TSC K1 Backlog - what can we do? (For TSC non-expedites only)

[rob999 51]

Hi All,

There's been various information scattered over these forums in complaining to the government/agencies about the TSC backlog.

Now before we begin (as unfortunately there are some people who like to flame on forums), if you are happy with patiently waiting for the TSC to reach your application or a CSC applicant who won't support people in the TSC backlog please don't write any counter-productive messages here, they are not welcome or necessary. We should remember that this new chapter in our lives that should be a happy and exciting one that involves huge life changes and we are in it together!

Note: if you are of Filipino birth then this is not relevant to you as your case will be expedited.

This post is for people whom are in the 7-8 month and growing backlog of TSC compared to the CSC processing I-129f forms in 3 or so weeks. The effect of such a long wait for TSC has put us under financial burden (we have to pay for more flights to see our family of which, especially entering summer, is very expensive, rolling rental agreements etc), emotional stress (never knowing when you'll be together), job insecurity (knowing we'll leave but not being able to tell anyone), family stress (when things go wrong and your partner is not there, especially when there are children) and a number of other stresses.

As individuals there is very little we can do or where we would have any impact. As a community we can shout a bit louder, chance of success is still low but in my view when your family happiness is at stake and of course the "you don't know unless you try" we might as well try something/anything.

The "magic" time benchmark seems to be 5 months (6 months stated on USCIS complaint site),this being the objective service centers time in processing the I-129f. There are some statistics here showing the clear backlog of TSC for "normal" as in non-expedited I-129fs:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/536429-texas-service-center-processing-time-2015/page-6#entry7487871

The objective of all the complaints has been to raise awareness around the poor management of handling backlogs in service centers and service centers not being able to share workloads. This then causing unfairness for the visa application community into a state lottery where the service center that handles your case depends on what state the petitioner lives in. If you are unlucky and get a TSC state then you are in for a long long wait. The best we could hope for by the community raising awareness of the TSC problem is the hope it'll initiate the sharing of workloads between service centers, we can at least try to push for this mandate.

Kudos should go to Stef and Kristin whom have been putting a lot of work in the below linked posts. I wanted to collate all of this in one location for new people entering the K1 process under TSC.

What service center are you? It will say on the NOA1 the address of the Service Center, also you can put your zip in here: https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=SC

NOTE: The Texas lockbox where you send your I-129f does not mean you are at TSC! Check above link.

Check your case status and sign up for "touch" (when your I-129f is handled by an agent) alerts: https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/landing.do

You are supposed to first contact National Customer Service Center (1-800-375-5283) but you'll just get a load of blah. Then apparently if 15 days have past without appropriate response you can contact the USCIS Service Center (again, likely blah blah reply) California Service Center: csc-ncsc-followup@dhs.gov Vermont Service Center: vsc.ncscfollowup@dhs.gov Nebraska Service Center: ncscfollowup.nsc@dhs.gov Texas Service Center: tsc.ncscfollowup@dhs.gov. Then again after 21 days you can contact USCIS Headquarters Office of Service Center Operations, email: SCOPSSCATA@dhs.gov.

http://www.uscis.gov/archive/archive-news/uscis-update-case-status-inquiries-service-centers

Fill in an online form if you are past six months (probably no harm in submitting past 5 months): https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/displayONPTForm.do?entryPoint=init&sroPageType=onpt

Contact CIS Ombudsman whom are "dedicated to improving the quality of citizenship and immigration services": http://www.dhs.gov/topic/cis-ombudsman

email at: cisombudsman@hq.dhs.gov

Note: a quote from them - "You must first attempt to resolve any concerns with USCIS before coming to this office."

Contact your senator, example of letters by Kristin and Stef here (and plenty others on the forums): http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/525507-november-2014-filers-texas-service-center/page-10#entry7442979

Who's your senator/representative? https://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup

Complain to Department of Homeland Security: http://www.oig.dhs.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=177%3Ahotlineformnstructions-&catid=1&Itemid=133

See examples by Stef:http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/516802-k-1-october-20014-filers/page-44#entry7486304

Sign the change.org petition by Kristin: https://www.change.org/p/uscis-distribute-the-current-caseload-between-tsc-csc-vsc-and-nsc

Kristin is also following up with a news article on New York Times -http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/536174-ny-times-article-about-processing-times-need-info-by-monday/

Contribute your story on tumblr: http://helptsc.tumblr.com/by stef - email your story to helptscnow@gmail.com - either use different names or specify change them

I wish everyone and their partners good luck in your applications and thanks to the VJ community for being able to share the stress with this frustrating wait in TSC backlog. I'm sure when we look back at it, it will be a blip in history, just a painful blip of what is meant to be an exciting change for us all.

Edited February 21, 2015 by rob999

[HislittleSecret 21]

Wow that was a lot. Why don't we contact the president while we are at it. I think President Obama needs to do something about it. I just submitted mine on the 12th and I'm disappointed in the wait that is in store. We all pay the same amount of money and if your FIANCE is from the Philippines you luck up and are automatically expedited. Csc are even faster. There is a significance difference in approvals for CSC vs TSC. I hate this process!

[rob999 51]

Wow that was a lot. Why don't we contact the president while we are at it. I think President Obama needs to do something about it. I just submitted mine on the 12th and I'm disappointed in the wait that is in store. We all pay the same amount of money and if your FIANCE is from the Philippines you luck up and are automatically expedited. Csc are even faster. There is a significance difference in approvals for CSC vs TSC. I hate this process!

I totally agree! If you have his personal email address or mobile number I'll add it to the list

[TabeaK 516]

Great job rob, putting all this info together!

I am almost 2 months into the waiting period by now and it sucks. Right now it is bearable, but a couple of weeks ago I had a major meltdown.

There are three things everyone can do even before they have been in the queue for months and start involving their representatives:

1. Sign the petition: https://www.change.o...csc-vsc-and-nsc

2. Share your story on tumblr: http://helptsc.tumblr.com/

3. File a complaint with DHS: http://www.oig.dhs.g...id=1&Itemid=133 using the following example: http://www.visajourn...44#entry7486304

Help us make some noise!

And, by the way, the user av8or1 has mailed the President two weeks ago:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BydZqgc0idawQzlVZzlsYkFZZzFjMUgwUWs2dktnX0tsakNr/view

[Wooderz 314]

A letter was sent to the White House. You can find it on the tumblr.

[Ke&Abdi 8]

A letter was sent to the White House. You can find it on the tumblr.

That was a great letter to the White House please keep us updated on the response.

[rob999 51]

I never saw that president letter in the forums, that was a great letter from av8or1, be interesting if a reply comes back, it certainly deserves one. It's so right too surely by making the legal immigration process more efficient it would have a good impact on the illegal side of things.

[stef_curls 42]

Thanks for putting this together , Rob! It seems we have been a bit scattered, it's nice to see everything in one place.

[tiko1426 17]

Great job rob, putting all this info together!

I am almost 2 months into the waiting period by now and it sucks. Right now it is bearable, but a couple of weeks ago I had a major meltdown.

There are three things everyone can do even before they have been in the queue for months and start involving their representatives:

1. Sign the petition: https://www.change.o...csc-vsc-and-nsc

2. Share your story on tumblr: http://helptsc.tumblr.com/

3. File a complaint with DHS: http://www.oig.dhs.g...id=1&Itemid=133 using the following example: http://www.visajourn...44#entry7486304

Help us make some noise!

And, by the way, the user av8or1 has mailed the President two weeks ago:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BydZqgc0idawQzlVZzlsYkFZZzFjMUgwUWs2dktnX0tsakNr/view

Im at TSC and it took me 74 days but that was a CR-1.. people say that was fast.. but the ones saying that are I-129 Filers...For some reason they are doing CR-1's faster than the I-129's.. Wait at least 3 months before getting upset.... I was at 2 1/2 months exactly when I got my NOA-2 from TSC ..

[TabeaK 516]

It's fabulous that you got your approval quickly.

I do not approve, however, of being to told whether or not I am supposed to be upset and at what timeframe, thank you. There is zero evidence that anyone who is not an expedite will get a I-129F approval in 3 months at TSC. It simply does not happen.

So, feel free to join the initiative as I believe your quick I-130 approval is out of the norm as well and everyone else just has to wait - way longer than at CSC. THIS is what the whole thing is about, not individual cases.

[av8or1 246]

Well said TabeaK. rob999(and everyone really), as long as we're making a pseudo-list of what's been done to-date, the skunkworks team was busy this week. Kristin suggested the DHS online complaint thing and we roped everyone into that who would participate. Kristin also had direct contact with the ombudsman office, after emailing a copy of my white house packet. Stef attempted to get in touch with her contact who could reportedly help get the white house doc into someone's hands. Finally I sent the entire white house packet in hard copy form to the USCIS ombudsman office.

Based on the feedback I've received from congressman Carter's office, I am not giving up the fight, and I suspect that the remainder of the skunkworks team feels the same, though I won't speak for them.

Anyway, that's where things are. I've got a couple of ideas to pursue this week. We'll see what develops.

Thanks

Edited February 23, 2015 by av8or1

[muhkoo 12]

Thanks for creating this post. I wasn't aware of the DHS online complaint form so I just submitted that. I've also signed the petition, submitted my story for the tumblr/NYT article, liked the Facebook, etc. thanks to you guys spreading the word. Feels good to do something.

As they say in Cameroon, "du courage" (some courage) to all of you.

[grafaref 1]

Great post! Thank you for putting all this info together.

One thing - why don't you guys put petition form on main page on forum? That way a lot more people will see it.

[TBoneTX 43,020]

*** Thread moved from K-1 Case Progress subforum to the USCIS Service Centers forum -- topic isn't about anyone's specific case progress, but rather about the larger picture of processing-times. ***

[RobertandNene 1]

It is my understanding that Filipinas are no longer having their cases expedited. Am I right? Wrong?