Correlation between senator enquiry and USCIS effort

[mcdull 474]

As much as I despise my senator, today I plead for her assistance of my pending i751.

 

I am wondering if there is any kind of correlation between senator enquiry and USCIS moving case forward.

 

if not, aren't we just running a fool's errand?

[mindthegap 2,537]

Well it did precisely jack-all for me....

 

Maybe you will have better luck.

[charmander 692]

1 hour ago, mcdull said:

As much as I despise my senator, today I plead for her assistance of my pending i751.

 

I am wondering if there is any kind of correlation between senator enquiry and USCIS moving case forward.

 

if not, aren't we just running a fool's errand?

Depends on the reason uscis is delaying your case. Congressional inquiry is a real deal. Each service center has a specific unit just to deal with congressional inquiries. Once an inquiry is initiated uscis has to respond within a certain time (as far as i know it is 48 hours). The outcome may not be always in favor of you. For instance if a case is pending due to background checks, congressperson cannot do anything about it. Sometimes uscis answers with a lame, we are working on it, can't give any further information answer too. But there are definitely times congressional inquiries helped positively. Especially if a case is delayed for no reason due to the laziness of the iso handling the case, or field office not taking the action for interview. 

 

it is something for the petitioners to take advantage of. May or may not work, no guarantee. It also depends on the congressperson's office willing to help the petitioner. Some are better than others. Better to contact all senators and house rep, and choose the one that is more interested in assisting you. 

 

Dunno you picked Sen Warren but I heard good reviews about her office helping with immigration matters. 

[hsa12390 30]

15 hours ago, mcdull said:

As much as I despise my senator, today I plead for her assistance of my pending i751.

 

I am wondering if there is any kind of correlation between senator enquiry and USCIS moving case forward.

 

if not, aren't we just running a fool's errand?

Don't want to get your hopes up, but I reached out to several senators and congressmen when my husband's I-130 was severely delayed and they made several inquiries. They all told me that their enquiries would not be able to expedite our case, instead it's just to get a status update. However, his embassy interview was (eventually) scheduled in 3 days (which normally takes 2-3 months) and the embassy sent a long a letter saying it's been expedited at congressman's request.

So basically it's impossible to know in advance, but reaching out to them is definitely the right way to go and might even get your case expedited...

Also, i'm in Boston and feel the same way about her (our senator)  you might try Senator Markey and congressman Kennedy. They were the ones who helped us back in 2014

[jxn 86]

49 minutes ago, hsa12390 said:

Don't want to get your hopes up, but I reached out to several senators and congressmen when my husband's I-130 was severely delayed and they made several inquiries.

Can you explain what you mean by several? Presumably anyone has a maximum of three elected officials they can reach out to: two senators and one representative.

 

To OP's point, the benefit of having your representatives in Congress contact USCIS is just for a status check through the USCIS Congressional Inquiry Unit. I believe USCIS is required to respond to them within a certain short timeframe (I don't remember exactly how long). However a congressional inquiry alone isn't enough to expedite a case.

[mcdull 474]

1 hour ago, hsa12390 said:

Don't want to get your hopes up, but I reached out to several senators and congressmen when my husband's I-130 was severely delayed and they made several inquiries. They all told me that their enquiries would not be able to expedite our case, instead it's just to get a status update. However, his embassy interview was (eventually) scheduled in 3 days (which normally takes 2-3 months) and the embassy sent a long a letter saying it's been expedited at congressman's request.

So basically it's impossible to know in advance, but reaching out to them is definitely the right way to go and might even get your case expedited...

Also, i'm in Boston and feel the same way about her (our senator)  you might try Senator Markey and congressman Kennedy. They were the ones who helped us back in 2014

thanks! 

[charmander 692]

I was trying to remember where I saw that 48 hours response time. Google brought me back to this VJ article http://www.visajourney.com/content/adjudicator-q-and-a

It is from 2007. VJ member @HUSKERKIEV used to work at NSC as an ISO until 2003, when he joined VJ and informed people he used to be an ISO, they made a Q&A session with him. Search the word "congressional" for his comments on congressional inquiry. It is a long and nice read.

 

Remember the case assistance does not only apply to USCIS. Social Security, IRS, VA, Military, you name the federal agency, so it is better to pick the office they seem more interested in helping you rather than trying one by one. Workload in some could be less than the other. All states have two senators, but if you are from CA, NY, TX, FL maybe it is better to go with the house rep. Then if you are from a state that only has one house rep, it may be better to try a senator's office first.

[hsa12390 30]

52 minutes ago, jxn said:

Can you explain what you mean by several? Presumably anyone has a maximum of three elected officials they can reach out to: two senators and one representative.

 

To OP's point, the benefit of having your representatives in Congress contact USCIS is just for a status check through the USCIS Congressional Inquiry Unit. I believe USCIS is required to respond to them within a certain short timeframe (I don't remember exactly how long). However a congressional inquiry alone isn't enough to expedite a case.

I reached out to Senator Markey and Congressman Kennedy as well as another Senator who I forget. I believe Senator Markey was the one who got the case expedited. I managed to dig up the message that NVC sent to our congressman:

 

"We received an expedite request for this case on August 9, 2014.  The request was forwarded to the U.S. Embassy.  When a response is received, your office will be notified with further instructions"

 

We wound up getting the interview scheduled a few days later, which was a process that normally took a couple of months. I can't find that original message but I remember it said that the interview was expedited.

[mallafri76 1,012]

It certainly helped us at the NVC stage. Our case was stuck going on seven or eight months at NVC, then Senator Cornyn of Texas reached out to NVC and three weeks later we had case complete. Never hurts to try. 

[Cathi 5,616]

I contacted Senator Jeanne Shaheen's office when my husband's I-130 was stuck for over a month for unknown reasons after they raised the fees at the NVC years ago. Her liaison contacted the NVC and within 24 hours his case finally moved again. We contacted them again when his visa was stuck in AP at the consulate. They made clear to me there was nothing they could do to expedite the AP(I was already aware of this) but they did tell me that the fact that the consulate was aware they were following his case was a good thing. It certainly won't hurt your case to ask for help. Good luck.

[hsa12390 30]

Seems like for those of us who had their cases expedited, it was only expedited at NVC stage or embassy stage, not USCIS stage. Still, they should at least be able to tell you whether your case has been assigned to an officer. Certainly can't hurt. Just be sure to follow up with the immigration specialists working in the offices often because they are no doubt swamped and (at least in my case) weren't extremely communicative