USCIS' Unacceptable Processing Times- *Please Sign our Petition!
TL;DRÂ https://www.change.org/p/uscis-distribute-the-current-caseload-between-tsc-csc-vsc-and-nsc[1]
At 1,000 signatures we will be able to take this to a media source.
Please take two seconds to sign! To find out more... keep reading.
Standing behind or going against Immigration Reform has been a hot topic for years, especially since Obama stood up and decided enough was enough, heâs going to fix this. Whether or not you agree with him, you have to admit, our system is broken.
Before the government is able to move forward, the existing system needs to be addressed.
According to the Department of Homeland security, in 2013 there were 61,052,260 Nonimmigrant Admissions to the United States. These admissions include but arenât limited to: temporary workers, workers with extraordinary ability, athletes, entertainers, artists, workers in international exchange programs, students, temporary visitors for business or pleasure, alien fiancĂŠâs, alien spouses of US citizens and alien spouses of US permanent residents.
Now, here is the real problem. There are four service centers to handle all of this traffic.
*CSC- California Service Center
*TSC- Texas Service Center
*NSC- Nebraska Service Center
*VSC- Vermont Service Center
Each service center has specific visas that they process and the country is divided between these centers based on geographic location and visa type. Throughout the year their workload varies, but by not moving the amount of work around, each center gets backlogged way past the estimated processing times.
Instead of USCIS addressing this issue, the applicants are left in the dark, wondering where USCIS is in the process of their petition. Each update on the website is meant to inform citizens, but it instead leaves them frustrated that the updates are months old.
What will happen in the following months when Obamaâs plan comes into play? [Read more about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) here:Â http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_Action_for_Childhood_Arrivals[2]Â ).
Will these four overworked centers be the recipients of some of the new petitions? Most certainly. Here is a comprehensive analysis of the data regarding the I-129F (Fiance/K1 application) delay at the CSC in 2013:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/421247-i-129f-delay-at-the-csc-a-comprehensive-analysis-of-the-data/[3]Â , where the data showed that the slowdown coincided almost perfectly with the CSCâs acceptance of a new type of application called the I-821D Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
The same thing has happened at the TSC, and is extremely likely to get worse:
"In November 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama announced changes to DACA which would expand it to include illegal immigrants who >entered the country before 2010, eliminate the requirement that applicants be younger than 31 years old, and lengthen the renewable deferral >period to three years. The Pew Research Center estimated that this would increase the number of eligible people by about 330,000.[3]"
We are asking for you to help by taking a second to sign this petition https://www.change.org/p/uscis-distribute-the-current-caseload-between-tsc-csc-vsc-and-nsc[4]
OrâŚif you have one minute, hop on Twitter and post @USCIS. You can even copy and paste.
@USCIS Fix TSC processing times. #FixTSC #TSCneedshelp
Here is a pretty revealing update for those of us searching for answers regarding current delays. This is a quote from a member of the forum on www.visajourney.com[5] of a conversation he had with a representative at Congressman John Carter's office (of Florida) (link to the post: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/517086-k1-september-2014-filers-tsc/page-27[6] )
" Interesting news from the lady in my local congressman's office today. Sit back (or scoot to the front of your chair, your choice) and get ready for this one. First I must confess that it was a surprise that she actually got back with me like she said she would, but to her credit she did everything she told me she would do. Whaddaya know. Anyway.
She called and spoke with both service centers. Believe it or not - and this took me by ABSOLUTE surprise - both service centers appeared to own up to the time difference!_ Wha-???! I figured they'd vehemently deny it, but according to her not so much. Well, actually what appeared to happen was that CSC admitted to very fast processing times for the I-129F (roughly 1 month) while TSC admitted that they are behind at 7-8 months. She also confirmed the transfer of "about 3000 fiancee visa petitions in early August 2014 from TSC to CSC. I asked if that was the number she was given and she confirmed that it was, FWIW. I don't recall reading anything about how many were transferred in other threads, though I could have easily missed it. She claims the number to be 3000. Hmmmmmmm.......
Based on the results from her research/fact finding endeavor, she told me that she agreed with my assertion/complaint regarding the approximate 8-to-1 processing time difference between the two service centers. Therefore she has spoken with what sounded like top folk in the Congressman's office (but don't quote me on that), and they decided to write an official letter with the full authority of the Congressman to the USCIS. The purpose of the letter will be to formally request another batch transfer of I-129F petitions to the CSC. She told me that this is the only relief that we TSC folk can reasonably expect. When I asked why she said that, she confirmed another assertion of mine (ours really - the VJ assertion) that the August offload did little to balance out the workload. She added that the TSC is likely only to get worse in the coming year, not better. Yup, get that! The TSC is likely to NOT BECOME ANY BETTER during the coming year. I found this personally disturbing, and so I couldn't resist asking "why?" again ... her reply is that the TSC has received an incredibly large number of I-485s that were based on folk who had/have entered the country on a work visa. I thought I heard her say that the TSC handles the majority of such petitions, though I can't recall now if she said that for certain. Regardless, this is the reason that the TSC is behind. And the reason that things are not likely to get any better for us I-129F types in the TSC is because this work-visa-to-I-485 phenomenon will persist throughout the coming year. If anything, that problem will only intensify, which is to say that the number of these petitions will only increase, not decrease.
I then asked why petitions from CURRENT USCs don't have priority over these work-visa-to-I-485s and of course she didn't have an answer for that, which I expected. How could she? She couldn't. But the frustration in me had to ask anyway, so I did. Sigh.
So there you go. When I asked, she confirmed that writing this letter has no guarantee of getting any transfers done. Of course it's obvious that there wouldn't be any control over whose petitions would be sent and whose wouldn't. However she also confirmed that it was our only hope of seeing any change anytime soon. And with that, I thanked her for her time, her effort and her expertise in the matter. I asked her to please keep me apprised of the results of the letter, as this issue is of monumental importance to me. She replied that she would."
In closing, here is a video made by Anonymous, the hacktivist group, in 2013 when there were severe delays at California's Service Center [due to DACA, as stated above]. (this video still very much pertains to the current situation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2gVvaeOKWo&feature=youtu.be[7]Â Â
What you can do to help if you are a visa petitioner stuck at TSC (share if you know someone who is!)
First of all.. make sure you sign and share! https://www.change.org/p/uscis-distribute-the-current-caseload-between-tsc-csc-vsc-and-nsc[8]
Second, you can also get involved by contacting YOUR State Senator(s) and Congressman(woman). Various members onwww.visajourney.com[9]Â have been doing this (even before the "standard processing time" is up, asking that the current issue of the time delay be addressed (not their specific petition)).
The more noise we make, the more likely we are to be heard and enact change!
Here is a link to a google doc with framework to construct a letter (it also has some pressing statistics of the current K1/Fiance visa applications at Texas and California)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_6zX0T7LHrJA7dWgiwbmyxtOAe7YksWXTc0Bnpp8mTs/edit?usp=sharing[10]
Of course, edit this to make it yours.
Also, if you haven't filed yet and are planning to... don't put it off another day. Good luck to anyone who is currently waiting.
