This group is open to all members of DA. We would like you to use this group to exchange ideas and information on issues concerning Immigration. Should you have any questions about this group please contact Lindsey at ed@democratsabroad.org.
For more information on the President’s plan for Immigration: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issu...
The following message was posted Aug. 17 by USCIS to those on their stakeholders list. While this demonstrates some new flexibility (see the penultimate paragraph regarding a new fee study), we press on with our advocacy on behalf of Americans abroad, and urge you to do the same. Additional information will be posted tomorrow.
_______________________________________--
Subject: USCIS Office of Public Engagement: Implementation
of Domestic Filing of I-130s for Certain Overseas Petitioners: 90-Day
Monitoring Period
August 17, 2011
Implementation of Domestic Filing of I-130s for Certain
Overseas Petitioners: 90-Day Monitoring Period
Dear Stakeholder -
As of Monday, August 15, 2011, petitioners residing in
countries without USCIS offices must file their Form I-130, Petition for Alien
Relative, with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) lockbox
facility in Chicago.
During the first 90 days of this new process, USCIS will
monitor and assess the implementation of the changed procedures to identify any
areas where additional updates to our policies would be appropriate. We have
posted for public comment a memorandum outlining some of the circumstances that
may warrant expedited processing of a Form I-130 by the Department of State at
a local embassy or consulate where USCIS does not have a presence. USCIS
already has received comments and, in response, is assessing whether the list
of factors under which petitioners will receive expedited processing at a post
should be expanded. USCIS is mindful of the real-life impact that the change in
the processing of the Form I-130 might have in particular cases and,
accordingly, will be issuing guidance to its adjudicators to ensure that the
equities of each case are duly considered in determining whether a case
warrants expedited local processing.
USCIS has received many inquiries relating to the
implementation of the rule, the reasons why USCIS has changed these procedures,
and the impact of this change on certain citizens abroad. While these concerns
have been contemplated and addressed, there may be need for additional
clarification. USCIS remains committed to a transparent process, including
robust opportunity for engagement. In fact, in addition to the 60 day comment
period invited for the rule, USCIS provided three opportunities for engagement
and input, prior to the implementation of the new filing requirement.
In addition to reviewing the current guidance allowing
expedited processing, USCIS will publish an executive summary that will detail
the comments and feedback received during our most recent stakeholder
engagement. Finally, USCIS will host another stakeholder engagement within the
next 45 days to ensure we have accurately identified and addressed, to the
extent possible, the concerns raised by our stakeholders on this issue.
Background
On May 17, 2011, USCIS published a final rule in the Federal
Register amending its regulations to remove references to where the Form I-130
may be filed, accepted and processed. The new Form I-130 instructions require
that petitioners residing in countries without USCIS offices file their Form
I-130 at the USCIS lockbox facility in Chicago One purpose of the rule was to
reduce costs to the Department of Homeland Security by reducing filings of the
Form I-130 at international locations. Provisions of the Economy Act allow
government agencies to charge other government agencies for the delivery of
services. For the first time, in fiscal year 2010 USCIS was billed
approximately $3 million by the Department of State for the service of
adjudicating Form I-130 at their embassies and consulates overseas.
Given these additional costs, we reviewed our overseas services
and operations to determine ways to improve resource management. By
centralizing the adjudication of Form I-130 at our domestic service centers, we
can control the costs to the agency and ensure our existing fee schedule
appropriately covers these costs. In a new fee study we will assess whether to
resume the service of adjudicating Form I-130 at embassies and consulates
overseas at a price that would cover the costs newly imposed upon USCIS.
In November, 2010, USCIS engaged with stakeholders before
publishing the rule in the Federal Register. More than 200 stakeholders joined
the conference call, representing a wide array of public interests. During the
initial engagement, we heard a number of concerns including filing procedures,
processing times, response times for correspondence, emergency/humanitarian
circumstances, customer service and fraud. In our implementation of this
process change, we considered all of these factors in developing our revised
procedures. In particular, USCIS addressed the feedback in relation to response
times and emergency/humanitarian issues by developing policy guidance that was
posted for public comment. In June 2011, just after the rule was published,
USCIS held a second opportunity for public input. USCIS values public input and
looks forward to continued engagement on this issue moving forward.
Kind regards,
Office of Public Engagement
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
USCIS appears to have proceeded with the planned I-130 rule change; updated instructions posted at
Huge apologies: the email address in the previously posted version of the "Sample Letter to USCIS Director" has now been corrected in that file.
A quick review of what this page is about, since initial statements have scrolled way down the page. The US Citizenship and Immigration Service, effective today, has closed off direct Consular filings of immigrant visa petitions for non-American immediate family of American citizens. Instead, petitions are to be mailed to the Chicago Lockbox (code name for black box?), where it will take USCIS five months to decide whether your visa petition can go the National Visa Center (NVC; Department of State entity). NVC takes another few months to deny or approve your request, after which a visa interview appointment may take another 6 weeks or so.
This is a bloody disaster, obscured by language which treats this as simply following form instructions. What they don't tell you is the change in form instructions constitute a major change in process.
Although today, Aug. 15, marks the start of the new "form instructions," keep up the stream of messages to
alejandro.mayorkas@dhs.gov cc to
Public.Engagement@dhs.gov
OLUInquiries@dhs.gov
immigration@democratsabroad.org
actionalerts@democratsabroad.org
And add other American friends living overseas to the Facebook "Keep I-130 Visa Process As Is group https://www.facebook.com/group... ; urge them to write to DHS and to Congress.
Sample letters appear in Group Resources on this page.
Thanks for your efforts and support.
I got these numbers from Saturday's IHT article -- As I had thought and have repeatedly said - this rule is designed to save virtually nothing. No real cost analysis was done --
Department of State billed USCIS $3,000,000 last year for handling 16,000 cases filed at consular sections (the other 8,000 were handled by USCIS).
That is $187.50 per overseas case
Interestingly, "187" is police code for murder in California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/187_(slang)
http://www.urbandictionary.com...
The murder of our decades long, fully functioning, unbroken process is only days away.
All this to avoid a small budget redistribution of funds already paid for by all petitioning parties -- the price of a good cup of coffee -- the actual cost to the entire 700,000 petitions filed = $4.30!
$4.30!
This is nothing compared to the increased emotional and family costs, let alone the financial costs to US Citizens... and, the new Rule will most likely result in increased costs to DOS and USCIS for the new multi-step year(s)-long "detour" in the process.
Speak up!
Thanks,
Wayne
VISAS - The USCIS Teleconference Meeting and where we go from here
By Wayne Weightman on August 12th, 2011
Friends,
What happened and what is happening:
The current process has been in place and functioning pretty well for decades.
Everyone is wondering how this can be changed so quicky without effective notice and input.
There is mounting resistance to the new rule by several overseas American organizations, none of whom were consulted by USCIS prior to or post drafting of the rule. Organizations are considering planning global action activities for the day the rule goes into effect - Monday. I will probably participate as well.
Gary will provide action items tomorrow.
This is snowballing. The Wednesday USCIS call made people angry that USCIS would take no input.
I must say, I agree with them.
Now local branches of overseas American citizen groups are linking up - AARO, FAWCO, AAWE, AMCHAM, ACA, even REPUBLICANS ABROAD are being discussed for linking in.
There is a solution for now, slow this Rule down. Pull it back. At least to get real input. Input that is not disregarded.
On the call, USCIS could not identify even one group or any overseas Americans they spoke with in drafting the Rule or consulted with post drafting -- it seemed to me none of the US Gov reps had ever lived overseas nor had families. I believe one of them said, in response to complaints of long wait times, that we better learn how to plan ahead properly.
It really seemed like they just did the call so they could check off a mark on a todo list -- item: do call with citizens, check.
And the USCIS phone call summary was very misrepresentative of the call. Nothing of substance was relayed in the summary - like all commentary fell on deaf ears. No one on the call was for the new rule (2 or 3 speakers asked for info and the rest questioned and criticized the rule - maybe 100 people on the call.
It appears they drafted the report to pretend compliance to their bosses and so they could claim, "another call in our year long exhaustive process to get out the word and seek input."
We need to get the message to their bosses in congress, state dept and the Whitehouse.
USCIS did put out their emergency circumstances language - but lacks definitions for terms and periods. Further, they stated it would be rarely granted.
Please note, USCIS often opens up new comment periods where comments are few -- and where they want input.
Why not on this action?
It ain't broke, so don't fix it!
Kind Regards,
Wayne Weightman
Chair Ken Sherman sent the follwoing message to USCIS Director Mayorkas yesterday following the USCIS stakeholder conference call, and has agreed to my posting it here.
INFO for Important Call with USCIS re Rule restricting Visas for Family members of Overseas Americans
By Wayne Weightman on August 8th, 2011
On Wednesday, USCIS is asking for our feedback regarding their new Rule which ends our efficient direct consular filing of Petitions to bring our family members with us when be want to move back to America.
Instead of filing our petitions with our local consular officer, we will have to send them to a lockbox in Chicago where our petition will have to navigate a lengthy process ripe with opportunities for snafus. It will also cause us lots of problems with lost mail between the USCIS and NVC and us as well as significant international mailing expenses for both us overseas Americans an the US Government.
USCIS will be explaining their reasoning for changing our simple and quick process into an indirect and lengthy process where unrepresented parties currently spend long waits from filing petitions to visa interviews.
USCIS's position is contrary to current Administration Policy of reuniting families and making the process easier for overseas Americans to return to the US to live or visit with their non-American spouses and children.
Besides adversely impacting overseas Americans, the Rule actually makes an efficient process - fraud detection at an early stage -- inefficient by delaying it and costing the US Government resources that it currently does not have to expend.
Our position is that we want the Rule withdrawn prior to its effective date ofAugust 15.
To join the call - email USCIS office of public engagement and list your organization as DA and the country you are living in.
Follow instructions on the invitation from provided by USCIS.
The invitation is located on the upper right panel called "group Resources" and is titled "I-130 Teleconference, Aug. 10"
IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
Hope to see you there.
Wayne Weightman
Cambodia