whereas other service centers are processing some amount of applications.
Being forced to wait extraordinary lengths of time, the would be immigrant is forced every year to reapply to renew their EAD (Employment Authorization document) and Advance Parole (AP). With this huge problem, what does BCIS do? Do they focus their resources on approving the green cards? No, they put the resources on clearing the backlog of EAD's and AP’s, which are a temporary solution for the people waiting for the 485 (GC) approvals. If they would approve the 485, they would get rid of the backlog on EAD's and AP’s at the same time. But this logic escapes BCIS.
In addition, as part of the 485 process, each applicant submits to a fingerprint exercise, which gets sent to FBI to check their background. BCIS has a policy of expiring the fingerprints after 15 months. (which seems like a reasonable policy as the president himself has indicated that the process should take no longer than 6 months). Now because BCIS is now saying that it will take them 32-33 months to approve, they are reissuing fingerprint notices to applicants who must go through the process again. It begs the question, with their system of tracking dates, instead of focusing extra resources on clearing the EAD and AP backlog, why wouldn't BCIS focus their resources on approving cases that the fingerprints are due to expire?
The immigrant lives a precarious life waiting and hoping for his approval, and in these uncertain economic conditions, hopes he isn't laid off of his current employment. So it is a risk for someone who has lived in the US from anywhere between 5-15 years who has and continue to contribute to the economy and the general welfare of this country that they can be laid off from a company and they have to pack up and leave the country.
To voice the frustration and feeling of powerlessness with the lack of progress and responsiveness from the TSC (Texas Service Center) of the BCIS, the folks who are in this situation have organized a petition which you can here:
http://www.immigration.com/common/rsk/petition_texas_new.html[/url]
You can find the signatures of the petition here: More than 800 have signed (just by word of mouth) it as of early May.
http://www1.immigration.com/ins-tracker/petition_texas_new
What is a worthwhile read is the comments box in the petition, where you can get a very real sense of how this drawn out process is affecting the lives of these would be immigrants.
Since you are in the immigration committee we are hoping that you can somehow help us all by bring some pressure to bear on TSC and get them to actively commit to addressing the problem and resolving it quickly.
Thanks for any help you can provide. We are relying on your help and support.
Respectfully,
XXXX (On behalf of the folks who face these problems)
Attachment: Print out of list of 800+ signatures. Several hundred are from XXX State.
Hoping this combined efforts yields us the results.
Regards,
Tru
ps: Please watch for the updated list Wednesday morning in the http://boards.immigrationportal.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=98
forum
Attachment: The excel spreadsheet that folks in the forum are planning to attach along with the letter to the politicians.
. So I have posted the letter that I sent to the folks. Please reply on this posting and I will remove the names of the folks who don’t want to join the next mailing campaign.Here is the letter I managed to send to a few 10’s of people.
Sub: Regarding the 485 petition you signed at immigration.com website. Please read. Your reply is requested before Tue June 3rd 5pm CST.
Dear Fellow TSC I-485 filer/sympathizer and petition signer:
This letter consists of the following subsections
1) Update on the petition
2) Further action needed
3) What do you have to do if you don’t want to include your name in the next mailing.
4) Draft of letter that you can send to congressperson/senator
1) Update on the petition:
The petition was sent out by Mr. Khanna’s office more than 2 ½ weeks ago. It was sent to TSC director and BCIS director. If a reply is received it will be posted on the forum by Mr. Khanna’s office. So far no reply has been received.
2) Further action needed.
Our collective 800+ signatures for the petition has not elicited a prompt response from BCIS. This shows their attitude towards us. In order to keep the momentum going with the government bodies until something positive happens, the folks at immigration.com forum have decided to do the following on the first week of June, 2003:
a) Call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283
and rather than asking about the case details are planning to complain about TSC delays and ask them to do something about it quickly.
b) Send a letter to their congressperson and senator and in that letter point to the petition we had signed in immigration.com website. Along with the letter they are planning to attach a print out of the excel spreadsheet which has all our names. This is also hoping that our collective voices will be heard better than our individual voices.
3) What do you have to do if you don’t want to include your name in the mailing that folks are going to send to the senators/ congresspeople.
If you have any concerns about other folks using your name in the list please take a look at the attached excel spreadsheet and send me back an email saying that line number xxx name xxx has to be deleted.
4) Draft of letter that you modify to send to congressperson/senator
Here is the draft of a letter that folks might use to send to the senators/congresspeople. If you decide to mail to these folks please feel free to modify what you feel is necessary.
Here is the link to find your congressperson
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Here is the link to find your senator
http://www.senate.gov
Honorable Mr. XXX,
Congressman XXXX
Sub: Started Green card process in 1998/1999 time frame, still waiting for approval. Delays in I-485 processing (Green card approvals) at BCIS (INS) Texas Service Center (TSC). 800 + signatures attached. Several hundreds from XXX state. Please help us.
Dear Sir:
In this letter I would like to highlight a serious problem at BCIS Texas Service Center that an immigration committee member like you can help.
It has been more than three months since BCIS has formed and we are still seeing that I-485’s are approved in the Vermont and the Nebraska Service Centers but not in Texas Service Center (TSC). Seems like a penalty for living in your state. The date for 485 approvals has not moved from Nov 1, 2000 for the past seven months. In addition to not approving 485’s TSC is also an year behind in processing I-485’s compared to the other service centers.
No one would argue, in light of the terrorist threats, the need to more fully verify potential immigrants into the United States. And if the additional checks required some additional time, so be it, the benefits far outweigh the small price in waiting.
However, when the average waiting time for a relatively simple approval process has gone from 6 months to approximately 33 months (stated by TSC as of now and could possibly extend to longer time periods), there is something sinisterly wrong with BCIS operating procedures. And for BCIS to cloak themselves under the guise of performing additional security checks is deliberately misleading.
In a post 9/11 environment, in spite of INS past embarrassments of approving terrorists posthumously, the President has given a mandate to the organization to ensure I485 approvals be completed within 6 months with all necessary security checks. Yet, in practice the complete opposite has happened, stretching approvals to an average of 30 + months as of now and possibly even further. In addition, BCIS specifically Texas Service Center has virtually stopped processing applications from Nov 1, 2002, first denying there was a freeze then later acknowledging there was a freeze when they upgraded their computer systems and then citing funding problems. In the face of a mountain of backlogged un- approved 485 applications no action has been done on the part of TSC to reduce the backlog whereas other service centers are processing some amount of applications.
Being forced to wait extraordinary lengths of time, the would be immigrant is forced every year to reapply to renew their EAD (Employment Authorization document) and Advance Parole (AP). With this huge problem, what does BCIS do? Do they focus their resources on approving the green cards? No, they put the resources on clearing the backlog of EAD's and AP’s, which are a temporary solution for the people waiting for the 485 (GC) approvals. If they would approve the 485, they would get rid of the backlog on EAD's and AP’s at the same time. But this logic escapes BCIS.
In addition, as part of the 485 process, each applicant submits to a fingerprint exercise, which gets sent to FBI to check their background. BCIS has a policy of expiring the fingerprints after 15 months. (which seems like a reasonable policy as the president himself has indicated that the process should take no longer than 6 months). Now because BCIS is now saying that it will take them 32-33 months to approve, they are reissuing fingerprint notices to applicants who must go through the process again. It begs the question, with their system of tracking dates, instead of focusing extra resources on clearing the EAD and AP backlog, why wouldn't BCIS focus their resources on approving cases that the fingerprints are due to expire?
The immigrant lives a precarious life waiting and hoping for his approval, and in these uncertain economic conditions, hopes he isn't laid off of his current employment. So it is a risk for someone who has lived in the US from anywhere between 5-15 years who has and continue to contribute to the economy and the general welfare of this country that they can be laid off from a company and they have to pack up and leave the country.
To voice the frustration and feeling of powerlessness with the lack of progress and responsiveness from the TSC (Texas Service Center) of the BCIS, the folks who are in this situation have organized a petition which you can here:
http://www.immigration.com/common/rsk/petition_texas_new.html[/url]
You can find the signatures of the petition here: More than 800 have signed (just by word of mouth) it as of early May.
http://www1.immigration.com/ins-tracker/petition_texas_new
What is a worthwhile read is the comments box in the petition, where you can get a very real sense of how this drawn out process is affecting the lives of these would be immigrants.
Since you are in the immigration committee we are hoping that you can somehow help us all by bring some pressure to bear on TSC and get them to actively commit to addressing the problem and resolving it quickly.
Thanks for any help you can provide. We are relying on your help and support.
Respectfully,
XXXX (On behalf of the folks who face these problems)
Attachment: Print out of list of 800+ signatures. Several hundred are from XXX State.
Hoping this combined efforts yields us the results.
Regards,
Tru
ps: Please watch for the updated list Wednesday morning in the http://boards.immigrationportal.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=98
forum
Attachment: The excel spreadsheet that folks in the forum are planning to attach along with the letter to the politicians.
Last edited by a moderator: