Selected Personal Statements:
1. Career hardships faced by Non-citizen
I work for a major Defense contractor in the area of satellite communications. My technical expertise is extremely beneficial to my company dealing with Defense, Homeland and National security government contacts. My I-485 petition has been pending at Vermont Service Center for over 12 months and my status as “waiting adjustment of status” creates extreme hardships for the company and myself. Working in a “secure” environment with “Export Control” regulations creates a daily fearful ordeal just to get through the day without breaking any laws. Furthermore, the prolonged delay of adjudication often results in an unfair work culture, with people classified as Citizens or not. At workplace, I have to wear a designated color badge, indicating my status as a “foreign” person. I am only allowed to enter through a designated entrance and exit and have access only to my own office and a lab. Due to all the physical restrictions, I cannot visit the in-house cafeteria, unless escorted by a U.S. citizen. I am only allowed to work from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM and this prevents me from utilizing the company’s flexible hour schedule. There is not genuine recognition or promotion at work because of my immigrant status. Due to the nature of the State Department Export License, which is for a specific project I have absolutely no flexibility to work on other projects or even be consulted on anything else. My wife cannot get driver license for a second year in a row, because she is on EAD. By Pennsylvania state law, she can’t have driver license or learning permit. I have to drive her to work and home everyday. The time spent I have no other choice but to use it as vacation time, since my limited time permission in the building does not allow me to make up for this time. Stress, anxiety and lack of security are part of our daily lives. The multi-year process delay, with no end in sight, creates innumerable problems for people like myself and for the companies trying to utilize our skills and at the same time abide by a plethora of other immigration and government regulations.
2 Children’s education affected
I filed EB1 I-485 petition at Nebraska Service Center back in Oct 2001. I have two daughters who graduated from high school with GPA of 3.98 and 3.99 respectively. They were both rewarded merit based scholarships to study at Un iv. of Michigan. However, since we are waiting for our green card approval, the two daughters were told that they would not be qualified for the scholarship. The girls have to stop studying because they cannot afford to take a loan that they may not be able to pay back. The young kids’ hearts were broken and so did ours. BCIS’s unacceptable delay has affected thousands of innocent children’s lives. These children have become the victims of the backlog.
I am a California state resident. I filed my I-485 in Feb. 2002. My daughter will go to a university this fall. However, her financial aid application was rejected because she was not a permanent resident and therefore not qualified. For illegal students, DREAM Act and Student Adjustment Act may help them to get financial aid. But for legal workers and their dependents, there’re really no hopes.
I have been waiting for my EB I-485 adjudication for 20 months. Recently, I had a bad car accident that damaged my car. I decided to buy a safer car. Unfortunately, the bank would only give me a loan that I have to pay back in 6 months because my EAD expires in 6 months. I could not afford such a high monthly payment and I was forced to take bus to work everyday. Because of this, I cannot work late, and lose couple of hours everyday trying to catch the bus. Approving my I-485 petition timely would have prevented these hassles.
3 Service Center error
I have applied for I-140 in Feb. 2002 and got approved in May 2002. I filed my I-485 case in May 2002. My company changed its name after my I-485 is filed but the tax-id remained the same. My lawyer filed an I-140 Amendment for company name change in July 2002. In May 2003(almost after 10 months) I got I-140 amendment RFE asking me to “provide legal doc to show company name change happened legally”. RFE response was received by BCIS in the first week of June 2003. In the second week of 2003 BCIS denied my former approved I-140 stating that Employer tried to substitute new Alien for the Labor Certification, which in turn denied my I-485 petition. This is solely a mistake by the Service Center. In the fourth week of June 2003 my I-140 Amendment got approved. I then filed MTR (Motion to Reopen) in July 2003. Because of this severe Service Center error, I am going through tremendous pressure, anxiety and high legal costs. I haven’t heard from BCIS ever since and I am now seeking congressional help.
4 Local Interview Nightmare
I filed my I-485 case in November 2001. My case was transferred to Buffalo district office on July 18, 2003. I received a notice from Buffalo local office dated August 25, 2003, which mentioned that the normal processing time for this type of application is 9 months. Moreover, the Buffalo local office assigns a new case number to my case with the Receipt date August 25, 2003 where as my actual RD is November 19, 2001. After 21 months of long waiting, I have to wait for nine more months for the interview. This is a devastating news to my family. I urge BCIS to expedite I–485 interviews at local offices. An interview won’t take more than 10 minutes and I have been waiting for my green card adjudication for 21 months.
5 Second fingerprint pain
I am a New Jersey state resident. My case receipt date is 10/01/2001, so far I have not heard anything from BCIS while others who filed cases same time as me have been approved months ago. I have already filed for third EAD and second Advance Parole last week. Last month after calling NCSC, I got a response that said “First fingerprint has expired and BCIS has sent a notice to the applicant, and should complete it in order to get his application processed”. Almost 8 weeks have passed since then and neither my lawyer’s office nor I have received the notice. I wish BCIS updated the online case status with appropriate information when fingerprint notice is issued.
6 Frustration of contacting NCSC
I had a frustrating experience in contacting NCSC, the newly centralized customer service for applicants to get case status. I have a Dec/2001 RD case, which has been pending for nearly two years. I called NCSC in June, at that time, the published processing time was 18 months, but NCSC operator who answered the phone insisted the processing time was 19 months and asked me to call back in July. The operator had little knowledge of immigration policy. Instead of asking for my case number, she has asked form my green card number. Without knowing my case number, she said since your case is still pending, you need an interview. I was very frustrated in the end when the operator refused to send a status request to Vermont service center. A month later, I called NCSC again, this time the phone operator said the current processing time is 24 months; call back in Dec, which is inconsistent with the published processing time.