Subject: Petition requesting your support to help reduce excessive Green Card (I-485) processing delays by the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS).
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are a community of immigrants and immigration benefit applicants congregating at http://www.immigrationportal.com Currently, we number over 67,000 registered members and approximately five times as many unregistered participants. Accordingly, we are the largest U.S. immigration community in the world.
We would like to make you aware of the excessive delays in processing Adjustment of Status (Greencard) applications by the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) and the huge problems that these delays cause. The bleak ever increasing backlog situation is portrayed at the USCIS website at http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/msrnov03/BENEFIT.HTM. Currently it takes up to six years in certain regions in the United States to get a Greencard. I-485 approval takes roughly half of the total time (about 33 months), which is the last step for Greencard approval process.
Members of this forum have created several petitions signed by thousands of applicants. A recent such petition can be found at http://www.immigration.com/common/rsk/petition_I485.html. A quick look at the comments section would give you a window into the disturbing problems faced by us because of these excessive delays. Petitions like these have been conveyed to the immigration officers and elected lawmakers. So far no effort has been made by either the USCIS or the elected officials to address the brutal backlog situation.
Effects these delays cause in our lives:
This relentless processing delay has and is affecting our lives enormously. Important aspects of our lives such as marriage, home ownership, education of our children, meaningful contributions to the community and our well-being have been put on hold. Career advancement is at a standstill because we have to remain with the same respective employer (or) similar job in order to get our greencard approval. A good number of employers have taken advantage of these restrictions created by the severe processing delays.
During this adjustment period we also have to face problems in visiting our home countries because of the delays in getting travel permits (Advance Parole) even during emergencies (when our be-loved at our home country ones are terminally ill or have passed away). Getting a drivers license for more than a year is not a luxury that we can indulge in certain states.
These restrictions not only impact our livelihood but the business organizations we work for and the community we live in. Businesses cannot promote experienced employees like us to higher-level positions and replace them with new less experienced employees to maintain or increase the overall business. A deep frustration arising out of these never ending delays and other factors associated with these delays stifles our ability to contribute to the society and be a happy part of it.
Requests from the Immigration Benefits Applicants and supporters:
We, the immigration benefits applicants and our supporters in the American society request the legislators to pass new laws or amend existing laws to address their problems. Some of the requests are:
1.Give higher priority to employment based I-485 applications and N-400 Naturalization Applications:
It is historically obvious that when legacy INS/USCIS prioritizes any processing tasks, employment based I-485 applications. Some of these priority tasks undertaken include TPS, religious workers cases, asylum cases, etc. Prioritizing the urgent tasks are appreciated, but USCIS should not do this at the expense of EB I-485 applications and N-400 Naturalization applications. I-485 applicants have been living in this country from anywhere between 6 to more than or more than 10 years. We have been working hard, paying our share of Taxes and making intellectual as well as monetary contribution to the American society. We, the legal immigration benefits applicants feel as though we are treated as irrelevant or less important immigrant group. While several bills were introduced and passed to give benefits to illegal immigrants, the problems of legal immigrants were not addressed.
2. Extend the validity period of EAD and Advance Parole:
Currently, the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and Advance Parole for adjustment of status applicants, are issued with a validity of 1 year. Since the actual I-485 application processing is taking more than 24 months, all the applicants are forced to renew their EAD and Advance Parole. This is not only resulting in loss of time and money for the applicants, but USCIS is getting burdened with unnecessary additional work. The immigration benefits applicants requests Congress to increase the validity period of EAD and Advance Parole to 3 years. Please note that it is taking 33 months at Texas Service Center for the adjudication of an employment based I-485 application and over seven months for the approval of travel document (Advance Parole), which is only valid for one year.
3. Remove Restrictions on EB I-485 applicants:
One of the main problems being faced by employment based I-485 applicants is the restriction on job portability. Though " The American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act (AC21)" tried to address these concerns, it failed to remove all the restrictions on job portability. The applicants requests Congress to remove all the restrictions on job portability after 6 months from the date of filing the I-485 application. The current restrictions require that an applicant can change the job provided the new job is a similar job with similar job duties. This leaves a wide scope for interpretation by USCIS.
4. Increase the funding to Service Centers:
A major reason for these processing delays is lack of enough resources to adjudicate the huge number of backlog applications. USCIS has expressed their inability to hire enough adjudicating officers because of funding problems. The immigration benefits applicants requests U.S. Congress to allocate additional funds exclusively for reducing the employment based I-485 applications and N-400 Naturalization applications. Additionally the benefit applicants are willing to pay a higher processing fee for orderly and timely processing of their I-485 applications.
5. Approve permanent resident application of dependents if the primary applicant dies:
During the Adjustment Of Status (AOS) period, if the Primary applicant dies, all their dependents are denied the permanent resident status and removal proceedings are most likely initiated against them. This is highly inequitable. To uproot families of honest, tax paying, hard working people because the primary bread earner has passed on is highly egregious. The immigration benefits applicants request you to change the existing laws so that, during the Adjustment Of Status, if the Primary applicant dies any time after six months of the date of Receipt, the dependents’ applications should not be rejected. The dependents must not be penalized for the processing delays at USCIS.
We very much appreciate your support of this petition. Please help us by endorsing this petition, so that we can show your support of this petition to Congress and USCIS officials.
Undersigned strongly support increased efficiency in adjudications of I-485 (Adjustment of Status) applications by USCIS.
Signature of Organization/Person endorsing this petition
Name:
Organization:
Address:
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are a community of immigrants and immigration benefit applicants congregating at http://www.immigrationportal.com Currently, we number over 67,000 registered members and approximately five times as many unregistered participants. Accordingly, we are the largest U.S. immigration community in the world.
We would like to make you aware of the excessive delays in processing Adjustment of Status (Greencard) applications by the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) and the huge problems that these delays cause. The bleak ever increasing backlog situation is portrayed at the USCIS website at http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/msrnov03/BENEFIT.HTM. Currently it takes up to six years in certain regions in the United States to get a Greencard. I-485 approval takes roughly half of the total time (about 33 months), which is the last step for Greencard approval process.
Members of this forum have created several petitions signed by thousands of applicants. A recent such petition can be found at http://www.immigration.com/common/rsk/petition_I485.html. A quick look at the comments section would give you a window into the disturbing problems faced by us because of these excessive delays. Petitions like these have been conveyed to the immigration officers and elected lawmakers. So far no effort has been made by either the USCIS or the elected officials to address the brutal backlog situation.
Effects these delays cause in our lives:
This relentless processing delay has and is affecting our lives enormously. Important aspects of our lives such as marriage, home ownership, education of our children, meaningful contributions to the community and our well-being have been put on hold. Career advancement is at a standstill because we have to remain with the same respective employer (or) similar job in order to get our greencard approval. A good number of employers have taken advantage of these restrictions created by the severe processing delays.
During this adjustment period we also have to face problems in visiting our home countries because of the delays in getting travel permits (Advance Parole) even during emergencies (when our be-loved at our home country ones are terminally ill or have passed away). Getting a drivers license for more than a year is not a luxury that we can indulge in certain states.
These restrictions not only impact our livelihood but the business organizations we work for and the community we live in. Businesses cannot promote experienced employees like us to higher-level positions and replace them with new less experienced employees to maintain or increase the overall business. A deep frustration arising out of these never ending delays and other factors associated with these delays stifles our ability to contribute to the society and be a happy part of it.
Requests from the Immigration Benefits Applicants and supporters:
We, the immigration benefits applicants and our supporters in the American society request the legislators to pass new laws or amend existing laws to address their problems. Some of the requests are:
1.Give higher priority to employment based I-485 applications and N-400 Naturalization Applications:
It is historically obvious that when legacy INS/USCIS prioritizes any processing tasks, employment based I-485 applications. Some of these priority tasks undertaken include TPS, religious workers cases, asylum cases, etc. Prioritizing the urgent tasks are appreciated, but USCIS should not do this at the expense of EB I-485 applications and N-400 Naturalization applications. I-485 applicants have been living in this country from anywhere between 6 to more than or more than 10 years. We have been working hard, paying our share of Taxes and making intellectual as well as monetary contribution to the American society. We, the legal immigration benefits applicants feel as though we are treated as irrelevant or less important immigrant group. While several bills were introduced and passed to give benefits to illegal immigrants, the problems of legal immigrants were not addressed.
2. Extend the validity period of EAD and Advance Parole:
Currently, the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and Advance Parole for adjustment of status applicants, are issued with a validity of 1 year. Since the actual I-485 application processing is taking more than 24 months, all the applicants are forced to renew their EAD and Advance Parole. This is not only resulting in loss of time and money for the applicants, but USCIS is getting burdened with unnecessary additional work. The immigration benefits applicants requests Congress to increase the validity period of EAD and Advance Parole to 3 years. Please note that it is taking 33 months at Texas Service Center for the adjudication of an employment based I-485 application and over seven months for the approval of travel document (Advance Parole), which is only valid for one year.
3. Remove Restrictions on EB I-485 applicants:
One of the main problems being faced by employment based I-485 applicants is the restriction on job portability. Though " The American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act (AC21)" tried to address these concerns, it failed to remove all the restrictions on job portability. The applicants requests Congress to remove all the restrictions on job portability after 6 months from the date of filing the I-485 application. The current restrictions require that an applicant can change the job provided the new job is a similar job with similar job duties. This leaves a wide scope for interpretation by USCIS.
4. Increase the funding to Service Centers:
A major reason for these processing delays is lack of enough resources to adjudicate the huge number of backlog applications. USCIS has expressed their inability to hire enough adjudicating officers because of funding problems. The immigration benefits applicants requests U.S. Congress to allocate additional funds exclusively for reducing the employment based I-485 applications and N-400 Naturalization applications. Additionally the benefit applicants are willing to pay a higher processing fee for orderly and timely processing of their I-485 applications.
5. Approve permanent resident application of dependents if the primary applicant dies:
During the Adjustment Of Status (AOS) period, if the Primary applicant dies, all their dependents are denied the permanent resident status and removal proceedings are most likely initiated against them. This is highly inequitable. To uproot families of honest, tax paying, hard working people because the primary bread earner has passed on is highly egregious. The immigration benefits applicants request you to change the existing laws so that, during the Adjustment Of Status, if the Primary applicant dies any time after six months of the date of Receipt, the dependents’ applications should not be rejected. The dependents must not be penalized for the processing delays at USCIS.
We very much appreciate your support of this petition. Please help us by endorsing this petition, so that we can show your support of this petition to Congress and USCIS officials.
Undersigned strongly support increased efficiency in adjudications of I-485 (Adjustment of Status) applications by USCIS.
Signature of Organization/Person endorsing this petition
Name:
Organization:
Address:
