bdrew612

Wow that article is so full of lies. The website says they are on March 20 at the latest, that's almost 12 months, and the official stats put it at between 8.7-and 8.9 months. There are still people from March and April of last year waiting. And not only that, but this is not "recent." The first slowdown hit the K-1 visas back in 2012. The USCIS knew by 2013 that this was not going to be a temporary slowdown. When the howls of the K-1 people got too loud, they just threw the burden onto the CR-1's. These people and their lies.

This quote "even if DACA caused the visa delay, USCIS' operations are not funded by taxpayers and Obama would not have directly ordered them to focus on illegal immigrants over American families." made me snort!!

I'm really interested to know what these "hiring difficulties" were. Maybe they're not aware you have POST job openings in order to hire people!

So, is this how government scandals start? The response by "sources close to immigration and immigration reform" in this article is such BS.

Did the Daily Caller article touch a nerve with USCIS?

Here's some media contacts to include in the next letter (I included the outlets that responded in some way to the New York Times piece):

Latin Times: Editor in Chief Ernesto Sànchez e.sanchez@latintimes.com

National Review: letters@nationalreview.com

The Columbus Dispatch: Editor Ben Marrison bmarrison@dispatch.com

The Star Tribune: Editor Rene Sanchez rene.sanchez@startribune.com

Washington Post: letters@washpost.com

Washington Post Wonkbook: Evan Soltas esoltas@gmail.com

NPR: http://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx

New York Times: letters@nytimes.com

For the New York Times, direct quote; “Letters should preferably be 150 to 175 words, should refer to an article that has appeared within the last seven days, and must include the writer's address and phone numbers. No attachments, please.”

I think we should. Too bad the NYT piece didn't name names at USCIS...

Great work to everyone involved in this!

Lori Scialabba is the acting Director of USCIS until a new Director has been sworn in. Right now, Leon Rodriguez (head dude at Office of Civil Rights right now) is rumored to be the favorite.

This is great news to read! Congrats to you both!

I didn't write it, I'm just sharing it. At least there's a something out there for someone to address the I-130 backlog.

And, if an I-129f is filed with an I-130, it's supposed to be a K-3. Maybe that mythical visa can get some airtime, too with this petiton.

It's right here.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/give-us-citizen-i-130-i-129f-petitions-proper-priority/FxWZpJFF

Sign and share, everyone! We have a long way to go before Mar 2nd!

Am I reading this right? $70-$200 for a free form? If their cases are so straightforward, what are they paying for?

Forgive my cynicism this evening :-D

Or, tomorrow you can join this teleconference USCIS is holding and ask your questions there!

http://www.uscis.gov/outreach/form-i-910-application-civil-surgeon-designation-and-centralization

No, it's not about the I-130, but they've been clear hey have no intentions of holding a teleconference to address the backlog.

Just because people are saying "this is the norm" doesn't make it right. If USCIS has a goal of 5 month processing, then it's possible for them to do it. I-130s should not be taking 8-9 months to process if all the required paperwork is attached. Besides, USCIS is only step 1 (as Otter mentioned). K-1s submit similar paperwork but don't have the added NVC step (which is outside the US), whereas K-1s complete their journey in the US, with their fiancée. Their accelerated processing just doesn't make sense to me.

The $5 is the fee to apply for a waiver. The waiting period can only be waived in cases of emergency or extraordinary circumstances.

http://equallywed.com/gay-wedding-planning/legal-advice-for-gays-lesbians/waive-the-wait.html

Hey! One of our awesome VJ members posted a petition on the White House website. Please sign it!!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/give-us-citizen-i-130-i-129f-petitions-proper-priority/FxWZpJFF

Congratulations!!!! What a great day for you and your spouse!!

Well well well.... it looks like the Ombudmans Office hosts monthly public teleconferences! Here's the link to the page (February's has not bee posted yet). I think we should all join in on the next one.

http://www.dhs.gov/ombudsmans-public-teleconference-series

Where did you get that tax information from? That's not accurate. I spoke with the IRS and was told regardless of my spouse's residence, I have to file married. The difference is filing married seperate or married jointly. You cannot file single if you are not single.

My husband does not live in the US currently, but when he was here visiting, we were able to add him to my checking account. We went into the branch, spoke with the manager and explained our situation. It was no problem, they just made a photo copy of our marriage certificate, his UK driver license and his passport.

Do you have photos together? Phone records, maybe a couple chat logs? Copies of plane tickets when you visited each other, affidavits from family members who can attest that the marriage is bona fide.

Once I get a response back from my Senator, I'll definitely forward that to you (but USCIS takes their time responding to case inquiries).

Senator Klobuchar is following you? She's my Senator! I'm also liking the #fixthebacklog hashtag!

Well that was a waste of time.

What happened? Did you get a chance to ask a question?

It looks like there are two more upcoming national events.

http://www.uscis.gov/outreach/upcoming-national-engagements

Here are some local events. Does anyone live near these areas? These local engagements are going to be more difficult to coordinate, I think.

http://www.uscis.gov/outreach/upcoming-local-engagements/upcoming-local-engagements-your-area

And I was on the line, but the call dropped :-( I get horrid reception in my house.

Get a 100,000 people to sign your petition about the backlog.

Why get mad when 100,000 people sign another petition about Bieber? Don't those 100,000 people have a right to have their position to be considered by the US government?

People signing another petition does not prevent you from getting people to sign a petition about the backlog.

Why whine about Bieber. Concentrate on getting people to sign the backlog petition instead of whining about other petitions.

What petition? I wasn't "whining" about a petition. I'm not mad at people signing a petition, I'm mad at the White House for holding a campaign on Twitter today claiming to answer people's questions. I'm mad at the White House for holding a live chat on Facebook and again ignoring questions that specifically asked about the I-130 backlog.

Yet the White House can't even respond to questions about the backlog today. Oy.

Posted this as soon as I posted--"Thanks for all of the questions - it's good to know what people are thinking about; that helps us strengthen our work. SIgning off for now - I look forward to doing this again sometime soon!"

Lazy government worker, it's not even 4:30 yet.

I asked her about the I-130 backlog. Ignored. She replied to someone's bland question about reform and I asked again underneath. Ignored.

I'm exhausted. I don't know whether to laugh or cry right now. :/

Oops!! Too much multi-tasking!

https://www.facebook.com/whitehouse.espanol

La Casa Blanca (bi-lingual facebook page) is doing a live chat on their facebook page about immigration. Let's ask about the I-130 backlog!