Inayet

Hi all,

I have been completely swamped with school this semester (am working on a PhD), but today was my last day of exams, and I can finally get to doing what I’ve been wanting to do for a while: write a few letters expressing my general frustrations with USCIS, namely:

1. Lack of transparency in the process – even the Ombudsman’s Moderator of the K3 conference call (took place 31 Jan 2008) mentioned how the lack of transparency at USCIS has been a persistent problem

2. When will USCIS stop using the backlog excuse? Backlog happened last summer. Haven’t they had plenty of time to recover?

3. The posted processing dates for I-130:

15 Feb 2008: 19 Aug 2007

15 Mar 2008: 30 July 2007

15 Apr 2008: 30 July 2007

At this rate, when will we ever be outside of processing times?!

And, typically once we are 30 days of outside of processing time, only then can we request some type of inquiry on our case….very convenient for USCIS to keep the dates as far back as possible.

4. USCIS claims they follow a “first-in, first-out” policy – but this is clearly not the case

5. Why are 1-129Fs not being approved at VSC? Have they been officially “administratively closed” at VSC? (I am/was planning on going K-3 route, but since VSC hasn’t approved 1-129Fs recently, I guess that’ll force me to be on the CR-1 path – this might be a blessing in disguise though since we won’t have to deal with EAD later and can therefore escape USCIS’s grip faster, etc)

6. Customer Service Representatives – ill-informed and useless, they always say that they can provide no other information other than what you yourself can see on the USCIS website

7. This is just a personal grievance – a relative of my husband was issued an H4 visa weeks before I even received my NOA1 for my I-130 – and we both filed at the exact same time…(just a little bitter that a foreign worker on H1-B visa can bring his / her spouse so quickly)

I was thinking about contacting:

1. Chairman and Ranking Member (and perhaps other members) of the US Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship

for names of members:

http://judiciary.senate.gov/subcommittees/...igration110.cfm

2. Chairman (and perhaps other members) of the US House of Representatives – Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law

for names of members:

http://judiciary.house.gov/committeestruct...spx?committee=4

3. USCIS Customer Feedback contact person:

Contact:

Assistant Chief

Internal Security and Investigative Operations

USCIS, 111 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Suite 7000

Washington, DC 20529

or email: USCIS-COMPLAINT@DHS.GOV

I got this above contact information, from this website:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00048f3d6a1RCRD

4. Ombudsman’s Office – they seem pretty ineffectual, but at least I will inform them of my grievances

As a taxpayer and someone who paid the filing fee, I want to know how my money is being spent over at USCIS, and I want to enlighten these folks as to what this process has been so far. USCIS is in such desperate need of an overhaul….

Good luck to us all!

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By the way, fantastic letter, Amastar! I hope you get a positive response soon!

Hi,

My I-130 is at VSC and was received by USCIS on Nov. 13. After receiving the I-130 NOA1 near the end of January, I sent in my I-129F. Both applications were last touched on Feb. 24. As far as my VJ timeline goes, it states: “Based on timeline data, your I130 may be adjudicated as early as May 2, 2008.” I also don’t know why an estimate doesn’t automatically appear on your timeline, Gaurav. Maybe someone else knows how to fix that. (Incidentally, an estimate does not appear for my I-129F). I’m not sure how much credence to give to these estimated dates though. When USCIS updates their processing times on their website probably sometime this week, we should get a better picture of where VSC stands. Let’s keep each other updated. Good luck to all!

Thank you YGandMat for sharing that information. I'm so relieved!

Thank you, SusieK. I actually just read a post by Annie&Tim under the topic "How long until Case # appears online?", and they mentioned that their numbers were also off by a digit, and that the NOA1 number worked for them when checking the case status on-line. So, it appears that the discrepancy in numbers is not a cause for major concern.

Hi everyone,

I just noticed that the case number on the back of my check for the I-130 filing fee is slightly different than the number on my recently issued NOA1: the very last number in the sequence is off by one digit. The numbers ought to be exactly the same, shouldn't they? Could this be a typo or some sort of mix-up on USCIS's part?

When I go online; I get an error message when I try both numbers. I just received my NOA1, and I don’t expect to be in the system for quite some time as many have been experiencing delays with viewing the case status online. I'll call the Customer Service (mis)information line tomorrow, but I wanted to know whether anyone has ever seen such a thing before . . . .

Very Concerned,