This blog refers to the recent fiasco created by the USCIS and the Department of State where they potentially asked roughly 400K-500K green card applicants (I-485) to stop sending applications although the visa bulletin for the month of July said all of them with an approved Labor and I-140 stages were eligible to apply. I'm one of the them clearly affected by this volte-face by these two organizations.
It is not only about the financial losses because of their incredulous behavior. It is not only about the frenzied activity which we had to undertake like getting our medical exams and hunting for numerous documents (birth certificate from native country). It is not only about the time-off we had to take for preparing the documents (some victims are paid hourly). It is not only (as in some cases) postponing plans of having a baby (because vaccinations require a mom-to-be not try to have a baby for 6 months). It is not only about the mental torture that this reversal created.
It is about the trust that we placed on these two organizations that has forever been consigned to dustbin!
Even though green card (especially for people from India and China) takes eons, we still believed in the system. We believed the system was still fair although people born in different countries could get it in one-fourth to one-sixth of the time we spend on an average.
We are 'legally' here in the US. I have been in the US for more than 6 years without ever been illegal even for one single second. It seems that being illegal definitely has its benefits although I never want to be an illegal at any time.
For some, it has delayed their travel plans while for some they had to fly back their spouses and children to follow the 'protocol' enlisted by these agencies.
Mind you, the yearly quota is 140,000. On an average, they approve approximately 12000 odd applicants every month. When you hear that they approved 25,000 applications on Saturday and Sunday and overall 60,000 applications in 13 days just to announce to the world that there are no visas available, you begin to see a conspiracy.
First of all, it was hard to fathom how they gave everybody a chance to even apply given their history of slow processing and the lack of enough visa numbers against the growing number of applicants. That defied logic! And then, they came up with an update that was even more hard to fathom.
I'm keenly looking forward to the October visa bulletin which will be released in mid September. It is only that time that the immigrant visas will be available again. The reason I'm looking forward to that is to know whether the priority dates are still current. It wouldn't make sense to me if they do not make the priority dates current.
Why ? Because, if they made priority date current based on the availability of only 60,000 visas, it is a foregone conclusion that with 140,000 visas at their disposal, it is a matter of logic that the priority dates will be made current in the October visa bulletin. But, I already have an answer for you. The priority dates will not be current at that time. Wait till September 12th-15th for proof.
Just because the legal immigrants are few in number compared to the illegals, we don't get the attention we deserve. I think it is high time the congress acts on such a huge blunder on the part of these organizations.
