USCIS sent me a response on our FOIA

[kumar1]

Vldrao has all the information anyway, we should pay him 5000 dollars. At least he will have a nice time with 5k. What's the point giving it to the worst possible office in the whole United State of Great America?

Few months ago, Loo Doggs also asked USCIS for similar information. USCIS asked CNN to pay 10k for that. Loo Doggs was mad and his red neck viewers were amused.

[nightowl76]

Originally Posted by needhelp!

Are you asking tha the information we provide be broken down into the categories listed above, or may we group all EB-2 categories and ass EB-3 categories together?

Did her original letter actually say ass EB3??? Or did you make a typo?

[belmontboy]

Originally Posted by needhelp!

I have received a response on my request last year to USCIS for information on number of AOS applications pending. Here it is:
--------------------------------------
February 24, 2009
NRC2008065126

We received your request for information relating to Adjustment of Status applications in the employment-based category. You have specifically requested the number of pending employment based AOS applications, (excluding approved, denied) filed with USCIS since 2001, for each of the following countries and categories:
- EB-2 China
- EB-2 India
- EB-3 China
- EB-3 India
- EB-3 Mexico
- EB-3 Philippines
- EB-3 Rest of the World

Your request is being handled under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C 552). It has been assigned the following control number: NRC2008065126. Please cite th is number in any further inquiry about this request.

In order to extract the information you have requested, a customized computer program will be required. You will be charged for the time it takes to write the program as well as the time involved in running the query to extract the date. You will not be charged for duplication, review and search time. We estimate the cost to be $5000.00. Due to the time and effort involved, you will be asked to sign an advance fee agreement before we proceed with your request. In addition, a deposit of $2500.00 payable by check or money order, must be paid within 30 days of the date of this notification. Please make your check payable to the United States Treasury, Failure to submit the $2500.00 deposit within the time frame given will result in your request being administratively closed.

In order to assure that we provide the information you seek in the format you have requested, we ask that you clarify the information sought. Employment based status is broken down into the following 14 categories.
_____________

NRC2008065126
Page 2

E21 203(b)(2) PROF/EXCPTNL ABILITY
E22 SPOUSE OF ES1 OR E21
E23 CHILD OF ES1 OR E21
E26 203(b)(2) PROF/EXCPTNL ABILITY
E27 SPOUSE OF ES6
E28 CHILD OF ES6
E30 203(b)(3) CHILD OF E36, E37
E31 203(b)(3)(A)(i) SKILLED WORKER
E32 203(b)(3)(A)(ii) PROFESSIONAL
E34 203(b)(3)(A) SPOUSE OF E31, E32
E35 203(b)(3)(A) CHILD OF E31, E32
E36 203(b)(3)(A)(i) SKILLED WORKER
E37 203(b)(3)(A)(ii) PROFESSIONAL
E39 203(b)(3)(A) SPOUSE OF E36, E37

Are you asking tha the information we provide be broken down into the categories listed above, or may we group all EB-2 categories and ass EB-3 categories together?

Please define priority date.

You have asked for information concerning the country of chargeability. This information is not assigned until the application is approved or denied. Since you have requested information on pending applications only, this information is not available.

If you have any questions concerning your pending FOIA/PA request, please address them to this office, Attention: FOIA/PA Officer, or call us at 816-350-5570, or fax any FOIA/PA related correspondence to 816-350-5785.

Sincerely,

T. Diane Cejka
Director

___________________________

I will post a scan tomorrow

From what I understand, they aren't able to get the numbers by country of chargeablility.

Its funny they are asking me to define priority date !

Why do they need money to respond to RTI request. IF they don't have a program, its their job to comeup with one. They shouldnot/cannot go asking for money.
Sounds like a scam.
Perhaps this should be brought to attention of Secretary of State or President.
If you have a copy, lets go to press with that.

[neeidd]

Originally Posted by belmontboy

Why do they need money to respond to RTI request. IF they don't have a program, its their job to comeup with one. They shouldnot/cannot go asking for money.
Sounds like a scam.
Perhaps this should be brought to attention of Secretary of State or President.
If you have a copy, lets go to press with that.

I am happy to pay $25 for this cause

[belmontboy]

Originally Posted by neeidd

I am happy to pay $25 for this cause

Yes, we all here are capable of paying $25. Money is not the issue.
Its the degree to which we get exploited here, even for a RTI response.

[LostInGCProcess]

This is what Ron Gotcher had to say about this wonderful organization:

Quote" Not even Congress has been able to rein in the INS/CIS. Repeatedly, they have passed legislation ordering the agency to produce reports on their backlogs - all of which have been ignored with impunity."

So, I think this is just another tactic to discourage people from getting the information thru FIA by charging some imaginary figure of $5k to get some basic information. This is the heights of Arrogance.

[vbkris77]

Lets pay them to get info. It is a drop in a bucket to what we are spending. If they provide obvious wrong info, we can sue them to get our money back and it will have enough press coverage then. They have a right to ask money for FOIA if it requires further searching. It is part of the Law. So they are right in asking for money.

I can pledge 50$ for this cause.

[sounakc]

I also got the same letter. Do I have to cough up 5000$ or I only have to pay if I want to start the process.

[GCKaMaara]

Originally Posted by vine93

I also got the same letter from USCIS today.

Where is the core who advised us to fax letter to USCIS. Please let us know what the action plan is ?

I am ready for $25.

I think we need to contact Ombudsman with this letter. This is ridiculuous.

[sledge_hammer]

LOL

I like the way you tihnk! (in a good way )

Originally Posted by pa_arora

i think if we are paying for something we should have the ownership it too.

lets format a reply saying that 5K is too much for the job...if they can give us their Data Model diagram, we can give them the code in a week without any cost.

[rajeshalex]

I will contribute 25$ on my behalf. And I suggest that we can take a copy of this letter and send it to Ombudsman, president and hilar clinton telling that USCIS even dont know how many applications with PD per country.

We can also send the copy of this letter to AILA and any other media and try to get an publicity so that ultimately aim should be like the processing times there must be a web page in USCIS where it should display each month what is the no of applications with pd per country. If we dont request this then after an year again we have to pay 5K to get this report.

Third thing is can IV management contribute some money?

Rajesh

[pappu]

This is a good first step in this direction after our campaign for FOIA last year. If we can get the data we need, prediction on date movement and getting the clear picture on pending applications should be easy.

I personally feel 5K is too much to charge, but if this is what it takes I think we should pursue it. Lobbying for it may have cost more. We need to get more information about this and if everyone agrees we can raise funds and pay for one request to take it forward.

[vbkris77]

Lets do it..

[pappu]

Originally Posted by krishna

If you guys read the letter a bit carefully, it says they do not have information about the country of chargeability and they cannot share it with us. For $5K all we can get is a breakdown of how many apps are there in each category and then it will be a guessing game of how many are pending for applicants from India/China/ROW etc. Just something to keep in mind.

Can others analyze the letter too so that we can get the info we need rather than generic info.

[ajay]

This letter came to me also y'day dated 2/24/09.
If everybody agrees on pledging some money towards it, I also can contribute to it.