MY COMPLAINT TO HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS ABOUT VSC

[W&M 12]

Very nice and to the point. I agree that Vermont has been doing very little with K1/K3 visas. The waiting game is unbelievable. Once again we are at the mercy of a government who pays very little attention to the citizens of this country. Do you actually think Congress or other representatives could care less how long we are waiting to start our lives to with the people we love. I would love to see this bring positive action and I cannot thank you enough for taking a step to better the system.

[Rob and Jill 82]

I don't fault anyone for grabbing what they can for themselves and their fiances. They are not the ones who decided to neglect thousands of fiances petitions and let them sit and rot. They are innocent victims of the service centers' failures to do what they are paid to do. If the service centers were not so totally incompetent, none of this would be necessary.

First, the letter you wrote is quite long and rambling. You're not trying to pass legislature, you're trying to be a squeaky wheel. The stuff abotu Haiti is speculation and wasted effort. Honestly, it makes you come across as a rambling conspiracy theorist. They also don't want to hear about the hardships it causes on you to be separated from your fiance. You KNEW you would be separated when you filed. It's not like it was a big surprise.

Second, if you were to write your letter to heart, the TRUE statement here would be that you are ticked off because they haven't adjusted their website to accurately show their processing times.

Third, the staff at the call center is usless. They are useless because of frivilious law suits. If you were told "it will be finished on this date" and it's not, but you book a flight etc., and miss your flight because it wasn't ready when they said it would be ready then all kinds of lawsuits would be going around.

Lastly, I think so many of you here are forgetting something MAJOR that happened in July. All the new filers got to use the Texas processing center. So all of a sudden ALL of these people started getting Visas approved after stupidly short waiting times. People waiting to file noticed and there was A HUGE influx of petitions. At some point it had to cause a backlog.

Personally, I think you should call your DIRECT Senator and ask for an inquiry on your visa when you are PAST THE NORMAL PROCESSING TIMES STATED ON THEIR WEBSITE. I also think you should reorganize your letter into something a bit more concise.

[Retscpo 5]

To the OP...BZ Bravo Zulu! You have every right to practice free speech and communicate with your Senator/Representative! If everyone did this eventually this issue would get fixed...probably about 20 years from now! (its the government)

When I first started reading your posts I felt you were premature in your view points and that the system would come around! I really feel patience is a virtue in this journey! I am now coming to the thinking that you are right to feel the way you do! After 180 days of being patient...I am rapidly losing patience! I have called USCIS at 4 1/2 months and contacted my Senator at 5 months and I have called the USCIS again at 6 months! The answer I have gotten has been pretty consistent...wait XX amount of days the VSC will contact you. Well it was 30 days, then 2 weeks, now the answer is 15 days...

To those Vj'ers that have plenty of patience... more power to ya! I thought I had plenty of patience when dealing with the government! (24 yrs of Naval service) This (dis)organization beats anything I have ever seen!

OP...I just wanted to say keep it up! Hopefully future petitioners will be able to call the USCIS information line and actually get some good information! I think that most of the problems would be resolved if the USCIS could give a good status on a petition. (in the processing window doesn't count)

[Used to be broken 143]

To the OP...BZ Bravo Zulu! You have every right to practice free speech and communicate with your Senator/Representative! If everyone did this eventually this issue would get fixed...probably about 20 years from now! (its the government)

As I said earlier comments about Haiti are not appropriate, unless your intent is to change US Refugee policy. If you want to change customer service at USCIS talk about that.

As for the rants on this thread regarding this type of application, someone mentioned "consistency" and that is the real issue here. All applications across the board are not consistent with processing times and some application types have no information on when the process will end. God forbid you get approved and sent to AR or AP at the consular stage.

What is COMMON to all or what appears to be a "theme" here on VJ is the cruddy customer service and lack of transparency in the process. Focus on that and provide evidence of that and you get someone to take it seriously..but having read multiple responses from USCIS to AILA on questions they provide every quarter its not likely you will get a positive or serious response.

[Tero 105]

I think people who have suggested adjusting the letter to make it more effective have criticized constructively. Those who have been criticizing the OP's "impatience" and suggesting that it would fall on deaf ears are very destructive. If the OP and as many who follow suit succeed, and the system is improved, are we all not going to benefit from it? The best you can do is to be supportive or at least criticize constructively. I do not think the system would be more efficient if everyone of us stops complaining and continues to show "patience." It is only going to get much worse if they think the system is as efficient as it can possibly be.

As crazy as it might sound, there are citizens here that oppose immigration as a whole, whether legal or illegal. I have worked with people that petition the government to disallow immigration or suggest to make the process expensive and frustrating to cut down on the number of immigrants. If we all continue to be quiet and be "patient" those opposing voices would win. If you think the fees are not going to get much higher, think again. if you think processing times are not going to get longer, this is just the beginning. We are all on the same boat, let's be supportive of one another to make out voices heard. At least be happy someone is initiating something if you cant.

[Jun&Scheillo 6]

USCIS is using the act to give all Haitians, even illegal aliens, broad based priority service, very much at the expense of fee paying United States citizens and their fiancés. Haitian citizens who are already here legally are safe and secure and in no need of any sort of priority

Believe me, I understand what you're going through and I truely back you up for trying to shake things up and get answers.However, this statement is way off base of truth. When you use the word "all" in a statement, be more careful nex time.

Also, when you're dealing with frustration be careful what comes out of your mouth or in this case what you are writing. You should not let frustration get ahead of your ability to think.

Now, my question to you is, where did you get the information that the USCIS gave all Haitians anything?

[Silk53 1]

Here's my opinion even though it was not asked for. I think the more people who bring this to light the better it is. Will it change for us? Probably not, the government doesn't move that fast. If I knew someone else would not have to go through the same mess I and others are right now, it would be worth something. The thing is, I do not think most Americans know what it is like. I didn't. I've seen the comment here and other places, you knew what you were getting into. I didn't. I fell in love than started doing some research. I was shocked at what I had learned. I had no idea what it was like for people to bring a spouse or fiance into the US. I thought it would be much simpler. My opinion is, most Americans are thinking the same thing I did. The Congress and Senate don't care because there are not enough people saying something. As long as we are quite about the process and the mess it causes of our lives the longer it will stay the same or get worse. Again, will it change for us? I don't think the USA moves fast enough to do anything for us. I am still going to try as I am awaiting a response from a Senator now. I'm not far into the process and really do not think my letter will make a change for me. That is the beauty of the USA, is you can tell your government what you think. Many countries you can not. I also believe the majority does not know what it's like and the more they can be informed about the individuals and the heartbreak and frustration many feel, the more likely change will occur. But it won't happen if we don't say anything.

[B_J 2,752]

Here's my opinion even though it was not asked for. I think the more people who bring this to light the better it is. Will it change for us? Probably not, the government doesn't move that fast. If I knew someone else would not have to go through the same mess I and others are right now, it would be worth something. The thing is, I do not think most Americans know what it is like. I didn't. I've seen the comment here and other places, you knew what you were getting into. I didn't. I fell in love than started doing some research. I was shocked at what I had learned. I had no idea what it was like for people to bring a spouse or fiance into the US. I thought it would be much simpler. My opinion is, most Americans are thinking the same thing I did. The Congress and Senate don't care because there are not enough people saying something. As long as we are quite about the process and the mess it causes of our lives the longer it will stay the same or get worse. Again, will it change for us? I don't think the USA moves fast enough to do anything for us. I am still going to try as I am awaiting a response from a Senator now. I'm not far into the process and really do not think my letter will make a change for me. That is the beauty of the USA, is you can tell your government what you think. Many countries you can not. I also believe the majority does not know what it's like and the more they can be informed about the individuals and the heartbreak and frustration many feel, the more likely change will occur. But it won't happen if we don't say anything.

[Al422 221]

Here is the really final draft of my letter. It is going to Hal Rogers, Chair of the Appropriations Committee. He does not publish his e-mail, so I will be faxing it tomorrow:

Hon. Hal Rogers, Chairman

Committee on Appropriations

United States House of Representatives

The Capital

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Chairman;

Although not your constituent, I write to you about an issue of pressing concern to all Americans concerning the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. Its proper operation, as you know, is important to all of us, even those not involved in immigration matters, as we all benefit from a sensible immigration policy administered by an agency that works and works well. That is, however, not the current state of affairs with the USCIS.

I am a petitioner in a proceeding pending before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to bring my fiancé, Elena ******, here to the United States for marriage. Towards that end, I filed an I129f Petition, which seeks approval for a K-1 fiancé visa.

There are no problems with my own petition, but there are multiple problems with the entire K-1/K-3 system at the Vermont Service Center that are causing needless hardships and delays for thousands of K-1/K3 petitioners and their beneficiaries throughout the entire region served by the Vermont office: First is that the delay in getting our petitions processed is growing every day and is totally out of line with any reasonable USCIS or other governmental need, and second, when a petitioner contacts the service with a legitimate inquiry about his/her case, he/she is met with no information, disinformation, and frequent hostility by USCIS personnel.

I realize that the USCIS is an administrative agency, under the jurisdiction of the President of The United States, but it is the Congress that funds the operation, and your committee that determines an appropriate budget for it. The Congress has a right, as well as a responsibility, to ensure that the public monies entrusted to USCIS are properly and wisely used.

That is, however, not the case. Almost a year ago, the Director of USCIS, Alejandro Mayorkas, appeared before the last term’s Appropriations Committee seeking his appropriation for the upcoming fiscal year, promising to deliver excellent service and excellent public communication with those monies. Instead, USCIS has delivered poor service, poor public communication, and an endless plethora of excuses as to why it can’t do what the Director promised the Committee it would do.

Up until recently, the system worked well in that a petitioner could expect a decision on his/her petition in a reasonable amount of time, typically 30 to 60 days. But lately, that time frame has totally broken down such that the typical delay is now over 6 months and, in some cases, more than 7 months. And the USCIS’ own website shows a dangerous trend where receipt of I129f petitions remains fairly steady from month to month, but the processing volume is sinking rapidly. See http://dashboard.uscis.gov/index.cfm?formtype=6&office=6&charttype=1

And to make matters worse, when a petitioner inquires about the status of the case, even after what USCIS deems “normal processing time” (5 months), he/she encounters a brick wall of bureaucratic insolence and often downright hostility. We are given an 800 number to call, with operators who have no idea what they are talking about and no better information than a member of the public can get off the USCIS web site. And that website is less than helpful, merely telling you that your case is “being processed”, without any hint as to how close USCIS is to a decision. The only thing the operator offers is a “service request”, which, when issued, gives no information but merely instructs you to call back in 30 days.

Lately, delays in I129f petition processing have gotten completely out of control, and USCIS communication with the public has as well. Petitions sit and sit at the Vermont Service Center, hardly any of them get processed, and backlogs just grow and grow, with no end in sight. Petitioners were being been told 6 weeks ago that the service was working on July 10, 2010, and only recently were they told the service is working on July 24, a mere two weeks of filings processed in that entire time. And for the past two weeks, there seems to be no movement of I129f petitions in the Vermont Service Center whatsoever. This fall off of the proverbial deep end should alarm any administrator, but USCIS seems to have nothing but disinterest in attending to this rapidly escalating processing crisis.

As of this point in time, the California Service Center is processing their petitions at a fairly normal rate and attending to their backlog in a responsible manner. They are already well into August 2010 and will soon start on September, while Vermont struggles to finish July.

Nobody at the Vermont Service Center is willing to tell the public what is going on, almost as if they are doing something wrong and have something to hide. I hear more and more stories about rude and obnoxious service personnel who are mean and nasty to the very petitioners who are the source of these people’s jobs, often making false statements of fact and even hanging up the telephone on them.

And to add more uncertainty and more stress to these United States citizen petitioners, the petitions are not processed in the order received, despite USCIS claims to the contrary. Some petitions are acted upon shortly after 5 ½ months, some are held to 7 ½ months and sometimes longer, and there is no rhyme or reason for this disparate treatment of one U.S. citizen over another. Nobody can determine, based on historical data, even the remotest estimate of when a decision will be reached on their petitions. This disparity would not be quite as bad if the USCIS would offer a reason or rationale for it, but, like everything else, USCIS maintains this part of their operation in secrecy as well.

There is no excuse for USCIS to be secretive. As a governmental agency which serves the public, its operation should be as transparent as glass. And there is certainly no excuse whatsoever for any USCIS personnel to ever be rude and hostile towards the members of the public they are paid to serve who simply want to know what the near future holds for themselves and their fiancés.

The USCIS does not act like it is a branch of the government of the greatest democracy in the world, behaving more like the KGB than anything else. The United States of America deserves much better.

Keeping families separated for months and months, with no end in sight, poses great hardships on these families. These are not indigent people looking for handouts. These are families consisting of United States citizens who paid good money to have their petitions filed and who commit themselves on paper to support their new spouses out of their own funds, and foreign fiancés who get thoroughly screened for illness, criminal history and other undesirable attributes.

This failure by USCIS does not only hurt these petitioners and their beneficiaries. It hurts the family unit as well; the very fabric of the strong society the United States is built on. This is not just my own thought. It is also the thought of the drafters of the Utah Compact, a wise and thoughtful group of individuals who were concerned about our broken immigration policy and how it is tearing our society apart. You can read about the group and their compact here: http://www.utahcompact.com/

While I cannot be certain as to why the USCIS is delaying I129f petitions for as long as they do since they are so secretive, one problem came to my attention: USCIS, in their implementation of the Help Haiti Act of 2010, took it much too far. Instead of just protecting Haitians legally in this country from having to return to the post earthquake chaos of their native land, USCIS is using the act to give illegal aliens broad based priority service, very much at the expense of fee paying United States citizens and their fiancés. Congress enacted this law to protect law abiding Haitians, not illegal aliens.

While USCIS may deny processing Temporary Protective Status claims from illegal aliens, the New York Times discovered otherwise. Here is a link to their article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/world/americas/16immig.html?_r=2

And while it might be argued that illegal aliens need protection too, those people made a conscious decision to operate outside of the law, thereby waiving any protection the laws that they shunned might otherwise have given them.

Now, despite the deadline for new TPS petition applications having passed, our i129f petitions are still collecting dust in the Vermont Service Center and going nowhere, and our fiancés are still exiled in their countries of origin, effectively banned from their rightful marital homes, with no end in sight. I do not know what the Vermont Service Center is doing with its time, maybe more TPS petitions, or maybe something else. But I do know what it is not doing: Attending to its responsibilities to U.S. citizens.

During the upcoming budget cycle, the Director of USCIS will no doubt make his annual appearance before your committee, requesting his appropriation for the upcoming fiscal year. I ask that the committee find out from the Director what the citizens of this country want to know: Ask him why his agency has failed United States citizens so miserably. Ask him why delays in attending to the needs of United States citizens have been spiraling out of control with no sign of any interest by his agency in fixing them. Ask him why USCIS personnel refuse to communicate with fee paying petitioners and give them any meaningful information, not to mention proper courtesy and respect. Ask him why his agency is allowing families to suffer needless months of separation and hardship. And ask him when he intends to make his agency responsive to the needs of the public it is supposed to be serving.

I thank you for reading my letter.

Yours truly,

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

SENT BY FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION TO (202) 225-0940

cc: Ms. Elena *******

[Shawn-n-Sonoko 9]

Agreed, i HATE people who make comments like that. Noone knows if they will die tomorrow or in the next second. You see all these articles on the news, newspaper, magazine etc about loved ones who got in a fight and never got the chance to make up for it etc.Life can be long or short.

The BS going on at VSC is unacceptable. 886 petitions approved in November? Are you kidding me?! Watch December numbers be half of that.

To both of you, yeah I agree ANYONE'S life could be gone in an instant, and as you hate people who make the comments like I did, I really bothers me how people get all wrapped up in the news, newspaper, magazines, etc about what seem like such a drastic loss of life in this world. People die, some earlier than others but look how many people are living and what is the percentage that dies on a daily basis? How many people live to 70, 80, 90, 100+ years old? Quite a many, and I bet more than who died at 20, 30, 40 years old. I could be one, as I never studied that but just form how many older people I see around, especially in foreign countries. I for one do not think about when I might die. It will happen when it will happen and some people will mourn over my death, some will be overcome with joy at my departure of this world. I'm about to hit 32 years on this earth and I still consider myself very young and I plan to live many years. I do not fear death for myself or any of my loved ones, and sure the hell will not let the media who reports more negative than positive things affect my thinking and happiness in life!

I hope everyone here gets to see the dream of their future wife/husband being with them and not an over-extended wait. I hope that most people can see the positive things in life and enjoy what they have today and satisfy themselves with the legacy they leave behind everyday!

Good luck all!!

[Moomin 292]

I am still left with the impression that if you had not been in the situation but only heard of it, you would not concider this as a necessity. Forgive me for saying so because I do indeed understand your frustration.

That being said, it's a sensitive matter since you're not talking about immigration in general but only a small percentage of it which you feel lost in. Again, you have my empathy but you will have to argue that the K1 deserves more attention than any other petition. It is hard to prove when your constitution and laws are built upon the rights of citizens, not the rights other future immigrants have. Proof and facts that the waiting time is "extreme hardship" on US citizens is just as important as establing proof that the petitions are collecting dust throughout those est. 5 months.

Personally, I'd want to see improvements within the USCIS in the future so others being a part of the process have a smoother visa journey. But as of right now feeling stuck in the middle of it there is nothing I can contribute with to getting a better service - but I do have the priviledge of entering the US as a tourist. And my fiancee do have the option of visiting me during this process. I'm not going to take that for granted despite I agree it's a slow, tough and at times painful process for the majority not being united "for good".

//Luna.

[Oasis 0]

I think you are taking this a bit over the top thats for sure.

You are not even over the 5 months mark and I personally think you are totally wasting your time.

Do what everyone else is going, sit back, have patience and wait until its your turn.

If anyone should write a letter like this it would be Me. ...... I have had my share of immigation problems, fights denials and whatever else goes with it.... and if its one thing I learned its patience.

Good Luck.

[garmar 0]

Interesting that AI422's petition was not approved until over 6 months which seems to be a bit longer than the average right now. Maybe he hasn't updated but it looks like he is being held up at the NVC level also. They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease but sometimes when you open your mouth at the wrong time you can get a mouthful of S!@#. I also would like to see things moving faster. Please VSC Gods.....hear my prayer.

[TBoneTX 43,041]

You've answered a zombie thread. Al apparently blew his stack a few too many times and scared his fiancee away. More than a few of his posts here were quite disturbing. He hasn't been on VJ since (April 15).

Edited July 25, 2011 by TBoneTX

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

You've answered a zombie thread. Al apparently blew his stack a few too many times and scared his fiancee away. More than a few of his posts here were quite disturbing. He hasn't been on VJ since (April 15).

Looks like it may have been more than that. According to him, she cut off communication late in the game, and when she finally responded it was "Just kidding. So long sucker!".

There's a classic scam that's pretty common in the FSU and Eastern Europe. It involves hooking up with a western guy, and then hitting him up for cash for an endless string of emergencies, and then pulling the plug just before the end of the visa process. They often have more than one guy on the hook at the same time. Maybe that's what happened to Al.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/304921-useless-noa2/page__view__findpost__p__4610735