TSC 1-485 delay reason from attorney Murthy

Surya13

Registered Users (C)
Below is a latest news on TSC processing from Murthy Bulletin

MURTHYBULLETIN
VOL. IX, no. 15; April 2003, week 2
Posted : April 11, 2003

1. Murthy Takes Action : Seeking Funding for Texas Service Center

Over the past year, we have seen a number of questions on the MurthyForum and in sessions of the MurthyChat concerning the Texas Service Center's (TSC) slow processing times for employment-based I-485 applications. The TSC has repeatedly informed AILA that the reason for the delays is simply that they have a limited number of people to process all cases and do not have funds to hire sufficient adjudicators to complete the employment-based I-485 processing more quickly.

The Service Centers are assigned resources for the purpose of hiring more staff based on the amount of funding Congress previously allocated to INS and now gives to the DHS for immigration services. In the past, money has not been earmarked specifically for immigration services and a large portion of the funding went to immigration enforcement. Now that the BCIS has no enforcement functions, it is time that the immigration services receive its own, targeted piece of the funding pie.

We at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. realized that asking for faster processing times at the Texas Service Center would never be effective if we did not address the root of the problem – namely, inadequate funding for immigration services. Therefore, we have gone to the source. Last week, we sent letters to the 150 Congressional members who represent the states within the TSC's jurisdiction to request that they provide more funding to immigration related services. In these letters we have cited the employment-based I-485 processing as an area that desperately needs improvement.

It is our hope that the members of Congress who receive our letter now will be aware of this problem with immigration services funding and will sponsor legislation to put more money in the hands of the TSC for these cases to be adjudicated within a reasonable timeframe. We have expressed our willingness to work with any Congressional member who is interested in this issue.

It is imperative in this country to make our voices heard and, thus, contribute to the improvement of immigration services. Once again, we encourage each of you, also, to take the time to learn who your Congressional members are and let them know what issues are important to you. Information on Congressional members and their constituencies is available through the House and Senate websites at <http://www.house.gov/> and <http://www.senate.gov/>, respectively. You need not write to 150 Congressional members to make a difference. You may just need to contact one or two of your Senators or House members to influence U.S. immigration policy. Your eMails and letters do make a difference. At the end of each week, letters from constituents are counted and taken into account when sponsoring legislation or voting for a particular Bill to become the law. Be a part of democracy at work and let your voice be heard, loud and clear!

© The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C.

http://www.murthy.com/uktakact.html
 
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Contacted a senator

Did my 2 cents's worth. Conveyed this info to a senator...
Probably we need to identify pending immigration legislation
and make comments on it and put in the I485 issue also.
 
I am very grateful that Murthy is taking action on behalf of us. I believe this will give us motivation to do something for ourselves too. Well, start with signing and gathering as much signatures for the petition to expedite I-485 processing. We should also write letters to congressmen and INS officials to highlight the problems at Texas INS.

While I agree that funding for immigration services is one of the root cases of slowness in processing I-485 petitions, it does not explain the randomness in which I-485s are being processed, nor does it explain why it takes Texas INS more than a year to acknowledge that there is a problem with the FP scheduler.

Some of you may remember a reply from Department of Justice (from Paul Pierre, Branch Chief, Workflow and Operations Branch at Service Center Operations) to a petition we sent regarding the non-issuance of FP notices. He effortlessly dismissed that there is such problems and went on to suggest that approvals for applicants who filed later is not likely.

Excerpts of his reply:

“Unless an applicant with a pending Form I-485 had his or her application expedited, it is not likely that their application would be processed if filed on or about June 2002.”

Texas INS and Department of Justice never cease to amaze me.
 
TSC Hopeful's 2nd paragraph is very insightful. The problem with TSC is not just "few approvals", but it's "random and few approvals".

A non-immigration, but related to this post question:
Will WE be better off if TSC a) hires more people or if b) they use that extra money to give raises to the current officers?

Now, before you criticize b), I strongly recommend reading
www.missouri.edu/~econsr/jenkins_neil.pdf

May be we can share our thoughts with Ms. Murthy about the extra money usage.
 
reply

TSC Hopeful
Good points. However with the current BCIS they have created a position of Ombudsman for each service center whose job is to listen to complaints and bring it to higher authorities. Hopefully by doing what Murthy suggested (writing letters to congress person/senators) in your area the issue is well heard of. BCIS cannot dismiss this situation like they did with the random finger printing. I-485 delays are very visible just by looking at their processing times.

Bajis
I had contacted murthy’s office to see if they can help us in the I-485 delay situation before I contacted Mr. Khanna. Mr. Khanna offered assistance immediately. A few days after Mr. Khanna’s offered his help a few of Murthy’s attorneys sent me an email asking to watch their bulletin. I have the email addresses of the specific attorneys at Murthy’s that I can send whatever the folks in the forum think whether it is
www.missouri.edu/~econsr/jenkins_neil.pdf
or something else.
 
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