Below is the letter I sent to the office of ombudsman on 07/06/04 as a part of my once a week letter to their office. Think it can count towards this campaign.
The text is mostly a mix of ruxrux letter and dsatish's letter to congressman.
Kashmir, thanks for starting this thread.
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cisombudsman@dhs.gov,
CISO@DHS.gov,
Prakash.Khatri@dhs.gov
Subject : Unfair I-485 Processing at the VSC
Dear CIS Ombudsman Prakash Khatri;
My name is <my name here> and my family's I-485 case has been pending at CIS Vermont Service Center (VSC) for over 24 months.
I am a member of ImmigrationPortal.org, a non-profit organization formed by members of legal immigrant community, who intend to voice their concerns about and help contribute towards legal immigration reform in the United States of America.
I would like to draw your attention to the excruciatingly slow and random progress of I-485 applications (Green Card applications) at the Vermont Service center. Here are the two major troubles that immigrationportal.org members face:
1. Random Processing
We agree that each application has a unique history and hence there will be some differences in adjudicating times for different applications. But what we are seeing is not just some difference in timelines for applications filed at the same time, but in most of the cases, the difference in adjudicating times are just beyond comprehension. We have several members who have filed their applications in 2001 and still waiting for adjudication where as we started seeing many approvals for people who have filed their applications only in 2003. On any given day, we are seeing the simultaneous adjudications for people who have filed the I485 applications in a range of 18 months.
2. Showing the incorrect Current Processing Date
The VSC is showing the current processing date for I485 applications as 04/17/2002. Daily, through the postings of our members, we have been noticing that the actual adjudication of applications is taking place for applications received anywhere between January’2002 and October’ 2003. When an applicant who is waiting for more than 1 year for the adjudication, approaches his/her congress man, US CIS is gets back to the congress man that they are currently processing application received on or before 04/17/2002 and they can not process applications out of turn. This is factually incorrect. Obviously US CIS is using the current processing date as a tool to prevent intervention of congress men/senators or any enquiry into long pending cases, like mine, to render justice to the suffering applicants and their families.
If at all any reply is received it simply states "Please allow sufficient time to adjudicate your application". This is a highly frustrating generic answer, especially after seeing 2003 applicants being approved under the various programs.
I kindly ask you on behalf of ImmigrationPortal.org and me to do what is in your power to inquire why is VSC approving I-485 cases in such unfair manner.
<Name>
<Address>
<Contact #>
