Write Your Congressperson regarding the I-140 Processing delay
Several people that are facing the I-140 processing delay have wanted to know more about how to contribute. Some have been sceptical about this effort going nowhere. The best way to move this forward for yourself and for everyone else is to contact the right people in your jurisdiction that have a say in national immigration matters. One such person is your State Congress Representative.
Contacting your Congressperson is easier than you may think. And yes, they do respond.
STEP 1: How to find your State Congress person’s Contact Information?
1. Contact Your Congressperson form on house.gov, the OFFICIAL form to contact your Congressperson.
2. Go to google.com and type in <State> Congressman or <State> Congresswoman and most likely the State congress person’s website should be the first listing (or one of the first). Their contact information should be on their Contact Us page. Of course, replace <State> with your state.
STEP 2: What to write to them?
A lot of people hate official writing so here’s a template letter that you can use to write to your congressperson. DO NOT FORGET to change whatever is within < > with your details.
Hi <name of Congress Person>
I am a <Job Title> working for <Employer>, on a <Visa-type> visa, living in <City> for the past <N> years. My company applied for my Permanent Resident status in <Month Year> to the <Nebraska/Texas> Service Center (NSC) of the USCIS. My application was under the Employment Based-<1/2/3> category using forms I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, applied on <Date> and I-485 (Adjustment of Status, applied on <Date>).
One of the restrictions of the Permanent Resident application process is that unless my I-140 is approved, I am unable to change employers. My I-140 application has been pending at the <Nebraska/Texas> Service Center for <Time in months, days) as of today. According to the monthly bulletin released by the USCIC, NSC’s processing date for EB-<1/2/3> I-140 applications has moved forward by only <N> days (from <Date> to <Date>) since 4/15/2008, in over 4 months. Also, NSC has been lagging behind the TSC (Texas Service Center of the USCIS) by around 4-5 months when it comes to processing I-140 applications for EB-3 applicants. To make matters worse, USCIS cancelled Premium Processing on I-140 applications in June 2007, forcing everyone to wait in the same line for months without even an “estimated wait time”.
As a result of this unexpected delay, my family and I have gone through a lot of stress. With economic slowdown and lay-offs happening at the company, I am very worried about this situation, since, according to the USCIS memo, it would not be prudent for me to change employers unless the I-140 is approved. This loss of freedom is also preventing me from pursuing opportunities to progress in my career or plan for the future. The long wait (often over 7 years) to achieve Permanent Resident status and restrictions such as these have made me wonder whether the American dream is not meant for legal immigrants. From my interaction with fellow legal immigrants on forums related to immigration, I know that several others in <state> and in other states are in a similar situation.
I wanted to bring this situation to your notice. Is there any way I can get any help to expedite my I-140 approval or get an “estimated wait time” from the USCIS?
I sincerely appreciate you providing me with this opportunity to communicate my grief to you. Thank you very much for your time in advance.
Regards,
<Your name>
Hope this helps. Your case might be significantly differently and you might have to alter this template quite a bit. If you do post your letter to your congressperson, please post your letter here. Let’s make this a respository of requests that make a strong statement.
Loading ...
September 18th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
[...] I am going to write my Congress person - Shelley Berkley from Nevada AGAIN since I haven’t received a reply regardng my first Email [...]
September 26th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I got a message from my Congresswoman -
“Thank you for sharing your concerns about the financial crisis with me. As your Representative, I welcome the opportunity to hear your opinions and comments. Your views are very important to me. I will keep your views in mind as I find the best possible solution to this crisis.”
I never wrote to her about the financial crisis. Looks like an automated response…
October 6th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
[...] prepare for longer waits, fellow immigrants. In the meantime, if you want to try and help, click here. Share and [...]
October 16th, 2008 at 2:05 am
[...] can drive anyone hopeless. I personally did not receive anything more than an automated reply from my congress person. I am glad that others that participated in this blog had better luck. What’s even more [...]
January 31st, 2009 at 11:10 am
they repplied to me and said the contacted USCIS but they said that my case is within normal processing times so there is nothing they can do.