Letter from Dianne Feinstein!!!

B

becky

Registered Users (C)
Hi guys,

Today I received a letter from Dianne Feinstein and attached was a letter to Don Neufeld!

The orientation of her letter was about my case specifically, and the one to Don Neufeld was also personalised about me. However, my two letters to her were much more general--the first was the standard immigration portal write to your Congressperson letter, and the second one was I'm writing again about the same issues that I wrote before, about a month later.

I'll let you all know when I hear something from Don Neufeld. Senator Feinstein has requested that Don Neufeld provide a written response to her immigration person, and then her person will let me know.

So, I guess the upshot of all of this, is keep writing keep writing! Senator Boxer and Congresswoman Pelosi will be getting my third letters soon.

Oh, as yet, my status has not changed, I am still waiting for something to happen

becky

WAC 02 124 5XXXX
3rd EAD, 3rd AP
 
Hi, becky,
It's great your getting a response from Dianne Feinstein.
Also, thanks for the update, and your effort to keep writting.
I hope you would hear good news from Don Neufeld soon.

By the way,
who do you know wrote a letter, DF:gb or DF:sl ?
 
The response

Dear Mr. Neufeld:

I am writing to bring to your attention a letter from <my real name> regarding her pending I-485: "Application to Register Permanent Residence or to Adjust Status" (WAC 02 124 5XXXX). <My real name> respectfully requests to be informed as to when her application will be adjudicated. Please look into the issue(s) raised, as quickly as possible, so I can appropriately respond to <my real name>.

Attached you will find the enclosure(s) from my constituent to assist you with your review. After you have completed your review, please send your written response.

sincerely,

Dianne Feinstein,
United States Senate.
 
My letter #1

My first letter was largely what Kashmir had suggested. Since all of my representatives are women, and since I am too, I thought I would take up the woman's safety angle as well...

Dear Dianne Feinstein:

I am writing to you to draw attention to the processing delays at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS and formerly BCIS/INS). I am one of many immigrants suffering delays in employment-based I-485 adjudication at the California Service Center (CSC) and also a member of immigrationportal.com a group of legally working immigrants in the United States. I have attached our petition regarding the Immigration Benefits Backlog to this letter.

I am currently employed as a research scientist at the <my company>. <My company> is sponsoring me for an employment-based immigrant petition. Over two years later, the CSC has not reached the processing date for my I485 application. In fact, the CSC spent the first eleven months of this year processing I485 applications dated 11/16/2001.

The petition highlights a number of the impacts caused by these immigration delays, including serious disruption of the lives of legal immigrants, as well as potential harm to the U.S. economy due to the fact that world-class individuals are actively discouraged from working in the U.S. because of the policies and lack of accountability of the USCIS.

I would like to focus on one more cost of the backlogs: the impact on women’s safety. Delays in processing applications and supporting documents are putting women into physically high-risk situations. In particular, as processing slowed down at the CSC on the Employment Authorization Documents (EAD, I765) that are needed to maintain employment while waiting for I485 adjudication, immigrants had to petition their local USCIS offices for interim EAD cards. The USCIS does not accept appointments for this type of processing, and the queues for any kind of unscheduled USCIS processing ofetn begin before dawn.

The result is that women affected by the CSC slow down are being forced to venture into urban centers in the night to get interim EAD cards. Because there is no guarantee that they will actually be able to get a card on the first attempt, they may have to come back repeatedly. I am concerned, and frankly appalled, that the United States Federal Government thinks it is acceptable, reasonable, and fair to subject women immigrants to this.

I urge you to take our petition into consideration. In particular, we would be grateful if you could contact Don Neufeld, the Director of the California Service Center. The CSC has recently said that it is working hard to reduce the backlogs in I485 petitions, but they have said this many times before without much actual change. I would be especially grateful if you could ask him to assign more resources to Employment-based I485 (and their associated I765 and I131 petitions) so that the current backlogs of approximately two years are reduced. This would be inline with the Immigration Services and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2000 where Congress felt that processing an immigration benefit application should not take longer than 180 days after the initial filing. It would also be in accord with President Bush’s commitment in 2000 to reduce immigrant applications to less than 180 days.

Yours sincerely,
<my real name>
 
My letter #2

The second letter was a little bit more direct... I am assuming that Mr. Neufeld got both of these as well as Senator Feinstein's letter!

Dear Honorable Senator Feinstein;

I am writing to you to draw continued attention to the processing delays at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS and formerly BCIS/INS). I wrote to you on 11/25/2003 and since then no progress has been made on employment-based I485 application processing at the California Service Center (CSC), according to CSC processing time reports. This lack of progress comes despite the commitment from the head of the CSC, Don Neufeld, to reduce backlogs from over two years to less than 12 months by the end of this fiscal year.

I submitted my I485 in February 2002, and have now waited almost two years for my application to be processed. In addition to submitting the I485, I have also had to submit other applications to allow me to continue to work and travel for my employer. Specifically, I have had to make Employment Authorization Document (EAD, I765), and travel applications (I131).

Each I765 and I131 application is valid for one year. So, in the two years that I have waited for my I485 application to be adjudicated, I have made three I765 applications and three I131 applications. During this time, I765 and I131 processing has also slowed down considerably. These delays are difficult to predict, so even when I have submitted applications “in time” to the CSC to allow for processing delays, the processing delays have continued to get worse. This has had significant impact on myself and my employer.

For example, without a valid EAD, I can not work for my employer. My most recent EAD approval came down to the wire, just at a time when my company wanted me to start a new project. At the very time they were counting on me, I was forced to begin applying for an Interim EAD. There are no guarantees that Interim EAD’s will be issued by the local USCIS office or that a person will be processed on any given day. Consequently, I could not tell my employer when or whether I would be able to start the project.

More recently, my I131 travel application has been subject to increased delays. This coincided with an work related visit to an international customer. I am the most qualified person to visit that customer. Indeed, it is exactly these skills that my employer used to petition to the USCIS for my I485. Yet, due to my lack of travel documentation I can not go.

Delays have significant psychological and emotional impacts on immigrants. We deserve to be treated as paying customers who need to get their work done. Yet we experience indeterminate delays and lack of accountability. For example, my case arrived at the CSC during the time when they were shredding applications and I have never been able to find out whether it was received.

I request your assistance in determining when my application will be processed, or at least in ascertaining that it was not among the applications shredded by the CSC.


Yours sincerely,


<my real name>
WAC 02 124 5XXXX
 
Originally posted by kashmir
[By the way,
who do you know wrote a letter, DF:gb or DF:sl ? [/B]
Click to expand...

DF:sl

Oh,one other thing... along with the first letter I sent the form that lets them contact the INS on your behalf. It's available on all of their websites.

Oh, and another thing... I hand delivered all the first letters. I think that the hand delivery was the only way that Senator Feinstein got my first letter since I was unable to reach her via her fax machine.

In her short reply to me she apologised for her delay in responding to my letters.

becky
 
Becky,

I read your letters to Senator DF. They are well-written and forceful. Excelent work. Congratulations and thank you!!
 
Becky,
Your letters are excellent. They highlight the problem of the working immigrant women in this country and I hope Don Neufeld
will do something about your case.

Not sure about your country of origin but if you are non-asian
maybe your letters and words will have much more impact.

As much as I would like to believe that America is a very open
country, right now they are in no mood to tolerate job snatching
Indians and chinese people.

Please keep us updated on progress of your case.
 
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