V&Steve

I also am getting slightly worried about the J1 2 year home country thing. I never went to school in the states but i did work in Yellowstone National Park Summer 2005 and Summer 2006 on a J1 Visa. Does this mean that i will be subject to the 2 year home residency thing??? I really hope not!! I have visited the states many times since 2005, mainly on the Visa Waiver Programme, but as i said - i have been on a J1 visa summers of 05 and 06.

Does anyone have some definitive answers regarding this?

Thanks!

You can just check on your passport J-1 visa stamp. If it's not applied it should say: "2 year rule does not apply" as well as in your DS-2019 or equivalent document.

Best of luck to everyone,

- Vanessa.

Mirla, Mel and Syl you still haven´t got the approval? What a mess! I hope the new week will finally bring it to you

anyone knows if VCS office woking today or shall we wait till monday for them to come back to work.I filed on July 16 and no nwes on my NOA2 YET

Yes.. they should working today:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...0000ecd190aRCRD

Here is an interesting article about immigration backlogs. Unfortunately it sounds like another group is about to be given priority over us. This time it is people applying to be citizens. The USCIS director seems to feel that it is important to get their petitions processed in time for them to vote in the next election.

"I really want to target the elections," USCIS Director Emilio T. Gonzalez told the Associated Press in an interview published Tuesday. "I really want to get as many people out there to vote as possible."

This is what Director Gonzalez is worrying about these days? Maximizing the number of voters for the next election? Shouldn't he be worrying about cleaning up the mess he created at USCIS before he starts worrying about the voter rolls?

Perhaps he is being influenced by statements like these:

"We have a huge concern on the impact of efforts for people to be able to vote in time for the primaries," said William A. Ramos, Washington spokesman for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which along with Spanish-language media and labor unions has supported voter-registration efforts in potential swing states with large immigrant populations, including California, New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union, said immigrants who want to assimilate into U.S. culture and politics are being let down. "I think the overwhelming response of immigrants is 'We do want to be part of this country, but we also want our voices heard,' " he said. "Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of the federal agency, they may not be able to register their opinions."

And here is an entry in the Federal Register outlining another new program to give preferential treatment to Cuban immigrants. It is intended to get certain potential immigrants here as quickly as possible so that they are not tempted to swim to Florida.

"SUMMARY: This Notice announces U.S. Citizenship and Immigration

Services' Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. Under this

program, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is offering

beneficiaries of approved family-based immigrant visa petitions an

opportunity to receive a discretionary grant of parole to come to the

United States rather than remain in Cuba to apply for lawful permanent

resident status. The purpose of the program is to expedite family

reunification through safe, legal, and orderly channels of migration to

the United States and to discourage irregular and inherently dangerous

maritime migration."

And should we assume that there will be a similar program for Haitians Director Gonzalez? Of course not, because the real issue is not the safety of illegal immigrants it is the political muscle of the Cuban American community. The Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program is clarly intended to give preferential treatment to Cubans.

Face it gang. The fact that we are citizens means nothing to USCIS. They are prioritizing the needs of businesses and special interest groups with political influence. We are clearly being out hustled in our own country.

Hey Bill How many votes does he think he will generate a few thousand....this is dumb....by the way do you have an address for Mr. Gonzalez....you would think his where abouts are a matter of national security......I can not find it........thank for the info.....Lora

who has the directors contact info? i do believe that this is an angry letter moment!

-Steve

The Honorable Emilio T Gonzales

Director

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service

20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20529

I cannot find an email address.

Thanks for the address Bill y Bella!

We'll post the letter here once it's done.

- Vanessa

I'm thankful, for having found this community too...

Where all of us "hunny-bunnies" (kindly calling) are able to support each other somehow.

Hurray VJ!

I have a touch today looks like USCIS is working hard to clear as many petitions as possible.

Wow... was it really today or this "today" on your post is just a reflection of time zones or something?

- Vanessa

Here is an interesting article about immigration backlogs. Unfortunately it sounds like another group is about to be given priority over us. This time it is people applying to be citizens. The USCIS director seems to feel that it is important to get their petitions processed in time for them to vote in the next election.

"I really want to target the elections," USCIS Director Emilio T. Gonzalez told the Associated Press in an interview published Tuesday. "I really want to get as many people out there to vote as possible."

This is what Director Gonzalez is worrying about these days? Maximizing the number of voters for the next election? Shouldn't he be worrying about cleaning up the mess he created at USCIS before he starts worrying about the voter rolls?

Perhaps he is being influenced by statements like these:

"We have a huge concern on the impact of efforts for people to be able to vote in time for the primaries," said William A. Ramos, Washington spokesman for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which along with Spanish-language media and labor unions has supported voter-registration efforts in potential swing states with large immigrant populations, including California, New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union, said immigrants who want to assimilate into U.S. culture and politics are being let down. "I think the overwhelming response of immigrants is 'We do want to be part of this country, but we also want our voices heard,' " he said. "Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of the federal agency, they may not be able to register their opinions."

And here is an entry in the Federal Register outlining another new program to give preferential treatment to Cuban immigrants. It is intended to get certain potential immigrants here as quickly as possible so that they are not tempted to swim to Florida.

"SUMMARY: This Notice announces U.S. Citizenship and Immigration

Services' Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. Under this

program, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is offering

beneficiaries of approved family-based immigrant visa petitions an

opportunity to receive a discretionary grant of parole to come to the

United States rather than remain in Cuba to apply for lawful permanent

resident status. The purpose of the program is to expedite family

reunification through safe, legal, and orderly channels of migration to

the United States and to discourage irregular and inherently dangerous

maritime migration."

And should we assume that there will be a similar program for Haitians Director Gonzalez? Of course not, because the real issue is not the safety of illegal immigrants it is the political muscle of the Cuban American community. The Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program is clarly intended to give preferential treatment to Cubans.

Face it gang. The fact that we are citizens means nothing to USCIS. They are prioritizing the needs of businesses and special interest groups with political influence. We are clearly being out hustled in our own country.

Hey Bill How many votes does he think he will generate a few thousand....this is dumb....by the way do you have an address for Mr. Gonzalez....you would think his where abouts are a matter of national security......I can not find it........thank for the info.....Lora

who has the directors contact info? i do believe that this is an angry letter moment!

-Steve

Here's a potential new way to get our plight heard, and on national TV!

MSNBC, for those who do not know, every (or every other?) Tuesday do an all-politics day they call "Super Tuesday". They talk with candidates, pundits, everyone, to discuss hot topics and all that.

THIS TUESDAY THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IMMIGRATION

They have a section where you can submit questions to the studio and they may use it on the air if they like it.

EVERYONE from VJ, especially in this thread, whether you have your NOA2 or not...should submit a short question (3000 characters is the limit) that needs to ask the hard questions:

"When is the federal government going to fix the broken legal immigration system, where non-immigrant worker visas are prioritized over family-based immigration visas?"

"Which presidential candidate will stand up for US Citizens with foreign fiances/spouses and make their entry into the United States more streamlined and less painful?"

"When will Congress hold USCIS, under DHS, accountable for their abysmal customer service when it comes to processing family-based petitions?"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20465148/

There is the link. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS ASAP. THIS WILL BE THE HOT ISSUE ON TUESDAY. LET'S MAKE SURE THAT THE ONLY IMMIGRATION ISSUE TALKED ABOUT IS NOT ONLY ABOUT THE MEXICANS COMING IN FROM SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Good one!!! we WILL make a questionsssss (note to the everlasting plural lol) now!

Curiosity... did any August or September filer from Vermont Service center get there NOA2 yet?

Nope... nada from VSC...

I keep praying it will come soon.

Good luck,

hz

Yes, got mine about 4 days after they received it, but I was an early Sept filer at VSC.

I think the OP meant NOA2 not NOA1. You had me a little psyched there for a sec!

OOPS!!!! sorry!! But there have been 6 (I think) NOA2 approvals from September at VSC. None from August that I am aware of.

Now I AM angry.

WHY is september flyers getting processed ahead of August?

HHHHHHATTTEEEEEEEE

EXACTLY!!!! I've heard about it too!!!

Isn't it so much..... pardon me: Bull...t?

AERGHHHH

Mr Paul Novak

Director

Vermont Service Center

USCIS

Dear Mr Novak,

As a customer of your service center I have become aware of some issues that relate to the processing of applications of K-1 Visa's at the Vermont Service Center so I direct my inquiry to you as it's director. As I understand your policies as stated in the USCIS website your service center is processing applications in the order they are recieved within a reasonable time frame. The understanding being that as much as days or 2 weeks may be out of order. With this assurrance by your service center that the system is fair to all you ask us as petitioners to wait our turn patiently. With the recent increase in applications and the apparent change in priorities that work visas are taking over family visas* the issuance of K1 visas have come at a slower and slower rate of adjudication. It appears that knowing this increase in applications for June, July, August and September should of produced a sense of urgency within the Vermont Service Center to work on the hiring of new personel, training and streamlining of procedures over these summer months but instead the work appeared to come to a slow crawl until recently. I am a member of an internet K1 visa website that tracks such issues and it is very clear to us that something is terribly wrong. Recently people who were not military or cuban expedites were processed in 30 to 45 days, clearly out of order, which is a breech of your policy and our trust that we are being treated fairly. The ombudsman has been contacted and we have received emails stating that these were processed out of order for training purposes.

Interesting answer but for those of us now waiting almost 6 months for adjudication not good enough. As your customer and a U.S. citizen I am profoundly interested in understanding how the USCIS and your service center is working to clear your backlog and fix the inaccuracies and injustices of this process and bring your customers confidences that you state is your main goal for this agency to a fair acceptable level.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter

Lora Pauley Heflin

Way to go LORA!!!! We can't wait to see their response! B)

yes, they havent gotten to the august filers yet, so its no wonder there has been no RFE's. They have only gotten to a few july filers. they are still working on may and june currently.

Chris

I'd think that all this timing thing, depends on wich service center you're filling at actually...

Regards,

V.

Well,

My fiance noticed and I just made sure that, K1 filers from August (like us) have no RFE's so far (based on the time line data).

And this either has to be a real neat fact or is there a total mess waiting for us later?

I really, really hope that the worst is not to happen, because any more waiting regarding to this matter would be so unfair! We're almost in time to feel even more nervous waiting for the NOA2 ...receiving RFE notices just then would suck!

So does anyone has anything to comment about it? Have anyone gotten an actual RFE?

(maybe we're two goobers and didn't find any I don't know if I hope someone got one or not haha)

Regards,

Vanessa.

Here in Brazil there is list availeable on-line of authorized doctors and contact. information.

Dear Susan,

I've came across this thread and your situation is real delicate. I would advise you to move to a third country with your family, while you get a hold and find a way to get to the U.S with them.

I guess that this would be a safer option while the whole documentation process is pending on a solution.

I hope you're all well and that everything works out for the best soon.

Best Regards!

Dear Sir

My name Susan Khalid ,I am a US citizen live whole my life in IRAQ . I got my citizenship by born in Colorado in 1977 and I stay in USA just only two months and then back to IRAQ and stay in it till know and I had new passport type P valid to 2015 I renew it from US embassy in Jordan.

This is my story:

I married in 23-Dec-2004 and I had one child (both my husband and daughter are IRAQI citizen).

The terrorist try to kill my husband because they know he is married a (US citizen) So I escape from Baghdad to Sulymainia north of IRAQ but I leave every thinkg in Baghdad (my house, my car).

I decide to travel to USA with my family ( My husband and My daughter),

but I see it must need a sponsor and I must fill the I-864 form!!!

But I'm not meet the minimum requirement of I-864 and I don't know any one in USA to be a joint sponsor or I can't go to USA without my daughter because her age is one year and half so she need alot of care.

So I need a way to travel to USA and live in peace and safe with my family? (Please I dont need link to web sites because I read them all , I need advise)

Please Your fast response are appreciated.

Regards

Susan Khalid

+9647701103313