Originally posted by thecrown007
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-omb06.html
Khatri will meet with resident immigrants in a public session at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Erie Neighborhood House, 1347 W. Erie
Originally posted by thecrown007
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-omb06.html
The newly appointed Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services ombudsman -- a watchdog who hopes to turn around poor customer service and slow visa processing within the nation's largest federal bureaucracy -- will visit Chicago this weekend to hear immigrants' complaints and visit the district offices of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"One of my key goals is to ensure we do provide for the consumer a First World service in a First World country," said Prakash I. Khatri, appointed ombudsman in July by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
Khatri will report to Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary James Loy and said he is confident that his position "will allow for substantial long-term influence in terms of policy."
Khatri, 41, is an immigration attorney from Florida who recently worked as manager of immigration and visa processing for Walt Disney World, where he developed a highly regarded, automated, high-volume visa processing system. He has represented clients from 100 countries and provided visa processing consulting services to corporate clients.
As ombudsman, Khatri will assist immigrants and employers in resolving problems with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, identify problem areas and propose needed changes in BCIS policy and procedure. He will also make annual recommendations to Congress.
One of Khatri's priorities will be reducing the backlog of pending cases, which grew by 34 percent between June 2002 and June 2003.
"The first and foremost priority is to provide better service. With [a] dramatic reduction, a very large number of complaints would no longer be coming in,'' he said.
Khatri wants to eliminate excessive regulations and speed up the processing of permanent residents' visa card replacements, as well as family-based and employment-based visa petitions.
"Many years of very detailed, self-imposed procedures and regulations have created an overabundance of requirements which have nothing to do with security,'' Khatri said. "Some regulations need to be revisited and changed so we can move forward."
Khatri will meet with resident immigrants in a public session at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Erie Neighborhood House, 1347 W. Erie
Originally posted by feb6361
I think, BCIS started to behaving more like an Indian goverment after Mr. Prakash Khartri got appointed. Did you guys noticed that? It become worst after july 2003 and seems like will become more and more worst.
Originally posted by Edison
Write to Staff Reporter
Lets mail our petition to the reporter of that News article.
ANA MENDIETA - amendieta@suntimes.com
Originally posted by Raj Chandra
Not sure of what is the use of meeting resident immigrants, but he has to meet the legal non immigrants who are waiting for the GC approval for more than 2 years and hear them.
My thoughts...
Originally posted by Rsur
and will be attending this seminar with as many fellow 485'ers i can muster. Will update this thread with my impressions.
Originally posted by Edison
Write to Staff Reporter
Lets mail our petition to the reporter of that News article.
ANA MENDIETA - amendieta@suntimes.com
Originally posted by feb6361
Edision,
I have few more suggestions:
(1) Send this note and pettion also to the editors of all the major news papers in U.S. and request to publish article on BCIS.
(2) Send this note and pettion to all major TV network like FOX/ CNN/ABC/NBC to give coverage on their prime network Like Paul o'rally on FOX about the BCIS issues.
I don't think contacting others like congressman or president or Prakash Khatri will get resolve our issue since they only care for CITIZEN or Illigal or PERMANANT RESIDENCE issues.
If any major news paper or tv network will bring this to public then this people will give more attention.
You can add one more point that president is giving citizenship those who take part in war. What about H1B workers who took part in winning Y2K War?
Hope you will get my point here.
Thank you.
Originally posted by vidongre
But after reading the news, looks like the whole event is mainly focusing the latino population (pardon me for discrimination - but most of them are illegal).
'The Erie Neighborhood House' where the Saturday event is going to take place, mainly supports the low income immigrants. Here's it's website -
http://www.eriehouse.org/
Recently there've been some cases in Chicago where latino immigrants with no SSN were denied services by a utility company (Peoples Energy) and then it's a big political issue now....
God! Can someone help us legal immigrants!!!
Originally posted by vidongre
But after reading the news, looks like the whole event is mainly focusing the latino population (pardon me for discrimination - but most of them are illegal).
'The Erie Neighborhood House' where the Saturday event is going to take place, mainly supports the low income immigrants. Here's it's website -
http://www.eriehouse.org/
Recently there've been some cases in Chicago where latino immigrants with no SSN were denied services by a utility company (Peoples Energy) and then it's a big political issue now....
God! Can someone help us legal immigrants!!!