Writing to Senators and congressmen to check status

[hobokenworkingman 4]

Has anyone written to their congressperson or senators to inquire their case status? The senators/congressperson makes inquiries on their constituent's behalf. I'm wondering if this actually speeds up the process any. I have pending I-130 and I-129F applications and have written to my senator (charles schumer who has this service on his website) and will also be writing to my congressman as well. Wondering if this actually works??? Thanks

[ScottThuy 140]

The congressional reps office is a few blocks from my house so I went to the office and talked to them face to face.. they had me fill in some forms and went to work immediatly... they let me know the status of the case within a few days ... the file was in the FBI's hands at the time so they could not do anything else...

[Calypso 464]

Everybody is encouraged to write to their congressman or senator once their case is way beyond the indicated processing time. In fact, if you visit the websites of most congressmen, they reflect their enthusiasm in helping people with federal agencies. Those sites also also direct people step-by-step how to contact each district representative.

As for my experience, the I-129F was approved fast but for almost a month from the approval and daily calls, the NVC kept saying that they didn't receive my case yet. I asked my then fiance (now husband) to fax his congressman. It turned out that the USCIS had faltered to forward our case to the NVC after the approval for no reason at all. The very same day the congressman received the fax, he acted upon it and sent my man an update. The USCIS immediately transfered our case to the NVC where it stayed for three business days and from then on, everything was smooth again until I made it to the U.S.

I hope things work out for you.

Hakuna matata.

God bless us all.

FAE

[belinda63 2,981]

IF your case is outside of processing times, or IF something very unusual is going on with your case THEN contacting your congressman would be appropriate.

It does nothing to speed up your case, in slows down the processing for everyone because that means someone must spend time answering the congressional inquiry rather than processing the papers.

I AGREE it is a beneficial tool if not abused buy please don't contact them hoping to jump to the head of the line.

[Old Dominion 26]

In general, it is worth noting that each congressman and senator has an e-mail access to congressional liaison folks at USCIS and will usually get a prompt response to an inquiry, but via e-mail. The congressional liaison folks are not involved in the processing and can simply look up case status by computer, and can report a glitch to their superiors when they discover one. USCIS is immune to congressional pressure.

As to a serious inquiry to the NVC or an embassy, part of the Department of State, a well-placed senator (there are only 100 of them) can get a formal written reply via e-mail. A serious problem with an applicant can be given review to see if the embassy has made some mistake, and if there is still time to correct the error, that can happen. It is rare, however. Otherwise, the e-mail replies are quite routine.

[jessarien 0]

hi, plz do post in the replies that you get from senator and congressmen.

thank you.

[mrsB 0]

I guess this must depend on the senator, as in my case, writing to the senator did nothing. They said that all they can do is to send an inquiry every 30 days. They did this a couple of times, but it hasn't sped up our process in any way. Plus we only got the first reply after a month from contacting the senator. In fact, the senator didn't do anything himself, he sent his assistant to the job, who I guess didn't have the authority to do anything other than inquire case status. *shrug*

I wonder if we could've contacted a senator NOT from my husband's state...

[pushbrk 12,137]

I guess this must depend on the senator, as in my case, writing to the senator did nothing. They said that all they can do is to send an inquiry every 30 days. They did this a couple of times, but it hasn't sped up our process in any way. Plus we only got the first reply after a month from contacting the senator. In fact, the senator didn't do anything himself, he sent his assistant to the job, who I guess didn't have the authority to do anything other than inquire case status. *shrug*

I wonder if we could've contacted a senator NOT from my husband's state...

That's really all senators can do and there's no point in them doing it until the case is outside the standard processing parameter of six months from petition filing. Senators rarely get personally involved in the cases but they all have staff specifically assigned to do so in their behalf.

I would encourage all to leave the politicians out of the process until six or seven months after filing a petition. Doing otherwise will be fruitless and frustrating for you.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I worked in the equivalent position as a Representative's assistant for a Member of Parliament in Canada. The 'networking' system is very similar in Canada and the US. Representatives' and Senators' offices have staff assigned to assist their constituents with problems and queries involving all aspects of their level of Government. They also have dedicated staff in the different Government offices whose jobs are to respond to inquiries filed from Senators' and Representatives' offices. The elected officials cannot speed up the process or move anyone 'up the line' so in most cases all they can do is report on the current status of the situation. They are bound by the same laws and procedures as everyone else, and while there are often calls of government departments playing 'favourites', the reality is that this doesn't happen in the normal course of affairs.

Where they can be of more assistance, however, is if there is something wrong or if the case is outside of the stated processing dates. In the first, they can ask specific questions that will lead to an investigation of the problematic area or process in question, and if there is a problem, it can be identified and addressed - as happened in Arbind.Ariadne's case. As well, if a case is outside of the stated processing time, the inquiry can trigger a check on the status of that file and see if there is a reason beyond normal backlogs for the delay (ie. waiting for a missing document, waiting for another agency to complete its work, application wasn't forwarded on, etc.). In such cases, the Senator's or Representative's inquiry may indeed 'speed' things up because USCIS can pull that application from where it has been 'waiting' and get it back into the process.

I had success contacting my Senator after my Removal of Conditions application had been waiting for a year. Within a week after giving my Senator written permission to investigate, my application was approved. My inquiry fit into the second type of assistance - the inquiry 'shook' something loose and allowed USCIS to complete the process.

So, if you are still within normal processing times and have not received any information that leads you to think there is a problem, contacting your Senator or Representative will most likely not give you any satisfaction.

Edited January 9, 2010 by Kathryn41

[Ready2Kl 1]

Has anyone written to their congressperson or senators to inquire their case status? The senators/congressperson makes inquiries on their constituent's behalf. I'm wondering if this actually speeds up the process any. I have pending I-130 and I-129F applications and have written to my senator (charles schumer who has this service on his website) and will also be writing to my congressman as well. Wondering if this actually works??? Thanks

You are still within the processing time of USCIS and i think it is pointless for you to approach congressperson at this stage. It only 3 months since your NOA1 data and USCIS current processing time is 5 months. I applied in first week of September and just got my approval yesterday. I also saw a couple of September filers get their approvals this week. However, I can understand the pain of waiting since I went through your situation. Hopefully you will get your approval in the next one month.

[pushbrk 12,137]

As well, if a case is outside of the stated processing time, the inquiry can trigger a check on the status of that file and see if there is a reason beyond normal backlogs for the delay (ie. waiting for a missing document, waiting for another agency to complete its work, application wasn't forwarded on, etc.). In such cases, the Senator's or Representative's inquiry may indeed 'speed' things up because USCIS can pull that application from where it has been 'waiting' and get it back into the process.

I had success contacting my Senator after my Removal of Conditions application had been waiting for a year. Within a week after giving my Senator written permission to investigate, my application was approved. My inquiry fit into the second type of assistance - the inquiry 'shook' something loose and allowed USCIS to complete the process.

See bold above. This is my experience as well. If you are out of processing standards for time, often the Senator's inquiry will get things moving quickly. They would rather report back something positive, if possible. When within processing times, USCIS tends to remind the Senator's staff member of exactly that. After a few of those, the staff knows not to bother.

[ZaheersShezadi 0]

I contacted my senators office here in FL to find out about my husband's AP case on his K3. they are still waiting to hear back form Islamabad, but I will let you know if it helps anything. We filed in March for I-130 and April for K3. We have been in AP for 10 weeks now and in 10 more weeks we're going to have a baby. so we are waiting desperately for it to get approved. I hope that this helps. I will contact the Senator's office again on Monday, and Yes, they did appoint an agent to our case, the senator himself did not participate. She told me that there is nothing they can do to rush the embassy or anything, all they can do is get a clear answer as to what is taking so long. That's all I need. good luck to you.

~Tara

[hobokenworkingman 4]

I contacted my senators office here in FL to find out about my husband's AP case on his K3. they are still waiting to hear back form Islamabad, but I will let you know if it helps anything. We filed in March for I-130 and April for K3. We have been in AP for 10 weeks now and in 10 more weeks we're going to have a baby. so we are waiting desperately for it to get approved. I hope that this helps. I will contact the Senator's office again on Monday, and Yes, they did appoint an agent to our case, the senator himself did not participate. She told me that there is nothing they can do to rush the embassy or anything, all they can do is get a clear answer as to what is taking so long. That's all I need. good luck to you.

~Tara

I actually contacted my congressman and he got back to me with an inquiry form from one of his aides to find out about my wife's I-130 and I-129F NOA2s. I filled out the info 2 weeks ago and mailed it in and got a letter today in the mail from his aide saying that the congressional liaison at the DHS-USCIS got back to her and said that my cases were within the 5 months processing time (I-130 date was Oct 13, 2009 and I-129F date was Oct 22). Of course, I already knew this, as this is plastered all over their websites. I also emailed the California service center (CSC NCSC Follow Up <Csc-NCSC-FollowUp@dhs.gov>) with my case #s last Monday and got a response on Friday saying the same exact thing - my case was within the 5 month processing time. It has been 90 days (avg K3 NOA2 time frame is anywhere from 96-110 days). So I'm hoping that something will come in the mail in the next few days b/c of all this enquiries and hopefully has "jarred" something loose...

At least they are getting back to me; so far my senator's office has still not gotten to me (schumer)...

[dbarker2 1]

Has anyone written to their congressperson or senators to inquire their case status? The senators/congressperson makes inquiries on their constituent's behalf. I'm wondering if this actually speeds up the process any. I have pending I-130 and I-129F applications and have written to my senator (charles schumer who has this service on his website) and will also be writing to my congressman as well. Wondering if this actually works??? Thanks

I actually had a very good experience writing my senator. I submitted my documents (I-130 on Sept. 11, and I-129f on Sept. 17) My wife became pregnant in December and I wrote my senator at the beginning of January. On January 21st the Senator's Liaison here in my county contacted me and asked for a little bit more information. She then contacted the California Service Center and they said it had been transferred to an adjudication officer and that we would hear something within 45 days. Well, the next day both our I-130 and I-129 were approved and have been sent to the NVC now. So, although she didn't say that she did anything special, it seems like too big of a coincidence that the day after she contacted them our cases were both approved. So I would say that it won't hurt anything to write them, even if it is before the 5 month processing time. Because we have only been waiting 4 months. It may have helped that my wife is pregnant, but give it a shot anyway and good luck!

Edited January 26, 2010 by dbarker2