Murthy Takes Action : There is Hope for Texas Service Center
Everyone involved with any aspect of the immigration process knows that
processing times for most cases at the various Service Centers range
from slow to motionless. While cases will usually work their way through
the process eventually, for many folks things have gone beyond all
reason at the Texas Service Center (TSC). In particular, I-485 processing
has seemingly ground to a halt. For that reason, in mid-2003 we wrote
all 150 legislators with districts within the jurisdiction of the Texas
Service Center. See our April 11, 2003 MURTHYBULLETIN article, "Murthy
Takes Action: Seeking Funding for TSC"
<http://www.murthy.com/uktakact.html>, available on MurthyDotCom. We
have now received a response, so perhaps there is hope.
Feb 2004 Response to our Earlier Letter
We received a call from the office of a congressperson who is a member
of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
The Representative responded to our letter and advised us that there
will be a congressional hearing in March 2004 on the TSC backlog issue.
The witnesses are to include the Director of the Texas Service Center.
One of the goals of the hearing is to ascertain what steps are necessary
to reduce the backlog to a six month level. The purpose of gathering
this information seemingly is to draft legislation that would provide
funding towards backlog reduction.
We are very excited about this positive development. We will remain in
contact with the Subcommittee on this matter and provide any
appropriate input. We will advise MurthyDotCom and MURTHYBULLETIN readers as the
hearings are scheduled and any action is taken.
TSC Case Approval – Random or a Trend?
For those who may be wondering about our current experience with I-485s
at the TSC, we were very pleasantly surprised by an I-485 approval on
February 5, 2004. The case had been filed two and a half years earlier,
on August 21, 2001. This was rather unusual, as despite the significant
number of I-485 cases The Law Office of Sheela Murthy has filed with
the TSC, we had not received any decisions on I-485s in months. It is not
clear if this one case was an isolated incident or the start of a
trend.
Everyone involved with any aspect of the immigration process knows that
processing times for most cases at the various Service Centers range
from slow to motionless. While cases will usually work their way through
the process eventually, for many folks things have gone beyond all
reason at the Texas Service Center (TSC). In particular, I-485 processing
has seemingly ground to a halt. For that reason, in mid-2003 we wrote
all 150 legislators with districts within the jurisdiction of the Texas
Service Center. See our April 11, 2003 MURTHYBULLETIN article, "Murthy
Takes Action: Seeking Funding for TSC"
<http://www.murthy.com/uktakact.html>, available on MurthyDotCom. We
have now received a response, so perhaps there is hope.
Feb 2004 Response to our Earlier Letter
We received a call from the office of a congressperson who is a member
of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
The Representative responded to our letter and advised us that there
will be a congressional hearing in March 2004 on the TSC backlog issue.
The witnesses are to include the Director of the Texas Service Center.
One of the goals of the hearing is to ascertain what steps are necessary
to reduce the backlog to a six month level. The purpose of gathering
this information seemingly is to draft legislation that would provide
funding towards backlog reduction.
We are very excited about this positive development. We will remain in
contact with the Subcommittee on this matter and provide any
appropriate input. We will advise MurthyDotCom and MURTHYBULLETIN readers as the
hearings are scheduled and any action is taken.
TSC Case Approval – Random or a Trend?
For those who may be wondering about our current experience with I-485s
at the TSC, we were very pleasantly surprised by an I-485 approval on
February 5, 2004. The case had been filed two and a half years earlier,
on August 21, 2001. This was rather unusual, as despite the significant
number of I-485 cases The Law Office of Sheela Murthy has filed with
the TSC, we had not received any decisions on I-485s in months. It is not
clear if this one case was an isolated incident or the start of a
trend.