Received response from Senator - disappointing!

R

ruxrux

Registered Users (C)
June 21, 2004

Dear Mr and Mrs ruxrux:

Thank you for contacting Senator Dianne Feinstein regarding your pending I-485: "Application to Adjust to Permanent Resident Status".

The CIS has told me that the CSC is currently processing these types of petitions received on, or prior to, April 15 2002. According to the agency, your petitions were received on February 5, 2002.

I hope that this information is helpful and that it will clarify the situation for you. If you have further questions, or if there is any way the Senator's office can help you in the future on other federal matters, I hope you will contact us again.

Sincerely
S.L.
Constituent Services Representative
------------------------------------------------------------

Oh my goodness. I wrote to her telling her that they are processing April 15 2002 and my case is February 5th and she just repeats it like a parrot.
Does it say "STUPID" on my forehead?

Has anyone gotten the same response? Anyone knows if there's any good doing a follow-up?
 
My God, I just plan to send the letter to them

My God, I just plan to send the letter to them,now it seems it is also useless.
 
I'm sorry ruxrux! That's too bad. It looks whatever we do, we cannot expedite our cases. They will process them when they want to do it. :(
I wanted to write to them also, but after this answer..... forget it...

WAC-02-103
ND-02/05/2002
 
The problem is you have to convince them of the urgency of your case. Send another letter, that contains both your original letter and the letter they sent you, along with what it is exactly that you want them to do.

The problem is that working for a Senator/Congressman is a very low paying job. Usually taken on by interns who are interested in getting into politics themselves. So usually there is a high turnover and the people there aren't up to speed on most things they can do.

What you want to explain in your letter is, how they should proceed. That they should instanciate an inquiry and if possible request adjudication since your case falls within the JIT.

Off the topic, I thought the JIT has moved to May 2002. Or am I wrong?
 
A case worker at Congressional office can just ask your status check to Congressional Relations at the CSC.
Also, they are overloaded.

I recommend to ask a specific issue on your case.
 
TO: 140_takes_4ever;

> The problem is that working for a Senator/Congressman is a very low paying job. Usually taken on by interns who are interested in getting into politics themselves. So usually there is a high turnover and the people there aren't up to speed on most things they can do.

In my impression, Stella Lyazer at Dianne Feinstein's San Francisco office has been doing a good job.
However, one has to request her very specifically.

> Off the topic, I thought the JIT has moved to May 2002. Or am I wrong?

JIT was moved to 5/15/2002 on 6/15/2004 at AILA but on 6/23/2004 at USCIS official web site.
Her letter was written on 6/21/2004, so it should be acceptable.
 
now you know for whom not to vote

ruxrux,

do you think you will vote for senator Feinstain when you get you citizenship?
 
Contacting them seems useless

I had written a detailed mail to Congressman Honda 5 weeks back - no response. Two weeks back I wrote to both senators and it seems I will receive the same response. The letter that ruxrux received is a standard template with dates inserted - nobody there apparently read the letters before mailing to make sure how ridiculous they may sound (true they are busy and overloaded).

Not that I hoped anything would change or improve as a result of these inquiries/requests by me, but just to convince myself I had left no stone unturned.

WAC 02 138*
 
Ruxrux

My first responses had this character. I'm not sure how many letters you've written to her before you got this response, but I'm going to encourage you to keep going...

If it was me, I would write and thank her for her response. Then I would diplomatically point out to her that you find it confusing (some word that expresses surprise but not anger) that the JIT is past your case and yet your case has not been processed. Can she get an explanation from the CSC about what the relationship between the JIT date and cases processing is? (You could even work in how that type of feedback is more generally important to the immigrant community and would make good on Aguirre's promise to deliver more feedback to USCIS "customers" such as yourself).

I think from there, you could ask her to get an estimate of how long after the JIT date moves past your case before you should expect a decision.

Start a more comprehensive dialog with her would be my recommendation.

Think of it this way, your goal with the Senators is to be the largest file on her desk. Each time a letter comes in, she files it with your previous ones. When she can't get them all into a small file folder is probably when you've become someone who really cares about an issue. They've got 54 million constituents, so I am sure that file size counts in selection!

Moreover, the reason I stress kindness, is because I was told by one immigration person at a Congressperson's office that they absolutely filter for polite, well-written letters, they get so many that they don't have to response to agressive rude letters. Politeness is the key!

Good luck

becky
 
Actually becky they have to respond to each and every letter sent to them, atleast that is what Congresswoman Eshoo told me. But I guess the amount of response/assistance you get will depend upon the tone. :) After all they are only human. More likely to sympathize with a well written sob story, and respond more effectively to a point well made.

I favour the personal touch, send a couple of mails, follow it up with a phone call/in person meeting. Get them to know you and your problem.

Also, I think it is easier to work with Congress representative's office as compared to a Senators. Just because a Senator's office has a much larger case load.
 
Ruxrux,

I wish you approval before you'll get the second response from them!!!
Since this response took more than a month, even you write one more letter to them, you probably won't get any answer before August, 2004. I hope your case will be approved before August!

Good luck buddy!

WAC-02-103
RD 02/05/2002
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. We'll write a new letter, to Stella Lyazer, keeping in mind politeness and we'll ask if she could see what's the correlation between JITs and actual processing time. Unfortunately, we did not make a copy of our first letter.
I'll keep you posted.
 
Just now checked their web site. It seems that Stella Lyazer is going to be on vaction for 3 months. You need to contanct other rep.

Stella LyazerSan Francisco On Leave July 6TH -
October 4TH 2004.
 
ruxrux,

I initiated inquiry with SF office of Senator Feinstein regarding my I485 case back in May 12, 2004 sending her e-mail, complaining about slow processing.

On May 14, 2004 I got response to my e-mail stating that they will continue raise my concerns with Eduardo Aguirre.

Same day, May 14 I sent via FAX (CC: Stella Lyazer) signed "Assistance Request" to help me with the getting the status of I485.

One month later (June 8) (after not hearing anything back) I called the office and has been told to resend the FAX, which I did.

Two week after that I received response by snail mail, saying that the office initiated inquiry and I should expect response in 6-8 weeks.

So far I got no feedback, although my LUD changed couple days ago (without status change).

Myxa,_
 
Kashmir, I checked at AILA website the JIT still 05/15

kashmir said:
TO: 140_takes_4ever;

> The problem is that working for a Senator/Congressman is a very low paying job. Usually taken on by interns who are interested in getting into politics themselves. So usually there is a high turnover and the people there aren't up to speed on most things they can do.

In my impression, Stella Lyazer at Dianne Feinstein's San Francisco office has been doing a good job.
However, one has to request her very specifically.

> Off the topic, I thought the JIT has moved to May 2002. Or am I wrong?

JIT was moved to 5/15/2002 on 6/15/2004 at AILA but on 6/23/2004 at USCIS official web site.
Her letter was written on 6/21/2004, so it should be acceptable.
Click to expand...
 
dima66a said:
do you think you will vote for senator Feinstain when you get you citizenship?
Click to expand...

Who knows if she'll still be in politics when this happens... if yes, I'll vote for her.
 
ruxrux,

I got a similar response from Senator Ensing's office. Then I had a chance to talk to the caseworker in
the Senator's office after she sent me the letter.

I told her that I thought it was a polite way for the Senator to tell me that he was not interested in
my or my partner's vote. I also mentioned, as you are I am EB2 and teach, that I could use the
letter for my teaching (grammatical errors, not answering questions I asked, etc.) to show my students
as a sample of bad writing. She denied my assertion that the Senator was not interested. It also
seems that she was fired up by my comments and became more responsive to my requests.
Of course, that does not mean that the CSC will approve my case anytime soon or that I will not use
the letter as an example of bad writing.
 
Oh well, I'll try contacting them again, but the girl who sent me the letter is on a 3-month long vacation, so I won't have the opportunity to tell her what I think. I'll just write up another one, of similar content, but it'll be more specific as to what I expect of them. I still have the other Senator's answer pending....
 
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