Why does the INS take so long to process I-485 (and everything else)?
Jul 5th 2001, 4:44 am
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Why doesn't the INS hire more personnel to process petitions and AOS cases? It can't
possibly take them a year or more to process them. If they need more people, why
don't they hire them and raise the corresponding fees to cover the costs?
possibly take them a year or more to process them. If they need more people, why
don't they hire them and raise the corresponding fees to cover the costs?
Jul 5th 2001, 12:00 pm
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Noah Spamless wrote:
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Budgetary constraints, which are set by congress. The fees received do not necessary
go into INS's spending budget, FWIW. It is the congress who tells them how much they
can spend.
Alvena
===
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice; this is my personal opinion, posted
for the purpose of discussion only.
===
K-1 FAQ: http://www.k1faq.com Timelines: http://www.wkh.org/ A great K-1 Site:
http://pages.prodigy.net/alixtcat/immigrat.htm Marriage Visa Pages:
http://www.mindspring.com/~docsteen/...o/visainfo.htm
===
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Budgetary constraints, which are set by congress. The fees received do not necessary
go into INS's spending budget, FWIW. It is the congress who tells them how much they
can spend.
Alvena
===
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice; this is my personal opinion, posted
for the purpose of discussion only.
===
K-1 FAQ: http://www.k1faq.com Timelines: http://www.wkh.org/ A great K-1 Site:
http://pages.prodigy.net/alixtcat/immigrat.htm Marriage Visa Pages:
http://www.mindspring.com/~docsteen/...o/visainfo.htm
===
Jul 5th 2001, 1:40 pm
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Well, as Alvena has already said, congress controls the budget. So in reality,
politics plays a big part in it. It is simplistic to think they could just hire
more people, spend more money, and improve things. However there are people (mostly
conservatives) who would go ape if this happened. Look at the current political
regime that just cut taxes, and are refunding excess money collected from
taxpayers. Conservatives believe in a smaller Government, with less Government
spending. So while there is a conservative president in office, it is highly
unlikely that you will see any Government agency (besides the Department of
Defense) grow in size significantly or get more money. Also, hiring more people
would require more office space, requiring new facilities, requiring more money. So
at what point do you draw the line?
As far as raising the fees, again politics would come into play. The fees were just
raised within the last couple of years, and a lot of people complained about it. What
would happen if you raised the fees too much is many people (especially liberals)
will then complain that you have to be rich to participate in the various programs to
allow your loved ones to immigrate here. They could develop a program to allow people
to pay an "expedite" fee if they chose to do so, but again the people who couldn't
afford to pay the fee would then accuse the Government of allowing the "rich" to move
ahead in the system at the expense of the "poor".
One thing that causes delays is new programs or policies that are put into place that
becomes a priority. For the example, Clinton implemented a program where people who
were in the country illegally (but who otherwise would be able to stay in the country
if the proper petition was filed) could pay an extra fee and be allowed to remain in
the country while their case was being processed. They had to file by a certain date
however, and this caused INS offices to be flooded with additional petitions. Of
course to accept and process these new petitions, they had to refocus their attention
from working other programs.
While additional people MAY improve the situation, I think there are improvements
that could be made to their processes that wouldn't require more people, and could
improve processing times. In almost every instance where I have had to deal with the
INS, something has gone wrong which slowed the process down. One example is my wife
filed an I130 for her daughter. The Receipt Notice we received stated the normal
processing time for this type of case was 180 to 270 days. After that time had
passed, I called and was told the normal processing time was "up to 720 days". I
would periodically check the status through their automated system. The recording
never changed stating the 180 to 270 day range. After 2 years had passed, I called to
talk to a "live" person again. I was then told that the case was somehow overlooked
and was just setting in a file cabinet. The INS Officer told me she would pull the
file and flag it for immediate attention. In today's age of computers and automation
it would be easy to develop a system where "overdue" cases could be flagged and be
worked. In another instance where we filed for Adjustment of Status for my stepson,
his Green Card was made and then destroyed by the Regional Service Center because his
surname was different then mine, and we were told that they would not mail a Green
Card to an address with a different surname to prevent fraud. We had to resubmit and
put "in care of" my name on the application. The local office checking for that when
they accepted the first application could have prevented this. Also, the Regional
Service Center never even called the phone number listed on the application to see if
he lived at the address listed. These are just two cases where their existing
processes could be improved to speed up waiting times.
On 4 Jul 2001 21:44:31 -0700, [email protected] (Noah Spamless) wrote:
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politics plays a big part in it. It is simplistic to think they could just hire
more people, spend more money, and improve things. However there are people (mostly
conservatives) who would go ape if this happened. Look at the current political
regime that just cut taxes, and are refunding excess money collected from
taxpayers. Conservatives believe in a smaller Government, with less Government
spending. So while there is a conservative president in office, it is highly
unlikely that you will see any Government agency (besides the Department of
Defense) grow in size significantly or get more money. Also, hiring more people
would require more office space, requiring new facilities, requiring more money. So
at what point do you draw the line?
As far as raising the fees, again politics would come into play. The fees were just
raised within the last couple of years, and a lot of people complained about it. What
would happen if you raised the fees too much is many people (especially liberals)
will then complain that you have to be rich to participate in the various programs to
allow your loved ones to immigrate here. They could develop a program to allow people
to pay an "expedite" fee if they chose to do so, but again the people who couldn't
afford to pay the fee would then accuse the Government of allowing the "rich" to move
ahead in the system at the expense of the "poor".
One thing that causes delays is new programs or policies that are put into place that
becomes a priority. For the example, Clinton implemented a program where people who
were in the country illegally (but who otherwise would be able to stay in the country
if the proper petition was filed) could pay an extra fee and be allowed to remain in
the country while their case was being processed. They had to file by a certain date
however, and this caused INS offices to be flooded with additional petitions. Of
course to accept and process these new petitions, they had to refocus their attention
from working other programs.
While additional people MAY improve the situation, I think there are improvements
that could be made to their processes that wouldn't require more people, and could
improve processing times. In almost every instance where I have had to deal with the
INS, something has gone wrong which slowed the process down. One example is my wife
filed an I130 for her daughter. The Receipt Notice we received stated the normal
processing time for this type of case was 180 to 270 days. After that time had
passed, I called and was told the normal processing time was "up to 720 days". I
would periodically check the status through their automated system. The recording
never changed stating the 180 to 270 day range. After 2 years had passed, I called to
talk to a "live" person again. I was then told that the case was somehow overlooked
and was just setting in a file cabinet. The INS Officer told me she would pull the
file and flag it for immediate attention. In today's age of computers and automation
it would be easy to develop a system where "overdue" cases could be flagged and be
worked. In another instance where we filed for Adjustment of Status for my stepson,
his Green Card was made and then destroyed by the Regional Service Center because his
surname was different then mine, and we were told that they would not mail a Green
Card to an address with a different surname to prevent fraud. We had to resubmit and
put "in care of" my name on the application. The local office checking for that when
they accepted the first application could have prevented this. Also, the Regional
Service Center never even called the phone number listed on the application to see if
he lived at the address listed. These are just two cases where their existing
processes could be improved to speed up waiting times.
On 4 Jul 2001 21:44:31 -0700, [email protected] (Noah Spamless) wrote:
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Jul 25th 2001, 6:14 pm
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
The United States General Accouting Office (GAO) issued a report in May 2001 titled
"Immigration Benefits: Several Factors Impede Timeliness of Application Processing."
To read this report:
- Go to www.gao.gov
- Click on the Search link on top of the page
- Type in GAO-01-488 to search by Report Number.
[email protected] (Noah Spamless)
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"Immigration Benefits: Several Factors Impede Timeliness of Application Processing."
To read this report:
- Go to www.gao.gov
- Click on the Search link on top of the page
- Type in GAO-01-488 to search by Report Number.
[email protected] (Noah Spamless)
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