Losing faith

[-teRe- 9]

Wow, another nasty thread! Thought this site was supposed to be supportive.. A couple of you are just plain ignorant.. We SHOULD have our NAO2 within 5 months as that is the agreed time. It IS unfair that some people wait less than others.. and as for this "have patience" nonsense I won't do what some of you guys do and judge others Ill simply tell you how I feel personally.. If I was to have a blase attitude and say to my fiance "oh just wait a few more months it'll happen, we have to be patient" Sod that.. I want to be with her yesterday and If I felt ANY other way I probably shouldnt be with her. To the majority of lovely people on this thread keep your heads up and try every way to speed up this nonsensical process. Our 5 months is up today so we'll be on to the senator soon as.. Ill let you know how it goes..

[Jun&Scheillo 6]

OK, I just took some action.

Here is the letter I wrote to my Congress Member:

(personal data redacted)

-------------------------------------------

Dear Congressman *******

I am a petitioner to the BCIS for a K-1 fiance visa for my beloved fiance, Elena ********.

I started to consider the possibility that something was wrong when BCIS took an inordinate amount of time to issue my NOA2, a document that in the past was issued in 4 to 6 weeks.

I then did some research and learned that BCIS now has a misguided policy that is causing substantial harm to all American citizens looking to bring their fiances and spouses home, where they belong, on a K-1 or K-3 petition.

It turns out that BCIS has decided to put processing of all K-1s and K-3s on hold indefinitely so they can instead process charitable applications for immigration from residents of Haiti whose lives were affected by the recent weather events there.

I am not suggesting that the United States should abandon its fine tradition of compassion towards people in other lands who are suffering, but compassion has its limits, and when American citizens are being harmed, those limits have been reached.

A K-1 and K-3 visa application is special. It is special because the Constitutional right of the American citizen applicant to marry as he sees fit and his Constitutional right to expect expedient service from his government are involved. This hold on American citizen petitions while these charity based petitions are being processed has denied these American citizen applicants these rights for months and months on end, with no conclusion in sight.

Until these petitions are processed, the American citizen applicants cannot marry as they see fit and cannot cohabit with their fiances or spouses as they see fit. And the spouses and fiances we love so dearly are denied their right to live in the homes that are rightfully theirs and instead remain trapped in their countries of origin. This is an unacceptable loss of our basic rights as American citizens, and as a citizen and your constituent, I wish to go on record as being opposed to this summary deprivation of our rights by BCIS.

Charitable petitions are a wonderful work of American compassion in action, but these petitions simply must take a back seat to the exercise of the basic rights of American citizens, as all charitable work must take a similar back seat.

I therefore wish for you, my elected representative, to take whatever actions are possible to correct this well intentioned but severely misguided policy of BCIS, to get them to put things in the correct order, and to respect the rights of American citizen K-1 and K-3 applicants to have their petitions processed first, before any consideration is given to any foreign individual, Hatian or otherwise, for the extraordinary privilege of immigrating to our great nation.

I thank you for your kind courtesy and consideration.

Yours truly,

Al****** **********

----------------------------------------------------------

Of course one voice is not nearly as loud as a chorus of voices. So who is with me? Who will write a similar letter to your Congress Member? If you are not a good letter writer, please feel free to cut and paste mine.

We need as many voices as we can on this campaign. We need to show BCIS that we are not going to tolerate this abuse any more. And the more voices we have, the more likely it is we will be noticed.

Please, all of you: Stop playing nicey nice. Stand up for your rights and take action!

So I repeat: WHO IS WITH ME?

[Jun&Scheillo 6]

When you decide to approach someone of Authority such as your Senator, You need to be atleast fully informed of what it is that you are talking about. Do you know for a fact that charity or compassion to haitian petitioners are your true and only reason for your wait.Before you get carried away, make sure you do your homework and get accurate information. Do you know how much the I 129 petion has increased in the pass months? Do you know about other petitions such as the I 130? Do you know the increased volume in demands for these? Is it possible that they got behind because of shortage of staff? You would need to be fully aware of how they make decisions.At the end you would still be mad, but not at the poor Haitians.

[Milushka 22]

The deadline for TPS registration is January 2011.

Does it mean they apply untill then and after there is additional processing times for TPS cases. shoot

When you decide to approach someone of Authority such as your Senator, You need to be atleast fully informed of what it is that you are talking about. Do you know for a fact that charity or compassion to haitian petitioners are your true and only reason for your wait.Before you get carried away, make sure you do your homework and get accurate information. Do you know how much the I 129 petion has increased in the pass months? Do you know about other petitions such as the I 130? Do you know the increased volume in demands for these? Is it possible that they got behind because of shortage of staff? You would need to be fully aware of how they make decisions.At the end you would still be mad, but not at the poor Haitians.

Its all in official statistics, showing that yes TPS took the priority over marriage based petitions. Nobody s mad at haitians (we understand the catastrophy in their lives), rather unsatisfied with Service Centers lacking manpower. Wait untill you get in to mark of more than 5 months and receive no s**t. We all heading there

Edited December 9, 2010 by Milushka

[Krikit 1,163]

Now, Krikit, I could not help notice that your visa journey is already completed. So none of this Hatian charity stuff affects you in any way. I wonder if you would feel differently if it was YOUR life that was placed on hold and not MINE. Maybe if the shoe were on the other foot, you would not be so quick to criticize.

Projecting your morals onto my actions does not change my character. We are, quite obviously, complete opposites.

[dogspot 90]

Al, your posts crack me up.

OK...just stay angry. Just try not to hurt yourself as you let out all your fury on an empty mailbox.

[Jun&Scheillo 6]

The deadline for TPS registration is January 2011.

Does it mean they apply untill then and after there is additional processing times for TPS cases. shoot

Its all in official statistics, showing that yes TPS took the priority over marriage based petitions. Nobody s mad at haitians (we understand the catastrophy in their lives), rather unsatisfied with Service Centers lacking manpower. Wait untill you get in to mark of more than 5 months and receive no s**t. We all heading there

Agreed!!

[Jun&Scheillo 6]

Actually, TPS may be affecting us now but it's not the first time it has been offered. It's a special status that is offered to a group of people with special needs. look it up! haitians are not the only people TPS was offered to. Infact, there are those trying to qualify for it right now, but not a chance. Specifications are natural disasters and victims of a war. Other countries not too long ago were affected by earth quakes and what nat, and they were offered the TPS. So!!!!!

[Ally & Rach 24]

So our 5 months was up yesterday and Rachel called USCIS again.. and again she was greeted with another robot blatantly reading from a script.. How many times can one group of people contradict themselves. Rach called a couple of weeks back just for advice on what to do when the 5 months was up. The person she spoke to then did a "service request" which ended up with Rachel receiving the same standardised letter everyone else seems to get stating they are working on a certain date and please call back etc. I thought this was utter bollocks so called on Friday with Rach who was on conference call. I asked the person what was going on and what was the process for after the 5 months.. STraight away he said "which form are you calling with regards to?" I said "its the I29f - Fiance visa" he said "Is it a military visa" .. "NO".."are you calling on behalf of someone in the military.. "NO, helloo.. did you hear me!!" He just rattled on from a script without listening to me at all.. Me and Rach were finding it really hard not to laugh.. Im sure it wasnt the guys fault.. maybe its quantity not quality in there.. Anyway.. after him putting me on hold and spending around half hour on the line he told me to call when the 5 months was up, ie a couple of days later and assured me we'd get an answer on our NAO2.. great news!!

So, back to Rachel and the robot yesterday.. Rachel practically pleaded with the guy, got pretty upset and just said she wanted to know why it was taking too long as she was assured we'd at least know after 5 months.. THe answer.. "No, I see you already sent in a service request so we can't do anything for 30 days when you should call again" Rachel explained the service request generated a standardised letter.. Robot boy cared not a jot..

We've been in touch with the senators office.. they got rach to fill in a form and send it off so hopefully something will happen there..

I hope at least some of this makes sense.. Im kind of typing as I think here.. I know this is of little help but thought Id keep you all informed.. The only positives I can take is the senators office did give us a procedure to follow AND the people at USCIS are not all singing from the same hymn book. This to me means I just call till I get the answer I want!!

Cheers and all the best..

Ally

[cedwards001 18]

Around 2 months after I got my NOA1, I started to hear some rumors from friends about the TPS becoming an issue. So I was like heeeeeeeeeeeeel no, I am not going to wait 5+ months to get the NOA2 lol! So I got everybody and I mean EVERYBODY involved and bitched over and over and over and over to the USCIS. I mean, I bitched REAL hard every single day. Guess what happened next? 2 weeks later the NOA2 shows up in my mailbox )

[Oasis 0]

So our 5 months was up yesterday and Rachel called USCIS again.. and again she was greeted with another robot blatantly reading from a script.. How many times can one group of people contradict themselves. Rach called a couple of weeks back just for advice on what to do when the 5 months was up. The person she spoke to then did a "service request" which ended up with Rachel receiving the same standardised letter everyone else seems to get stating they are working on a certain date and please call back etc. I thought this was utter bollocks so called on Friday with Rach who was on conference call. I asked the person what was going on and what was the process for after the 5 months.. STraight away he said "which form are you calling with regards to?" I said "its the I29f - Fiance visa" he said "Is it a military visa" .. "NO".."are you calling on behalf of someone in the military.. "NO, helloo.. did you hear me!!" He just rattled on from a script without listening to me at all.. Me and Rach were finding it really hard not to laugh.. Im sure it wasnt the guys fault.. maybe its quantity not quality in there.. Anyway.. after him putting me on hold and spending around half hour on the line he told me to call when the 5 months was up, ie a couple of days later and assured me we'd get an answer on our NAO2.. great news!!

So, back to Rachel and the robot yesterday.. Rachel practically pleaded with the guy, got pretty upset and just said she wanted to know why it was taking too long as she was assured we'd at least know after 5 months.. THe answer.. "No, I see you already sent in a service request so we can't do anything for 30 days when you should call again" Rachel explained the service request generated a standardised letter.. Robot boy cared not a jot..

We've been in touch with the senators office.. they got rach to fill in a form and send it off so hopefully something will happen there..

I hope at least some of this makes sense.. Im kind of typing as I think here.. I know this is of little help but thought Id keep you all informed.. The only positives I can take is the senators office did give us a procedure to follow AND the people at USCIS are not all singing from the same hymn book. This to me means I just call till I get the answer I want!!

Cheers and all the best..

Ally

You really should be giving it a few more days... its coming... I promise.

Dont even bother calling the senators office, in my opinion you are wasting your time. All they do is inquire about the case, thats it.

So hang in there.

[Zharren Young 32]

OK, I just took some action.

Here is the letter I wrote to my Congress Member:

(personal data redacted)

-------------------------------------------

Dear Congressman *******

I am a petitioner to the BCIS for a K-1 fiance visa for my beloved fiance, Elena ********.

I started to consider the possibility that something was wrong when BCIS took an inordinate amount of time to issue my NOA2, a document that in the past was issued in 4 to 6 weeks.

I then did some research and learned that BCIS now has a misguided policy that is causing substantial harm to all American citizens looking to bring their fiances and spouses home, where they belong, on a K-1 or K-3 petition.

It turns out that BCIS has decided to put processing of all K-1s and K-3s on hold indefinitely so they can instead process charitable applications for immigration from residents of Haiti whose lives were affected by the recent weather events there.

I am not suggesting that the United States should abandon its fine tradition of compassion towards people in other lands who are suffering, but compassion has its limits, and when American citizens are being harmed, those limits have been reached.

A K-1 and K-3 visa application is special. It is special because the Constitutional right of the American citizen applicant to marry as he sees fit and his Constitutional right to expect expedient service from his government are involved. This hold on American citizen petitions while these charity based petitions are being processed has denied these American citizen applicants these rights for months and months on end, with no conclusion in sight.

Until these petitions are processed, the American citizen applicants cannot marry as they see fit and cannot cohabit with their fiances or spouses as they see fit. And the spouses and fiances we love so dearly are denied their right to live in the homes that are rightfully theirs and instead remain trapped in their countries of origin. This is an unacceptable loss of our basic rights as American citizens, and as a citizen and your constituent, I wish to go on record as being opposed to this summary deprivation of our rights by BCIS.

Charitable petitions are a wonderful work of American compassion in action, but these petitions simply must take a back seat to the exercise of the basic rights of American citizens, as all charitable work must take a similar back seat.

I therefore wish for you, my elected representative, to take whatever actions are possible to correct this well intentioned but severely misguided policy of BCIS, to get them to put things in the correct order, and to respect the rights of American citizen K-1 and K-3 applicants to have their petitions processed first, before any consideration is given to any foreign individual, Hatian or otherwise, for the extraordinary privilege of immigrating to our great nation.

I thank you for your kind courtesy and consideration.

Yours truly,

Al****** **********

----------------------------------------------------------

Of course one voice is not nearly as loud as a chorus of voices. So who is with me? Who will write a similar letter to your Congress Member? If you are not a good letter writer, please feel free to cut and paste mine.

We need as many voices as we can on this campaign. We need to show BCIS that we are not going to tolerate this abuse any more. And the more voices we have, the more likely it is we will be noticed.

Please, all of you: Stop playing nicey nice. Stand up for your rights and take action!

So I repeat: WHO IS WITH ME?

nice letter, and yes i am with you. thanks for writing this letter;))

[LoveMyMiky 35]

OK, I just took some action.

Here is the letter I wrote to my Congress Member:

(personal data redacted)

-------------------------------------------

Dear Congressman *******

I am a petitioner to the BCIS for a K-1 fiance visa for my beloved fiance, Elena ********.

I started to consider the possibility that something was wrong when BCIS took an inordinate amount of time to issue my NOA2, a document that in the past was issued in 4 to 6 weeks.

I then did some research and learned that BCIS now has a misguided policy that is causing substantial harm to all American citizens looking to bring their fiances and spouses home, where they belong, on a K-1 or K-3 petition.

It turns out that BCIS has decided to put processing of all K-1s and K-3s on hold indefinitely so they can instead process charitable applications for immigration from residents of Haiti whose lives were affected by the recent weather events there.

I am not suggesting that the United States should abandon its fine tradition of compassion towards people in other lands who are suffering, but compassion has its limits, and when American citizens are being harmed, those limits have been reached.

A K-1 and K-3 visa application is special. It is special because the Constitutional right of the American citizen applicant to marry as he sees fit and his Constitutional right to expect expedient service from his government are involved. This hold on American citizen petitions while these charity based petitions are being processed has denied these American citizen applicants these rights for months and months on end, with no conclusion in sight.

Until these petitions are processed, the American citizen applicants cannot marry as they see fit and cannot cohabit with their fiances or spouses as they see fit. And the spouses and fiances we love so dearly are denied their right to live in the homes that are rightfully theirs and instead remain trapped in their countries of origin. This is an unacceptable loss of our basic rights as American citizens, and as a citizen and your constituent, I wish to go on record as being opposed to this summary deprivation of our rights by BCIS.

Charitable petitions are a wonderful work of American compassion in action, but these petitions simply must take a back seat to the exercise of the basic rights of American citizens, as all charitable work must take a similar back seat.

I therefore wish for you, my elected representative, to take whatever actions are possible to correct this well intentioned but severely misguided policy of BCIS, to get them to put things in the correct order, and to respect the rights of American citizen K-1 and K-3 applicants to have their petitions processed first, before any consideration is given to any foreign individual, Hatian or otherwise, for the extraordinary privilege of immigrating to our great nation.

I thank you for your kind courtesy and consideration.

Yours truly,

Al****** **********

----------------------------------------------------------

Of course one voice is not nearly as loud as a chorus of voices. So who is with me? Who will write a similar letter to your Congress Member? If you are not a good letter writer, please feel free to cut and paste mine.

We need as many voices as we can on this campaign. We need to show BCIS that we are not going to tolerate this abuse any more. And the more voices we have, the more likely it is we will be noticed.

Please, all of you: Stop playing nicey nice. Stand up for your rights and take action!

So I repeat: WHO IS WITH ME?

Nicely written letter, however, what is your credible documented source for statements made? You have stated things as a "matter of fact" which I have yet been able to verify to pursue a similar course.

[KiwiBird 132]

Ally, as an FYI, if you call and get a "scripty" robot person, ask flat out "Please escalate my case to an Immigration Officer." and they will transfer you to someone that doesn't read from a script. If that helps.

[Al422 221]

Around 2 months after I got my NOA1, I started to hear some rumors from friends about the TPS becoming an issue. So I was like heeeeeeeeeeeeel no, I am not going to wait 5+ months to get the NOA2 lol! So I got everybody and I mean EVERYBODY involved and bitched over and over and over and over to the USCIS. I mean, I bitched REAL hard every single day. Guess what happened next? 2 weeks later the NOA2 shows up in my mailbox )

That is a dangerous tactic. I am delighted to see that it worked for you, but it could have easily backfired. All it would have taken is to piss the wrong person off, and then your file gets "lost" in the wrong filing cabinet.

Believe me, if I thought this tactic could be used safely, I would launch it in a heartbeat.

BTW for those of you questioning my facts in my congressional letter, you should know that in such a letter, your facts do not need to be documented. I dabbled in politics with the local Republican club, and they taught me a few tricks. One of them is that it does not matter how correct you are as long as you present your words with drama and flair.