Interesting Posting on Murthy Forum Page

paulclarke1

Registered Users (C)
http://murthyforum.atinfopop.com/4/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1024039761&f=1474093861&m=6084054592

Quote
I had a suprise encounter with a BCIS adjugator at a Social gathering - Ofcourse I jumped in to ask what was really happening .. here is the gist

This is a lady(Japanese American) . She had an alltogethr diff story to tell.

" BCIS(ins) had done a great job upto Dec2001 when they were adjugating June 2001 cases in Dec2001(6 months) , they had 15 officers on the job for 485 alone, each were doing 15-20 cases a day. It all went wrong with the news breakout of the issuance of visa 's to dead people( u know who). She says John Ashcroft sent a letter to all adjugators to go back and look at all cases approved from 1999 to that point and also announced a Zero tolerance policy. So 12 of the 15 officers were going through each case by case of approved 485's ( family, employment everything)1999-2001to make sure there were no more goofups set to resurface.... that took 1 year. So the backlog started and then TPS was given to them as a priority. She says they are Elbow deep in paper.Each officer has to go through 35-40 pages for each applicant
including BC,MC,I140,Emp letter etc etc and because of zero tolerance have to be very meticulous. This is killing them.On top of it since most cases have crossed 12 months atleast in CA they have to issue a RFE (thats a local CA rule she says.. not applicable to other centers).

Just as this was being done, came the Sunrise program and another diversion. Inbetween because of FP expiration problems they tried to adjugate cases whose FP were within expiry range but that didnt work as people have taken FP at diff times and didnt co-relate to their ND. ( At this point ..for once I felt some sympathy).

She says they try their best ,but in most cases their hands are tied from the top.Every week there is a meeting and a new thing added to the process. If everything goes well starting Oct 1st they will have the 15 officers back on the job and we will see the difference.

I couldn't resist asking her .. what about my case? Dec2001. Come October you will see tremendous progress she says.Can't take up a partiucluar case.. but things are going to improve unless there is a fresh directive.

Unquote
 
This Also - A Bit Out of Date But Interesting

http://www.region5.nafsa.org/docs/openhouseminutes.doc

NSC Open House – Notes 3/13/2003

Introductions/Agenda: Jim Hammerschmidt – Reg IV CIPP-RR (scholars)
Panelist: Terry Way, NSC Director; Greg Christian, NSC Deputy Director; Sandy Palorski, NSC Supervisor; Randy Frazier, NSC “UpFront” Processing.

Overview of NSC and Updates - Terry Way – Director, NSC

· Organization is making transition – discussed new structure as BCIS (Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services)
· Concern about organizational separation between District Offices and Service Centers under new organization chart
· Lost an enforcement officer on their staff, but no significant internal change.
· Change may actually have the positive benefit of reducing layers between Service Centers and top management.

Operational Issues:

· Background/Security Checks are adding to processing time, as much as 30-days in some cases. Checking for names, “alias,” such as name changes due to marriage, etc. While some checks are automated, at least one review is manual during the adjudications process.
· Staffing changes are not adequate to deal with increasing processing time.
· 1.5 million applications during 2001-2002 fiscal year
· Anticipate 2 million applications for 2002-2003.
· Introducing “Tips” website page to help reduce Request for Evidence (RFEs).
· Have requested 360 new staff positions, however, the request was side-tracked by the organizational change and appropriations processes.
· Facility is not adequate – boxes are blocking the aisle ways. Workman comp claims are increasing. OSHA reviewing problems.

Additional Comments – Greg Christian, Deputy Director, NSC
· “Sometimes survival means success.”
· Experiencing a period of unprecedented change, no stability, no consistency, etc. Very difficult for adjudicators. “Zero tolerance” memo has staff in an extremely cautious mode of operations when making decisions and reviewing applications.
· Plans to establish a “liaison unit” much like the Congressional liaison unit to handle issues and case problems for organizations like NAFSA, AILA, etc. Will help standardize how queries are handled, particularly response and follow-up.
· Plans to change 1-800 customer call by June or July 2003, so that issues involving petitions at Service Centers will get through to appropriate Service Center product lines by email notifications and cases will be resolved more effectively and timely.




UpFront Processing – Randy Frazier – Processing/Contractor Liaison
· SCOT is the contractor that processes mail and distribution of mail received by the NSC. Received 129,000 items in the month of Feb. 2003 alone. Over 500 employees employed by SCOT at NSC.
· Make checks payable to “Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services” - however, the bank that the NSC works with to cash these checks will take checks made payable to “Immigration & Naturalization Service,” “I.N.S.” – etc. Preference for now is “Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services.”
· During the fee “sale” period there were problems with receipting those applications. Many petitions/applications submitted with new fees did not receive I-797s or “Notices of Action.” Approximately 66,000 fees were accepted at the lower rate. Those that paid the pre-sale fee during the “sale” period will be refunded the over-payment.
· Mailing materials to NSC – whether INS or BCIS, as long as it has Nebraska Service Center on the outside of the envelop/packet – it will get there.
· SEVIS documentation – still haven’t received guidance on appropriate processing for benefits that will involve SEVIS documents, e.g. I-20s, etc.
· Discussion of NSEERS and issues for applicants who were not required to register or were told after appearing for special registration, were turned away.
· Question about processing of interim EADs by District INS offices. Some District Offices are refusing to accept interim EAD applications from students. Is there any way to correct this problem. NSC suggested that they be notified and they will pass this issue on to the BCIS headquarters.
 
My Gawd....but still let's be positive and amy be Oct will bring in fresh whip of air...lets all Pray for 15 I-485 officers well being...
 
paulclarke1,

thanks for sharing the info. make me more clear about the 485 slow-down since last Nov.

yager
 
Guys

> · 1.5 million applications during 2001-2002 fiscal year
> · Anticipate 2 million applications for 2002-2003.


Assume 100 $ avg application fee for the above cases.

That means a revenue of 150 mil to 200 mil $ in revenue.
They should probably go public.

In fact, H1B fee is @ 1000 $, I485 is @ 500 $ right ?


I know and I am sure that there are funding problems at BCIS, but am just wondering where and how BCIS spends 150 to 200 mil $ every year ?

Probably Border Patrol is supported by our application fees.
 
jaykarandikar wrote:
"Probably Border Patrol is supported by our application fees".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,
Not Probably - that is the fact. Ofcourse BCIS divert most the fund received from application fees to other areas like border patrol. There was a report several months back that AILA objected it but INS said that is the way they do business and there is no mandate that BCIS (INS) have to spend all money received for immigration benefit for immigration purpose. The fact is all money is deposited to US treasury and INS got allotment of the fund by congress which has nothing to do it how is money is deposited from immigration related application fee but how much is needed to do the job which always boils down to the fraction of the all deposit from application fee. Hope you got that.
 
This certainly sounds good. I believe the lady was an IIO at CSC, so am not sure how much of it carries over to NSC. There are several elements of truth in the posting (things being going well around Dec 2001, the INS goof of sending visa approvals to dead people etc.). However, I am wondering if I am the only one to think that it also has elements of an urban legend. The post starts off with:

"Dear friends, I read this story on a different forum chat room and I am copying it here as I read it, its very very interesting:"

Just a thought. Didnt intend to shatter the hopes that this post provides.

K.S.
 
Thanks Paulclarke1 for pointing that. I didnt know it was right from this forum. That makes this sound lot more credible.

In any case, its a positive story and am sure would give hope to lots of folks here.

K.S.
 
Thats simply good according to desperate waiters like me...

PaulClarke1,

Thats simply encouraging because as many used to say here in the NSC forum about 'light at the end of the tunnel' - so maybe this is it for now - starting October maybe many of us will see light... Go NSC!!!!

And the idea of someone here to go public - thats indeed a super idea !

-MrCoolz
RD: 11/27/02
 
Latest news

One more news regarding USCIS. However this is about I-140

This might just turnout just another unfulfilled 'hope' as they have been promising in the past. There has never been enough approvals to reduce the backlog.

http://www.immigration-law.com/Canada.html


01/14/2004: USCIS Plan for I-140 Processing Delays and Backlog Reduction

As the readers know, the I-140 processing is currently heavily delayed in all the Service Centers. According to the USCIS sources, USCIS plans to move the resouces within the Service Centers that are tied up with the H-1B cap cases to the I-140 production unit as soon as the H-1B cap reaches. There is no information available about exactly when the cap is expected to reach, but it is everyone's guess at this time that it may not be too long away. Please stay tuned.
 
Not only it is an unfulfilled hope - it is plain stupid. I-140 is not the place where real holdup occurs. With concurrent filing one more or less does not care how long it's going to take since it's not got speed up or slow down the overall process. What I think is happening is they're trying to show that they're reducing backlog quickly and they do so by adjudicating the cases that take less their time. Say it takes 1 hour to process I-140 and 3 hours to do I-485, so for the same amount effort they can chisel away "3 times more" of a backlog
 
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