Friends,
During the ongoing fund collection drive, some people have requested for more details about targets, timelines and action plan. So far this information has been lying at different places and now we have prepared a comprehensive document outlining all our plans in details. Please read this. I once again request those who haven't joined us so far, to JOIN NOW.
Immigrationportal.org Fund Collection FAQ
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Q1) What is the purpose of the fund collection ?
As you all know, things(GC processing speed) were going hopelessly slow in 2003. We all have seen a marked improvement in speed after the lawsuit is filed. The lawsuit itself was a result of continuous discussions and efforts in this forum by some committed members who believed in fighting the injustice rather than waiting hopelessly for things to improve . We all had played a role in melting the kind heart of our host 'Rajiv' who has decided to help us out, free of cost.
Now what will happen if we don’t win the case ? You all can understand what it means for all of us if USCIS were to win this lawsuit. It is very simple. Unless significant improvement can bee seen in the near future, the back log will take many years to clear. Also the lawsuit might get dragged for long time in the courts. So we need a back up plan. We need to take our problems to the congress men as a united organization. Now comes the big question mark : WHO WILL DO THIS ? There is no answer to this. Every body in this forum has a job to do and we can't really put serious full time efforts . That's why we need to have an organization representing us with proper office address, letter heads, web site, membership, staff etc. All this needs funds and that's why we are before you. The core team members are all putting part time efforts on the organization side and we need to hire at least one person to work full time for the organization. This obviously costs money to the organization.
Q2) What are the short term and long term plans of immigrationportal.org and what are the expected timelines for action and results?
Long term Plan : Immigrationportal.org is incorporated not just to fight the I140 and I485 backlogs. The mission is to help the legal immigrant community when ever they face discrimination or neglect. We will send representation to the US congress to help improve all the immigration laws governing legal immigrants. We will work with individuals who faced discrimination because of ignorance of officials on immigration law. A case in point: DMV problems faced in various states.
Short Term Plan : Due to shortage of funds, our current focus is exclusively on fighting the I140 and I485 backlogs for employment based permanent resident applicants. We give equal importance to changing the INA act so that we don’t need to wait for another 5 years after getting the GC to apply for citizenship. We are going to ask congress to change the INA (Immigration and Naturalization Act) to count the period we have spent in AOS status towards the 5 year waiting requirement. This will enable a lot of us to vote for the 2008 elections. The money collected will be mainly used towards hiring a Liaison Officer who represents Immigrationportal.org at all levels. The person might be hired on a 3 month contract and given specific tasks by the board of directors of ip.org. The tasks mainly involve meeting various congress men to explain about the problems we are facing due to the GC delays and also expose the insensitivity and irregular procedures of USCIS. He will also work with congress men to introduce a bill to amend the INA act.
We will also use the money to reach out to more victims. Members of Immigrationportal.com are only a fraction of million victims. We need advertise and make us more avaible to general community.
Targets and Timelines : The hiring of the person might start when the amount collected reaches around $30,000. This can be considered as the minimum target amount. A target of $40,000 to $50,000 will be good for the long term. As of 5/9/04, we have collected $14,500. We might be able to reach the minimum target amount of 30K in the month of June’04. At this time our planned hiring takes place. Once we have a full time person working for our organization, we will apply relentless pressure on USCIS through congress men. Usually congress men give importance to organizations with membership of thousands of people. We will publish the names and photos of the congress men who supported our cause, on the immigrationportal.org web site. This will encourage more congress men to support us because this will be an opportunity for them to get close to thousands of immigrants who will support them in their future elections. So during the period June’04 to Sept’04, we are likely to achieve our objective of faster GC processing and amendment to INA act. If there is a delay in collecting the minimum target amount, that will delay our plans accordingly.
Q3) Who owns/maintains this fund and how can we trust them ?
The fund is maintained by the board of directors of immigrationportal.org. They are all members of immigrationportal.com discussion boards for the past year and more. Their names are listed on
www.immigrationportal.org web site in the “About Us” page. They have been actively involved in the petition effort, lawsuit effort and other campaigns. It is up to the individual person to decide whether he can trust these people or not. These people have been working with Rajiv for the past 8 months on core team activities. Rajiv himself joined the organization as a director to help us carry our mission to fight for the rights of legal immigrants.
Q4) Do I need a Paypal account to make an online donation? How safe is online payment using PAYPAL ?
You don’t need a Paypal account for using Paypal. You just need a Visa / Mastercard / Amex credit card. Paypal is a payment processing product and it accepts money from the donors and deposits it into the organization’s bank account. Paypal does not provide us your credit card number. So your privacy is protected. More over, paypal belongs to Ebay. So you can trust the security level. It is very easy to use. Just click on the Paypal button on
www.immigrationportal.org and follow the instructions.
Those who want to make a check payment may send a check in favor of “immigrationportal.org” to the following address :
ImmigrationPortal.org
Attention : Vijay Sharma
5225 N. Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22205-1148
Q5) What will happen if ip.org (immigrationportal.org) fail to get enough funds ?
Also how can I believe that ip.org will not misuse the money ?
Since we have already collected 50% of the minimum target, the chances of failing to collect the minimum target, are slim. How ever in the eventuality of such a scenario, the board of directors will make a decision and convey it to the contributors by Email. In all likely hood, the opinions of the contributors will be taken into account in making the final decision. We have decided not to pay any type of compensation to any member for the time or effort spent for this organization. It is expected that no travel is necessary by the executive committee members for running the organization and as such we do not see any necessity for travel expense reimbursements. So there is absolutely no scope for any misuse of funds. Now the expanded core team has about 20 members. We are a team of committed volunteers.
The members will publish the balance and expense details on immigrationportal.com forums. As explained earlier, the money will be solely spent on hiring people, paying to Accountant, maintaining the web site, advertising about our struggle and lawsuit, stationary etc.
Q6) How much amount each person should contribute ?
People should contribute as much as they want. Lot of factors like their financial position, their belief in the organization, their pending case status etc control the contribution amount. A majority of people have contributed around $100, but there are quite a number of people (including all core team members) who have contributed $200 or more. Please do not treat this as a charity organization. We are fighting our own battle here. The core team members role is only limited to providing the platform for this fight.
