Russian visa delays/letter to DOS
Jan 21st 2003, 12:46 am
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Russian visa delays/letter to DOS
January 20, 2003
Maura Harty
Asst. Secretary of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Department of State
Washington DC
Dear Ms. Harty.
Please add my name to the list of concerned citizens who are in this
K1 visa "Nightmare"!
All we are asking is to have our families; wife, husband, children,
unborn children, and fiancée's to be allowed entrance to our country.
This isn't a matter of national security! This is about our own
country punishing us for being in love with a foreign national! Isn't
this the country which was populated by immigrants? Isn't a majority
of our political representatives from immigrant backgrounds?
I do not think the DOS has any idea of the stress and anxiety we are
going through every day that our loved ones are separated from us.
Further, you could not begin to realize the amount of money we are
forced to spend, as a group, to visit our family, file documents,
mailings by Express mail, telephone bills, attorney fees and the list
goes on! Most of us are middle class working families. We are the
voters and the supporters of this great nation, yet we are getting the
sharp end of the shaft! It is immoral the way we are being treated by
this so-called security clearance check procedure!
The first thing we do in the morning and the last thing in the evening
is to turn on the computer and check the list of applications which
have been published on various web sights. We do this several times a
day, this is our life! Looking for a tiny spark of hope! Most of us
don't know one another personally and have never met socially.
However, we can tell you the names of hundreds of people who are in
the same situation as we are. We know their life stories, the faces
of their loved ones are etched in our minds! We feel their suffering!
Please try to feel this suffering with us!
Although I am not a member of the Moscow group of people who are
having trouble with the backlog of K1 visas, my fiancée was subjected
to this Hell when her name was erroneously submitted for this "Russian
born" applicant security check. Elena was born in Kazakhstan and
has been a Ukrainian citizen for over 40 years. She is 41 years old.
Both of her parents are Ukrainian. This security check does not apply
to Kazakhstan or Ukraine. It has been over three months since the
Warsaw Embassy requested her "additional clearances"! Because my
fiancée was born in Kazakhstan, we have submitted her legal birth
record, we have submitted confirmation from the Kazakhstan Embassy in
Washington DC and we have begged the Warsaw Embassy, your own DOS and
just about anyone else who has an e-mail address. All falls on deaf
ears! Homeland security is a good thought! However, as Mr. Bethel
has put it;
"We are all agonizing over the separation of our loved ones and this
agonizing is compounded by the fact that your own State Department
refuses to tell us when this wait will be over!"
Ms. Harty, our families are not terrorists! They do not know how to
fly airplanes and probably, most of them will experience flight for
the first time when they come to meet us in America! There is
absolutely no reason to punish the family based visas! We are the
good guys! We are the grass roots of this nation. We deserve better
treatment!
Mr. Clifton Bethel wrote you a letter on January 10, his words are
well chosen! I agree with this letter and please add my name to this
group of disappointed US citizens!
Asking someone from the ranks of your visa department to investigate
this complaint will not bring any satisfaction, they will just write
me the same generic letter which states, "they don't have any
information for me and nobody knows how long these clearance checks
take!"
If the State Department cannot answer this question then who can? Why
does it take more than 3 months to investigate my fiancée's criminal
background when the FBI, the CIA and just about any police department
in America can do it in less than a minute? These police and security
officers do not have the elaborate computer system which is available
in Washington DC, but still they return criminal backgrounds to the
requesting officer in seconds! I am sure there are more requests for
background information in one day from various police departments than
the visa section has done since August.
One of the great benefits of our great country is the fact we are
allowed to tell our politicians and government employees the things
which lower the moral and anger the people of this United States of
America! I wish to take this time to tell you, as one of the chief
officers of the DOS, that a great majority of people who are now
involved in this visa nightmare suffer greatly with low moral and we
are very angry with the system! You are keeping us from the one
important basic right, the right of an American to be close to his
family! Just how many people are angry and suffering from this low
moral? Check the backlog of visa applications, I am sure everyone
involved has experienced these feelings!
Please free our loved ones so they can come to us immediately!
Respectfully submitted,
Fred A. Baldwin
Maura Harty
Asst. Secretary of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Department of State
Washington DC
Dear Ms. Harty.
Please add my name to the list of concerned citizens who are in this
K1 visa "Nightmare"!
All we are asking is to have our families; wife, husband, children,
unborn children, and fiancée's to be allowed entrance to our country.
This isn't a matter of national security! This is about our own
country punishing us for being in love with a foreign national! Isn't
this the country which was populated by immigrants? Isn't a majority
of our political representatives from immigrant backgrounds?
I do not think the DOS has any idea of the stress and anxiety we are
going through every day that our loved ones are separated from us.
Further, you could not begin to realize the amount of money we are
forced to spend, as a group, to visit our family, file documents,
mailings by Express mail, telephone bills, attorney fees and the list
goes on! Most of us are middle class working families. We are the
voters and the supporters of this great nation, yet we are getting the
sharp end of the shaft! It is immoral the way we are being treated by
this so-called security clearance check procedure!
The first thing we do in the morning and the last thing in the evening
is to turn on the computer and check the list of applications which
have been published on various web sights. We do this several times a
day, this is our life! Looking for a tiny spark of hope! Most of us
don't know one another personally and have never met socially.
However, we can tell you the names of hundreds of people who are in
the same situation as we are. We know their life stories, the faces
of their loved ones are etched in our minds! We feel their suffering!
Please try to feel this suffering with us!
Although I am not a member of the Moscow group of people who are
having trouble with the backlog of K1 visas, my fiancée was subjected
to this Hell when her name was erroneously submitted for this "Russian
born" applicant security check. Elena was born in Kazakhstan and
has been a Ukrainian citizen for over 40 years. She is 41 years old.
Both of her parents are Ukrainian. This security check does not apply
to Kazakhstan or Ukraine. It has been over three months since the
Warsaw Embassy requested her "additional clearances"! Because my
fiancée was born in Kazakhstan, we have submitted her legal birth
record, we have submitted confirmation from the Kazakhstan Embassy in
Washington DC and we have begged the Warsaw Embassy, your own DOS and
just about anyone else who has an e-mail address. All falls on deaf
ears! Homeland security is a good thought! However, as Mr. Bethel
has put it;
"We are all agonizing over the separation of our loved ones and this
agonizing is compounded by the fact that your own State Department
refuses to tell us when this wait will be over!"
Ms. Harty, our families are not terrorists! They do not know how to
fly airplanes and probably, most of them will experience flight for
the first time when they come to meet us in America! There is
absolutely no reason to punish the family based visas! We are the
good guys! We are the grass roots of this nation. We deserve better
treatment!
Mr. Clifton Bethel wrote you a letter on January 10, his words are
well chosen! I agree with this letter and please add my name to this
group of disappointed US citizens!
Asking someone from the ranks of your visa department to investigate
this complaint will not bring any satisfaction, they will just write
me the same generic letter which states, "they don't have any
information for me and nobody knows how long these clearance checks
take!"
If the State Department cannot answer this question then who can? Why
does it take more than 3 months to investigate my fiancée's criminal
background when the FBI, the CIA and just about any police department
in America can do it in less than a minute? These police and security
officers do not have the elaborate computer system which is available
in Washington DC, but still they return criminal backgrounds to the
requesting officer in seconds! I am sure there are more requests for
background information in one day from various police departments than
the visa section has done since August.
One of the great benefits of our great country is the fact we are
allowed to tell our politicians and government employees the things
which lower the moral and anger the people of this United States of
America! I wish to take this time to tell you, as one of the chief
officers of the DOS, that a great majority of people who are now
involved in this visa nightmare suffer greatly with low moral and we
are very angry with the system! You are keeping us from the one
important basic right, the right of an American to be close to his
family! Just how many people are angry and suffering from this low
moral? Check the backlog of visa applications, I am sure everyone
involved has experienced these feelings!
Please free our loved ones so they can come to us immediately!
Respectfully submitted,
Fred A. Baldwin
Jan 21st 2003, 9:29 pm
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Russian visa delays/letter to DOS
Very good letter. I wish you success!
"fred baldwin" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> January 20, 2003
> Maura Harty
> Asst. Secretary of State
> Bureau of Consular Affairs
> Department of State
> Washington DC
> Dear Ms. Harty.
> Please add my name to the list of concerned citizens who are in this
> K1 visa "Nightmare"!
> All we are asking is to have our families; wife, husband, children,
> unborn children, and fiancée's to be allowed entrance to our country.
> This isn't a matter of national security! This is about our own
> country punishing us for being in love with a foreign national! Isn't
> this the country which was populated by immigrants? Isn't a majority
> of our political representatives from immigrant backgrounds?
> I do not think the DOS has any idea of the stress and anxiety we are
> going through every day that our loved ones are separated from us.
> Further, you could not begin to realize the amount of money we are
> forced to spend, as a group, to visit our family, file documents,
> mailings by Express mail, telephone bills, attorney fees and the list
> goes on! Most of us are middle class working families. We are the
> voters and the supporters of this great nation, yet we are getting the
> sharp end of the shaft! It is immoral the way we are being treated by
> this so-called security clearance check procedure!
> The first thing we do in the morning and the last thing in the evening
> is to turn on the computer and check the list of applications which
> have been published on various web sights. We do this several times a
> day, this is our life! Looking for a tiny spark of hope! Most of us
> don't know one another personally and have never met socially.
> However, we can tell you the names of hundreds of people who are in
> the same situation as we are. We know their life stories, the faces
> of their loved ones are etched in our minds! We feel their suffering!
> Please try to feel this suffering with us!
> Although I am not a member of the Moscow group of people who are
> having trouble with the backlog of K1 visas, my fiancée was subjected
> to this Hell when her name was erroneously submitted for this "Russian
> born" applicant security check. Elena was born in Kazakhstan and
> has been a Ukrainian citizen for over 40 years. She is 41 years old.
> Both of her parents are Ukrainian. This security check does not apply
> to Kazakhstan or Ukraine. It has been over three months since the
> Warsaw Embassy requested her "additional clearances"! Because my
> fiancée was born in Kazakhstan, we have submitted her legal birth
> record, we have submitted confirmation from the Kazakhstan Embassy in
> Washington DC and we have begged the Warsaw Embassy, your own DOS and
> just about anyone else who has an e-mail address. All falls on deaf
> ears! Homeland security is a good thought! However, as Mr. Bethel
> has put it;
> "We are all agonizing over the separation of our loved ones and this
> agonizing is compounded by the fact that your own State Department
> refuses to tell us when this wait will be over!"
> Ms. Harty, our families are not terrorists! They do not know how to
> fly airplanes and probably, most of them will experience flight for
> the first time when they come to meet us in America! There is
> absolutely no reason to punish the family based visas! We are the
> good guys! We are the grass roots of this nation. We deserve better
> treatment!
> Mr. Clifton Bethel wrote you a letter on January 10, his words are
> well chosen! I agree with this letter and please add my name to this
> group of disappointed US citizens!
> Asking someone from the ranks of your visa department to investigate
> this complaint will not bring any satisfaction, they will just write
> me the same generic letter which states, "they don't have any
> information for me and nobody knows how long these clearance checks
> take!"
> If the State Department cannot answer this question then who can? Why
> does it take more than 3 months to investigate my fiancée's criminal
> background when the FBI, the CIA and just about any police department
> in America can do it in less than a minute? These police and security
> officers do not have the elaborate computer system which is available
> in Washington DC, but still they return criminal backgrounds to the
> requesting officer in seconds! I am sure there are more requests for
> background information in one day from various police departments than
> the visa section has done since August.
> One of the great benefits of our great country is the fact we are
> allowed to tell our politicians and government employees the things
> which lower the moral and anger the people of this United States of
> America! I wish to take this time to tell you, as one of the chief
> officers of the DOS, that a great majority of people who are now
> involved in this visa nightmare suffer greatly with low moral and we
> are very angry with the system! You are keeping us from the one
> important basic right, the right of an American to be close to his
> family! Just how many people are angry and suffering from this low
> moral? Check the backlog of visa applications, I am sure everyone
> involved has experienced these feelings!
> Please free our loved ones so they can come to us immediately!
> Respectfully submitted,
> Fred A. Baldwin
"fred baldwin" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> January 20, 2003
> Maura Harty
> Asst. Secretary of State
> Bureau of Consular Affairs
> Department of State
> Washington DC
> Dear Ms. Harty.
> Please add my name to the list of concerned citizens who are in this
> K1 visa "Nightmare"!
> All we are asking is to have our families; wife, husband, children,
> unborn children, and fiancée's to be allowed entrance to our country.
> This isn't a matter of national security! This is about our own
> country punishing us for being in love with a foreign national! Isn't
> this the country which was populated by immigrants? Isn't a majority
> of our political representatives from immigrant backgrounds?
> I do not think the DOS has any idea of the stress and anxiety we are
> going through every day that our loved ones are separated from us.
> Further, you could not begin to realize the amount of money we are
> forced to spend, as a group, to visit our family, file documents,
> mailings by Express mail, telephone bills, attorney fees and the list
> goes on! Most of us are middle class working families. We are the
> voters and the supporters of this great nation, yet we are getting the
> sharp end of the shaft! It is immoral the way we are being treated by
> this so-called security clearance check procedure!
> The first thing we do in the morning and the last thing in the evening
> is to turn on the computer and check the list of applications which
> have been published on various web sights. We do this several times a
> day, this is our life! Looking for a tiny spark of hope! Most of us
> don't know one another personally and have never met socially.
> However, we can tell you the names of hundreds of people who are in
> the same situation as we are. We know their life stories, the faces
> of their loved ones are etched in our minds! We feel their suffering!
> Please try to feel this suffering with us!
> Although I am not a member of the Moscow group of people who are
> having trouble with the backlog of K1 visas, my fiancée was subjected
> to this Hell when her name was erroneously submitted for this "Russian
> born" applicant security check. Elena was born in Kazakhstan and
> has been a Ukrainian citizen for over 40 years. She is 41 years old.
> Both of her parents are Ukrainian. This security check does not apply
> to Kazakhstan or Ukraine. It has been over three months since the
> Warsaw Embassy requested her "additional clearances"! Because my
> fiancée was born in Kazakhstan, we have submitted her legal birth
> record, we have submitted confirmation from the Kazakhstan Embassy in
> Washington DC and we have begged the Warsaw Embassy, your own DOS and
> just about anyone else who has an e-mail address. All falls on deaf
> ears! Homeland security is a good thought! However, as Mr. Bethel
> has put it;
> "We are all agonizing over the separation of our loved ones and this
> agonizing is compounded by the fact that your own State Department
> refuses to tell us when this wait will be over!"
> Ms. Harty, our families are not terrorists! They do not know how to
> fly airplanes and probably, most of them will experience flight for
> the first time when they come to meet us in America! There is
> absolutely no reason to punish the family based visas! We are the
> good guys! We are the grass roots of this nation. We deserve better
> treatment!
> Mr. Clifton Bethel wrote you a letter on January 10, his words are
> well chosen! I agree with this letter and please add my name to this
> group of disappointed US citizens!
> Asking someone from the ranks of your visa department to investigate
> this complaint will not bring any satisfaction, they will just write
> me the same generic letter which states, "they don't have any
> information for me and nobody knows how long these clearance checks
> take!"
> If the State Department cannot answer this question then who can? Why
> does it take more than 3 months to investigate my fiancée's criminal
> background when the FBI, the CIA and just about any police department
> in America can do it in less than a minute? These police and security
> officers do not have the elaborate computer system which is available
> in Washington DC, but still they return criminal backgrounds to the
> requesting officer in seconds! I am sure there are more requests for
> background information in one day from various police departments than
> the visa section has done since August.
> One of the great benefits of our great country is the fact we are
> allowed to tell our politicians and government employees the things
> which lower the moral and anger the people of this United States of
> America! I wish to take this time to tell you, as one of the chief
> officers of the DOS, that a great majority of people who are now
> involved in this visa nightmare suffer greatly with low moral and we
> are very angry with the system! You are keeping us from the one
> important basic right, the right of an American to be close to his
> family! Just how many people are angry and suffering from this low
> moral? Check the backlog of visa applications, I am sure everyone
> involved has experienced these feelings!
> Please free our loved ones so they can come to us immediately!
> Respectfully submitted,
> Fred A. Baldwin
