
gc_on_demand
09-09 02:37 PM
Good response from almost all . I didnot call Steve King and Lamar Smith. as well as those who are co -sponsers.
Also skipped Luis Gutirezze .. He was supportive in sub committe hearing last time .
Aide from Rep Chris Cannon took my name and no and she told me some one will get back to me as she is not sure about bill.
Guys keep calling.. People just take message and average call takes 1 min or less.
Also skipped Luis Gutirezze .. He was supportive in sub committe hearing last time .
Aide from Rep Chris Cannon took my name and no and she told me some one will get back to me as she is not sure about bill.
Guys keep calling.. People just take message and average call takes 1 min or less.
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akela_topchi
08-07 11:54 AM
I thought you already left for the law firm...
I am impressed by your qualifications, what is your PD?
I am impressed by your qualifications, what is your PD?
gandu_no1
07-13 10:56 AM
Good idea kumar1, once this rollercoaster ride is over and settled.. we should start an anti-Lou Dobbs Youtube session. I will definately contribute in whatever way I can.. uploading videos, editing etc.
Lou Dobbs and CNN runs an hour long "Hate Immigrants" Program every night Monday to Friday. He repeatedly calls US immigration as a failed system, H1-B and L1...as cheap labor and stealing American jobs, he has big problem with China and China's developing economy, He blames foreigners for bad economic condition of California. He proudly uses the word "Illegal Alien". His program "Lou Dobbs Tonight" is nothing less that someone in Iran running a hate show against America. Lou Dobb always called CIR as "So Called Grand Amnesy"! Once this July visa bulletin fiasco settles down, we need to get together and attack this guy, every night so that he can stop his hate propoganda.
Lou Dobbs and CNN runs an hour long "Hate Immigrants" Program every night Monday to Friday. He repeatedly calls US immigration as a failed system, H1-B and L1...as cheap labor and stealing American jobs, he has big problem with China and China's developing economy, He blames foreigners for bad economic condition of California. He proudly uses the word "Illegal Alien". His program "Lou Dobbs Tonight" is nothing less that someone in Iran running a hate show against America. Lou Dobb always called CIR as "So Called Grand Amnesy"! Once this July visa bulletin fiasco settles down, we need to get together and attack this guy, every night so that he can stop his hate propoganda.
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naushit
10-01 03:17 PM
Finallly, my online status changed from "Initial review" -> "Document production" and also got email from Senator's office that my case is approved.
I think I got it....but not 100% sure yet...no approval emails yet... or no other proof.
Thanks,
-N
Guys
please report your Approvals in this thread . wish you luck for EB2 / EB3 guys whose PD s are current in October 2009
�If you think IV as an organization, IV�s leadership team and many members who donated their time and money were in anyways helpful in your GC journey, please consider making a �Thank You� donation to IV. Also, keep visiting IV and support your fellow immigrants stuck in this GC queue� __________________
I think I got it....but not 100% sure yet...no approval emails yet... or no other proof.
Thanks,
-N
Guys
please report your Approvals in this thread . wish you luck for EB2 / EB3 guys whose PD s are current in October 2009
�If you think IV as an organization, IV�s leadership team and many members who donated their time and money were in anyways helpful in your GC journey, please consider making a �Thank You� donation to IV. Also, keep visiting IV and support your fellow immigrants stuck in this GC queue� __________________
more...
lazycis
10-18 08:42 AM
First of all, lazycis, thank you for all the great information on the immigration portal WOM thread and now on the IV forums. The community owes you.
Re: this Cannon declaration -- do you mind sharing the case number or case name (X v Chertoff) or the declaration if you have downloaded it from Pacer?
Hey, thanks, Googler. If we are not helping each other, shame on us.
I am trying to save people's money so that instead of paying the lawyers they would support IV :)
I need to ask the person who shared the declaration with me privately. It was not something I found in PACER. If I find similar declaration in other cases, I'll post it.
Re: this Cannon declaration -- do you mind sharing the case number or case name (X v Chertoff) or the declaration if you have downloaded it from Pacer?
Hey, thanks, Googler. If we are not helping each other, shame on us.
I am trying to save people's money so that instead of paying the lawyers they would support IV :)
I need to ask the person who shared the declaration with me privately. It was not something I found in PACER. If I find similar declaration in other cases, I'll post it.

Robert Kumar
03-29 08:50 AM
from immigration-law.com
03/09/2011: May 2011 EB-2 Cut-Off Date Substantial Move-Ahead Predicted
AILA has reported that the EB-2 cut-off dates in Visa Bulletin in May 2011 may progress ahead substantially because of large unused EB-1 numbers since October 2010 since it has about 12,000 unused EB-2 numbers. Very good news from AILA and Mr. Oppenheim.
Gimme some greens now,.
03/09/2011: May 2011 EB-2 Cut-Off Date Substantial Move-Ahead Predicted
AILA has reported that the EB-2 cut-off dates in Visa Bulletin in May 2011 may progress ahead substantially because of large unused EB-1 numbers since October 2010 since it has about 12,000 unused EB-2 numbers. Very good news from AILA and Mr. Oppenheim.
Gimme some greens now,.
more...

GC4US
10-06 01:28 AM
Hello everybody,
I was just wondering why only the people (Eb2-I) with priority dates from 2004 get their I-485 approved? why dont people from 2001, 2002, 2003 dont get their I-485 approved?.....just curious to see how does it work?
I was just wondering why only the people (Eb2-I) with priority dates from 2004 get their I-485 approved? why dont people from 2001, 2002, 2003 dont get their I-485 approved?.....just curious to see how does it work?
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gc_chahiye
08-23 09:20 PM
Hey guys,
I asked a few questions regarding multiple filings to Rajeev Khanna, see question no 15....
http://www.immigrationportal.com/sho...d.php?t=261757
and his answers are recorded in the following link...
http://www.immigration.com/improving...nce_calls.html
FBI name check will be done once only...and if we ve not mentioned on both 485 forms about the other one we should write a letter to INS and inform them....which wud help in not delaying...
If u ve any other info plz share....
Thanks....
The links in the prev post are broken, here are the working ones:
http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showpost.php?p=1760355&postcount=15
http://www.immigration.com/improving_immigration/conference_calls.html
I asked a few questions regarding multiple filings to Rajeev Khanna, see question no 15....
http://www.immigrationportal.com/sho...d.php?t=261757
and his answers are recorded in the following link...
http://www.immigration.com/improving...nce_calls.html
FBI name check will be done once only...and if we ve not mentioned on both 485 forms about the other one we should write a letter to INS and inform them....which wud help in not delaying...
If u ve any other info plz share....
Thanks....
The links in the prev post are broken, here are the working ones:
http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showpost.php?p=1760355&postcount=15
http://www.immigration.com/improving_immigration/conference_calls.html
more...

serg
07-09 09:24 PM
All right, looks like we got (or will get) some attention from media. DOS and USCIS got (or will) it too. That's good. They will forward flowers to hospital, and this is good too (hate to waste flowers)! Bad, if they will not strip messages from buckets, veterans do not need them at all, BUT if they decided to take messages off ... just picture that USCIS will stuck on forwarding flowers instead of doing their job. Who will win?
All right, what next? If BloodDrive will not work, I suggest we have to offer BRAINDRIVE :) Any leaders? :)
All right, what next? If BloodDrive will not work, I suggest we have to offer BRAINDRIVE :) Any leaders? :)
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amitjoey
07-11 02:24 AM
The flower campaign turned out to be an amazing success!!. It achieved, what it set out to achieve, Media interest!!. Amazing articles, more will be comming for sure. GREAT JOB!!. Thanks to everyone that has made this a big success!!, special thanks to Nixtor for going out there, and english_august for continued commitment to turn the campaign into a success.
Ofcourse, Thanks to countless individuals for submitting stories, digging, emailing reporters, talking to reporters, and most importantly sending flowers.
Ofcourse, Thanks to countless individuals for submitting stories, digging, emailing reporters, talking to reporters, and most importantly sending flowers.
more...

gcbeku
08-13 09:20 AM
Today we received our welcome notices. The PD on my application is correct but the PD on my wife's application is same as the receipt date. Is this normal for the dependent application?
Our applications were approved based on substitute labor. Our 485 is based on 140 with PD Aug 2006 but we have another substitute labor with PD Nov 2005. When I applied for 140 with PD Aug 2006, I added my wife as dependent. But in the substitute labor I am not sure if my wife was added.
Is there anything to worry or just ignore it?
Thank you
Check with your lawyers. It should be easy to get an amended approval notice or atleast a letter from USCIS that it is okay.
Our applications were approved based on substitute labor. Our 485 is based on 140 with PD Aug 2006 but we have another substitute labor with PD Nov 2005. When I applied for 140 with PD Aug 2006, I added my wife as dependent. But in the substitute labor I am not sure if my wife was added.
Is there anything to worry or just ignore it?
Thank you
Check with your lawyers. It should be easy to get an amended approval notice or atleast a letter from USCIS that it is okay.
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sledge_hammer
11-20 09:58 PM
You are not the only one who thinks this way! Do you want to stuck with your house...paying 600k mortgage for 300k worth house? It is stupid people like you who would, I won't!.
When you buy a home you sign a contract saying you will pay the loan amount at the end of the loan term with interest. There was a commitment made. And you are saying people who walk away without fulfilling their obligation are smart? Fool!
Those who are walking away are smart. Banks are stupid to finance 100%. If you go bankrupt, govt won't bail you out. If banks go belly up, govt would give 750 billion!
And who do you think is footing the bill for bailing out those banks? its you and me! You are not only dishonest and unethical, you must be really dumb if you think you are not going to be paying for the mistakes of people like punjabi when they "walk away" from their homes. Idiot!
When you buy a home you sign a contract saying you will pay the loan amount at the end of the loan term with interest. There was a commitment made. And you are saying people who walk away without fulfilling their obligation are smart? Fool!
Those who are walking away are smart. Banks are stupid to finance 100%. If you go bankrupt, govt won't bail you out. If banks go belly up, govt would give 750 billion!
And who do you think is footing the bill for bailing out those banks? its you and me! You are not only dishonest and unethical, you must be really dumb if you think you are not going to be paying for the mistakes of people like punjabi when they "walk away" from their homes. Idiot!
more...
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abhis0
09-16 06:26 PM
My I-140 approved by NSC and my I-485 now pending with NSC. No Texas listed. :D
Good for you buddy...Congrats....
Good for you buddy...Congrats....
tattoo Pics Of Megan Fox Before

snram4
01-30 12:04 PM
You have chance of winning lawsuit if they reject you just based on immigration status. But in USA the employment is at will basis. Both employer and employee can take that option. Last year when I got offer letter that was specified in first page that this employment is at will basis. Lawsuits are more expensive. Generally lawyers will share the benefits of compensation if they take the case freely
now ford, gm, capitalone and I'll post mine when i hear about the explanation from legal.
i dont know if u can sue without much written proof, or if they refused to interview you. but if you do have an interview etc., and some written proof, we may have something
a class action lawsuit ? if a lawsuit is expensive i am sure there are some lawyers who take on cases either probono or we all pool in our money and do something...
now ford, gm, capitalone and I'll post mine when i hear about the explanation from legal.
i dont know if u can sue without much written proof, or if they refused to interview you. but if you do have an interview etc., and some written proof, we may have something
a class action lawsuit ? if a lawsuit is expensive i am sure there are some lawyers who take on cases either probono or we all pool in our money and do something...
more...
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lavenyahs
05-24 12:10 PM
My father tried to get a Non Availability certificate but they told since the birth is registered they can't issue one and that they also won't change the name...:mad: (after the incident where that MP tried to sneak people into Canada they are very strict it seems)
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bestofall
09-30 05:52 PM
Guys
please report your Approvals in this thread . wish you luck for EB2 / EB3 guys whose PD s are current in October 2009
“If you think IV as an organization, IV’s leadership team and many members who donated their time and money were in anyways helpful in your GC journey, please consider making a “Thank You” donation to IV. Also, keep visiting IV and support your fellow immigrants stuck in this GC queue” __________________
please report your Approvals in this thread . wish you luck for EB2 / EB3 guys whose PD s are current in October 2009
“If you think IV as an organization, IV’s leadership team and many members who donated their time and money were in anyways helpful in your GC journey, please consider making a “Thank You” donation to IV. Also, keep visiting IV and support your fellow immigrants stuck in this GC queue” __________________
more...
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raidohri
06-15 12:25 PM
I am speaking from experience. Download the forms needed for filing 485, EAD and AP. Then when your attorney send you his/her set ( normally they do this in 2 stages - one they will send you a draft copy to verify and correct all info - some have online questionnaire; stage two - they send the final forms for you to verify and sign again - this they may do paper copy or online PDF - that cannot be edited - not fill able forms).
So, here I am providing links to all forms that I know are needed. These from uscis.gov site are fill able. Weekend is coming. Fill them, and print and keep them.
When attorney sends papers, compare yours with their and do corrections in theirs ( usually it will have stamps of the firm)
Application To Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status - I-485
Medical Examination of Aliens Seeking Adjustment of Status - I-693
There is a supplemental 693 also for vaccination records.
Biographic Information - I-325 A
There are A, B, C and other versions. I filled A
Application for Employment Authorization - I-765
Application for Travel Document - I-131
Affidavit of Support - I-134
I completed all these forms with 100% correct info- still the Paralegal - made mistakes again and again ( I can't correct the PDF as Adobe PDF writer is 1800 USD). I lost ONE precious week. Hoping to file on 06/01/2007, filed on 06/08. Learn and be wiser from experience, yours and others.
__________________
We Are Legal Aliens, Legal Aliens on a path to become Legal Permanent Residents and ultimately citizens. Let's stop calling ourselves H1B high tech temp workers - and I changed my signature in the morning of one fine day when all dates became current
So, here I am providing links to all forms that I know are needed. These from uscis.gov site are fill able. Weekend is coming. Fill them, and print and keep them.
When attorney sends papers, compare yours with their and do corrections in theirs ( usually it will have stamps of the firm)
Application To Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status - I-485
Medical Examination of Aliens Seeking Adjustment of Status - I-693
There is a supplemental 693 also for vaccination records.
Biographic Information - I-325 A
There are A, B, C and other versions. I filled A
Application for Employment Authorization - I-765
Application for Travel Document - I-131
Affidavit of Support - I-134
I completed all these forms with 100% correct info- still the Paralegal - made mistakes again and again ( I can't correct the PDF as Adobe PDF writer is 1800 USD). I lost ONE precious week. Hoping to file on 06/01/2007, filed on 06/08. Learn and be wiser from experience, yours and others.
__________________
We Are Legal Aliens, Legal Aliens on a path to become Legal Permanent Residents and ultimately citizens. Let's stop calling ourselves H1B high tech temp workers - and I changed my signature in the morning of one fine day when all dates became current
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DallasBlue
09-13 03:00 PM
Caught in a Bureaucratic Black Hole
By Anna Gorman
The Los Angeles Times
Monday 10 September 2007
Applicants seeking US citizenship languish for years as the FBI conducts cumbersome records checks. Lawsuits are a result.
Seeking to become a U.S. citizen, Biljana Petrovic filed her application, completed her interview and passed her civics test.
More than three years later, she is still waiting to be naturalized - held up by an FBI name-check process that has been criticized as slow, inefficient and a danger to national security.
Petrovic, a stay-at-home mother in Los Altos, Calif., who has no criminal record, has sued the federal government to try to speed up the process. She said it's as if her application has slipped into a "black hole."
"It's complete frustration," said Petrovic, who is originally from the former Yugoslavia and is a naturalized Canadian citizen. "It's not like I am applying to enter the country. I have been here for 19 years."
Nearly 320,000 people were waiting for their name checks to be completed as of Aug. 7, including more than 152,000 who had been waiting for more than six months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. More than 61,000 had been waiting for more than two years.
Applicants for permanent residency or citizenship have lost jobs, missed out on student loans and in-state tuition, and been unable to vote or bring relatives into the country. The delays have prompted scores of lawsuits around the country.
Already this fiscal year, more than 4,100 suits have been filed against the citizenship and immigration agency, compared with 2,650 last year and about 680 in 2005. The mandamus suits ask federal judges to compel immigration officials to adjudicate the cases. The majority of the cases were prompted by delays in checking names, spokesman Chris Bentley said.
"There is nothing in immigration law that says that a citizenship application should take two, three, four years. That's absurd," said Ranjana Natarajan, an ACLU staff attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit in Southern California last year on behalf of applicants waiting for their names to be checked. "People who have not been any sort of threat ... have been caught up in this dragnet."
In addition to the bureaucratic nightmare that the lengthy delays present, attorneys and government officials say there is a far more serious concern: They could be allowing potential terrorists to stay in the country.
Fallout From 9/11
The backlog began after 9/11, when Citizenship and Immigration Services officials reassessed their procedures and learned that the FBI checks were not as thorough as they had believed. So "out of an abundance of caution," the agency resubmitted 2.7 million names in 2002 to be checked further, Bentley said.
Rather than simply determining if the applicants were subjects of FBI investigations, the bureau checked to see if their names showed up in any FBI files, including being listed as witnesses or victims. About 90% of the names did not appear in the agency's records, FBI spokesman Bill Carter said.
But for the 10% who were listed, authorities carefully reviewed the files to look for any "derogatory" information, Carter said. Because many documents aren't electronic and are in the bureau's 265 offices nationwide, that process can take months, if not years.
"It is not a check of your name," said Chuck Roth, director of litigation for the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, which also filed a class-action suit. "It is a file review of anywhere your name happens to appear. It has just created a giant bureaucratic mess."
Although many of those stuck in the backlog are from predominantly Muslim countries, there are also people from Russia, China, India and elsewhere. They include government employees and Iraq war veterans. Many have been in the U.S. legally for decades.
In one case decided in Washington, D.C., recently, a federal judge wrote that a Chinese man's four-year wait for permanent residency was unreasonable and ordered the government to decide on the application within three months. Petrovic, who has two U.S.-born teenagers, doesn't know what delayed her application. The only explanation she can think of is that her name is common in her native country.
She and her husband, Ihab Abu-Hakima, also a Canadian citizen, applied for citizenship in April 2003 and had their interviews in February 2004. Her husband was sworn in that summer, while her application continued to languish. She checked the mail daily.
When she still didn't hear anything, Petrovic contacted immigration officials, who told her that the FBI had her file and that it was still active. She also contacted her representative and her senator, whose offices asked Citizenship and Immigration Services to expedite the application. She filed a Freedom of Information Act request for her FBI file, which simply showed that she had never been arrested.
"I have a feeling that the system has broken down," she said.
Joining a Different Group
In August, Petrovic joined an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed in Northern California against the federal government. She is waiting to become a U.S. citizen so she can sponsor her elderly parents, who live in Canada and visit often.
"Every time they leave, I feel bad," she said. "This is their life here, more than there."
The problem extends beyond the disruption of personal lives.
In his yearly report to Congress in June, immigration services ombudsman Prakash wrote that the policy on checking names "may increase the risk to national security by extending the time a potential criminal or terrorist remains in the country." questioned the overall value of the process, writing that it was the "single biggest obstacle to the timely and efficient delivery of immigration benefits."
The Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged the threat, last month announcing plans to work with the FBI to address the backlog and reduce delays. Citizenship and Immigration Services will reassess the way name checks are done and earmark $6 million toward streamlining the process, Bentley said.
Though 99% of the agency's name checks are completed within six months, Bentley said, the lengthy delays for some applicants is "unacceptable."
"That requires a lot of patience on the part of an applicant because they have to wait sometimes multiple years," he said.
Nevertheless, he said, no benefit will be approved until that name check comes back clear. Security checks have produced information about sex crimes, drug trafficking and individuals with known links to terrorism, according to the agency.
Carter, the FBI spokesman, said he understands that applicants waiting for answers are anxious, but he said the process is complicated and involves dozens of agencies and databases - and, in some cases, foreign governments.
"The FBI's No. 1 priority remains to protect the United States from terrorist attack," Carter said. "To that end, we must ensure the proper balance between security and efficiency."
In addition to clearing the backlog and processing the 27,000 new name checks it receives each week from immigration officials, the FBI is trying to accelerate the process by making more documents electronic. It is also adding more staff and moving resources to a new records facility in Virginia, Carter said.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, said the government needs to make sure that it carefully checks every application. And working with foreign governments is inevitably going to slow the process down, he said.
"We correctly have much more stringent standards for immigration," he said. "I am not really sure that there is any way to do this kind of deep background check efficiently."
But attorneys said that because of the inefficiency, the program isn't serving its purpose.
"Let's say this guy is a terrorist or a criminal," Los Angeles immigration attorney Carl Shusterman said. "Why wouldn't the FBI rush the case?"
Mervyn Sam, a South African native who got a green card in 1998, has been waiting more than four years for the FBI to complete his name check. Sam said his career has been affected by the delay. He lives in Anaheim and is a project manager at a software company but cannot work on certain government projects because he is not a U.S. citizen. He has sued the federal government.
"I am not sure what the hiccup is on my end," he said. "It is very, very frustrating."
Shusterman, whose office is representing Sam, said applicants waste their time by contacting the immigration services agency, the FBI or their legislators.
"There is only one thing that works, and that is suing them in federal court," he said.
--------
anna.gorman@latimes.com
By Anna Gorman
The Los Angeles Times
Monday 10 September 2007
Applicants seeking US citizenship languish for years as the FBI conducts cumbersome records checks. Lawsuits are a result.
Seeking to become a U.S. citizen, Biljana Petrovic filed her application, completed her interview and passed her civics test.
More than three years later, she is still waiting to be naturalized - held up by an FBI name-check process that has been criticized as slow, inefficient and a danger to national security.
Petrovic, a stay-at-home mother in Los Altos, Calif., who has no criminal record, has sued the federal government to try to speed up the process. She said it's as if her application has slipped into a "black hole."
"It's complete frustration," said Petrovic, who is originally from the former Yugoslavia and is a naturalized Canadian citizen. "It's not like I am applying to enter the country. I have been here for 19 years."
Nearly 320,000 people were waiting for their name checks to be completed as of Aug. 7, including more than 152,000 who had been waiting for more than six months, according to the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. More than 61,000 had been waiting for more than two years.
Applicants for permanent residency or citizenship have lost jobs, missed out on student loans and in-state tuition, and been unable to vote or bring relatives into the country. The delays have prompted scores of lawsuits around the country.
Already this fiscal year, more than 4,100 suits have been filed against the citizenship and immigration agency, compared with 2,650 last year and about 680 in 2005. The mandamus suits ask federal judges to compel immigration officials to adjudicate the cases. The majority of the cases were prompted by delays in checking names, spokesman Chris Bentley said.
"There is nothing in immigration law that says that a citizenship application should take two, three, four years. That's absurd," said Ranjana Natarajan, an ACLU staff attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit in Southern California last year on behalf of applicants waiting for their names to be checked. "People who have not been any sort of threat ... have been caught up in this dragnet."
In addition to the bureaucratic nightmare that the lengthy delays present, attorneys and government officials say there is a far more serious concern: They could be allowing potential terrorists to stay in the country.
Fallout From 9/11
The backlog began after 9/11, when Citizenship and Immigration Services officials reassessed their procedures and learned that the FBI checks were not as thorough as they had believed. So "out of an abundance of caution," the agency resubmitted 2.7 million names in 2002 to be checked further, Bentley said.
Rather than simply determining if the applicants were subjects of FBI investigations, the bureau checked to see if their names showed up in any FBI files, including being listed as witnesses or victims. About 90% of the names did not appear in the agency's records, FBI spokesman Bill Carter said.
But for the 10% who were listed, authorities carefully reviewed the files to look for any "derogatory" information, Carter said. Because many documents aren't electronic and are in the bureau's 265 offices nationwide, that process can take months, if not years.
"It is not a check of your name," said Chuck Roth, director of litigation for the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, which also filed a class-action suit. "It is a file review of anywhere your name happens to appear. It has just created a giant bureaucratic mess."
Although many of those stuck in the backlog are from predominantly Muslim countries, there are also people from Russia, China, India and elsewhere. They include government employees and Iraq war veterans. Many have been in the U.S. legally for decades.
In one case decided in Washington, D.C., recently, a federal judge wrote that a Chinese man's four-year wait for permanent residency was unreasonable and ordered the government to decide on the application within three months. Petrovic, who has two U.S.-born teenagers, doesn't know what delayed her application. The only explanation she can think of is that her name is common in her native country.
She and her husband, Ihab Abu-Hakima, also a Canadian citizen, applied for citizenship in April 2003 and had their interviews in February 2004. Her husband was sworn in that summer, while her application continued to languish. She checked the mail daily.
When she still didn't hear anything, Petrovic contacted immigration officials, who told her that the FBI had her file and that it was still active. She also contacted her representative and her senator, whose offices asked Citizenship and Immigration Services to expedite the application. She filed a Freedom of Information Act request for her FBI file, which simply showed that she had never been arrested.
"I have a feeling that the system has broken down," she said.
Joining a Different Group
In August, Petrovic joined an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed in Northern California against the federal government. She is waiting to become a U.S. citizen so she can sponsor her elderly parents, who live in Canada and visit often.
"Every time they leave, I feel bad," she said. "This is their life here, more than there."
The problem extends beyond the disruption of personal lives.
In his yearly report to Congress in June, immigration services ombudsman Prakash wrote that the policy on checking names "may increase the risk to national security by extending the time a potential criminal or terrorist remains in the country." questioned the overall value of the process, writing that it was the "single biggest obstacle to the timely and efficient delivery of immigration benefits."
The Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged the threat, last month announcing plans to work with the FBI to address the backlog and reduce delays. Citizenship and Immigration Services will reassess the way name checks are done and earmark $6 million toward streamlining the process, Bentley said.
Though 99% of the agency's name checks are completed within six months, Bentley said, the lengthy delays for some applicants is "unacceptable."
"That requires a lot of patience on the part of an applicant because they have to wait sometimes multiple years," he said.
Nevertheless, he said, no benefit will be approved until that name check comes back clear. Security checks have produced information about sex crimes, drug trafficking and individuals with known links to terrorism, according to the agency.
Carter, the FBI spokesman, said he understands that applicants waiting for answers are anxious, but he said the process is complicated and involves dozens of agencies and databases - and, in some cases, foreign governments.
"The FBI's No. 1 priority remains to protect the United States from terrorist attack," Carter said. "To that end, we must ensure the proper balance between security and efficiency."
In addition to clearing the backlog and processing the 27,000 new name checks it receives each week from immigration officials, the FBI is trying to accelerate the process by making more documents electronic. It is also adding more staff and moving resources to a new records facility in Virginia, Carter said.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, said the government needs to make sure that it carefully checks every application. And working with foreign governments is inevitably going to slow the process down, he said.
"We correctly have much more stringent standards for immigration," he said. "I am not really sure that there is any way to do this kind of deep background check efficiently."
But attorneys said that because of the inefficiency, the program isn't serving its purpose.
"Let's say this guy is a terrorist or a criminal," Los Angeles immigration attorney Carl Shusterman said. "Why wouldn't the FBI rush the case?"
Mervyn Sam, a South African native who got a green card in 1998, has been waiting more than four years for the FBI to complete his name check. Sam said his career has been affected by the delay. He lives in Anaheim and is a project manager at a software company but cannot work on certain government projects because he is not a U.S. citizen. He has sued the federal government.
"I am not sure what the hiccup is on my end," he said. "It is very, very frustrating."
Shusterman, whose office is representing Sam, said applicants waste their time by contacting the immigration services agency, the FBI or their legislators.
"There is only one thing that works, and that is suing them in federal court," he said.
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anna.gorman@latimes.com
hairstyles Gordon Ramsay efore and after

flygo
01-05 07:24 PM
Call up multiple rallies at the same time at different locations, NYC, DC, Boston, LA, SF...
Look what the NY MTA workers did?
Look what the NY MTA workers did?
pd_recapturing
11-12 03:35 PM
I got the following response for Ombudsman for AC21 mail sent to them a week ago. They need Evidance of I 485 denials to discuss with USCIS. The following is the mail I got. People who have been affected already. Please share this with Ombudsman..Let's keep the momentum going..
================================================== ===
Thank you for your recent correspondence to the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CIS Ombudsman).
We greatly appreciate your comments regarding issues concerning AC21 processing at the Service Centers. As we have received several inquiries such as yours, we are currently discussing these issues with USCIS and reviewing their policies and procedures regarding these petitions.
If you have evidence of a specific I-485 case that you feel was erroneously denied due to USCIS not adhering to AC21 guidelines, we kindly ask that you please forward us a copy of your denial notice or provide further detail as to the reasons for the immediate denial.
Please submit information via email to cisombudsman@dhs.gov with the subject AC21 Evidence of Immediate Denial. In addition, for protection of privacy we ask that you please omit any personally identifiable information such as names, a-numbers, case numbers, etc.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
CIS Ombudsman
================================================== ========
This is a good news. Do we need to tell individuals who are affected to send email to that email address? Let plan asap.
================================================== ===
Thank you for your recent correspondence to the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CIS Ombudsman).
We greatly appreciate your comments regarding issues concerning AC21 processing at the Service Centers. As we have received several inquiries such as yours, we are currently discussing these issues with USCIS and reviewing their policies and procedures regarding these petitions.
If you have evidence of a specific I-485 case that you feel was erroneously denied due to USCIS not adhering to AC21 guidelines, we kindly ask that you please forward us a copy of your denial notice or provide further detail as to the reasons for the immediate denial.
Please submit information via email to cisombudsman@dhs.gov with the subject AC21 Evidence of Immediate Denial. In addition, for protection of privacy we ask that you please omit any personally identifiable information such as names, a-numbers, case numbers, etc.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
CIS Ombudsman
================================================== ========
This is a good news. Do we need to tell individuals who are affected to send email to that email address? Let plan asap.
sherlock01
08-07 06:39 PM
Why would you want to do that? I am EB-2, waiting for GC but don't consider myself to have some sort of monopoly over EB-2.
EB-2 or EB-3 is not our birthright. It's just a matter of circumstance that many of us found ourselves in one category or other. It does not even necessarily mean any difference in skill or experience. There are many people in EB3 with Masters degrees and many people with over 10 yrs experience.
Dude everybody wants their GC. If you want to fight injustice fight for something positive. You will only get bad Karma by undercutting other people :mad:
EB-2 or EB-3 is not our birthright. It's just a matter of circumstance that many of us found ourselves in one category or other. It does not even necessarily mean any difference in skill or experience. There are many people in EB3 with Masters degrees and many people with over 10 yrs experience.
Dude everybody wants their GC. If you want to fight injustice fight for something positive. You will only get bad Karma by undercutting other people :mad:


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