This is how congressman/senator helps you

VSC Expedite Procedures: Expedites may be requested either by direct telephone contact with an Immigration Information Officer (IIO) at the VSC, or in special circumstances through the local Office. In the former instance, an applicant/petitioner or his representative provides the IIO with information relevant to the form type and the reason for seeking expeditious treatment. The IIO will record the information and immediately take the request either to the appropriate Assistant Center Director, the Deputy Director, or directly to the Center Director. If approved the IIO will contact the requester and provide instructions for courier delivery. If the application or petition has already been filed, the Product Line Manager will assign a Supervisory Center Adjudications Officer to locate the file for referral to a designated adjudication officer. Congressional requests are treated in the same manner.
 
Expeditious Handling Requests:
The VSC has always been strict with respect to approving requests for special processing. Nevertheless, we do approve over 20 cases each week for expeditious handling. Individuals seeking expeditious handling must call the Center to request an expedite at (802) 527-4913.
 
I have found this part from a website, http://britishexpats.com/arch/57/2002/5/108139

I have contacted my congressman after VSC has been jerking me around for months. In
my experience contacting my congressman did not do anything, except my case was
shifted to Congressional Liaison Office (CLO). After that you can't even get the
status of your application calling VSC - they refer you to your congressman. When I
called VSC, they told me to contact CLO, if I want to get any status information.
When I called the CLO, I was told to never call them again, they cannot talk to me,
since I am not a congressman, and I should call my congressman, if I want to know
anything about the status of my case, or what I could do to speed it up. Does this
all mean that all the cases transferred to the CLO become inaccessible through the
general Information Officer computers? I do not know. Senator Hillary Clinton did not
do anything, other than saying she got my letter.

The only thing that helped tremendously was contacting the Service Center Operations
Division. This office apparantly supervises the operations of ALL dis-Service
Centers, as I call them. I got their number and called, and than sent a letter with
particulars of my case. My K-1 application was approved 2 days after that. To my
knowledge that seems to be the only thing that can help. I hope this helps you decide
whether to contact your local reps or not. Good luck.
 
There is an office of INS to handle congressional request

Office of Congressional and Public Affairs. This office will provide liaison with Congress, the media, and external "stakeholders." Within the agency and with the Dept. of Justice and Office of Management and Budget, Congressional and Public Affairs will coordinate the development of legislation and agency views on pending legislation. The office will also advise the INS commissioner on legislative matters and coordinate hearings and meetings with congressional offices. This office will also provide congressional offices with responses to case-related inquiries.
 
http://www.murthy.com/UDnscam.html

Impact of Congressional Involvement

People sometimes turn to their Representative or Senator for assistance in resolving a problem or delay with an INS application. Generally there is an aide in the Representative's or Senator's office who deals with immigration issues, and there are special telephone lines at the INS Service Centers for Congressional inquiries.

There are differences of opinion as to whether, and to what extent, Congressional involvement can help in a case, and NSC officials were asked for their views on this question. The reply was that it can help expedite a case, but does not affect the actual outcome of the case.
 
what's Service Center Operations??

never heard about it.

dengdeng, did you try it, the Service Center Operations
Division?? accoring to that guy, it helped, who had the contact info ?
 
yoda, if you're reading this thread, it seems each local office has a congressional liasion office too. So probably you should contact the congressman's office and see if they can intervene to give you an early interview
 
In addition to the congressional help. One can do this to resolve complicated problems.

AILA(American immigration laywer association) will have liasion officer. It seems they have direct contacts with all service center. If your application was dealyed considerable amount of time or in critical conditions your lawyer (should be member of this organization) should contact them.

I heard they are helpful.
 
EXPEDITE

Originally posted by dengdeng
This is negative side of contacting senators, but this was in 1997, things could change after that

http://www.rreeves.com/pub_082.htm
Click to expand...

dengdeng,
I thought you were collecting stories instead. Very interesting research that shows both sides of the issue. It may hurt, it may help, or just do nothing. If it helps, it may expedite one's case based on a VALID arguement. In our case, we just do not care if we do it as a media campaign, to let Congress act on something. For individual contacts, frankly is an open question.
However, if somebody has an issue, one can request EXPEDITE through other means, not Congress. It would be very interesting to get somebody's story based on the VSC EXPEDITE PROCEDURE. The following is from "Murthy".

Criteria for Expediting Cases with INS

Most of the Service Centers of the INS have, from time to time, enunciated
their criteria to accept certain cases for expedited treatment. From time to
time, our U.S. employer clients and individuals request us to prod the INS
to approve cases on an expedited basis because of certain pressing needs.
Since the amount of time and resources spent on determining and
adjudicating cases for expedited decisions are higher than allowing the
case to be processed in the standard time frame as detailed from time to
time by the INS and posted by the Law Office of Sheela Murthy, such
requests are strongly discouraged by the INS and should be used sparingly
by the U.S. employer or the affected foreign national.

Recently, the Vermont Service Center of INS has indicated the criteria it
uses in expediting cases. The criteria vary slightly from one INS Service
Center to another, but are basically similar in all INS Service Centers.

The VSC will consider expediting a case in the following situations :

a) an urgent humanitarian situation, for example when the beneficiary of a
relative petition is a minor child lacking adequate supervision;

b) a sudden emergency which is not the petitioner's fault, for example when
a member of a musical group falls ill and an immediate visa is needed for a
replacement;

c) when severe harm or loss would result from not deciding a petition within
a particular time, and there is no other remedy possible (most companies
could argue this point but the threshold appears to be higher to satisfy in
this situation);

d) when an error by INS has caused a delay; or

e) other factors, for example a child being about to turn 21 years of age
(age out cases).

One expedite issue on which Service Centers appear to vary is the 6 year
limit on H-1Bs. In a liaison meeting with AILA, the Nebraska Service Center
has said recently that a beneficiary reaching the 6-year limit on stay is not
a basis for expediting an I-140 Immigrant Visa Petition. In contrast, at VSC
such a situation has a chance of being considered, on a case-by-case
basis, under the "other factors" category, above. Approval of an expedite
may not be guaranteed in this situation, but at least it will be considered,
especially if the employer can also show the likelihood of severe harm or
financial loss if the case is not expedited (see factor c above).

VSC on its Expedite Policy

Many visitors to the MurthyForum and MurthyDotCom ask whether
anything can be done to speed up the processing of their cases. Usually,
expedited processing is only available in limited circumstances. Generally,
expedites are not available on those cases for which the Premium
Processing Program (PPP) is available, unless involving a nonprofit
employer.

The Vermont Service Center (VSC) issued its guidance regarding expedite
requests on July 8, 2003. This information was published in the
MurthyBulletin at the time. See, our October 27, 1999 article, Criteria for
Expediting Cases with INS, archived on MurthyDotCom, as an example.
This information is the most recent policy of VSC on expedited processing.

Before VSC will consider a request for expeditious handling, there must be
extreme extenuating circumstances creating a hardship to the petitioner or
applicant. As mentioned, if PPP is available, VSC takes the position that a
conversion to Premium Processing should be made instead.

The following limited criterion has been established by VSC. These criteria
are similar to those of the other Regional Service Centers:

humanitarian situation, such as a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent
Resident who petitions for a relative who is requiring medical
treatment;

extreme emergent or unforeseen circumstances, such as a
nonimmigrant petition for a musician who is suddenly stricken ill and
needs to be replaced;

severe financial loss to a company or individual, if the loss will be to
a U.S. entity and no other remedy exists;

a Service error that has delayed processing or the receipt of a lawful
benefit;

Department of Defense or National Interest situation, which must
originate from an official U.S. governmental entity;

nonprofit status of the requesting organization, where cultural and
social interests of the United States would be furthered; and

compelling interest of the Service.

If an applicant, beneficiary, or petitioner meets one of the above criteria,
s/he should consult an immigration attorney to determine whether an
expedite request would be appropriate. Then submit the request with the
underlying documentation to the VSC and, if they accept the case for
expedited processing, the case will be assigned to an immigration officer
for handling instead of waiting for the normal processing timeframes. Since
expedites are in the discretion of the particular Service Center, they are
used sparingly, so it is best not to expect the expedited request to be
approved when anticipating a decision on a case.
 
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