Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center Tracking

[foret1]

Question regarding 6 year H1 period and H4

I don't think the wife can stay on H4 visa either. The total count of 6 years includes all types of H visas and doesn't differentiate between H1 or H4. I think the only way to stay in the country is on F1. I still recommend on getting professional help.

no true. i got my 7th year h1 in february and was able to get h-4 for my spouse. both h1 and h4 can be extended as long as you have lc pending for more than 365 days.

ya f1 is an option: as long as you can pay for full time tuition to maintain your status...you loose status if you go partime.

hope it helps...good luck!

 

[JustWatching]

The Letter

All,

Here is a draft of the letter. Based on postings today:

1) Some think its worth it, some think it's not.

2) Most agreed that we shouldn't tell them how to do it, just start!

3) Some said not to wait for a final draft and send whatever (be my guest, it's a free country)

So what I'm going to suggest is two-fold:

1) One day of comments on the letter from people on the forum.

2) Pick a day, say Friday April 15 (don't forget to do your taxes) to send the letter. If everyone sends the letter the same day, it may have more of an impact.

Finally, let me just say that at the very least, this is therapy for all of us. In reality we are asking a Titanic (without the sinking part, I hope) to change directions. This is hard to do. Just look at how long it took them to setup the BRCs, they may very well be done processing before they can act on any change in direction.

Good luck.

JustWatching

 

[GOD_BLESS_YOU]

All,

Here is a draft of the letter. Based on postings today:

1) Some think its worth it, some think it's not.

2) Most agreed that we shouldn't tell them how to do it, just start!

3) Some said not to wait for a final draft and send whatever (be my guest, it's a free country)

So what I'm going to suggest is two-fold:

1) One day of comments on the letter from people on the forum.

2) Pick a day, say Friday April 15 (don't forget to do your taxes) to send the letter. If everyone sends the letter the same day, it may have more of an impact.

Finally, let me just say that at the very least, this is therapy for all of us. In reality we are asking a Titanic (without the sinking part, I hope) to change directions. This is hard to do. Just look at how long it took them to setup the BRCs, they may very well be done processing before they can act on any change in direction.

Good luck.

JustWatching

Letter is Good.,
Do we ALL SHOOT on FRIDAY APRIL 15 .,
jot down all Official Email ids here we need to send including DOL secretary

 

[USCISisMockery]

Till now we have 3 version of letters

http://www.immigrationportal.com/showpost.php?p=1118174&postcount=1054
http://www.immigrationportal.com/showpost.php?p=1118268&postcount=1058
http://www.immigrationportal.com/showpost.php?p=1117628&postcount=1021

Ppl, please refrain from personal questions ( i saw on the previous page someone is talking about H4, I sympathize with him, but I think this is not appropriate thread for personal questions particularly H4. Just imagine if everybody starts posting their personal problem here, what will happen to our awareness efforts)

All naysayers, if Gandhiji believed in people like you, you would be washing cloth of some "gora".

 

[GCCovet]

That's spam my friend!

Send by postal mail with a $5 bill not check as donation to improve USCIS

In my humble opinion, all emails/letters would be going from different addresses, it might not be considered as SPAM.

Regards

 

[GCCovet]

Dude..
This is a public forum & Every one has right of their opinion. Only because someone does not get agree to you does not make him / her self Jerk. So lets not call Names..

PS : I also don't believe sending out letters / emails gonna help any of us !.. But hey its your choice !!!

gp111,
With all due respect, you cannot clap with one hand. Xipe should not have started with sarcastic comments. Like you said, this is public forum, If you or anybody does not believe in sending letters, please ignore the post. Maybe it was wrong to post about sending letter in this thread.
Regards

 

[omnits]

It is my letter to Ms. Chao and Congressman

The Honorable Elaine L. Chao
Secretary of U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20210


Dear Secretary Chao,

I am writing to you to bring to your attention the unprecedented backlogs created by the Backlog Processing Centers.

My permanent labor certification was applied at VA SWA in 2002. After more than 3 years, I am still waiting. Since it was moved to Backlog Reduction Center, I have been unable to track my application. Presumably, my application is residing in one of the two Backlog Processing Centers and it may take another 24 - 30 months to receive a final verdict on my application. It means that by the time I receive a final verdict, it would be around 5 - 6 years since the initial filing of the application.

This long delay in processing of my application has had an adverse affect on not only my career but on the careers of thousands of other applicant who entered this country legally. This long delay also affects all of our family members. Our lives have been on a hold since the filing of the application and our careers and careers of our spouses are also on a hold in the hope of a decision in our favor by the DOL.

I felt the system of DOL is so unfair to me, my family and my fellows. We legally came here, and left our homelands with the dreams of living in a highly efficient and productive society. No body cares our rights, our dignity, our living, but talking about legalizing illegal immigrants. We came here legally, and are living legally. Ironically, we may turn to be illegal due to this long long wait.

We are totally frustrating. We need you help.

Sincerely,

 

[rspr]

I'm not sure this article is posted here or not.

http://www.visapro.com/Immigration-News/?a=214&z=21

SongLan

Ya!... with no labors comig out certified, no wonder they are reducing the backlog. Let the BPC's start certifying the labors, they will get loads and loads of them. Imagine having PERM labors certified at the same time. It sounds like a another disaster for me (just like labor cert's backlogged for 3 years).

Apart from all those... I am just hoping that USCIS will certify applications faster. Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[gp111]

gp111,
With all due respect, you cannot clap with one hand. Xipe should not have started with sarcastic comments. Like you said, this is public forum, If you or anybody does not believe in sending letters, please ignore the post. Maybe it was wrong to post about sending letter in this thread.
Regards

I am not clapping with One hand, I appreciate what you guys are trying & am not agree with either of the comments (XIPE or YOU).. What my post ment is Rather Then Calling Jerk to Someone who is not Agree to You, Just Ignore As You (we all) will get so many these posts which need not be hurdle / distraction in what you are doing. I would not spend time on answering such posts !! I am ignoring posts which I don't agree & had not wirtten a word about these Letter sending Stuff, Only Answering you because I don't want you feel bad about my earlier posting.

thanks

 

[GCCovet]

I am not clapping with One hand, I appreciate what you guys are trying & am not agree with either of the comments (XIPE or YOU).. What my post ment is Rather Then Calling Jerk to Someone who is not Agree to You, Just Ignore As You (we all) will get so many these posts which need not be hurdle / distraction in what you are doing. I would not spend time on answering such posts !! I am ignoring posts which I don't agree & had not wirtten a word about these Letter sending Stuff, Only Answering you because I don't want you feel bad about my earlier posting.

thanks

gp111,
Agree with u. Maybe I got carried away a bit. I will ignore posts from now on that does not meet my taste.
Thanks .

 

[Siddharth1]

Not politically popular

And we should also flood some major channels or newpaper.
We've been bearing the pain for too long and it's time for us to stand up. Lets fight together.

Just to add my $0.02, it is going to be harder trying to get sympathy from the general public by reaching to them via newspapers and media.
First of all, with all the outsourcing, a lot of people will not be happy that DOL actually plans to speed up which will result in people getting their residency faster.
Secondly, a lot of people think that the current immigration process is ideal because u have to be very good to jump through all the hoops for 4-5 years that you are stuck in the process for. If you manage to survive for that long and get everything correct, you will be a productive resident -- so the logic goes.

To be frank, I was surprised the PERM process started at all, in the first place, considering that it would not be politically popular.

Again just my $0.02.

 

[Siddharth1]

If its good idea, I can send message to moderator, even though I strongly believe that lawyers like backlog.

Can you explain how? The way my lawyer gets paid is she charges for filing for every stage of the process. If the process takes 3 years (like my labour), she doesn't get any money in the interim.

In fact ,the way I see it, the lawyers should be also annoyed at the length of the process because there will be dropouts as not everyone will want to wait for 5+ years to get a GC.

 

[Anand_Mishra]

letter sent to both senator and Chao

Date 04/14/2005

To,
The Honorable Barbara Boxer
Senator
112 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
Washington, DC 20510


Dear Senator Boxer,

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter.

I am writing to you to bring to your attention the unprecedented backlogs created by the Backlog Processing Centers.

As you are aware, the Department of Labor (DOL) made the decision to create Backlog Processing Centers to deal with the large backlog of pending labor certifications. A timeline of events is listed below:

Backlog Center vendor RFP issued – August 2003
Backlog Center vendor RFP due – December 2003
Backlog Center vendor selected – April 2004
Backlog Centers established – July 2004
Backlog Centers begin entering cases – September 2004
Backlog Centers entered 86,000 cases (out of 300,000+) – February 2005
Backlog Center first approval – March 2005

As you can see, the entire Backlog Center process has been slow and inefficient. Estimates by the backlog centers are that data entry will be completed in the Fall 2005 and it will take until March 2007 – October 2007 to process the entire backlog.

While employers are the actual “customers” of the DOL, employees like me are the ones that carry most of the burden of this long process.

My permanent labor certification was applied at CA SWA in mid 2003. After more than 2 years, I am still waiting. Since it was moved to Backlog Reduction Center, I have been unable to track my application. Presumably, my application is residing in one of the two Backlog Processing Centers and it may take another 24 - 30 months to receive a final verdict on my application. It means that by the time I receive a final verdict, it would be around 4 - 5 years since the initial filing of the application.

This long delay in processing of my application has had an adverse affect on not only my career but on the careers of thousands of other applicant who entered this country legally. This long delay also affects all of our family members. Our lives have been on a hold since the filing of the application and our careers and careers of our spouses are also on a hold in the hope of a decision in our favor by the DOL.

I felt the system of DOL is so unfair to me, my family and my fellows. We legally came here, and left our homelands with the dreams of living in a highly efficient and productive society. No body cares our rights, our dignity, our living, but talking about legalizing illegal immigrants. We came here legally, and are living legally.

I am totally frustrated and need your help.

Thank you again for your time and patience.

Sincerely,

 

[spidey]

Date 04/14/2005

To,
The Honorable Barbara Boxer
Senator
112 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
Washington, DC 20510


Dear Senator Boxer,

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter.

I am writing to you to bring to your attention the unprecedented backlogs created by the Backlog Processing Centers.

As you are aware, the Department of Labor (DOL) made the decision to create Backlog Processing Centers to deal with the large backlog of pending labor certifications. A timeline of events is listed below:

Backlog Center vendor RFP issued – August 2003
Backlog Center vendor RFP due – December 2003
Backlog Center vendor selected – April 2004
Backlog Centers established – July 2004
Backlog Centers begin entering cases – September 2004
Backlog Centers entered 86,000 cases (out of 300,000+) – February 2005
Backlog Center first approval – March 2005

As you can see, the entire Backlog Center process has been slow and inefficient. Estimates by the backlog centers are that data entry will be completed in the Fall 2005 and it will take until March 2007 – October 2007 to process the entire backlog.

While employers are the actual “customers” of the DOL, employees like me are the ones that carry most of the burden of this long process. Sincerely,

My permanent labor certification was applied at CA SWA in mid 2003. After more than 2 years, I am still waiting. Since it was moved to Backlog Reduction Center, I have been unable to track my application. Presumably, my application is residing in one of the two Backlog Processing Centers and it may take another 24 - 30 months to receive a final verdict on my application. It means that by the time I receive a final verdict, it would be around 4 - 5 years since the initial filing of the application.

This long delay in processing of my application has had an adverse affect on not only my career but on the careers of thousands of other applicant who entered this country legally. This long delay also affects all of our family members. Our lives have been on a hold since the filing of the application and our careers and careers of our spouses are also on a hold in the hope of a decision in our favor by the DOL.

I felt the system of DOL is so unfair to me, my family and my fellows. We legally came here, and left our homelands with the dreams of living in a highly efficient and productive society. No body cares our rights, our dignity, our living, but talking about legalizing illegal immigrants. We came here legally, and are living legally. Ironically, we may turn to be illegal due to this long long wait.

We are totally frustrating. We need you help.

Thank you again for your time and patience.

Sincerely,

I dont think it's a good idea to threaten these people with this statement --
"Ironically, we may turn to be illegal due to this long long wait."

Presenting your frustration is one thing - asking for help is also one thing - but threats are not very good motivators.

 

[Anand_Mishra]

Acknowleged.. taken out and now letters are on the way..
Thx,

I dont think it's a good idea to threaten these people with this statement --
"Ironically, we may turn to be illegal due to this long long wait."

Presenting your frustration is one thing - asking for help is also one thing - but threats are not very good motivators.

 

[tomshu]

What a lawyer!!!

Last week my company asked me to re-locate to MN next month. So I asked my lawyer whether my pending labor certification is still valid and once it's approved, it can be used to file my I-140 and I-485. My lawyer simply told me that "NO, you can't, you have to start from scratch!!". So today I called two more lawyers, a DOL labor certification officer, an USCIS Information Officer, told all told me that my pending labor is still valid and CAN be used for my I-140 and I-485. But my lawyer is still insisting and says that she is right. What a lawyer she is!!! I think I got to change to a different lawyer who can represent my interest.

Sorry, I was very frustrated by her comments.

--Tomshu

 

[whatheheck]

correction

Date 04/14/2005

To,
The Honorable Barbara Boxer
Senator
112 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
Washington, DC 20510


Dear Senator Boxer,

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this letter.

I am writing to you to bring to your attention the unprecedented backlogs created by the Backlog Processing Centers.

As you are aware, the Department of Labor (DOL) made the decision to create Backlog Processing Centers to deal with the large backlog of pending labor certifications. A timeline of events is listed below:

Backlog Center vendor RFP issued – August 2003
Backlog Center vendor RFP due – December 2003
Backlog Center vendor selected – April 2004
Backlog Centers established – July 2004
Backlog Centers begin entering cases – September 2004
Backlog Centers entered 86,000 cases (out of 300,000+) – February 2005
Backlog Center first approval – March 2005

As you can see, the entire Backlog Center process has been slow and inefficient. Estimates by the backlog centers are that data entry will be completed in the Fall 2005 and it will take until March 2007 – October 2007 to process the entire backlog.

While employers are the actual “customers” of the DOL, employees like me are the ones that carry most of the burden of this long process. Sincerely,

My permanent labor certification was applied at CA SWA in mid 2003. After more than 2 years, I am still waiting. Since it was moved to Backlog Reduction Center, I have been unable to track my application. Presumably, my application is residing in one of the two Backlog Processing Centers and it may take another 24 - 30 months to receive a final verdict on my application. It means that by the time I receive a final verdict, it would be around 4 - 5 years since the initial filing of the application.

This long delay in processing of my application has had an adverse affect on not only my career but on the careers of thousands of other applicant who entered this country legally. This long delay also affects all of our family members. Our lives have been on a hold since the filing of the application and our careers and careers of our spouses are also on a hold in the hope of a decision in our favor by the DOL.

I felt the system of DOL is so unfair to me, my family and my fellows. We legally came here, and left our homelands with the dreams of living in a highly efficient and productive society. No body cares our rights, our dignity, our living, but talking about legalizing illegal immigrants. We came here legally, and are living legally. Ironically, we may turn to be illegal due to this long long wait.

We are totally frustrating. We need you help.

Thank you again for your time and patience.

Sincerely,

Some correction.

We are totally frustrating. We need you help. This statement should be changed to "I am totally frustrated and i need your help".

Becasue your letter starts with "I". Is this letter represents group of people? If yes, then start the letter with saying "I am writing this letter on behalf of ....." etc.

We can not use "I" and "We". It contradicts.

Note: I may be wrong. check with others.

 

[rest_2004_free]

when you file at the comp headquaters you will be fine

Usually if you file at the comp headquarters you are fine...and there should be a possibility of squeezing by when you apply from anywhere as long as comp has an office there...get a different lawyer...get Rajiv's advice. Usually lawyers might want your case moved to them as well. So I bet your decision is good.

Last week my company asked me to re-locate to MN next month. So I asked my lawyer whether my pending labor certification is still valid and once it's approved, it can be used to file my I-140 and I-485. My lawyer simply told me that "NO, you can't, you have to start from scratch!!". So today I called two more lawyers, a DOL labor certification officer, an USCIS Information Officer, told all told me that my pending labor is still valid and CAN be used for my I-140 and I-485. But my lawyer is still insisting and says that she is right. What a lawyer she is!!! I think I got to change to a different lawyer who can represent my interest.

Sorry, I was very frustrated by her comments.

--Tomshu

 

[GC_Lover]

Last week my company asked me to re-locate to MN next month. So I asked my lawyer whether my pending labor certification is still valid and once it's approved, it can be used to file my I-140 and I-485. My lawyer simply told me that "NO, you can't, you have to start from scratch!!". So today I called two more lawyers, a DOL labor certification officer, an USCIS Information Officer, told all told me that my pending labor is still valid and CAN be used for my I-140 and I-485. But my lawyer is still insisting and says that she is right. What a lawyer she is!!! I think I got to change to a different lawyer who can represent my interest.

Sorry, I was very frustrated by her comments.

--Tomshu

I am pretty sure you can continue with your old labor. I am like one of those nomadic tribe who move every few months, if what your lawyer says is true I would be having numerous labor filed by now.
You better make sure your lawyer does not pull your labor out of the queue.

 

[omnits]

Agree with you guys. Changed

Changed some phrases.

I still left "Ironically, we may turn to be illegal due to this long long wait." there, when I sent. The reason is so obvious that so many guys like us have already lost their jobs, and therefore their legal status. so may guys like us are being threatened due to this or that situation. Is that right?