601 Cases filed in Montreal or Vancouver are being sent to Vermont Service Center for adjudication. This process is taking 6 months, 12 months and even 2 years.
This issue has become important in light of a ONE DAY PROCESS pilot project recently started
for adjudicating 601s at the US Consulate in Juarez, Mexico (CDJ).The US Consulate in Mexico was already processing local 601s locally. They were not sending them off to any USCIS Service center inside US.
The US Consulates in Canada, on other hand, send off locally filed 601s to Vermont Service Center. This process is taking 6 months, 12 months and even 2 years.
This is NOT working out to the advantage of US citizens and it must change today.
Pilot Project in Mexico:
----------------------------
The US consulate in CDJ has started a ONE DAY PROCESS pilot program especially for 601s. The administrator over there, some nice fellow named Warren Jenson, not only talks to lawyers but also personally responds to inquiries from petitioners rather promptly.
New successfully-waived-in-one-day'ers have logged their excitement on internet.
Need 601 moved from Vermont to Montreal:
----------------------------------------------------
I wish the US consulate in Montreal can start processing 601s locally at their building in Montreal. That would keep the problem local, off-load Vermont, and give more status insight to filers. This is clearly being demonstrated by the pilot project for 601s at CDJ Consulate in Mexico and by the US consulate in London, UK where they are providing online helpful processing insight to local 601 filers.
Sending each and every and ALL Montreal 601 files to Vermont is clearly NOT working out.
As evident from internet filings of immigration lawyer Laurel Scott, the administrator at CDJ - Warren Jenson, IS accessible from outside world for process inquiries by concerned lawyers.
Immigration lawyers DO NOT have any such access to any Vermont office 601 administrator.
The pilot project in Juarez, Mexico clearly shows that delays in Vermont are purely administrative. These 6 month, 12 month and even 2 year waits in Vermont have not much to do with the immigration difficulty of the petitioner's case. The delays are getting introduced by way of administrative priorities.
We are told that 601 decision is discretionary. So lets make it personal, like they have started to do in Mexico, and have the 601 adjudicator interview, read and decide "clearly waiveable" cases in 2 hours at the consulate building in Montreal.
If the case is not "clearly waiveable", then the officers discretion to forward it for further review would be "clearly understood" by the applicant.
I think 601 filers deserve ONE DAY response time.
Some people are clearly thinking the problem through. Despite how un-manageable the entire situation
of backlogs, delays, and priorities looks today for 601 cases, folks down in Mexico went ahead and
started something - a ONE DAY PROCESS.
I think it demonstrate a very good example of management technique.
If you cannot begin to expedite the back-end of the process then bring much efficiency to the front-end.
Regards
Full Version: Move Canadian 601s back to US Consulates
VisaJourney.com > General Family Based Immigration Topics > Waivers (I-601 and I-212) and Administrative Processes (221g)
It seems that USCIS favors the country with the most illegal aliens in the USA. 
Whoa, slow down cowboy
CDJ has been the busiest consulate in terms of processing for the past several year. It takes ONE SOLID YEAR to even get an appointment for a spousal visa. It has been averaging ONE YEAR for waiver approval with 1000 waivers received each month. Warren Janssen, the USCIS IV Waiver Officer in Charge in Ciudad Juarez and Oscar Lujan, the District Director, have been trying to find a way to reduce the backlog and deal with increase in waivers. Since USCIS will not approved additional staff, they are trying a pilot program for 1-2 days approval for waivers that are "clearly approvable" meaning simple overstay, no criminal background, etc. It's called a Pilot Program - if it is successful, it will be expanded to other consulates.
Not sure where you are getting your information, but Warren Janssen does NOT have the time to "personally respond to inquiries from petitioners rather promptly". It's virtually impossible to get a straight answer from Ciudad Juarez about anything involving the immigration process. They have not even posted information about this pilot program on their website - in fact it still states 9 months processing time since not every waiver will qualify for the new program.
BTW, ALL waivers are transferred to the local DHS office, as is the case in Ciudad Juarez. If there is no local office, they are sent to the closest office. Perhaps it's as simple as the Canadian consulates don't have a corresponding DHS office therefore they forward to Vermont? This is the case in Turkey and Greece, for example.
I totally agree with you about the one day response time and that something needs to change in Vermont as well as everywhere. But don't be confused or mislead by the test program in Ciudad Juarez -- it's a great thing for some filers but it's brand new and is in place as a solution to the enormous backlog they have.
Wouldn't common sense and logic dictate that USCIS is just trying to find a way to deal with the enormous backlog at the world's busiest consulate, regardless of the reason for the heavy workload?
CDJ has been the busiest consulate in terms of processing for the past several year. It takes ONE SOLID YEAR to even get an appointment for a spousal visa. It has been averaging ONE YEAR for waiver approval with 1000 waivers received each month. Warren Janssen, the USCIS IV Waiver Officer in Charge in Ciudad Juarez and Oscar Lujan, the District Director, have been trying to find a way to reduce the backlog and deal with increase in waivers. Since USCIS will not approved additional staff, they are trying a pilot program for 1-2 days approval for waivers that are "clearly approvable" meaning simple overstay, no criminal background, etc. It's called a Pilot Program - if it is successful, it will be expanded to other consulates.
Not sure where you are getting your information, but Warren Janssen does NOT have the time to "personally respond to inquiries from petitioners rather promptly". It's virtually impossible to get a straight answer from Ciudad Juarez about anything involving the immigration process. They have not even posted information about this pilot program on their website - in fact it still states 9 months processing time since not every waiver will qualify for the new program.
BTW, ALL waivers are transferred to the local DHS office, as is the case in Ciudad Juarez. If there is no local office, they are sent to the closest office. Perhaps it's as simple as the Canadian consulates don't have a corresponding DHS office therefore they forward to Vermont? This is the case in Turkey and Greece, for example.
I totally agree with you about the one day response time and that something needs to change in Vermont as well as everywhere. But don't be confused or mislead by the test program in Ciudad Juarez -- it's a great thing for some filers but it's brand new and is in place as a solution to the enormous backlog they have.
QUOTE(YuAndDan @ Mar 30 2007, 10:24 AM) 
It seems that USCIS favors the country with the most illegal aliens in the USA.
Wouldn't common sense and logic dictate that USCIS is just trying to find a way to deal with the enormous backlog at the world's busiest consulate, regardless of the reason for the heavy workload?
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.