Philadelphia Backlog Elimination Center Tracking

[cbejar]

I read thro some of the techworkers forum and appears that they are planning to getting other congressmen to support the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill.

I did some reading about it in http://immigration.about.com/b/a/178464.htm
it appears that the
- Bill is mainly focussed on getting Illegal immigrants legal visa.
- Don't see it mention anything about employment based immigration

What scares me most is that is sounds similar to section 245(i) which was introduced in 2002 causing all the backlogs problems we are in now.

Are we sure that this would help us. My concern is that if this is implemented all illegal immigrants will apply for I140 and a backlog similar to one we have will get created and in effect we move from labor backlog to I140 backlog.

I wish I am wrong. Your comment please

 

[eternal-lc]

what can be done

Lawmakers - senate, congress and bureacracy - DOL, CIS have done what they have done that is to create the BEC which took years of planning and then the mother of all messes. we are seeing in realtime what it is. This mess is not going to solve anything for people holding here even if visa numbers increase or if EAD is allowd soon after 140 because our lc has to come out first and given that they have approved only tens of thousands out of 400000 we never know whats the outlook is further. increasing visa number or allowing EAD will help couple of months back PERM filers and not us.

One solution for us will be to have something like what recently DOL had proposed and shocked battered souls saying automatic withdrawl of all other applications when one is approved. AILA successfully had DOL back off on that.
However, it is really a great solution if AILA can negotiate the same with DOL to allow the earliest priority date of pending LC on the approved PERM LC while all other pending LC can be cancelled or withdrawn as they had wanted after any one approval.

This will useful to people who are later date 2004, 2005 at BEC or those who just dont know the whereabouts of their LC at BEC to take advantage of auto processing and go for PERM with a date they had already been waiting for. this with a proof of new BEC case numbers( fortunately data entry is atleast prob. done close to that is) This will also relieve people who would like to continue at BEC if they are in the range of current processing dates.

 

[ichuen]

It's kinda disappointing to hear that no CA cases are being pulled and all I see are VA approvals here on this board. I hope they get to CA soon....

PD- 6/21/2002 CA RIR
RD 5/5/03
45 days letter 2/3/05
and still waiting.....


trs

CA regional cases with PD of May 2002 and later were split between the two BECs. while Dalas forum has been reporting CA approvals for more than 6 months, no single case has been cleared from PBEC yet. Members with regional Cali cases with PDs as early as May 2002 could you please do a status check on your cases and post the results!! I did a check on my 2 weeks ago and status returned RIR.

CA RIR
PD June 2002
RD SF DOL May 2003
45 days letter rcvd March 2005
Status check on Sep 15 returned RIR

 

[StressTestInUSA]

Lawmakers - senate, congress and bureacracy - DOL, CIS have done what they have done that is to create the BEC which took years of planning and then the mother of all messes. we are seeing in realtime what it is. This mess is not going to solve anything for people holding here even if visa numbers increase or if EAD is allowd soon after 140 because our lc has to come out first and given that they have approved only tens of thousands out of 400000 we never know whats the outlook is further. increasing visa number or allowing EAD will help couple of months back PERM filers and not us.

One solution for us will be to have something like what recently DOL had proposed and shocked battered souls saying automatic withdrawl of all other applications when one is approved. AILA successfully had DOL back off on that.
However, it is really a great solution if AILA can negotiate the same with DOL to allow the earliest priority date of pending LC on the approved PERM LC while all other pending LC can be cancelled or withdrawn as they had wanted after any one approval.

This will useful to people who are later date 2004, 2005 at BEC or those who just dont know the whereabouts of their LC at BEC to take advantage of auto processing and go for PERM with a date they had already been waiting for. this with a proof of new BEC case numbers( fortunately data entry is atleast prob. done close to that is) This will also relieve people who would like to continue at BEC if they are in the range of current processing dates.

Yeah..we need to work up the BEC mess as much as we can with AILA. I am positive something will turn up about retrogression sooner or later. Retrogression happened back in 1990 and again now, looks like we were the most chosen ones for all this shit...

I think retrogression was done intentionally so that PERM filers and the random LC's approved cannot jump ahead of older cases. Otherwise I mentally calculated October starts with the new quota of visa dates, so definelty there shud be no retrogression so early, but it has happened. Retrogression for the time-being is nice, but this also cant continue.....

Where is Mockery is missing ?

 

[StressTestInUSA]

I read thro some of the techworkers forum and appears that they are planning to getting other congressmen to support the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill.

I did some reading about it in http://immigration.about.com/b/a/178464.htm
it appears that the
- Bill is mainly focussed on getting Illegal immigrants legal visa.
- Don't see it mention anything about employment based immigration

What scares me most is that is sounds similar to section 245(i) which was introduced in 2002 causing all the backlogs problems we are in now.

Are we sure that this would help us. My concern is that if this is implemented all illegal immigrants will apply for I140 and a backlog similar to one we have will get created and in effect we move from labor backlog to I140 backlog.

I wish I am wrong. Your comment please

They are trying out for his support for our issues because they sound a little positive for immigrants and impact about retreogression and the whole scenario of cant changing jobs and wives cant work until EAD etc..

This whole looks likes a big war to be won..!!

Even if they do the 245i scenario..it will be after us, then for guys filing after them history might repeat.. We already are carrying more than we can on our head..we want no more !!

So for all of us visiiting this forum have to do 2 things
1. chase AILA to chase DOL , otherwise we are stuck in this quicksand
2. support the techworkers forum.

 

[Pineapple]

Face it.. the biggest issue is not congress or the that all immigration discussion in the political sphere is almost exclusively about illegals.. the fact is that employment or education based immigrants for all their arguments, are too complacent and divided/lazy to take any meaningful action.
About complacency... most employment based immigrants take it for granted that Every immigration aspirant else is in the same boat and agrees with them.. Not true.. at the risk of seeming prejudiced (though I'm absulutely not), I'll give an example.. many educated people have a self righteous attitude about the whole issue without considering the percentage of illegals from their own communities.. (you'll be surprised whether you are from India or China or Korea.. just do an informal survey in your own community).. when no mass support for altering the status quo is seen from their own communities, they are disappointed.
Regarding laziness.. I had contributed 300 $ for the lobbying effort on this site... nothing came of it.. the money was returned (which I admire for the honesty).. but the point is I'd rather have an effective organisation working for me than the 300 $.
Why dont I volunteer? I'm working outside US now.. I've stopped caring where I am as long as I'm making the money.. (wisdom I was late to get)

 

[sick_of_waiting]

Our only hope is the McCain-Kennedy bill which proposes to increase number of EB immigrant visas to 290,000 from 140,000. We need to keep in mind that 140,000 is not the number of labor certification applicants who can apply. The spouse and children of labor certification applicant also get visa numbers from the same pool. Out of 140,000 visa numbers, EB3 gets 28.6% i.e., 40,040. Assume 3 visas are required for each labor certification, that means only 13,350 labor certification applicants can actually apply. Now how many labor certifications are pending...350,000...assume half are EB3 i.e., 175,000...and folks this is for everybody not only for Indians and Chinese.

The least they can do is to say that the family members get visas from some other pool just like H1-B and H4.

If McCain-Kennedy legislation is passed then

290,000/3 = 96,666
EB3 gets 35% so 33,833...
this improves the situation slightly but not a whole a lot.

Nobody knows what is happening in BEC and with the visa numbers.
Probably we will have to wait for few months before we can have a clear picture. Once all the cases in BEC is entered fully in the database, they will publish a time frame (who knows how long will it take to do that).
Also it seems like there are thousands of cases from april 2001, which still need to be adjudicated. Now does all these cases from april 2001 fall into EB3 category?
If that is true than visa numbers for EB3 will not progress at all. Now how come there are so many EB3 for april 2001?
Does anyone here know who these people are?
I don't see a lot of people in this forum with a PD of april 2001.
Also came to know from this forum that there are approximately 89500 cases pending in BEC. Now what happend to the rest of the cases?
Or this 89500 is not correct.

 

[NJfarmer]

I am in.

I will definitely sign what ever the letter to raise our voices. Please post a link. we do need to shout together.

Hi guys,

I am with you for any action that may help awareness of the backlog issue. I have tried to contact DOL, congressman and senator's office, but it would be much more effective if we can collect let's see 100 more signitures. I believe Spidey has collected some signed letters, but he stopped doing it after he got his LC approved.

I don't mind write a draft over the weekend and receive signed letters from you guys. Let's act.

 

[immi2003]

Need Urgent Opinion

Hi Everybody,

Here is the situation

I have applied my LC in May 2003 non-rir EB3 category from philadelphia. Now my 6 years has been expired this month (2005 sept). I got my labor extension based on the pending labor. I found another employer who wants to hire me. Now I have BS +6 years experience. Any opinions for the following question would be appreciated.

1) would I qualify to EB2 category?
2) Is it better to wait in EB2 category that to EB3?
3) How long do you thing EB2 retrogression will last?

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks for being patient and reading through the message.

 

[boston_LC]

I will definitely sign what ever the letter to raise our voices. Please post a link. we do need to shout together.

me too

 

[susaninj]

Let us do something about it

Mockery/StressTest and Everybody else,

I think the very first thing we need to do is a plan of action and a timeline for that so that willing people have an idea what to follow. I agree with mockery that even though retrogression is huge problem, but we are not there yet, and our primary focus should be getting our LCs approved. I agree with StressTest that chasing AILA to chase DOL is the most effective ways. The media awareness will come to little help as too few people from the mainstream will be symapthetic and it will be too little effect to pressurize DOL. We have great may points we mention like frustration of getting stuck in a job/employer for years, not knowing what is going to happen in future and thereby continuously sustaining mental agony as they do not tell us whether they are going to approve or not and just wait for years for that decision, spouses and children being in H4 visa and thereby not being able to participate in standard ways of life, problem of emergency travelling (during family needs)outside US while in 1 year extension period after 6-th year of H1b initial period, etc etc.

We can start visiting senators office in groups (people are already doing that, but group effort is always better than individual effort) and meet/video conf with AILA representatives, and there is no limit in possibilities. But we need to sort out tentatively which are going to be most effective course of plan and then establish a timeline and publish it in this group. Or we can have a separate group in yahoo as we have seen that the server hosting this group has limited resources during peak hours.

Anyways, let us do something to eliminate our pain. Whatever the group decides, I will be always be there.

 

[rollingstone]

LC substitution causing retrogression?

I can't help think that this retrogression is caused by LC substitution. I have heard stories that big companies in CA are doing labor substitution in large scale. As long as people keep jumping ahead in the queue, your turn will never come.

 

[fogman1]

For LC substitute, PD is the day filing 140, eg 2005, unless INS make mistake, such as in some cases.

Second, usually big company isn't likely to give LC subsitute. I don't see that a big concern.

I can't help think that this retrogression is caused by LC substitution. I have heard stories that big companies in CA are doing labor substitution in large scale. As long as people keep jumping ahead in the queue, your turn will never come.

 

[badluckinusa]

Labor Substitution is the biggest problem

I can't help think that this retrogression is caused by LC substitution. I have heard stories that big companies in CA are doing labor substitution in large scale. As long as people keep jumping ahead in the queue, your turn will never come.

This retrogression will be worsned by LC substitution.
Desi companies and lawyers are all against LC substitution and created a black market for selling LC's.
Labor Substitution is a big business for all Desi companies.
I heard most of the attorney's are also into this business.
As long as they make ton's of money, they will oppose banning Labor Substitution. It will never be a law.
As long as Labor Substitution is there, FIFO at any level is a joke.
God. what an unfair world it is.

 

[NJ Oct02-PD]

The bottom line...

No matter how you are going to chose, you will have to keep your current LC petition filed by your current employer since it's the only reason that you are allowed to overstay beyond your 6-year H1-B limit. It's just my personal opinion so you'd better to verify this with your attorney as well.

Hi Everybody,

Here is the situation

I have applied my LC in May 2003 non-rir EB3 category from philadelphia. Now my 6 years has been expired this month (2005 sept). I got my labor extension based on the pending labor. I found another employer who wants to hire me. Now I have BS +6 years experience. Any opinions for the following question would be appreciated.

1) would I qualify to EB2 category?
2) Is it better to wait in EB2 category that to EB3?
3) How long do you thing EB2 retrogression will last?

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks for being patient and reading through the message.

 

[njhorrors]

Interesting

This is definitely an interesting point. And here is the thing...
With labor taking loner, the average visa numbers needed per labor application will only increase !!
think about it.

Our only hope is the McCain-Kennedy bill which proposes to increase number of EB immigrant visas to 290,000 from 140,000. We need to keep in mind that 140,000 is not the number of labor certification applicants who can apply. The spouse and children of labor certification applicant also get visa numbers from the same pool. Out of 140,000 visa numbers, EB3 gets 28.6% i.e., 40,040. Assume 3 visas are required for each labor certification, that means only 13,350 labor certification applicants can actually apply. Now how many labor certifications are pending...350,000...assume half are EB3 i.e., 175,000...and folks this is for everybody not only for Indians and Chinese.

The least they can do is to say that the family members get visas from some other pool just like H1-B and H4.

If McCain-Kennedy legislation is passed then

290,000/3 = 96,666
EB3 gets 35% so 33,833...
this improves the situation slightly but not a whole a lot.

 

[StressTestInUSA]

lets start off

Can someone do something similar with the techworkers@yahoo.com. I mean create a separate yahoo group for us. I am going crazy with these BECS bastards!

Slippery...

lets start of with a yahoo group.. I think everyone is like waitng who is going to start. Someone has to start, then everyone will involve I am sure. No one wants to get stuck in BEC.

I called up Philly today and no one is willing to answer what is happening to questions like How much more data entry is ..They are saying just fax your letter etc..

I am not much of techie...but we shud be having our direct email addresses and tel # of the users initially and we will move on from there...

I cant get all the names right now..but many showed interest and concern..

 

[Days_go_by]

USCISMockerey

How about you start the group?
Unfortunaltey, I am already involved with techworkers and cannot put in a lot of time at both the places.
I will support you and work with you, I can also add our content to their site (launching soon), I can help coordinate with techworkers if need any assistance.
You have taken initiative in the past, we can get numbers, DBEC group started by GP has over 800 members and that group is not even active.
Before you say that "I have already tried and I know noone will do anything", please let me say this, we have to keep trying, we may fail again, but let's keep trying, maybe one day people will realize and help us.
Actually, you already have letters in your other thread, ( I was going to steal them for techworker's site), let's start a group, get some letters and templates, coordinate with techworkers(if we need) and start sending out lettes.
People at techworkers have sent letters to senators and a lot of them understand the problem.
If we do not put pressure on BECs they will jsut keep slacking. They will push us even further, while people with 2005 PD will sail through.

 

[ragini_nj]

How about you start the group?
Unfortunaltey, I am already involved with techworkers and cannot put in a lot of time at both the places.
I will support you and work with you, I can also add our content to their site (launching soon), I can help coordinate with techworkers if need any assistance.
You have taken initiative in the past, we can get numbers, DBEC group started by GP has over 800 members and that group is not even active.
Before you say that "I have already tried and I know noone will do anything", please let me say this, we have to keep trying, we may fail again, but let's keep trying, maybe one day people will realize and help us.
Actually, you already have letters in your other thread, ( I was going to steal them for techworker's site), let's start a group, get some letters and templates, coordinate with techworkers(if we need) and start sending out lettes.
People at techworkers have sent letters to senators and a lot of them understand the problem.
If we do not put pressure on BECs they will jsut keep slacking. They will push us even further, while people with 2005 PD will sail through.

You are right. When srinireddydgl started talking about retrogression about 6 to 8 months ago, no one was supported him but when it come through to real and now everyone is actively perticipating in the yahoo group. You will definately get support this time.. common UCCISMockery..common....

 

[cantstandit]

action plan

I think we need to first define what we want. We keep saying "I want my case to be processed", but that's way too vague.

What we should demand is HONEST INFORMATION and TRANSPARENCY, so we can plan our lives accordingly. It is what it is. If they say "we'll process 2004 in 10 years", then the 2004 applicants could make informed decisions about their lives, families, careers, etc. That's what's killing us, it's the LACK OF INFORMATION, not knowing what to expect.

This is a government agency that depends on federal funding, and the fact is they
can only do so much with whatever resources they have, and another fact is they DO HAVE 350,000 cases to review.

We can't change the reality that, for example, if a case takes 3 hours average to be adjudicated, and if we have 150,000 cases in PBEC, it WILL TAKE 450,000 MAN/HOURS to clear the backlog. If we have 80 people working, and if they work 6 hours/day, IT WILL TAKE OVER 900 days, or near FOUR YEARS to clear the backlog.

What if it’s 10 hours ? or 30 minutes ? we DON’T KNOW ! that’s the problem.

The bottomline is: there's NO MAGIC to solve the problem. In IT, when we have a big project, the only way to complete it faster is to:

- ADD MORE RESOURCES (depends on budget/funding) or
- WORK HARDER (it won't happen) or
- CHANGE THE SCOPE (in our case, they could do mass approvals instead of case-by-case review, or they could apply the PERM processing rules to our cases, making them faster)

I think the only effective strategy is:

1. define an agenda with what we need. That includes items such as:

a) meaningful progress reports. We want them to post on their website how many cases have been entered, how many adjudicated, how many resources, queue status.

b) creation of an automated status check via email. It's a very simple email response application that we could even help them with.

c) any others ?

2. create a website with our requirements, including an online petition so everybody could sign. We can give the campaign/website a name, like "becbehonest.com", or something.

3. start campaigning for our agenda. We should write the DOL about it, involve AILA, meet with senators, etc. We can deliver the petition PERSONALLY to the BEC's director.

4. once they finally release actual information, it will become evident what the REAL time will be. When it gets obvious that instead of 2 years, it will be in fact 4 or 5 or 10 years, THEN we can campaign for more resources or for a procedure change that would do mass approvals.

I'm not a web developer, so I can't develop it, but I could help with content, ideas, or even pay for the site hosting.

Any volunteers to develop the website ?