*******TRANSCRIPT of DEPOSITION - PAUL PIERRE********

Rajiv S. Khanna

Rajiv S. Khanna

HOST, Immigration.Com
Staff member
See attached.

The govt. (and we) will review it for errors and an errata sheet will be attached.

I need your input for future questions and documents. Can one person please volunteer to compile all of the questions and docs we need to ask and email it to me. I will start working on the second deposition.
 
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Best part...

Thanks Rajiv..

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Q. Sir, why does it take three years for an employment based 485 to be processed?
MR. KLINE: I'm going to object to the question. There is nothing in the record that shows that it takes -- nothing in the record of this deposition that shows that it takes three years. The witness can answer it if he can, but you cannot assume that that's necessarily true.

MR. KHANNA: I can rephrase the question.

BY MR. KHANNA:
Q. How long does it take on average for an employment based 485 to be processed?
A. That would vary by center. It would vary by the time in which you are asking.

Q. All right. What is your processing dates in the four service centers this month?
A. That's available somewhere. I don't have it off the top of my head.

Q. Generally one year, two years, three years?
A. It varies by center.

Q. Is it less than one year in every center?
A. No, it's not.

Q. Is it more than two years in every center?
A. Not every center. In some centers it's less than three years. In some centers it's more. I would have to look it up to see what it is right now. I think it's available on the web as well.
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what do they mean by saying there is no proof that 485 takes 3 years?

isn't it obvious from their processing times. i mean they say that this type of case takes ~850 days to process blah blah blah. isn't that enough? thanks.
 
Rajeev Sir,

Thanks for so much effort. I would suggest please throw a couple of pointers to members here like Cronin memo, AC-21, Ohata memo - so that people can put their qeuries.

I have following for Ms. Ohata:

1. The Ohata memo states that it is effective upon signing and that service centers are allowed 30 days time to make changes/adjustments for implementing it. Till now we have not seen any wave of concurrent approvals. How long does she thinks it is going to take before we see any such thing happening?

2. Mr. Paul Pierre 'thinks' that EB2 has less adjudicative issue - that is the reason CSC chose EB2 for pilot program. How is that, in that case EB2 dates are always lagging behind in 140 stage in VSC?

3. How do people benefit from AC-21 in case 140 and 485 is adjudicated concurrently? Can a law superseed a memo?

4. In case Ohata memo is going to be in place on date MM/DD/CCYY, will the people who have filed 6 months before this date not get any benefit? Will they be considered backlogged? If not so then howabout AC21 for them?

5. What is difference in process for VSC 140 of EB2 and EB3, which causes a large gap in their processing time(EB3 takes less time)?

6. What is the rational of giving benefit of concurrent adjudication to folks who filed later to those who are in queue for a longer time?(I might benefit from it - but I think it will be selfish to think like that). Is all this exercise meant for a statistical fooling?

7. Now as USCIS takes concurrently filed 140/485 as single case - the backlog seems to have reduced. What could be the figure without such gimmick in terms of number?

8. For NSC, 140s processing have stopped altogether, however singly filed cases are getting approved in a couple of weeks. If PTR is the measure of activities then why some cases are done much ahead of rest of the lot?

9. How long does she thinks a person should wait for green card, if person satisfies all norms set by law of the land? (Estimate and not speculation :) )

10. Do they understand that without FP they cannot adjudicate 485? Or are they planning alternative to it? This is very relevant in terms of VSC, where getting FP is a news!
 
Q

1: AC-21. It is clear that USCIS is violating the Congress mandate for AC-21 and Portability.
2: It is clear that USCIS is not meeting the Immigration numbers per INA and EB Immigration.
3: It is clear that USCIS is violating the Federal Administrative Procedure Act.
Timely, consistent, fair, high quality and within "reasonable time" processing.

Questions:

1: Does USCIS follow and respect other relevant Federal laws and regulations in policy of issuing their own memos?
For example, AC-21 and Ohata memo?
2: Does the Homeland Security Act clearly state that the Backlogs should be eliminated in a year?
3: The DHS Act established the Ombudsman’s office. What is the level of cooperation between the two?
Why USCIS is not answering the Ombudsman’s office within the 45 days for customer complains?
4: Is there any study, effort or mandate to fulfill the INA numbers for EB immigrant numbers?
5: Is ETHICS being taught in USCIS from top to bottom? If not why not?
6: Is USCIS aware of the Federal Administrative Act? If yes, how does it follow up with FIFO processing?
How many different I-485 product lines did USCIS create and why? Pilot, concurrent, non-concurrent, valid first FP, valid second FP, etc.
What is the definition of the Processing Date ?
7: If Resources is one of the problems then why not ask for more money from Congress?
Is the fee increase adequate and why? Why not from before the GAO study?
Do the GAO studies have any impact on USCIS procedures and policies?
IS USCIS relying on employee productivity increase by 20-30% to meet the Backlog reduction plan?
8: Does USCIS understand that Security and Backlogs are incompatible to National Security? i.e. terrorists and other bad apples should be found as fast as possible and deported. NOT linger in the country for years for repeated FPs.
9: IBIS. What is the validity of an IBIS check? How often is it done? Who is doing it? How many times the CIA is doing their own name checks?
10: Finger prints: Does USCIS need more ASC? Did they ever put the Mobile ones on the road? Who gets priority for FPs?
The first one, the second (expired) one and why? What about between other categories, like family, asylees, etc.
What is the number of persons that do not go for their first FP?? And how that affects the backlog!
11: Is USCIS developing their own Fraud unit? How good is it? Are they following any Gao recommendations?
Are there any initiatives under way for “low risk applicants”, “low risk companies”, fast-track methods and procedures and who qualifies?
12: Does a FOIA request contain all steps and information, including security checks?
13: What was the last time the EXPEDITE criteria were revised for all Service Centers? Why not uniform?
Post 09/11 they need to be revised to reflect the Backlogs and problems faced by applicants.
14: Why processing times vary by Center, by so much and also vary by Consular processing doing same security checks?
What is this LUD? Dusting or mold removal? (during the break!)
15: Security Checks. Other agencies have no real backlog problems with 99% of cases? Right?
How often the machines break?
How often the adjudicators break? (ill, sick, on leave, late)
16: Coca-Cola and Disney (page 35) are not federal agencies dealing with real people and real lives. Besides they report to share holders. Who does USCIS report to?
 
Mr. Khanna,

Here are some Statistical Jargon. I left a voice mail to you. By profession I am well versed with Six Sigma Terminology.
1) Sampling Plan - To check how the process is working, the sampling plan is drawn. The Sampling Plan is such that the sample represents the population. So we should ask for their sampling plan. If they say yes they have sampling plan that means the data they give you represents most of the cases.

2) Capability Study - Capability study gives the mean of generally 30 pieces with standard deviation. If the Capability Study is done for a long period of time it is called PERFORMANCE of the process. So we should ask not for average but the performance of the process. But since they don't have data, that means they are twidling their fingure all the time. We should request them to collect data at least now.It is for their benefit.

3) I think in most of the places you have asked for worse case. And they didn't answer that. I see the game going on their. I think you should ask time for best case with no hurdle, time for worse case with all the hurdle. And case with different hurdle taking one at a time. (I know in discussion they said they only know one problem - that is ability to pay. I could have told more than what they told. Again I know the politics going on their) And you will see that they will shot on their leg. What we can see in public is Pilot Program 75 days and Normal way 600+ days of adjucation. Such a huge differnce in time. How can USCIS justify that. What differnec it make in cases that they can proces in 75 days rather than 600 days.

More later.
 
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1) How does USCIS post estimated processing time for I-485 on the internet site when they don't have the data. That means they are playing with the emotion of the people.

2) How do they justify the difference in time between Pilot Program and Normal Cases.
 
why should I140 be kept pending

with I 485 in concurrent applications when other two typical applications I131 and I 765 can be processed and approved as is clear from this deposition. It just makes no sense to me! Any one see any reason?
 
Are we going to ask if there are any performance norms for the resources involved in the adjudication and how the compliance to these norms is supervised.
Thus if a case is assigned for adjudication is a time limit provided for the officer or can he go play golf and come back after days to adjudicate a single case. How is an individual case being tracked to ensure it does not slip out of the cracks. ?
 
early FP

If we go for FP to some ASC in the country, without receiving an FP notice from BCIS, is it considered Illegal?

Will it affect our 485 process?



This way, we can save some time and resources for the BCIS to schedule our FP
 
If 140 is filed for two employees of the same company in the same category (EB3) requiring same skill set, why are some cases adjudicated and some still pending? When the website claims they are processing Feb 28, 2004 EB3 cases at VSC, why are half the applications filed in November and December 2003 still pending while others from same company filed in March 2004 are approved? It's the same company, so the ability to pay should be same for all applicants in that company. Its same category, EB3. It's the same skill set e.g. Java, C++. Then why the difference?

What do the Feb 28, 2004 dates on the official website mean when applications filed in November and December 2003 have not even been "touched" after they were filed? These are facts and not speculations.
 
Progress in dates

I do not know if this question can be of anyhelp. But can we ask them their plan to reduce processing times to under 6 months by the end of 2006? For them to reach that target, they need to be processing around 4 months of applications in a given month, but they hardly process even a month's worth of applications over a period of 6 months? How can they then remove the backlog in 2.5 years?
 
Dear Mr. Rajiv,

I would like to ask finger print issue about kids:

Finger prints:

Why USCIS is not issuing any FP notice (1st) in advance during I-485 process for the dependent kid(s) as soon as they turned to 14 years or above????

Since they were below 14 years of age when I-485 application filed.

I think, currently, they don't have such provision in their system. They are issuing FP notice when you go for the interview (happend to me..which again added no. of days/months to my backlog period) or passport stamping.

Thank you!
 
Folks - I'm kinda new to this forum, although I've been cheering from the sidelines for a while now. One thing that makes me wonder, is: if there ARE significant differences between I-485 classes (as INS seems to allege), why exactly the same form is used for each and every one of these? Even though the answer may be obvious for the forum members, I believe this question needs to be asked explicitly - resulting in either acknowledgement of the fact that there are no major differences or in elucidating WHAT those differences are (and perhaps tayloring the class accordingly).

And Mr. Khanna - thanks for fighting this fight for all of us.
 
Question about RFE & Finger Prints

Why don't they issue RFE and Finger Prints (second time) at the same time?

Here is the example:

First Finger Prints done in November 2002:

Finger Prints expired after 15 months. i.e. in the month of February 2004

Got RFE in the first week of March 2004.

Responded to the RFE and INS received the RFE in the last week of March 2004.

INS then issues 2nd Finger Prints in the first week of May 2004.


When they issue an RFE don't they know the Finger Prints are expired and they should issue the Finger Prints notice.

Why do they wait until they receive RFE and then issue Finger Prints after one month or two months?

Doing so are they not delaying the processes?

Why can't they issue the RFE and Finger Prints at the same time when they know that the fingerprints are expired?
 
Document that can be Requested?

We should ask for the Document (SOP) which tells about how they process I-485 once they receive an RFE and FingerPrints-2nd.

There are lot of variations in processing the I-485's that have been RFE'ed:

1. I485's are not approved appropriately even though they receive RFE and FingerPrints.
2. They are approving some cases in two weeks, some cases in two months and some cases are not touched at all.
 
Question: On the 485 receipt, there is a projected processing time and a maximum processing time. Except for recent applications, where the processing time is 990-999 days, most 2002 applicants are past their due time (300 days, 750 days, etc.). Now, this receipt could be considered a contract. If so, shouldn't there be some consequence to breaking the terms of the contract?
 
Please do not limit to specific scenarios. We should ask them for SOPs why there is variability in processing of similar cases which could include concurrently filed 140/485, 140 and 485, 485 with FP, 485 with RFE and FP, and so on.

We also need to specifically ask them to define concurrently filed cases. Are they where 140 and 485 are filed on same day or are they when 485 is filed while 140 is pending?
 
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