IV action item: Media drive on Visa Bulletin

[amitjoey]

Can we use this to send it to reporters?
http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/

[ramus]

What did you put in the subject field.. It is very important to have right words in subject field so at least they will open the email and see what's in it..

Originally Posted by nfinity

Dear Senator,

After having spent thousands of dollars in legal counsel, medical tests, documentations, affidavits and many days of hurried preparation to file adjustment of status (AOS) for my green card application, USCIS has pulled a fast one me and the legal high skilled community.

On June 13th 2007, Department Of State indicated visa availability for all applicants starting July 1st causing thousands of prospective legal high skilled immigrants to prepare their applications only to be surprised on the very first day (July 2nd) with rejections due to apparent exhaustion of existing visas.

This unprecented and possibly illegal action on part of USCIS, has left high skilled immigrants like myself in a limbo. We are wondering what we have done to be wronged in this way. I am a law abiding, tax paying resident contributing to the economy.

Please help us in overcoming this situation. We definetly do not deserve such treatment for having followed the law in the land of opportunity on the eve of independence day.

Thank You,

Sincerely,

[amitjoey]

Originally Posted by ramus

What did you put in the subject field.. It is very important to have right words in subject field so at least they will open the email and see what's in it..

"Immigration scandal goes unnoticed"
or "USCIS drama and tantrum to lessen workload"
or "Is this legal?"
or "Resignations due at USCIS"
or "Foul Play synonym USCIS Play"

[amitjoey]

If we report "Unofficial report of Scandal at USCIS". That will be picked up by everyone. I am sending it to all the reporters, please help out. We need hundreds of emails to be sent out to create the ripple, or should I say the flood.
4th of JULY is a great day to get this published.

[abhijitp]

As far as past IV threads, here is one and I am sure Pappu knows it as he has posted lots of links there:
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/sh...p?t=694&page=8 (Ideas to increase publicity of IV)

A list of contacts for Public radio/TV such as NPR and PBS:
http://www.npr.org/contact/

Here is another... and this makes me think we should look for media contacts at other pro as well as anti-immigration websites.

http://www.conservativeusa.org/megalink.htm

Here is one more:
http://www.webcom.com/~leavitt/medialist.html

[yetanotherguyinline]

Originally Posted by chintanop

Hi all,

Regarding the recent goofup by USCIS, please rate this story

http://digg.com/politics/No_July_4th..._Americans/who

if this receives more than 100 users rating for the story in next 5-10 hours - it would be displayed on the first page. Digg.com is read by hundreds of thousands of web users and there is high chance of getting picked by main stream media.

Note that you ll have to signup as digg.com member to rate it - it ll just take 30 secs of your time.

Sorry I wasn't able to submit the official IV prlog.com url since it is not accepted by Digg.

thanks.

digged it....but it just has 17 diggs now!!!

[k3GC]

We have used Web fax in the past, I had also read in a different thread that it (faxes to senators) is how things work here. there were reports of how other groups had used and sent more web faxes than us etc etc ....

Why dont we do that now.

Fax to every senator, include the congress womans letter

Make an IV statement supporting the congresswoman

Lot of people will join the fax campaign

Let us try multiple avenues - Lawsuit , blogs, faxes, media etc etc.

Let us create as much noise as we can

Please enable the web fax.

[ramus]

Thanks..
Other members from Ohio please make a call to Ralph Regula..

Originally Posted by pcs

Ralph Regula in Ohio

[oomshiva]

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul...nCards,00.html

Legal Workers Lose Chance at Green Cards
Monday, July 02, 2007

By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer

E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
WASHINGTON — Legal immigrants hoping to be first in line for employer-sponsored green cards lost time and money when the government suddenly announced Monday that no new applications would be taken until the fall, a lawyers group said.

Tens of thousands of people who work in the United States under employment visas and their families were affected by the change, said Crystal Williams, associate director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

"There are people who flew to the United States so they could apply and had their families fly back. They paid attorney fees," Williams said.

The State Department announced last month that employment visa numbers were available for all people seeking employer-sponsored green cards, except unskilled workers. It sometimes takes years for applicants to get those numbers.

The announcement meant that as early as Monday, Citizenship and Immigration Services would begin accepting applications. The applications are hefty, requiring medical exams, a lot of documentation and the applicant's presence in the United States.

But an update on the State Department Web site posted Monday said 60,000 such numbers were no longer available because of "the sudden backlog reduction efforts by Citizenship and Immigration Services offices during the past month."

(Story continues below)

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The department called the backlog reduction an "unexpected action" and said employment visa numbers would be available again Oct. 1.

The State Department has been flooded with passport applications since new rules went into effect in January requiring passports for air travelers returning from the same destinations. The resulting backlog has caused delays of up to three months for passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of thousands of people.

A spokesman at the State Department declined to comment.

Williams said several workers within Citizenship and Immigration Services told her and other lawyers that the agency had staffers working through the weekend to resolve pending cases. She said several lawyers reported getting phone calls from the agency with questions about applications when normally that happens by mail.

Chris Rhatigan, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, denied the weekend work occurred or that there was a push to use up the visa numbers. She said the agency had pending cases from previous months.

The fee to apply for a green card increases July 30 from $395 to $1,010, including a fingerprinting fee.

___

On the Net:

State Department: http://www.state.gov/

Citizenship and Immigration Services: http://www.uscis.gov

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[ramus]

http://digg.com/politics/No_July_4th..._Americans/who

[nfinity]

Ramus,

used the web link on the senator's website. No subject line was available. Is there an email address I can use? I am going to take an hour today and send emails to reporters.

[nixstor]

http://digg.com/politics/Rep_Lofgren..._Visa_Bulletin

[sertasheep]

Can any IV member write to me with the following detials, if you have this info , please:

Of course, we need a reliable source to be cited.
1) Has it been reported anywhere in the media on how many applicants may have been approx. affected by the Visa Bulletin fiasco? All I have heard is "tens of thousands"
2) Any good estimate on how much expenditure may have been incurred..i saw somewhere that it was $300 mil?

email: sertasheep at immigrationvoice.org



Sertasheep
SuperModerator

[ramus]

I am working on this... I will get you 100 or even more by 10 p.m. today..

Originally Posted by chintanop

Hi all,

Regarding the recent goofup by USCIS, please rate this story

http://digg.com/politics/No_July_4th..._Americans/who

if this receives more than 100 users rating for the story in next 5-10 hours - it would be displayed on the first page. Digg.com is read by hundreds of thousands of web users and there is high chance of getting picked by main stream media.

Note that you ll have to signup as digg.com member to rate it - it ll just take 30 secs of your time.

Sorry I wasn't able to submit the official IV prlog.com url since it is not accepted by Digg.

thanks.

[amitjoey]

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchas...against-us.php
JURIST@law.pitt.edu