Calling Congressman before 5 months ???

[yaseen 0]

Honestly, will that even help/ atleast in them moving faster in general, if anything?.or should i just wait it out till my exact 5 months!..my mother is making me goo crazy constantly telling me to call cause she things it will "MOvE QUICKER"

[belinda63 2,981]

A congressman can only assist if the case is outside processing times or if there is a specific problem. If contacting them would speed up the processing all of us would have done it.

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

It won't help, they will most likely just tell you to wait, or else have you sign the privacy release form, then sit on it.

[yaseen 0]

whats a privacy release form?..what is the use for that?

[TheSantamarias 0]

I'm not sure if this helps or not... I called my Senator on Thursday and I got an RFE yesterday. I hadn't heard ANYTHING, no touches, nothing until then. My 5 month mark was yesterday, so I'm going to say it helped. I wish you the best!

[T&R 3]

We're waiting until the 17th (5 months of waiting) to contact our senator. Just wait until you complete 5 months, and then contact them. =)

I hope they can something, because Vermont is sooooooooooooooooo behind California.

[Eddyy 5]

My fiancee contacted the senator on the 6 month mark and we got our noa2. She got a letter from the senator saying that they expedited the case because our case was 1 month above the average processing time which is 5 months.

So I say wait a little bit more, if you don't hear anything one week before the 6 month, call the senators, otherwise they would just tell you to wait...

[yaseen 0]

ok, so my next question would be,,Who do i call?which senator?what would i say?

[Hilbill 0]

I attempted an expedite with a congressman's help and they were very helpful and continue to be. I went online to look up the congressmen in our area (zip code). I am in California so I contacted our two senators (with no help from them) and my house of representative for my district. The house of rep guy(girl in office) were incredibly helpful and responded within a few days of my email. They have also phoned me and given me updates very frequently. I also had originally hired a lawyer for all of this fiance visa ####### but that was a mistake. I regret not finding this site before that. The lawyer has been useless. The congressman has been much better. I would suggest contacting the house of rep over a senator as they are more local to your area and usually not as busy as the senators. I would contact them now so that they can at least look into it for you and see where it is at. Also, you will need to sign a privacy consent form which just allows them to look into your case for you. Good luck.

[Malissa + Roberto 0]

After four months of submitting the petition, I went to the office of my local House of Representatives (found his office address by searching online) and submitted a letter to him to forward to USCIS, requesting a rush on the approval so that our wedding could be ontime. Within 5 days, USCIS had responded and told me that the average processing time is 5 months, so I would have to wait to contact them until the 5-month mark.

After five months, I went to my Congressman's office again with another letter, stating that I had waiting 5 months and still heard nothing. Within 5 days, USCIS responded and told me I would have to wait ANOTHER MONTH because they have some kind of leeway that they can take an extra 30 days before the Congressman can urge expedition of the approval.

After SIX months, I returned to my Congressman with a third letter of complaint. The secretary in his office immediately sent my letter, urging expeditious processing of my case. Within one week, I received my approval!

It's best to wait until the 5-month mark and then contact your Congressman. Contacting them before 5 months won't help.

It looks like the Vermont Service Center receives more applications than the California Service Center. And Vermont takes longer to issue approval. Gotta love Bureaucracy. You'd think for a $500 application fee, they'd be able to employ enough people to approve our petitions in a timely manner.

[Sergi9 110]

I'm not sure if this helps or not... I called my Senator on Thursday and I got an RFE yesterday. I hadn't heard ANYTHING, no touches, nothing until then. My 5 month mark was yesterday, so I'm going to say it helped. I wish you the best!

An RFE is a status updates of sorts but some people would hardly call this "help".

The deal is VSC is no longer processing in 5 months, the average processing time is now about 6.5 from the people who are posting approvals from VSC. So what is the goal or purpose of a a congressional inquiry on your case? Is it asking them to bump your case ahead of others who have been waiting longer? Not sure USCIS can do that. When its 30 days outside "normal" processing time" which varies based on workload and other circumstances than the congressional can be helpful if there is actually a problem with your case.

When and if you get past the 6 months mark you decide to initiate a congressional pick the Senator in your district who is more "pro-immigration" you will get a friendly response and more likely a good followup.

There is no need to contact 2 Senators and the congressman one inquiry with one office is all that is needed and accomplishes the same thing, which is a status update.

Also note the USCIS Website with "normal" processing time for VSC has not been updated since Jan 2011. It appears from other posts here they are working on cases that got NOA1 in middle of September. So regardless of the magic 5 months being tossed around in discussions on the board it appears normal is no longer 5 months.

Good luck, it may take a little longer than it did some months past but it will eventually get processed.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Sergi9

[Sergi9 110]

I attempted an expedite with a congressman's help and they were very helpful and continue to be. I went online to look up the congressmen in our area (zip code). I am in California so I contacted our two senators (with no help from them) and my house of representative for my district. The house of rep guy(girl in office) were incredibly helpful and responded within a few days of my email. They have also phoned me and given me updates very frequently. I also had originally hired a lawyer for all of this fiance visa ####### but that was a mistake. I regret not finding this site before that. The lawyer has been useless. The congressman has been much better. I would suggest contacting the house of rep over a senator as they are more local to your area and usually not as busy as the senators. I would contact them now so that they can at least look into it for you and see where it is at. Also, you will need to sign a privacy consent form which just allows them to look into your case for you. Good luck.

You posted in another thread you contacted your Representative in an attempt to get two expedites and USCIS denied both. While the phone calls and updates from your representative might have been comforting, I think its instructive to note that USCIS will not pull a case from the pile that was filed three months behind others in the que and approve it because the constituent requested an expedite or a congressional inquiry. That would also be quite unfair to others who have waited longer.

The only point is not to create a false or unrealistic hope based on the advice to involve a congressman. The process in and of itself is stressful enough.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Sergi9

[Inky 1,110]

whats a privacy release form?..what is the use for that?

The use for it is so that they have the right to look into your private information for the case. If you do not sign it, they cannot help you. Pretty standard.

[Kish.2328 9]

No harm if you will give it a try. But as what everyone is telling you, the Congressman/Senator will prolly tell you to wait.

[Harsh_77 716]

If you have not reached your 5 month mark, there is no point in contacting congressman/senator instead leave their bandwidth open so they can help who has pass the 5 month mark.

Please dont flood your congressman/senator coz you dont wanna wait the usual time it is required to process the paperwork.