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