Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center Tracking

[USCISisMockery]

Hi Guys, I don't know whether this is helpful. I had a chat with my lawyer's office about 'what in the world is happening at PBPC.' The paralegal said the following:

- PBPC suffered a computer problem in the beginning, that pulled them behind the schedule
- right now, they are "overwhelmed" with their work
- they are getting a lot of pressure from congressmen and women and a few senators from all over the US
- PBPC is aware of the problems applicants are facing and they are trying their best to solve the problems
- they have right now 85-87 people working (mainly for data entry and very few for approvals) full time
- they are in the process of hiring 15 more people
- they did finish adjudicating 1998-2000 cases (not just data entry) and currently working on 2001 cases
- they plan to finish all of 2001 cases in a couple of months (my para-legal does not believe this!)
- starting Sept. people 'may' see mass approvals, IF there is no further glitch

I don't have any further information, neither the lawyer's office have any further info.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CA PD Nov 2002
PBPC

Thanks for the info.

I believe their execuses if it was first time DOL chocked. This is happening since 2001. They work for a while and then something happens and they choke. Why DOL faces so many computer glitches, most of applicants here are computer professionals, is software so unreliable ? can anybody believe in their excuse ?
DOL is full of baloney everytime and we sit idly and eat it.

Some members won't realize what I mean by frequent choking, but if you are from NJ, NY you will undertand exactly what I am talking

 

[gp111]

Guys, I heard that they are going to disallow substitute labor . Is it true? post more details on this.

Yes That is True.. Check the attachment for further details

 

[MDwatch]

Thanks It is great to hear some "inside" things like that ... simply put we are getting screwed big time

Hi Guys, I don't know whether this is helpful. I had a chat with my lawyer's office about 'what in the world is happening at PBPC.' The paralegal said the following:

- PBPC suffered a computer problem in the beginning, that pulled them behind the schedule
- right now, they are "overwhelmed" with their work
- they are getting a lot of pressure from congressmen and women and a few senators from all over the US
- PBPC is aware of the problems applicants are facing and they are trying their best to solve the problems
- they have right now 85-87 people working (mainly for data entry and very few for approvals) full time
- they are in the process of hiring 15 more people
- they did finish adjudicating 1998-2000 cases (not just data entry) and currently working on 2001 cases
- they plan to finish all of 2001 cases in a couple of months (my para-legal does not believe this!)
- starting Sept. people 'may' see mass approvals, IF there is no further glitch

I don't have any further information, neither the lawyer's office have any further info.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CA PD Nov 2002
PBPC

 

[keepingfaith]

Great idea!

Great email!

We should add that all this time and resources that DOL has been wasting is being paid by tax-payer dollars... That will get them interested!!! We have LCs pending for 4+ years, and now with the BECs only God knows when we'll see some real progress. DOL is NOT working in the best interest of the American people (or anyone else for that matter) by delaying the LC process. We're talking about qualified individuals, legal immigrants, who contribute to the economy and growth of this country.

Hi
You can send a mail to cnnstoryideas@turner.com and CBS 60 minutes. May be the volumes of requests they get will drive a news/story idea. I have already done that and here is the email I sent.

"Since coming to USA, I have been regularly watching this news channel. I have seen various issues being tackled with hard hitting questions and fine display of investigative journalism.
However I want to bring to attention one issue that has never been looked into or addressed. This is related to legal immigration. While lot of attention has been paid towards illegal immigration, no news channel or program has investigated the pains and frustration people have to go through while trying for employment based immigration. Currently there are over 300000 backlogged cases in the DOL, some dating as far as 2000. There are people waiting for their labor applications (First stage towards attaining permanent residence) to be approved for 4 years.
Department of Labor (DOL) established Backlog Reduction centers for faster approval of labor applications last year but that seems to make the matters worse. There is no visibility into the process, it is slow and makes life tough people who are here on an H1 or other work visas.
As a legal, tax-paying and productive members of society, many careers are stalled by this seemingly never ending unfair wait in the American legal immigration system and is very discouraging and possibly detrimental to the interest of the American global economy in the 21st century.
I would be very grateful if this issue can be brought in open through your program. This will at least help others know the plight of a section of society who came here with a dream of a great life but are now caught in a never ending cycle of waiting and uncertainty.
Thanks"

 

[prince123]

Hi Guys, I don't know whether this is helpful. I had a chat with my lawyer's office about 'what in the world is happening at PBPC.' The paralegal said the following:

- PBPC suffered a computer problem in the beginning, that pulled them behind the schedule
- right now, they are "overwhelmed" with their work
- they are getting a lot of pressure from congressmen and women and a few senators from all over the US
- PBPC is aware of the problems applicants are facing and they are trying their best to solve the problems
- they have right now 85-87 people working (mainly for data entry and very few for approvals) full time
- they are in the process of hiring 15 more people
- they did finish adjudicating 1998-2000 cases (not just data entry) and currently working on 2001 cases
- they plan to finish all of 2001 cases in a couple of months (my para-legal does not believe this!)
- starting Sept. people 'may' see mass approvals, IF there is no further glitch

I don't have any further information, neither the lawyer's office have any further info.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CA PD Nov 2002
PBPC

Hi ,

I noted that you have same PD month as mine. My app also got forwarded
from CA DOL to Phily ( i wish mine had been gone to Dallas BEC, where
people are seeing approvals for 2002 ).

 

[GC_from_NJ]

Good work..

Good work guys !! Few of my colleagues have also emailed CBS and CNN. If we keep bombarding them with mails/phone calls, I bet somebody will sit up and take notice of all the nonsense DOL is upto with the immigration matters.

My lawyer also reiterated the same thing which was posted on this forum that PBEC is trying its best to finish the data entry by end of summer and we can probably see a flood of approvals of 2001 which might trickle down to 2002 in the next few months.

Well my patience is running out and I rather get the US media in for some retrospection in this matter....

I will be going to DC this long weekend for a tour of the White House and have an appointment to meet my state senator. I am planning to pop up this question.... what say guys ???? Good or bad idea ???

Have emailed to CBS website...

Keep up the good work guys! If anyone knows someone working / already works in these news channel,please help us broadcast this BPC issues as well as Visa number issue.

 

[MDwatch]

I had emailed Lou Dobbs from CNN once about 2 months ago .... did not even get an acknoledgement of my email

So I did email CNN and 60 Minutes today it can't hurt to try ....

Good work guys !! Few of my colleagues have also emailed CBS and CNN. If we keep bombarding them with mails/phone calls, I bet somebody will sit up and take notice of all the nonsense DOL is upto with the immigration matters.

 

[Kahada]

Another media

Besides CBS, CNN these network, NPR (National Public Radio) might be a good contact point as well. They are very concerned about immigration issues in this country.
Their phone number is: (202) 513-3232

Good work guys !! Few of my colleagues have also emailed CBS and CNN. If we keep bombarding them with mails/phone calls, I bet somebody will sit up and take notice of all the nonsense DOL is upto with the immigration matters.

My lawyer also reiterated the same thing which was posted on this forum that PBEC is trying its best to finish the data entry by end of summer and we can probably see a flood of approvals of 2001 which might trickle down to 2002 in the next few months.

Well my patience is running out and I rather get the US media in for some retrospection in this matter....

I will be going to DC this long weekend for a tour of the White House and have an appointment to meet my state senator. I am planning to pop up this question.... what say guys ???? Good or bad idea ???

 

[richshi]

FORBES wants to do a piece on employment-based

green card delays... but they are not aware that the big delay are coming from DOL, rather than CIS (old "INS"). CIS is actually doing a great job now.

The most recent FORBES issue had an editorial on Immigration. They quote and propose a green card should come together with a master level degree/diploma to foreign students.

If you want to write to the editors of Forbes, please email:

readers@forbes.com

 

[luckylucky]

Hi Guys, I don't know whether this is helpful. I had a chat with my lawyer's office about 'what in the world is happening at PBPC.' The paralegal said the following:

- PBPC suffered a computer problem in the beginning, that pulled them behind the schedule
- right now, they are "overwhelmed" with their work
- they are getting a lot of pressure from congressmen and women and a few senators from all over the US
- PBPC is aware of the problems applicants are facing and they are trying their best to solve the problems
- they have right now 85-87 people working (mainly for data entry and very few for approvals) full time
- they are in the process of hiring 15 more people
- they did finish adjudicating 1998-2000 cases (not just data entry) and currently working on 2001 cases
- they plan to finish all of 2001 cases in a couple of months (my para-legal does not believe this!)
- starting Sept. people 'may' see mass approvals, IF there is no further glitch

I don't have any further information, neither the lawyer's office have any further info.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CA PD Nov 2002
PBPC

well, at least they know they are too slow. In fact I think EB3 CHIN and IND folks even can to sue them because of unavaliability of visa #. It is going to be a class action lawsuit. Also Pilly should hire more people working on the cases. My friends are immigrating to Canada and they told me a story about a class action lawsuit last year against Canada's secetary of Immigration and they won the case.

 

[luckylucky]

Good works, guys!

 

[a_to_z_gc]

Please talk with the senator if you are getting an opportunity and stress on the burning immigrations issues-LCs which are stuck with the BPCs and visa number un-availability issue.

Appreciate your help!

Good work guys !! Few of my colleagues have also emailed CBS and CNN. If we keep bombarding them with mails/phone calls, I bet somebody will sit up and take notice of all the nonsense DOL is upto with the immigration matters.

My lawyer also reiterated the same thing which was posted on this forum that PBEC is trying its best to finish the data entry by end of summer and we can probably see a flood of approvals of 2001 which might trickle down to 2002 in the next few months.

Well my patience is running out and I rather get the US media in for some retrospection in this matter....

I will be going to DC this long weekend for a tour of the White House and have an appointment to meet my state senator. I am planning to pop up this question.... what say guys ???? Good or bad idea ???

 

[vine95050]

Philly BPC

Hi ,

I noted that you have same PD month as mine. My app also got forwarded
from CA DOL to Phily ( i wish mine had been gone to Dallas BEC, where
people are seeing approvals for 2002 ).

Hi, yeah, you are right. We wish we were in Dallas BEC; but then they too are going through a big problem of inconsistencies in approvals, a lot of them. And then we have PERM, which has its own pros and cons..

 

[eefrog]

email sent to forbes as well

Hi,
I have sent an email to forbes as well. Please let me know if there are any other news orgs/ mags we would like to get some attention from.
Maybe we should make it a routine of sending out these emails until we get some favorable response? What do U guys think?
frog

 

[USCISisMockery]

I think we are on steriods now. Dont let this momemtum go. Hit the iron when its hot. Let all make pledge to send atleast one letter to a media company.
I will try to reformat some versions of letters so that anybody can directly use them by copy-pasting it. But we don't want our letters to be too generic that they just ignore as mass email.

 

[spidey]

Tracker ?

Does anyone know what happened to the tracker?
thanks-

 

[GC_from_NJ]

Great !!

I am going to meet Senator Norm Coleman from MN state and try to bring up these issues time permitting. If there are not many people queued up meeting him then we can probably talk at length. Let us see how it goes.

Keep the momentum up guys..... it is better to advertise our plight than sitting back and watch all this nonsense.

Watch this space....

Please talk with the senator if you are getting an opportunity and stress on the burning immigrations issues-LCs which are stuck with the BPCs and visa number un-availability issue.

Appreciate your help!

 

[sacbee]

7th year extention!!!!

GP111:

Is it a must to get verification letter from BPC's for the 7th year extention?
I asked the same question to my HR,

Please let me know, my 6th year completion is Dec 2005.

Here is the reply from my HR:
I spoke with the attorney and was told the only thing we need to add to a regular H-1 to H-1 filing, is a copy of the EDD acknowledgment letter showing the priority date to prove that you are eligible.

So please, let us handle the case from this side. We definitely won't jeopardize you in any way at all.

I don't think you need anymore proof. You seem to already have the extension approval notices - that is the key document to get your visa stamped on your passport.

I don't think you need to consult BEC again; since you have approval. But as you've asked; I have enclosed below the info/news that appeared for getting the evidence for receipt of your application at BEC. It has the email addresses also for Philly and Dallas.

Also, can you please let me know how much time it took for you to get the H1b extension (7th yr) approved ? Thanks.

===================================================

From: http://www.immigration-law.com >> Click on "Breaking News"

06/26/2005: DFLC Notice of AC 21 H-1B Extension Proof Issuance Procedure
* DFLC has issued a notice that DOL has worked with CIS to set up a new system in the Backlog Elimination Centers to assist individuals who have submitted an application for permanent labor certification prior to March 28, 2005 and need proof of the submission to apply for an extension of an H-1B visa. Individuals should send an e-mail to the appropriate Backlog Center explaining the need for the H-1B extension and requesting verification that their application is pending at the Center. The email addresses are h1b7yr@dal.dflc.us for the Dallas Center and h1b7yr@phi.dflc.us for the Philadelphia Center. Include in this request all pertinent information (employer name and address, alien name and address, date of filing, state where filed, case number, if known). The Backlog Center will respond to the individual with verification that the application has been pending for 365 days.

 

[luckylucky]

I am going to meet Senator Norm Coleman from MN state and try to bring up these issues time permitting. If there are not many people queued up meeting him then we can probably talk at length. Let us see how it goes.

Keep the momentum up guys..... it is better to advertise our plight than sitting back and watch all this nonsense.

Watch this space....

I really appreciate your effort and we are supporting your 110%!

 

[USCISisMockery]

Guys please use AILA take action page. Its pretty cool, you can select list of contacts you want to send. It will give you a choice of either emailing it or it will snail-mail it for you. If you think this is very good source, please promote it and guide newcomers who want to take action.

http://capwiz.com/aila2/dbq/media/

go to "media guide", scroll down and select state "NY".
You will be presented with list of conatcts, select ones which you feel will make difference. It will also give you choice of emailing it or snail-mail it (ofcourse, AILA will snail-mail it, and not you).