Sheepwalk

Just to be clear, DACA is NOT Dream Act. DACA which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals gives children of illegal immigrants access to work permits which gives them legal status to gain employment. The Dream Act, which was floated around during the Bush Administration, gives any illegal alien a path to citizenship, which includes paying back taxes etc. So they are completely different. Congress (both parties) are working on a new version of the old Dream Act. When that happens, and 11 million illegals try to cut to the front of the line like they are doing now with DACA, I'd expect K1 visa applications to take years. So consider yourselves lucky!

This.
I think the most important thing for getting your letter taken seriously is to show that you really understand the problem, that you aren't just asking your congressperson to chase your own personal rabbit down a rabbit hole, and that you expect your elected officials to take action on your behalf when a government agency is failing you so horribly.
To that end, I suggest devoting two or three paragraphs to meticulously explaining the problem. Talk about how, based on the USCIS's published data, there has been virtually no review of K-1 visas for at least three months at the CSC. Further explain how the USCIS is obviously manipulating their processing time frame in order to avoid accountability for creating this backlog. Finally, talk about how it all seems to be related to the DACA program and possibly political pressures that are forcing the USCIS to let DACA petitioners jump in line against citizen petitioners with no end in sight. Be sure throughout to emphasize how the USCIS has become completely unaccountable for and opaque about all of these problems and is in desperate need of oversight.
Next, I'd add some words about your personal situation and how the delay is negatively affecting you and your spouse. Talk about financial and emotional impacts. If there is some special hardship (medical, etc.) you are facing, be sure to highlight it.
Remember, the USCIS is a service run for the benefit of US citizens, not a service that is supposed to cause so much unnecessary frustration. Everyone deserves better than this and its up to us, who have firsthand experience, to tell our representatives, who likely do not, all the ways in which it is broken. And we have to make clear that we expect them to fix those problems on our behalf, one way or another.
The reason, by the way, that I don't just provide a form letter copy of what I wrote is because I think these types of requests need to be personalized. I'd hate for a single form letter version to get spread widely so that congressional offices came to recognize it and discount it.

Volume and Trend Charts have been updated!
http://dashboard.uscis.gov/

haha, this is really a good new! congratulations~ and you gave us a positive answwer about the comunication with the congressman, we are going to write it this week, with two points: 1 similar k1 quantity workload compared to past years (don't want them just respond that they got a lot);2 even it's true,that they have a lot of DACA workload,it still unnecesarily to be the reason to delay the K1 processing time.
well, want to know your opnions about this letter.
We will send it next week , since it would complets 5.5 months next weekend, as the average time.
happy for u and your words ! positive guy!

Hi Mairead(?)
Just wanted to say, fair play to you. I think you're absolutely right and love the way you worded your thoughts on the issue. The system is failing its original goals and intentions. Also, the erratic way that some applications are processed with no apparent reason must be so frustrating for people. I appreciate that there are sheer volumes of applications to deal with but for some types of applications to suffer delays because there is a push on to address other visa types per politics (ie DACA), and for people to see other applications posted one if not two months after theirs getting approval when they still haven't heard anything themselves, is a genuine cause for concern. Once someone at USCIS starts to look at a case, it would be great if there was a notification that it's come to the top of the pile at least. As it is, it just disappears into this black hole that can take anywhere from 5 to 8 months with no word in the interim and no opportunity to ask because they can simply leave their estimated processing times as far back as they choose.
We applied in November to CSC and they haven't updated their estimated processing times since 5th February although they say they like to update it on the 15th of each month. So, people who applied on 19th July are now waiting almost 8 months but still cannot enquire and have to watch as some people who filed in August receive their approval.
I'm sure individuals at USCIS work as hard as they can but the system needs some overhauling by the looks of it. And its down to the people in charge to do that. If enough people bring attention to this via their Congressman/woman then that can only be a good thing.
Once again, fair play to you and I hope you get your NA02 soon so you can get on with the rest of your life.
All the best,
Karen

Hi everyone,
I am the UK beneficiary waiting on my NOA2 at this time. After contacting his congressman about the visa processing issues, my fiancé got a call yesterday from an apparently very pleasant and helpful representative who promised to help investigate the K1 visa processing times. Now I'm absolutely not jumping up and down saying that I should have my case processed before anyone else, but I DO hope that by speaking up we can help reform the system by some small degree, to the benefit of all. Particularly in times like this where government/public sector cuts are being made, if people don't make a bit of noise and make their representatives aware that this is a problem, the system is not likely to get better any time soon, rather the opposite.
Our thoughts were as follows:
My fiancee and I realise there are considerable waiting times involved when applying for a K1 Visa with USCIS. However, these processing times seem to be extremely erratic and are becoming longer all the time, at all the processing centres. The K1 visa was designed so that couples and families did not have to spend large spaces of time apart, but this system seems to be failing, and I would like to register my concern over this. It is hard for both my fiancee and I to plan our living arrangements, employment and personal life when the process is so hard to predict. I am registering this complaint with our case in mind, but also in the hopes that the visa system will be made more efficient and fair across the board. Our case is being processed by the Vermont Service Centre, and the receipt number is: Bla bla bla bla.
Aaaand suuuuure. I've seen other people being somewhat slated for this kind of call to action; 'it won't help', 'your case won't be processed any faster' etc..
Well, even if it doesn't help me, I hope that in whatever small way possible perhaps our one contribution will join many other voices in bringing attention to this matter. I encourage others to do the same.

Look. I just resigned from public service a few months ago, but I was an 18 year veteran. The last 12 were IT, but the first 6 were processing cases (I worked for the state agency that handles welfare benefits in my state, first as a financial worker, then a financial lead, and finally I worked two years in what would be the ombudsman's office for my agency). So, I have a good feel for what it means to process mountains and mountains of paperwork. But we had laws we had to follow or we would be reprimanded. There were lawsuits behind many of those laws.
Having said that, I don't understand how USCIS gets away with essentially flaunting their own regulations. I said on another thread that I wonder if we could file a class action suit to bring attention to this issue. I believe something needs to happen to get this process under better control. This kind of thing is simply not tolerated in any of the agencies I have been involved in, and I would bet that if pressure were brought to bear the same thing could be said about USCIS down the line.
One further thing in the issue of contacting or not contacting. This is what I would tell clients in my caseload about contacting me: Look, I have over 700 cases in my caseload. You only have 1 case, yours. You are much more capable of riding herd on your case, so if you feel the need to rattle my cage, do it. Luckily for my clients, I was pretty freaking good at my job (as can be inferred from my career trajectory), so they didn't have to call me too much. The bottom line is that you are the ones most familiar with your case and where it should be. Feel free to stay on top of it as much as you can.
Just my two pennies.

February is a short month, so have to add three days to the update date. Therefore I predict the new monthly figures to be released on March 8th.
As far as K-1 processing date, I'll go with July 24th. Since around 1900 were received in July, and based on December figures, less than 500 were completed. So adding 4 days (plus weekend) seems conservatively reasonable, since the processing rate is in a downtrend.

Hi,
I am currently in Australia and I am also trying to get a police clearance from Canada as quickly as possible. I did a bit of research yesterday and found a company that is accredited by the RCMP to scan ink fingerprints. The company then sends the electronic fingerprints to the RCMP and it takes three days to get the police clearance. They accept money orders or credit card payments. It costs only $50 (incl. RCMP processing fee).
The company is called Safran Morpho (formely known as L-1 Identity Solutions). I tried to post I link to the company's website in this message but it kept failing. Safran Morpho (formerly L-1 Identity Solutions) is listed as an RCMP-Accredited Fingerprinting Companies on the RCMP's website. Go to RCMP's website > Vulnerable Sector Checks > Scroll down to section Fingerprinting for a Vulnerable Sector Check and click on RCMP-Accredited Fingerprinting Companies link. (sorry, unable to post link to website for this as well).
There are many other companies on the internet offfering similar services. They all claim to be accredited by the RCMP but I can't find their names listed on the RCMP's website.