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Some movement
Mar. 5th, 2003 03:05 pmOn Valentine's Day, about five people protested outside the Texas Service Center (TSC) in Dallas, to try to pressure the (then) INS into starting the adjudication of I-129F petitions. They've been stalled, with no work done on these types of petitions (other than cashing the checks and putting them on the shelf), since September.
In the meantime, all resources at the TSC which would normally be working on I-129F petitions have been working on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) cases for a very large number of El Salvadorians. A group of El Salvadorians had launched legal action because their TPS cases hadn't been worked on, and the TSC, working on the theory of "management by crisis", diverted the resources to the TPS cases. This has created a 5 month long backlog on the I-129F cases. Keep in mind that what is paying for the TPS cases to be processed is the surcharges paid by the people whose petitions have been shunted aside.
To make sure everyone understands; an I-129F is a Petition filed by a US citizen, requesting permission to bring the citizen's alien fiance to the United States for the purpose of getting married. Only US citizens can file this type of petition. They're used by a variety of people: those like Ross who met the love of his life on the net, servicemen and women who meet and fall in love with foreigners overseas, people just working overseas who meet the person they want to spend their lives with. The beneficiaries of these petitions are people like me - people who have lives in their home countries that they're willing to leave behind because we love our American fiances that much. One of the conditions for the I-129F is that the couple must have met, in person , within the last two years. (Proof of this accounted for most of the stack of paper that Mike was talking about in his journal the other day.)
Bear in mind that approving these petitions is not a difficult process. The Vermont Service Center has a turnaround of fewer than thirty days from the time they receive the petition to the time it's approved. The shortest approval I personally know about is 16 days. And the petition is actually being worked on and assessed for less than 2 hours, in most cases.
There is, however, a possible light at the end of the tunnel. As I said, five people walked outside of the TSC on February 14. Their petitions were approved. Because of this, another half dozen people drove and flew to Dallas on Monday, and have since been approved. And it looks like more people are going to be approved in the future, since the main organizer of the planned protest for this coming Friday has also been approved. The protesters created a crisis, and the management of the TSC has responded in the way they generally do.
It remains to be seen whether the TSC will continue to work on the petitions, once they feel that the threat of protest is gone. As with most lights at the end of the tunnel, it could be daylight, it could be an oncoming train. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.
However, I will say this. It is absolutely ridiculous that people have to take time off work, fly to Dallas, and stand outside a building for hours in order to pressure the TSC into doing work that they are supposed to be doing anyway. It's disgraceful that these people had to go to these lengths when it was their money that was paying for the work on the petitions that shunted their's aside. And it's really sad that the majority of Congressmen and Senators these people have contacted don't give a damn, because they know that they're going to get more votes with a "tough on immigration" standpoint than they are by trying to help unite their constituents with their loved ones.
In the meantime, all resources at the TSC which would normally be working on I-129F petitions have been working on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) cases for a very large number of El Salvadorians. A group of El Salvadorians had launched legal action because their TPS cases hadn't been worked on, and the TSC, working on the theory of "management by crisis", diverted the resources to the TPS cases. This has created a 5 month long backlog on the I-129F cases. Keep in mind that what is paying for the TPS cases to be processed is the surcharges paid by the people whose petitions have been shunted aside.
To make sure everyone understands; an I-129F is a Petition filed by a US citizen, requesting permission to bring the citizen's alien fiance to the United States for the purpose of getting married. Only US citizens can file this type of petition. They're used by a variety of people: those like Ross who met the love of his life on the net, servicemen and women who meet and fall in love with foreigners overseas, people just working overseas who meet the person they want to spend their lives with. The beneficiaries of these petitions are people like me - people who have lives in their home countries that they're willing to leave behind because we love our American fiances that much. One of the conditions for the I-129F is that the couple must have met, in person , within the last two years. (Proof of this accounted for most of the stack of paper that Mike was talking about in his journal the other day.)
Bear in mind that approving these petitions is not a difficult process. The Vermont Service Center has a turnaround of fewer than thirty days from the time they receive the petition to the time it's approved. The shortest approval I personally know about is 16 days. And the petition is actually being worked on and assessed for less than 2 hours, in most cases.
There is, however, a possible light at the end of the tunnel. As I said, five people walked outside of the TSC on February 14. Their petitions were approved. Because of this, another half dozen people drove and flew to Dallas on Monday, and have since been approved. And it looks like more people are going to be approved in the future, since the main organizer of the planned protest for this coming Friday has also been approved. The protesters created a crisis, and the management of the TSC has responded in the way they generally do.
It remains to be seen whether the TSC will continue to work on the petitions, once they feel that the threat of protest is gone. As with most lights at the end of the tunnel, it could be daylight, it could be an oncoming train. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.
However, I will say this. It is absolutely ridiculous that people have to take time off work, fly to Dallas, and stand outside a building for hours in order to pressure the TSC into doing work that they are supposed to be doing anyway. It's disgraceful that these people had to go to these lengths when it was their money that was paying for the work on the petitions that shunted their's aside. And it's really sad that the majority of Congressmen and Senators these people have contacted don't give a damn, because they know that they're going to get more votes with a "tough on immigration" standpoint than they are by trying to help unite their constituents with their loved ones.
