The Office of Public Engagement Wants to Hear from You
Have an idea that you’d like to share with us?
The USCIS Office of Public Engagement seeks to provide opportunities to address the questions and concerns that you may have. We currently host engagements on a variety of topics, including multilingual engagements and regularly scheduled meetings with state and local government stakeholders, and we’re looking for your feedback.
Is there a topic that you would like for us to cover or a community that we need to reach out to? Let us know!
We welcome your input on issues related to USCIS procedures, operations and outreach initiatives. Your comments and opinions will help ensure that future engagements cover the topics that you’re interested in hearing about.
Please submit your suggestions for engagement topics to us at public.engagement@uscis.dhs.gov.
For more information on upcoming events, please be sure to visit us at www.uscis.gov/outreach or follow USCIS on Twitter at www.twitter.com/uscis.
We look forward to hearing from you!
posted by USCIS Blog Team @ 9:48 AM
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11 Comments:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am in American Samoa, stateless person who lived in US for 16 years. I was advised by DHS in Washington to file for public benefit parole using I-131 since my case is being reopened. We were told that assistant of attorney general of American Samoa should submit the form but she is not an immigration lawyer, and never filed I-131 before neither my immigration lawyer in SF.
We have some questions and hoping to get some help. The I-131 requires photo and fingerprinting but there is no local DHS office in American Samoa where I can take those biometrics neither US consulate or Embassy as its US territory. What should we do in this case? Can ICE use my photo and fingerprints they have on file on me instead?
Thanks
Thanks for providing the opportunity to submit topics. Below are a few that I have been thinking about:
1. The employment-based pending I-485 inventory is an excellent idea that allows an applicant to see approximately how many people are still ahead of them. However, the 3 or 4-month release cycle is a bit too long, making the inventory less useful than it potentially can be. With the number of pending cases fluctuating so much (due to approval/denial, new filing, upgrades, etc.), there is not much value in data that are months old.
Since all the information is centrally stored in databases, is there a reason why the inventory can't be released on a monthly (or even weekly) basis? I'm sure it is more than just a few database queries, but what are the technical challenges?
2. Is it possible for USCIS to describe a typical workflow from receiving an application to adjudication? We understand the overall steps, but there are many unknowns. For example, let's say a package containing I-485, EAD and AP applications is sent to a service center:
How does each one get assigned to an officer?
At what point and based on what criteria the case will be forwarded to an officer for actual processing?
What are the efforts to ensure "First In and First Out" as a general rule?
Does USCIS officers process cases in batches (i.e. spend a week working on a stack of cases s/he received in one day), or finish one and then get another?
Does each officer focus on certain applications, such as EAD, or handle mixed cases simultaneously?
When is the database updated with latest status?
There could be many more but I think a workflow would be able to answer most of them.
Hello Sir
I am in this country since 1999 .After working for some companies finally one company sponsers for Lobor certification /Green card. Now My Priority date is 2004. for EB3 category India. Process of filling with attornies started in 2002.
Now I am under EB3 backlog. its 2012. your dates are moving by weeks in one month and its sep2002 now under process . I am still working with same company. and all my hairs have turned almost white.in last 12 years I am still waiting for my Green Card. Paying Taxes, renewing fees of H1 and EAD, biomatrics etc.
Please tell me is it fair to take so long to process and application.
You have priority of issuing family bases visa over work category . I am also in same condition and feelings for my parents back in India. do you think taking so long for immigration process is justifiable and humane. I am still not sure where i belong.
Just paying Social security from last 12 years and I dont know whether I will get that benifit of SS. I paid at retirment age . There are millions like me who are stuck in such EB3 category backlog .
In todays slow economy not only US but globally it is so much difficult to take pressure of work and waiting for your adjustment of status. It is so frustrating. I know people who got sick and never made for it.
Please all you federal USCIS employees for GOD SAKE work and process applications and open visa numbers give people like me some relief .
5 years waiting for Green card is reasonable but 10 years????
Please think and do some thing. we are humans and we also have family. Please keep the name of America as known in world land of Justice, liberty, freedom for all.
Thanks
GOD BLESS.
Hello all,
I am a legal assistant for an immigration law firm. Actually we have several cases that are long overdue by immigration adjudication time charts;
I-140 (multinational executive) RFE's responses that are to be adjudicated in 60 days, is now longer than 4 or 5 months of the RFE answer and still no response.
We have some I-129 L1As from October 2011 without any answer, and now is mid of April 2012.
I have here in front of me a simple I-539 B2 extension submitted also in October 2011, still pending, it would take 10 minutes from the adjudicator officer.
Whenever I call USCIS, the answer is always about to give me a ticket number and a promise for a possible written response within 60 days, in some cases I have to call again and again.
Some Premium processing cases reaches 12 to 13 days without any notices, than bang! RFE. Everyone here already knows, if the Premium doesn't approve in 4 to 5 days, and if it reaches 12 days, will have a non-sense RFE. I don't want to believe on it, but it appears that even Premium service is not able to adjudicate in time and to avoid overdue the 15 days, they just dig a RFE to gain time. I am not exagerating. Some of those Premium RFEs are confuse and without any sense. It appears clearly they are a simple "copy & paste" from other cases and some requests have nothing to do with the case, as requesting "doing business" and "invoices and conducting regular business for the last year" for a I-129 L1A petition, when the petitioner is a sparkling brand new company, registered 20 days before the petition being received at USCIS. Clearly, who is submitting the RFE is not even reading the petition.
The attorney that I work for uses to say that immigration is difficult and he doesn't want to complain, but I don't feel it is fair to the clients, and for us. USCIS is not doing any favor, right? client is paying for the service.
This is getting worse and worse.
What is happening USCIS?
Thank you for the opportunity to let you know what we here in the field are experiencing from your service.
The Schedule A was imp;emented for critical shaortage areas. These include Regiustered Nurses. Most Registered Nurses are in the EB-3 Category, however the highly specialized foreign educated Registered Nurse, (specialty Certification, Master in Nursing, 10years + experience) should have the opportunity to self-petition under EB2 with a National Interest Waiver!! All of them are usually denied because the "third leg" of the NIW is not met.
Since we have a shortage in experienced Nurses in this country, considering the self-peririoned EB2 application with NIW would facilitate the influx of highly trained professionals with extensive training.
Thank you very much for the inpout opportunity
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am writing this just to let you know that there are hundreds of Eb3 India applicants still waiting at the last stage (i-485).. waiting for their date to become current for more than 10 years.
My husband did his Masters from a reputed school in NY and is working with one of a prestigious company. His case got filed in the EB3 category and is now stuck for more than 9 years. His priority date is January 2003 and since 9 years EB3 has not gone beyond 2002. Where as I see Eb2 in 2010 already. People who came after him have their green cards and more security and he is still struggling to make his place, I don't think that is fair. He has invested in this country all his hopes, aspirations and his money. Still he is struggling to get an approval. We are law abiding legal citizens, paying taxes and are still leading a life of uncertainty. It is very hard to explain what we go through on daily basis the uncertainty. insecurity and the feeling of not belonging has been following us from a long time.
I request anyone everyone who can help EB3 move to put themselves in our situation. These 9 years have been very frustrating and I think its high time that EB3 India moves more than it has been doing so in the past.
I hope our voices can reach you and you can help us!
Thanks,
Respected Sir,
PLEASE DO SOMETHING FOR SPOUSES ON DEPENDENT VISAS (F2). We have been stripped of our right to work and earn our own livelihood and be independent human beings. America prides herself as a country of the free with equal rights and opportunities for all. Yet some of the immigration laws bind certain individuals from doing anything worthwhile for themselves e.g. the spouses on dependent visas. Why permit them to come to the United States in the first place if their lives have to be made so miserable? Fortunately, I was younger and in good health the last 10 years. Now I have lost all my savings spending on being legally here and waiting patiently the last 10 years for my spouse to do something for himself and us. Losing all my money and coming close to poverty, has been very stressful. I have no face to return to my home country in my current pathetic state. Today I am ill and when I went to a hospital for medical care I was not refused care but when it came to financial assistance I have been told that as I am a dependent spouse I cannot get financial assistance. They give assistance to the undocumented but to me - NO. Please I am not asking for anyone's assistance. I just urge you to please give my a work permit to work so that I can provide for myself and live a decent live again. I don't want to be dependent on anyone.
Thanks and God bless
We were told that assistant of attorney general of American Samoa should submit the form but she is not an immigration lawyer, and never filed I-131 before neither my immigration lawyer in SF.
Another informative blog… Thank you for sharing it… Best of luck for further endeavor too.
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This comment relates to Employment based Green Card process:
What is the reason for not allowing someone to file I-485 if priority date is not current? The adjudication and assignment of a VISA number can take place when it becomes available, but why does the process limit the ability to file the form and obtain an EAD? I see no difference between I-140 approved and I-485 pending statuses. So why is it that a 485 pending can get an EAD and an I-140 approved cannot? Is it that someone who files a 485 becomes more qualified than someone who cannot? Ridiculous, isn't it?
Dear USCIS officer(s),
It is good to have the opportunity to express thoughts to your office. As others have said, the immigration process for applicants in the EB3 category (skilled workers) is a very painful experience. When our elected officials talk about comprehensive immigration to address illegal immigrants in the US, it is heart breaking to see how a light shines for those who came to the country breaking the laws, while those who have been waiting for years, have to continue waiting in line with no sign of hope of a faster adjustment to Permanent Residence (PR). I have been in the US for 13 years, all of them legally. After years of waiting, finally my employer filed my PR in 2009. I got confirmation and a priority date in September 2010. I have been paying taxes, social security and Medicare for 13 years, I have bought a house, I have kids born in America, yet I still do not have a sense of belonging because in the back of my mind there is always the uncertainty that at any given moment my sponsorship will end and with it my PR dream. I just want to be able to travel without stopping in a consulate to get a visa every time I travel. I want to line up in the line of permanent residents and citizens when I return to the only place my children call home. I want to belong to this country that has given me so much. It is not fair that each year the wait gets longer because there are not enough immigrant visas for "skilled worker," educated people who live here, know the language, pay taxes; while there are 50,000 visas offered through the DV-lottery to people that may lack the education, and language skills, and sometimes end up as a burden to the taxpayers. This is absurd. Offer those visas to those who are here paying taxes, helping the system. Reward this group with a real path to citizenship. We are not disposable, we are real people who know this country can do better when it comes to immigration. Reward the talent and the hard work, reward the obedience to the laws, reward the taxes we pay, reward the American values we have come to cherish. Please, talk about comprehensive immigration reform and start with the ones that have followed the guidelines; they should be the first rewarded because they respected the laws. If there should be any effort to reform the immigration system it must first be directed to open the doors for those who legally waited for the opportunity.
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