ducsacrossamerica

So how bad is it that now I'm telling myself that NOT getting approved right now is a good thing? I was thinking that a December or January wedding I can stomach, but projecting into the future I'm not sure I want my anniversary to fall that close to the holiday! Seriously, can you say "rationalization"?

Prior to the NY Times article in February (which I suspect was the catalyst for the shift in priorities and therefore the backup) a lot of petitions were getting approved quickly, and then everything came to a grinding halt. I only look at the part of Igor's list that shows the last 15 approvals at TSC so I can see what's actually moving RIGHT NOW, not the history. If there is a questionable (quick) one I look at the profile and posts to see if there was an RFE or congressman involvement. I know none of this makes my own petition move faster, but it gives me hope.
Incidentally, someone in the 'Unapproved' January section listed a case number on the timeline RFE column, so when I was out of things to do I looked it up on the USCIS. The case had been approved!! and the timeline was never updated on VJ. I wonder how many on here are like that, where they just got tired of staring at the computer and stopped updating? Anyhow, I also looked up a few numbers around that one and about 2/3 of the petitions had been approved. Like I said, doing stuff like this gives me hope.

In February 2014 the NY Times posted that article which drew attention to I-130s. California then seems to have transferred many of their applications to multiple service centers, Texas included, so they could continue processing DACA applications. I am only guessing here, but I've kept a close eye on the activity from all the media coverage, but didn't think to write down stats as time marched on.
California still has a backlog of I-130s (probably new applications received), and the volume stats make it appear that they are working mostly on DACA and I-129F since they transferred out the backlogged I-130s. Texas and the other service centers are now under that 5 month high water mark for I-130s. We can only surmise that at Texas, they've prioritized the I-130s. As there has been no media coverage for I-129F, they don't feel any pressure to do anything there.
I have only drafted a letter to my congressman and will wait until late in the month when beyond "normal" processing times to take any action there, as I don't want to be part of the problem. I've tried to generalize the letter to highlight the discrepancy between the two centers. I did take the time to write a letter to the NY Times editor of that article last night (see the January 2014 TSC thread for links) to point out that while her article benefited the I-130 filers, it did not reduce processing of the DACA applications and affected the TSC I-129F filers. I figure she is probably better positioned to get to the bottom of the story. I ended with "Perhaps the government agencies and the administration should be reminded again of who should be receiving priority." By this, I was referring US Citizens legal applications vs illegal immigrant applications!

If you click on that NY Times Article and click on the Julia Preston's name, a page comes up with her information with a link to a form to email her. That's what I used last night.
I have been unsuccessful trying to find other immigration-specific contacts in media so far. Her article seemed to be instrumental in creating a flurry of activity around the I-130s, which is why I thought she'd be the best contact.
If anyone has any more contacts we can email, please post them!

Okay, just sent her an email! I think we all should. I did forget to point her to visajourney, if someone else wants to.

I think a good start with mass media would be Julia Preston with the NY Times who wrote this article. She already seems to have a basic grasp of the problem and probably knows where to stir things up. After all, it was her exposure that pushed the I-130 processing.

Okay, just sent her an email! I think we all should. I did forget to point her to visajourney, if someone else wants to.

I think a good start with mass media would be Julia Preston with the NY Times who wrote this article. She already seems to have a basic grasp of the problem and probably knows where to stir things up. After all, it was her exposure that pushed the I-130 processing.

I think a good start with mass media would be Julia Preston with the NY Times who wrote this article. She already seems to have a basic grasp of the problem and probably knows where to stir things up. After all, it was her exposure that pushed the I-130 processing.

I've started drafting a letter to my congressman tonight, highlighting the disparity between the two service centers, and wondering whether the delays are at all due to DACA. I jumped into the numbers on the USCIS site, and found that while California is on top of their I-129F and Texas has a backlog, California has a backlog of I-130s and Texas is keeping up. I was wondering if CSC is prioritizing the DACA petitions because of the White House push, along with their regular I-129Fs, and if TSC and the other service centers are picking up their slack on the I-130s because of the NY Times article in February. This would cause TSC to fall behind on I-129Fs because there's nobody pushing those. Any way you slice it, nobody following the lawful, legal process should be shunted in favor of illegal immigrants. The January 2014 thread is talking about trying to get media exposure. I think that's a good idea, and maybe we should team up with the I-130s as well to say they (USCIS) still are not doing a good enough job. They could at least find out what's really going on; we can only guess from the statistics which are published (and which are a couple of months behind anyhow).
I wish I had been recording the stats since I began the process because you can't see history on the dashboard. I can't find it, anyway.
This past month has had even more media exposure about "fixing immigration", but it's only spotlighting illegal immigration, and not focusing on what a bad job they're doing with the processes they have in place for all of us legal residents. I am so scared that we're just going to keep getting pushed farther and farther out in processing time.

If any folks are thinking about writing to their Congressman or Senator, there was a post last year with some helpful information:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/421608-a-guide-to-writing-your-elected-representatives-about-the-i-129f-slowdown-at-the-csc/
from when the exact same thing was going on last year at CSC, and then Vermont got even slower.
I believe this is one of the reasons they opened the TSC to K-1 processing. Enough complaints were made and the workloads were evened out. Once TSC got ramped up and trained, they were working really quickly. Unfortunately, the TSC slowdown then occurred due to expedites for the typhoon (now apparently expired) and because of the shaming the NY Times gave USCIS regarding I-130 spouse visas in February (taking 18+months!), all on top of Obama's DACA processing. It looks like K-1s have fallen to the bottom of the heap. Some petitions are getting processed, but nothing like the efficiency shown at the end of last year.
If you search VJ you can find some sample letters to your congressmen like this one:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/409500-senators-response-about-uscis/
I like some of the wording and may use it myself after I reach the 5 month mark in a few weeks, if things don't look like they're finally ticking along. It depresses me to hear more talk on the news about DACA.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/490837-expect-more-delays-in-proper-immigration-process-due-to-daca/

If any folks are thinking about writing to their Congressman or Senator, there was a post last year with some helpful information:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/421608-a-guide-to-writing-your-elected-representatives-about-the-i-129f-slowdown-at-the-csc/
from when the exact same thing was going on last year at CSC, and then Vermont got even slower.
I believe this is one of the reasons they opened the TSC to K-1 processing. Enough complaints were made and the workloads were evened out. Once TSC got ramped up and trained, they were working really quickly. Unfortunately, the TSC slowdown then occurred due to expedites for the typhoon (now apparently expired) and because of the shaming the NY Times gave USCIS regarding I-130 spouse visas in February (taking 18+months!), all on top of Obama's DACA processing. It looks like K-1s have fallen to the bottom of the heap. Some petitions are getting processed, but nothing like the efficiency shown at the end of last year.
If you search VJ you can find some sample letters to your congressmen like this one:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/409500-senators-response-about-uscis/
I like some of the wording and may use it myself after I reach the 5 month mark in a few weeks, if things don't look like they're finally ticking along. It depresses me to hear more talk on the news about DACA.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/490837-expect-more-delays-in-proper-immigration-process-due-to-daca/

If any folks are thinking about writing to their Congressman or Senator, there was a post last year with some helpful information:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/421608-a-guide-to-writing-your-elected-representatives-about-the-i-129f-slowdown-at-the-csc/
from when the exact same thing was going on last year at CSC, and then Vermont got even slower.
I believe this is one of the reasons they opened the TSC to K-1 processing. Enough complaints were made and the workloads were evened out. Once TSC got ramped up and trained, they were working really quickly. Unfortunately, the TSC slowdown then occurred due to expedites for the typhoon (now apparently expired) and because of the shaming the NY Times gave USCIS regarding I-130 spouse visas in February (taking 18+months!), all on top of Obama's DACA processing. It looks like K-1s have fallen to the bottom of the heap. Some petitions are getting processed, but nothing like the efficiency shown at the end of last year.
If you search VJ you can find some sample letters to your congressmen like this one:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/409500-senators-response-about-uscis/
I like some of the wording and may use it myself after I reach the 5 month mark in a few weeks, if things don't look like they're finally ticking along. It depresses me to hear more talk on the news about DACA.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/490837-expect-more-delays-in-proper-immigration-process-due-to-daca/

I happened to be sitting on this page from my earlier post
http://ww.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/stories
and I decided that since the White House was asking for stories about immigration and since "President Obama is committed to common-sense reform that fixes our broken immigration system", I would share my current events K1 story about this particular "broken" part of the system. It may get routed into the quack trash, but maybe there's a small chance someone will notice the K1 petitions.

I think the link in the OP provided a great template for writing to representatives. It's over a year old now though, and I'm sure some of the information has changed. Also, we would need statistics relevant to TSC. I wish I knew how to pull all that together, but if someone else does know and can do it then it might make it easier for TSC folks to act.
I know that Immigration Reform is a hot topic right now, but I wonder if the representatives who are sitting on those committees are even aware of what is happening to folks like us who are following the legal process and getting put off? I'm not sure if we write to any/all of the congressmen on the committees they'll listen unless we're constituents. Does anyone know? Anyhow, I can only really write when I'm angry, and there are a few things bothering me that almost have me stirred up enough to write because I think they are what has recently affected the K1 process.
These are:
1) The NY Times Article from Feb 2014 which talks about the delay in I130 processing. This particular expose seems to have ignited a fire in the USCIS, because early February seems to be when the slowdown in K1 processing began, and the processing centers have managed to get "caught up" (to their stated desired 5 month average) on the I130s since then. I can only think that's one of the reasons the K1 petitions have fallen by the wayside. (Also see this blog post.) Anyhow, now that they are "caught up" with the I130s, are they going to go back to giving priority to Obama's deportation deferrals (referenced in the NY TImes article) or will they address the backlog I think they created in the other visa areas? Like the spouse/family visas, I think we should take priority as legal residents and citizens.
2) Will this new push for immigration reform address the K1 petitions, or will they fall through the cracks?
3) Are they expediting K1 petitions from the Philippines even without an expedite request? I keep seeing posts about Filipino beneficiaries getting their NOA2s as a complete surprise. And is TSC the only service center processing these?