Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center Tracking

Nationwide RALLY of mail, fax, email, phone ON April 20 & April 24

Did you send the letters? if not pls do it..and post in this site.


Nationwide RALLY of mail, fax, email, phone ON April 20 & April 24




Please feel free to customize your letter. Bold the main points.
Keep the full content in all letters (including TO & CC addresses), It could come to 4 pages or so.

Send Postal Mails on April 20
Send Fax and Emails on April 24
Make Phone calls on 24 th and 25 th - Ask about the fax and letters you send.


I’m sure it will work some result if Whitehouse receive say 1000 letters…I guess 200,000+ people and their family is waiting for LCA.

In short, 1 + 12 letters will be going out to,

TO
1. President

CC
2. President’s chief of staff
3. Vice President
4. Vice President’s chief of staff
5. Labor secretary
6. Labor secretary Chief of Staff
7. Labor Deputy Secretary
8. Labor Associate Deputy Secretary
9. Stephen Stefanko - Certification Manager
10. John Barlett - Certification Manager
11. Ms. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
12. Ms. Karen P. Hughes, Under Secretary, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs


Let your friends also know…Let’s make it a success


Sub: Huge Administrative Delay in Foreign Labor Certification Application approval process at Department Of Labor


Dear Mr. President,

Hope your family and you are doing well.

I would like to bring to your attention the huge administrative delay in LCA approval process at DOL’s two Backlog Elimination Centers (BEC), most notably the Philadelphia BEC. I started my application with DOL 4 years back. Two years have passed since the commencement of two BECs, but till now I have not received the approvals. There is not even an option for status check or an indication when my application will be considered.

My family and I are suffering constantly in numerous ways due to these delays. To list a few, my spouse doesn’t get the work permit, I can’t change the job, due to such insecurity we can’t buy a house or take a meaningful vacation etc. We are considering leaving USA to my home country, winding up the American dream. May be it was a big mistake in my life to come to USA after working hard on my engineering college degree and leaving behind a nice job in my home country. Now I have ended up fighting DOL’s Administrative Delays and its stone-age process which seems like a long dark tunnel, with no light in sight.

I will be highly obliged if you could look into this matter as soon as possible and take necessary measures to speed up the approval process.

Thank You Mr. President.

In appreciation of your leadership and resolve,

Sincerely


Name
City, State, Zip code

To: (Mail/Fax/E-mail)

President

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Fax: 202-456-2461
president@whitehouse.gov


CC: (Mail/Fax/E-mail)

Vice President
President’s Chief of Staff
Vice President’s Chief of Staff

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Fax: 202-456-2461

comments@whitehouse.gov,vice_president@whitehouse.gov,

Department of Labor

Ms. Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of Labor (202) 693-6000
Mr. Paul T. Conway, Chief of Staff (202) 693-6007
Mr. Steven J. Law, Deputy Secretary (202) 693-6000
Ms. Laura Genero, Associate Deputy Secretary (202) 693-6000

U.S. Department of Labor
Frances Perkins Building
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
202-693-2768

Stephen Stefanko - Certification Manager
ETA- Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center
Division of Foreign Labor Certification
1 Belmont Avenue, Suite 220
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
FAX: (484) 270-1600

John Barlett - Certification Manager
ETA - Dallas Backlog Elimination Center
Division of Foreign Labor
700 North Pearl St., Suite 400N
Dallas, Texas 75201
FAX: (214) 237-9135


Department of State

Ms. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Ms. Karen P. Hughes
Under Secretary, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Senate
John_McCain@McCain.senate.gov, senator@akaka.senate.gov, senator@biden.senate.gov, senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov, senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov, senator@clinton.senate.gov, senator@conrad.senate.gov, senator@dorgan.senate.gov, russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov, tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov, vermont@jeffords.senate.gov, tim@johnson.senate.gov, senator@kennedy.senate.gov, john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov, senator@levin.senate.gov, senator@mikulski.senate.gov, senator_murray@murray.senate.gov, senator@billnelson.senate.gov, jack@reed.senate.gov, senator@rockefeller.senate.gov, senator@schumer.senate.gov, senator@stabenow.senate.gov
Media
belluck@nytimes.com, sundays@cbsnews.com, 48hours@cbsnews.com, jonathan.wald@nbc.com, comments@fareedzakaria.com, jabenn@nytimes.com, abc.news.magazines@abc.com, 2020@abc.com, abc.news.magazines@abc.com, thisweek@abc.com, Dateline@NBC.com, WT@nbc.com, MTP@NBC.com, nightly@nbc.com, today@nbc.com, viewerservices@msnbc.com, msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com, abramsreport@msnbc.com, countdown@msnbc.com, hardball@msnbc.com, Connected@MSNBC.com, Imus@msnbc.com, allenh@washpost.com, allenm@washpost.com, aranam@washpost.com, argetsinger@washpost.com, rajiv@washpost.com, cheaterry@washpost.com, cohnd@washpost.com, coopermana@washpost.com, apcar@nytimes.com, peappl@nytimes.com, randya@nytimes.com, barbanel@nytimes.com, dabarry@nytimes.com, barstow@nytimes.com, goldbehr@nytimes.com, brian_hill@metronetworks.com, sheberer@pbs.org, ftn@cbsnews.com, betsy.fischer@nbc.com, plorris@univision.net, abenitez@univision.net, steve.majors@nbc.com, mcurtis@njn.org, stu.schutzman@abc.com,muriel.pearson@abc.com, dij@cbsnews.com,lisa.hsia@nbc.com, mail@uttm.com, dij@cbsnews.com, pjh@cbsnews.com,browne@foxnews.com,pls@cbsnews.com,gmartin@express-news.net,opinionjournal@wsj.com, mossberg@wsj.com, geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com,clemons@newamerica.net, lakshmipathy@newamerica.net, white@newamerica.net,friedman@newamerica.net, menon@newamerica.net,letters@nypost.com,letters@washpost.com, wsj.ltrs@wsj.com, josephg@phillynews.com, lakerb@phillynews.com, viewerservices@msnbc.com,
msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com,abramsreport@msnbc.com,countdown@msnbc.com,hardball@msnbc.com,
Connected@MSNBC.com,Imus@msnbc.com,
nschwartz@fortunemail.com, publisher@forbes.com,
medinar@phillynews.com
 
done!

LedBy said:
Did you send the letters? if not pls do it..and post in this site.


Nationwide RALLY of mail, fax, email, phone ON April 20 & April 24




Please feel free to customize your letter. Bold the main points.
Keep the full content in all letters (including TO & CC addresses), It could come to 4 pages or so.

Send Postal Mails on April 20
Send Fax and Emails on April 24
Make Phone calls on 24 th and 25 th - Ask about the fax and letters you send.


I’m sure it will work some result if Whitehouse receive say 1000 letters…I guess 200,000+ people and their family is waiting for LCA.

In short, 1 + 12 letters will be going out to,

TO
1. President

CC
2. President’s chief of staff
3. Vice President
4. Vice President’s chief of staff
5. Labor secretary
6. Labor secretary Chief of Staff
7. Labor Deputy Secretary
8. Labor Associate Deputy Secretary
9. Stephen Stefanko - Certification Manager
10. John Barlett - Certification Manager
11. Ms. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
12. Ms. Karen P. Hughes, Under Secretary, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs


Let your friends also know…Let’s make it a success


Sub: Huge Administrative Delay in Foreign Labor Certification Application approval process at Department Of Labor


Dear Mr. President,

Hope your family and you are doing well.

I would like to bring to your attention the huge administrative delay in LCA approval process at DOL’s two Backlog Elimination Centers (BEC), most notably the Philadelphia BEC. I started my application with DOL 4 years back. Two years have passed since the commencement of two BECs, but till now I have not received the approvals. There is not even an option for status check or an indication when my application will be considered.

My family and I are suffering constantly in numerous ways due to these delays. To list a few, my spouse doesn’t get the work permit, I can’t change the job, due to such insecurity we can’t buy a house or take a meaningful vacation etc. We are considering leaving USA to my home country, winding up the American dream. May be it was a big mistake in my life to come to USA after working hard on my engineering college degree and leaving behind a nice job in my home country. Now I have ended up fighting DOL’s Administrative Delays and its stone-age process which seems like a long dark tunnel, with no light in sight.

I will be highly obliged if you could look into this matter as soon as possible and take necessary measures to speed up the approval process.

Thank You Mr. President.

In appreciation of your leadership and resolve,

Sincerely


Name
City, State, Zip code

To: (Mail/Fax/E-mail)

President

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Fax: 202-456-2461
president@whitehouse.gov


CC: (Mail/Fax/E-mail)

Vice President
President’s Chief of Staff
Vice President’s Chief of Staff

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Fax: 202-456-2461

comments@whitehouse.gov,vice_president@whitehouse.gov,

Department of Labor

Ms. Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of Labor (202) 693-6000
Mr. Paul T. Conway, Chief of Staff (202) 693-6007
Mr. Steven J. Law, Deputy Secretary (202) 693-6000
Ms. Laura Genero, Associate Deputy Secretary (202) 693-6000

U.S. Department of Labor
Frances Perkins Building
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
202-693-2768

Stephen Stefanko - Certification Manager
ETA- Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center
Division of Foreign Labor Certification
1 Belmont Avenue, Suite 220
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
FAX: (484) 270-1600

John Barlett - Certification Manager
ETA - Dallas Backlog Elimination Center
Division of Foreign Labor
700 North Pearl St., Suite 400N
Dallas, Texas 75201
FAX: (214) 237-9135


Department of State

Ms. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Ms. Karen P. Hughes
Under Secretary, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Senate
John_McCain@McCain.senate.gov, senator@akaka.senate.gov, senator@biden.senate.gov, senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov, senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov, senator@clinton.senate.gov, senator@conrad.senate.gov, senator@dorgan.senate.gov, russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov, tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov, vermont@jeffords.senate.gov, tim@johnson.senate.gov, senator@kennedy.senate.gov, john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov, senator@levin.senate.gov, senator@mikulski.senate.gov, senator_murray@murray.senate.gov, senator@billnelson.senate.gov, jack@reed.senate.gov, senator@rockefeller.senate.gov, senator@schumer.senate.gov, senator@stabenow.senate.gov
Media
belluck@nytimes.com, sundays@cbsnews.com, 48hours@cbsnews.com, jonathan.wald@nbc.com, comments@fareedzakaria.com, jabenn@nytimes.com, abc.news.magazines@abc.com, 2020@abc.com, abc.news.magazines@abc.com, thisweek@abc.com, Dateline@NBC.com, WT@nbc.com, MTP@NBC.com, nightly@nbc.com, today@nbc.com, viewerservices@msnbc.com, msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com, abramsreport@msnbc.com, countdown@msnbc.com, hardball@msnbc.com, Connected@MSNBC.com, Imus@msnbc.com, allenh@washpost.com, allenm@washpost.com, aranam@washpost.com, argetsinger@washpost.com, rajiv@washpost.com, cheaterry@washpost.com, cohnd@washpost.com, coopermana@washpost.com, apcar@nytimes.com, peappl@nytimes.com, randya@nytimes.com, barbanel@nytimes.com, dabarry@nytimes.com, barstow@nytimes.com, goldbehr@nytimes.com, brian_hill@metronetworks.com, sheberer@pbs.org, ftn@cbsnews.com, betsy.fischer@nbc.com, plorris@univision.net, abenitez@univision.net, steve.majors@nbc.com, mcurtis@njn.org, stu.schutzman@abc.com,muriel.pearson@abc.com, dij@cbsnews.com,lisa.hsia@nbc.com, mail@uttm.com, dij@cbsnews.com, pjh@cbsnews.com,browne@foxnews.com,pls@cbsnews.com,gmartin@express-news.net,opinionjournal@wsj.com, mossberg@wsj.com, geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com,clemons@newamerica.net, lakshmipathy@newamerica.net, white@newamerica.net,friedman@newamerica.net, menon@newamerica.net,letters@nypost.com,letters@washpost.com, wsj.ltrs@wsj.com, josephg@phillynews.com, lakerb@phillynews.com, viewerservices@msnbc.com,
msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com,abramsreport@msnbc.com,countdown@msnbc.com,hardball@msnbc.com,
Connected@MSNBC.com,Imus@msnbc.com,
nschwartz@fortunemail.com, publisher@forbes.com,
medinar@phillynews.com
Click to expand...
 
Friends,
I was talking to a friend of mine. His lawyer told him that she received several approvals from Philly BEC for cases filed from DC, Maryland and Virginia (DC metro area). All approvals had a priority date in July 2002.

It looks like Philly is currently working on clearing most of July 2002 cases from DC area.

Best of luck to all!!
 
samarthk said:
folks,

about five weeks back, i wrote a stinging letter to the assistant secretary emily stover derocco about the bec mess. i'll try to see if i can post the entire letter.

surprisingly, a couple of days back, i received a reply from john beverly's office, in which the dol said that they are aware of the bec mess and are trying to develop a mechanism by which the employer and the lawyer can atleast check the status of an application.

i also came to know the status of my application. unfortunately, not certified as yet but atleast came to know that it has been put in an analyst's queue for review. this was done on february 26.
Click to expand...

thanks man...for taking the initiative and not letting passing on the bucket game...atleast if they come with idea of the status check for cases is making this big fat pig budge a little..
 
mvinays said:
Friends,
I was talking to a friend of mine. His lawyer told him that she received several approvals from Philly BEC for cases filed from DC, Maryland and Virginia (DC metro area). All approvals had a priority date in July 2002.

It looks like Philly is currently working on clearing most of July 2002 cases from DC area.

Best of luck to all!!
Click to expand...

If you look at the PBEC approvals thread, I think that out of the last 10 approvals 7 or 8 were from July 2002 and so there is definitely a trend there.

Hopefully they can finish July soon and keep moving forward!

I do know however that there are still people here whose PD is before July 2002 and so it is a bit perplexing.
 
status check

StressTestInUSA said:
thanks man...for taking the initiative and not letting passing on the bucket game...atleast if they come with idea of the status check for cases is making this big fat pig budge a little..
Click to expand...


don't know if it is true or not......

about a month back i made my boss call pbec......

and they said the same thing that they are working on a system by which atleast the employer and the attorney can get some status information
 
I have seen one approval yesterday of MA/PD Mar 2003...

Saknia,

My apologies for having posted this question in the approvals thread.

I have seen in BEC's approval thread one approval with the following details:
<<<<<<<< ******** >>>>>>>>
labor was filed : march,2003
State MA
Cateogry : Non RIR
Advertisement were done : Jan-March ,2005
Went to PBEC : April ,2005
45 days letter : Sep , 2005
<<<<<<<< ******* >>>>>>>>>

My details are pretty much the same except for the 45 days letter:

PD: 10 Dec 2002
Category: Non-RIR
Went to PBEC: April, 2005
45 days received and replied: Oct 2005

My question is, does 45-days letter's receipt and reply have any bearing on the approval phase? Does'nt PD carry any weight at all?

I would appreciate, if gurus on this forum share their thoughts on this.

Peace.
 
Please update my info. Just received 45 Days letter yesterday (April 20th, 2006). Here is other detail

PD: March 18th, 2005
SWA: MA
45 Day Letter: April 20th, 2006
Case: RIR / EB3 / Rest of the World

I will post other information as soon as I ll know. Thanks
 
To fairboy

fairboy:

Did you file your LC from MA?
Had advertisement done for your case before transferred to BEC?

If both answers are YES, then I think you should be approve soon (IMO).

Good luck!


fairboy said:
Saknia,

My apologies for having posted this question in the approvals thread.

I have seen in BEC's approval thread one approval with the following details:
<<<<<<<< ******** >>>>>>>>
labor was filed : march,2003
State MA
Cateogry : Non RIR
Advertisement were done : Jan-March ,2005
Went to PBEC : April ,2005
45 days letter : Sep , 2005
<<<<<<<< ******* >>>>>>>>>

My details are pretty much the same except for the 45 days letter:

PD: 10 Dec 2002
Category: Non-RIR
Went to PBEC: April, 2005
45 days received and replied: Oct 2005

My question is, does 45-days letter's receipt and reply have any bearing on the approval phase? Does'nt PD carry any weight at all?

I would appreciate, if gurus on this forum share their thoughts on this.

Peace.
Click to expand...
 
FOLKS,

I WOULD REQUEST YOU ALL TO PLEASE CUSTOMIZE THIS LETTER BEFORE SENDING IT. OTHERWISE IT WOULD BE A WASTE OF EFFORT AS THEIR RESPONSES WOULD ALSO BE CANNED ONES.


Hon. Emily Stover DeRocco,
U.S. Department of Labor,
Frances Perkins Building,
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20210


Dear Ms. DeRocco,

I have never taken it upon myself to write to a high level government official regarding immigration matters, but I'm at a loss of what else to do.

I am writing to you after giving up hope of getting any kind of information on the phenomenal delays in the Foreign Labor Certification Process.

I am an international employee working in the US for the past six and a half years. My company has a strict policy of hiring international workers only if it is unable to find suitable US workers. I am writing to you to make you aware of a situation that is happening now with respect to the Labor Certification Process that is handled by the Department of Labor.

My petition for immigration was filed in xxxx. As part of the immigration process, the Department of Labor has to certify that there is a shortage of people with a certain set of qualifications. The Labor Certification process is composed of two stages. The first stage is handled by the respective State Workforce Authority (SWA). My application was approved by them around xxxx. In the second stage, this application was then forwarded to the Department of Labor office based in Philadelphia for review.

Since xxxx, I did not hear anything about my application until xxxx. On xxxx, I received an email from my employer's lawyer mentioning that they received a 45-day Continuance Letter from the Department of Labor Backlog Elimination Center in Philadelphia about my application. The email also mentioned that the lawyer's office replied in the affirmative about keeping the application open to be processed.

After reading on the web, I found that around the June - July 2003 timeframe, the Department of Labor office in Philadelphia was shutting down and as a result no action was taken on this and hundreds of thousands of other applications that were sent to this office.

The explanation given by the Department of Labor for not acting on these applications was that they were creating two new centers called Backlog Elimination Centers, one based in Philadelphia and the other based in Dallas, which would adjudicate these applications.

What happened during the timeframe of June - July 2003 to November - December 2004 is a complete mystery?

Presently, as I understand it, there are probably more than 363,000 labor certification applications that are pending with the Department of Labor.

The two centers, one in Philadelphia and the other one in Dallas received applications from all the states. The breakdown is given on the DOL website. The link is http://www.ows.doleta.gov/foreign/times.asp.

Out of these two centers, the Dallas Center is way ahead of the Philadelphia Center. Presently, as I understand it, the Dallas Center is approving applications that were filed around December 2003 - January 2004, whereas the Philadelphia Center is stuck in November 2001 - July 2002. Moreover, to top things off, the Philadelphia Center is randomly approving applications some from applicants whose priority dates are July 2002.

There is no transparency in the process.

According to DOL, these centers were supposed to adjudicate applications based on the dates (read FIRST IN FIRST OUT) when the applications were received by the DOL.

Well, the results of the two centers speak for themselves. There is already a difference of almost two years between the two centers.

All I request is an answer from the DOL about why there is no transparency in the process and what exactly is the reason for such a long delay?

IS IT ASKING FOR A LOT TO KNOW THE STATUS OF THE APPLICATION AFTER WAITING FOR 4 YEARS AND ONE MONTH?

Besides this fact, DOL also introduced a new system to handle the labor certification process called PERM on March 28, 2005. This new process promises faster review and decision making on this extremely long process.

Now the DOL is making use of two different processes (BEC and PERM) to do the same function and that is to review labor certification applications and then accordingly decide whether to approve them or deny them.

Applicants whose applications went to the so called BACKLOG ELIMINATION CENTERS are caught between a rock and a hard place as to what to do because the rules and regulations given by the DOL with respect to maintaining the priority date if somebody decides to apply through PERM are ambiguous at best and nowadays with such widespread retrogression in the availability of visas nobody wants to loose their priority dates.

The applicants who applied through PERM are already ahead of the 363,000 or so applicants stuck in the BACKLOG ELIMINATION CENTERS.

Also mentioned on the website is the fact that the DOL estimates the entire backlog of applications would be cleared within 24-30 months with adequate resources.

Out of these 24-30 months, 12 months have already passed and it does not even look remotely close that these centers will be anywhere close to finishing off processing these applications within the timeframe given by the DOL because as I understand even the famous 45-day Continuance Letters have not been issued for all the cases.

According to DOL's initial estimates, the famous 45-day letters should have been sent to the applicants' employers/attorneys by the end of Summer 2005. Well, those estimates were very aggressive at best because according to the DOL now, the process for sending these 45-day letters should be completed by June 2006.

Since xxxx, I have not received any status information for my labor certification application. I have already waited xxxx years and xxxx months for getting a labor certification and there is still no estimate on how long I will have to wait.

It would be grossly unfair that even though I have a priority date of xxxx, somebody whose priority date is later than mine, just because their labor certification went to Dallas, or they applied through PERM, got approved earlier. They can go ahead and get in line for the I-140 and eventually the I-485 where as I would languish because of the delay in getting the labor certification.

To top this off, there is visa retrogression now which makes the whole situation even fuzzier. Now dates for getting permanent residence have gone back to applications that were filed in March 2001.

Please note that between the time when a petition is filed and it is approved, the law doesn't allow the petitioners to change job descriptions. In other words, I have to pass any promotions offered at my job. I have already put my career on hold by declining the promotions offered to me because of this very reason.

All I request of you is that there be some information forthcoming from the DOL as to why are there such differences between the two centers and, if possible, there be some estimate as to when will there be some progress from the Philadelphia Backlog Elimination/Accumulation Center on my application.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Sincerely,
 
PBEC Case Misclassified as TR

Hi Guys,
Need advice on getting my case correctly classified as RIR. The SWA approved it as RIR before it went to regional. But looks like the PBEC mistyped it as TR.

My lawyer is not very helpful. She sent an email to PBEC requesting to change this (no response yet) and she has no plans of calling them up. Sucks!

Those who have gotten such corrections made, please let me know. Is there a telephone number where my employer can call and get this corrected. How long did these corrections take place.

Thanks,
Jechand
 
jcgc said:
Hi Guys,
Need advice on getting my case correctly classified as RIR. The SWA approved it as RIR before it went to regional. But looks like the PBEC mistyped it as TR.

My lawyer is not very helpful. She sent an email to PBEC requesting to change this (no response yet) and she has no plans of calling them up. Sucks!

Those who have gotten such corrections made, please let me know. Is there a telephone number where my employer can call and get this corrected. How long did these corrections take place.

Thanks,
Jechand
Click to expand...

You need to do it yourself,it happened to me too. Call up PBEC:dont tell you r the employer/employee/attorney. Just say for this case# it is RIR but shows TR, she will ask to reply to the screenshot with the changes to be done.

It took about 3 weeks for the change. They replied me back (email) with the case type as RIR.

Hope this helps.
 
another approval

for my friend, heard from the lawyer yesterday
PD 07-2002, CA
EB2, RIR, 45 day letter replied in feb 2005
 
jcgc said:
Hi Guys,
Need advice on getting my case correctly classified as RIR. The SWA approved it as RIR before it went to regional. But looks like the PBEC mistyped it as TR.

My lawyer is not very helpful. She sent an email to PBEC requesting to change this (no response yet) and she has no plans of calling them up. Sucks!

Those who have gotten such corrections made, please let me know. Is there a telephone number where my employer can call and get this corrected. How long did these corrections take place.

Thanks,
Jechand
Click to expand...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Jechand why would your lawyer help he will be getting more fees from you as long as you are case is delayed.

- Firms would not care as they got a bonded labor

- DOL ... they are just busy sleeping and eating and caring about their pension and 401K

- Media does not care as long as there is a cat or dog on top of tree which might need to be rescued by firefighters.... or if britney spers has a baby in front of PBEC or DOL
 
hope they do it quickly

lets pray that they dont waste another 6 months to implement and dont hire another contractor to do this job..

greynicolls said:
don't know if it is true or not......

about a month back i made my boss call pbec......

and they said the same thing that they are working on a system by which atleast the employer and the attorney can get some status information
Click to expand...
 
samarthk said:
FOLKS,

I WOULD REQUEST YOU ALL TO PLEASE CUSTOMIZE THIS LETTER BEFORE SENDING IT. OTHERWISE IT WOULD BE A WASTE OF EFFORT AS THEIR RESPONSES WOULD ALSO BE CANNED ONES.


Hon. Emily Stover DeRocco,
U.S. Department of Labor,
Frances Perkins Building,
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20210


Dear Ms. DeRocco,

I have never taken it upon myself to write to a high level government official regarding immigration matters, but I'm at a loss of what else to do.

I am writing to you after giving up hope of getting any kind of information on the phenomenal delays in the Foreign Labor Certification Process.

I am an international employee working in the US for the past six and a half years. My company has a strict policy of hiring international workers only if it is unable to find suitable US workers. I am writing to you to make you aware of a situation that is happening now with respect to the Labor Certification Process that is handled by the Department of Labor.

My petition for immigration was filed in xxxx. As part of the immigration process, the Department of Labor has to certify that there is a shortage of people with a certain set of qualifications. The Labor Certification process is composed of two stages. The first stage is handled by the respective State Workforce Authority (SWA). My application was approved by them around xxxx. In the second stage, this application was then forwarded to the Department of Labor office based in Philadelphia for review.

Since xxxx, I did not hear anything about my application until xxxx. On xxxx, I received an email from my employer's lawyer mentioning that they received a 45-day Continuance Letter from the Department of Labor Backlog Elimination Center in Philadelphia about my application. The email also mentioned that the lawyer's office replied in the affirmative about keeping the application open to be processed.

After reading on the web, I found that around the June - July 2003 timeframe, the Department of Labor office in Philadelphia was shutting down and as a result no action was taken on this and hundreds of thousands of other applications that were sent to this office.

The explanation given by the Department of Labor for not acting on these applications was that they were creating two new centers called Backlog Elimination Centers, one based in Philadelphia and the other based in Dallas, which would adjudicate these applications.

What happened during the timeframe of June - July 2003 to November - December 2004 is a complete mystery?

Presently, as I understand it, there are probably more than 363,000 labor certification applications that are pending with the Department of Labor.

The two centers, one in Philadelphia and the other one in Dallas received applications from all the states. The breakdown is given on the DOL website. The link is http://www.ows.doleta.gov/foreign/times.asp.

Out of these two centers, the Dallas Center is way ahead of the Philadelphia Center. Presently, as I understand it, the Dallas Center is approving applications that were filed around December 2003 - January 2004, whereas the Philadelphia Center is stuck in November 2001 - July 2002. Moreover, to top things off, the Philadelphia Center is randomly approving applications some from applicants whose priority dates are July 2002.

There is no transparency in the process.

According to DOL, these centers were supposed to adjudicate applications based on the dates (read FIRST IN FIRST OUT) when the applications were received by the DOL.

Well, the results of the two centers speak for themselves. There is already a difference of almost two years between the two centers.

All I request is an answer from the DOL about why there is no transparency in the process and what exactly is the reason for such a long delay?

IS IT ASKING FOR A LOT TO KNOW THE STATUS OF THE APPLICATION AFTER WAITING FOR 4 YEARS AND ONE MONTH?

Besides this fact, DOL also introduced a new system to handle the labor certification process called PERM on March 28, 2005. This new process promises faster review and decision making on this extremely long process.

Now the DOL is making use of two different processes (BEC and PERM) to do the same function and that is to review labor certification applications and then accordingly decide whether to approve them or deny them.

Applicants whose applications went to the so called BACKLOG ELIMINATION CENTERS are caught between a rock and a hard place as to what to do because the rules and regulations given by the DOL with respect to maintaining the priority date if somebody decides to apply through PERM are ambiguous at best and nowadays with such widespread retrogression in the availability of visas nobody wants to loose their priority dates.

The applicants who applied through PERM are already ahead of the 363,000 or so applicants stuck in the BACKLOG ELIMINATION CENTERS.

Also mentioned on the website is the fact that the DOL estimates the entire backlog of applications would be cleared within 24-30 months with adequate resources.

Out of these 24-30 months, 12 months have already passed and it does not even look remotely close that these centers will be anywhere close to finishing off processing these applications within the timeframe given by the DOL because as I understand even the famous 45-day Continuance Letters have not been issued for all the cases.

According to DOL's initial estimates, the famous 45-day letters should have been sent to the applicants' employers/attorneys by the end of Summer 2005. Well, those estimates were very aggressive at best because according to the DOL now, the process for sending these 45-day letters should be completed by June 2006.

Since xxxx, I have not received any status information for my labor certification application. I have already waited xxxx years and xxxx months for getting a labor certification and there is still no estimate on how long I will have to wait.

It would be grossly unfair that even though I have a priority date of xxxx, somebody whose priority date is later than mine, just because their labor certification went to Dallas, or they applied through PERM, got approved earlier. They can go ahead and get in line for the I-140 and eventually the I-485 where as I would languish because of the delay in getting the labor certification.

To top this off, there is visa retrogression now which makes the whole situation even fuzzier. Now dates for getting permanent residence have gone back to applications that were filed in March 2001.

Please note that between the time when a petition is filed and it is approved, the law doesn't allow the petitioners to change job descriptions. In other words, I have to pass any promotions offered at my job. I have already put my career on hold by declining the promotions offered to me because of this very reason.

All I request of you is that there be some information forthcoming from the DOL as to why are there such differences between the two centers and, if possible, there be some estimate as to when will there be some progress from the Philadelphia Backlog Elimination/Accumulation Center on my application.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Sincerely,
Click to expand...


My humble opinion:

The letter should be shortened. It should not have more than 3 paragraphs. No one is going to read long letters.
 
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