Thank United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

[Karee 4,190]

Although this is an immigration related issue, I feel it is political in nature, since it's odd someone goes through something like this, yet all the politicians can talk about is giving a pass to people who broke the law to come to the U.S. They don't seem to have any interest any fixing the legal immigration system.

I'd ask the mods to please leave it here, although I know by the very nature of my request, it will probably get moved to the Costa Rica consulate forum.

Thank United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

Attn: Alejandro N. Mayorkas

Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Mr. Mayorkas and USCIS:

After being forced apart from my wife for the past eight months by your department’s policies and possibly-trained employees, I’m writing to say thank you and to thank your entire department.

I’m sure you’ll remember my wife Apinya’s and my case but I’ll summarize it in my own words. In August, 2012, only three weeks after we were married, my wife’s mother in Thailand fell terminally ill. Since Apinya was in the US on a student visa and we were awaiting her processing to become a permanent resident, she needed a “travel document” to be able to leave and reenter the country. Following USCIS protocol specifically mentioned in its collateral, she and her lawyer called to request emergency processing of that document, but the agent on the phone (who I commend for being expertly versed in reading aloud information from the USCIS website) said it could not be done in less than 60 days. Apinya was forced to choose between her new husband and dying mother. We agreed she needed to visit her mother and she arrived at the hospital two hours after her mother passed away.

As soon as she left the country, Apinya’s visa application was considered “abandoned” and she was prohibited from returning to the US; we had to reapply for her visa and lost $1,100 in non-refundable fees. We don’t really mind forfeiting the money; we know it will go directly to good use improving USCIS operations and making the immigration process even more efficient. Thank you for investing our otherwise stagnant savings.

Shortly after her departure I was delighted to learn that the “travel document” could actually have been issued in one business day and for all intents and purposes my wife should have been back home with me in mid-August. I thought that because of this simple oversight it would be possible to speak with someone and have it corrected. USCIS thought otherwise.

What followed was an eight-month period of forced separation from my wife which included dozens of phone calls, emails, meetings, and letters to employees of your department, my Congressional representatives, and even the media. The hours and hours of time, day after day, week after week, I dedicated to this issue proved to me that USCIS is bureaucracy at its finest. Every person in every level of your department (including yourself) has adopted the strategy of passing our case to another employee to review it. To many customers this would be extremely frustrating and seem sickeningly negligent, but instead I gained a valuable work-life lesson: if my job requires me to do something that someone else may be able to do, I can completely avoid it by assuming someone else will do it. Thank you for sharing your expertise in avoiding responsibility.

Contrary to all common sense, I can tell my relationship with my wife has grown much closer from being much farther away. It will be a fascinating and humorous story to tell our grandchildren about our first year of marriage—my wife and I had to build our relationship by talking to a computer screen, limited to two three-hour periods each day because of the time difference. To say that being in this position is challenge for anyone is an understatement; I'm always up for a challenge, and in fact I would love to watch the government have your wife and children taken away from you for eight months so you could face the challenge yourself. Thank you and everything you stand for.

You probably aren't surprised to hear that there are over 235,000 families per year that are being separated by USCIS, the National Visa Center, and Congressional immigration policies. Some of my colleagues have told me that that fact is “un-American,” “disgusting,” “heartless,” and “reprehensible,” but I argued that the 18,000 USCIS employees are probably unusually overworked and offices uniquely understaffed; so requiring husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and children to be physically and emotionally separated for months and even years at a time is a small price to pay. After all, I argued, policy is more important than people; think of the utter chaos that would ensue if every single person with an immediate family member in the US was allowed to reunite with their family as their paperwork is still being processed. Thank you for keeping families separated and giving the paperwork priority.

A friend mentioned to me that the visa system is unfair. He found that most tourists can enter the country in about 10-15 days or less and there is even a special visa type solely for fashion models to expedite entry to the US. He claimed it made no sense that these types of visitors could enter so quickly when immediate family members are forced to wait 9-12 months or more, but I completely disagree. Everyone knows that tourists form the backbone of the US economy and the fashion industry's critical advertising needs would be quite impossible without foreign models. It’s just foolish to argue that tourists and models are not as important, or even more important, than immigrants—who will have their whole lives to spend here anyway. Thank you for supporting the visa system and doing nothing to change it.

I wrote this letter and made it public because I want you and the entire staff of USCIS to know how I feel about what you’re doing for people in the US and throughout the world. I hope one day we meet in person so I can say thank you right to your face. So now with eight months of constant torment, anxiety, and misery behind me, I say in complete sincerity: go thank yourself.

Your victim,

Adam Ross

Adam@ThankUSCIS.com

Source:

http://thankuscis.com./

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Excellent!

[Karee 4,190]

Excellent!

I feel for the guy. We all seem to have some kind of story about how this was a mess for us. Probably not as bad as this guys, but I'm sure we can all relate.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I feel for the guy. We all seem to have some kind of story about how this was a mess for us. Probably not as bad as this guys, but I'm sure we can all relate.

Yeah, absolutely. It's also a lesson in not taking USCIS drones that work the misinformation line seriously. In that case, I think a good immigration attorney would have been worth the money - get the travel doc timely and avoid all the hassle. One shouldn't have to jump through those hoops but it is what it is.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I always feel like ####### when I read these stories, I remember complaining about the process once to someone here who went through the same thing. When I told him how long it took from beginning to visa in hand though, he went off on me.

[Karee 4,190]

I always feel like ####### when I read these stories, I remember complaining about the process once to someone here who went through the same thing. When I told him how long it took from beginning to visa in hand though, he went off on me.

No one should go off on you for that. He should congratulate you. It's like pulling a 21 in blackjack. There's no rhyme or reason to it. You just got lucky.

As I've mentioned 1000 times since I first logged on here back in 2007, The E.U. somehow completes this whole process in roughly 30 days, start to finish. That's what I've been told anyway. In my case it took a year.

[duraaraa 203]

I must say, I have never gone through quite as demanding a bureaucratic process as this one. Getting visas for other countries is generally a simple process. Do the paperwork, send your passport to the embassy, wait for it to come back.

In the U.S., you have to undergo quite a lot more than that. Even putting all the waiting aside, the impending interview feels to me like my fiancee is going to be put on trial for some kind of ineligibility and has to prove her innocence.

Maybe it will go smoothly and I will be wrong, but I do worry a lot about it.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

From what I've seen, mostly countries like Australia, UK, Germany, they get through easier than asian countries,(Japan and Korea seem to be less of a problem).

I agree with you, I was lucky/blessed because I had no clue about the immigration process. In my first marriage, my ex was German, which meant they fell under the VWP, also this was before 9/11 so getting here and adjusting her status was easy. Being in the military, they let her in and told me to adjust her status, no issues. So I thought the same thing this time around. Talk about a rude awakening.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

I am one of the lucky ones, I suppose. Our process wasn't lightning fast, but it wasn't ridiculously slow either. And as the beneficiary, I never felt I was on trial. I was barely asked any actual questions. I guess that's one of the benefits of being from a low-fraud country and neither party having any past marriages or children or anything.

My only complaint was that some fool lost my medical exam and I had to pay for a new one.

But in comparison to this story and others that I read on this site, it was a walk in the park.

[duraaraa 203]

I guess my problem is, Mongolia is such a lowly-populated country, I have no idea, whatsoever, if it is considered high-fraud or not for K-1s. It seems the four reviews there have had people who went through smoothly. I saw a cable on wikileaks or something of that sort, that said they worry that people who apply for marriage/fiancee visas were prostitutes in China, but they had to give them the visa anyway because they couldn't prove it. My fiancee has never been to China, and has never been a prostitute, so I think it's okay, but until I actually hear that she was approved, I will be worried sick.

I do know, from experience (we applied for a tourist visa for her son) that tourist visas are not easy. They said that there were people crying because their student visas were denied. These are cases of 'not strong enough ties to your country,' which doesn't apply to K-1, but still, I worry they'll find some way to deny, and I'll have to leave my good job and comfortable life in the U.S., to be we with the people I love.

Edited April 17, 2013 by duraaraa