Just when we thought we’d finally figured out the reorganization of INS upon its absorption into the Orwellian-named U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, we get memos like this one:
“AILA [the American Immigration Lawyers Association] has confirmed that the three immigration agencies of the Department of Homeland Security are undergoing some name modifications. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) will be known as United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) will be known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP) will be known as Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Filing fee checks made out to either DHS, USCIS or BCIS will be accepted. The agency will also continue to accept checks made payable to INS for the time being, but has not specified a date after which such checks will be rejected.”
What is the point? We needed some more confusion in our immigration system or something? This is starting to sound like a bad rewrite of Who’s On First. I know: maybe if we confuse the terrorists enough, they’ll turn left and head for Canada!
I can just picture it now with the checks: last month, I filed a green card applications for a family of two. The application was received at BCIS, and the checks for the applications themselves (2 I-485s, plus one employment authorization application, one advance parole, and two sets of fingerprints) were cashed. A few days later, I get receipt notices for all the applications, plus two letters (one for each individual applicant) stating that we had forgotten to file the fingerprint fees (which we had obviously filed, otherwise how come the bank cashed the checks?) I waited a few days to get the cancelled checks from the bank, but by then I’d already gotten more forms confirming receipt of the fingerprint checks.
These people can’t figure out how to balance a checkbook, and they’re supposed to be the front line against international terrorism? I must say, Canada is sounding pretty good to me right now.
Looks like they just put blasted some alphabet soup out of a shot gun and picked the new names there. I’m surprised any of these departments get anything done.
Well, my favorite thing always was when INS would cash my client’s check, deny the application out of their own stupidity, lack of understanding of the law or the CFR, or just straight fucked-up-ed-ness but of course keep the money.
Or the time that they denied my ABC client her work permit saying she didn’t exist. Even after we had sent them back copies of their own paperwork from her INS file four times!
How about the Iranian who was posting flyers in the US against the ayatollahs and was going to be deported because the DOJ said he was part of a “terrorist organization”?
Ah, yes. And then there’s my friend who was granted residency as the mother of a US citizen, but can’t get into America because she can’t get a Mexican passport because she was born in a tiny village and doesn’t have a birth certificate? According to INS (or whatever the fuck), they feel the docs in her I-485 were sufficient to demonstrate her identity and nationality, but the State Department says they won’t let her in because she can’t prove who she is?!
A large bureaucracy is the most efficient way to cripple a country. Ask the Soviet Union.
You have a large number of people doing the unproductive job of trying to control what the rest are doing and then you have the rest of the people wasting time trying to comply with the bureaucratic requirements when they could be doing something productive instead.
One of the big advantages of the USA compared to Europe and other countries is that it has a low level of bureaucracy which allowed for greater productivity. It seems the present government wants to change that.
Eva Luna, I appreciate your feeling of having having fallen down a rabbit hole into Wonderland where nothing quite makes sense.
I’m a U.S. citizen the easy way (born here) and my wife is Greek. We filed her I-485, etc. immediately after we were married , over two years ago…and we’re still waiting for the interview.
What is it with the Chicago office? Most other field offices, apparently, do interviews within a few months of your filing AND provide a way for you to check online the progress. Chicago is currently two years behind and doesn’t use the standard receipt number that can be used online as a case ID.
Is the Chicago office a private little fiefdom or what? A clarification would be appreciated as I can NEVER get a straight answer from the INS/BCIS/etc.
All local offices are little fiefdoms, with their own procedures and backlogs. As luck would have it, I’m in Chicago. Yes, backlogs here for family-based adjustments are currently two years and up.
A chuildhood friend of mine married a nice Croatian boy about 4 years ago. One condo, one baby, and most of a Ph.D. later, he finally got his green card a couple of months ago. More than three years from start to finish, but they never asked ffor my help or advice , so I have no idea what kind of holdups they may have had (fingerprint clearances, address changes, etc.)
I would say an in-person visit couldn’t hurt, if one of you can take the time off work. Also, if you go over the normal processing time, your congressperson’s office usually has a liaison who can get answers for you, if nothing else. Good luck!
Yeah, that sounds about right. But of course I was dealing with the San Antonio office.
I would have loved the feeling of having actually made a difference in people’s lives when I was working in immigration, but alas, after two years I moved away and never once got to see any of my clients get their green cards or citizenship.
Did get to see one asylum case won, though. That was fantastic.
Not a clue about ABC, sorry. I haven’t worked in that area of law in years; we do almost exclusively employment-based stuff, with the occasional family-based case for a corporate client.
