USCIS sent me a response on our FOIA

[needhelp!]

I have received a response on my request last year to USCIS for information on number of AOS applications pending. Here it is: http://download206.mediafire.com/xwcsdggj4yjg/blrmnntd10w/FOIA_USCISResponse.pdf
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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 !

____________________________
Here is the original letter template sent to USCIS

FOIA Request for number of pending Employment based AOS/I-485 Applications

John Doe,

200 Main Street,

Chicago,IL,60001

National Records Center, FOIA/PA Office
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
P. O. Box 648010
Lee’s Summit, MO 64064-8010

Dear FOIA officer,
Several Employment based categories have been retrogressed for 4 years now and the exact number of pending AOS applications sorted by priority dates in the employment-based category is unknown. Department of state has been establishing the cut off in priority dates based on educated guesses and approximations. DOS and none of the Employment based applicants know the number of applications pending per category, per country sorted by priority dates. DOS visa office expressed similar concern in Oct 08 bulletin.

“Little if any forward movement of the cut-off dates in most Employment categories is likely until the extent of the CIS backlog of old priority dates can be determined.”

This information would be helpful in determining the priority dates accurately and in determining when a visa number will be available for a given priority date in a certain category. I request you to provide me with the number of pending employment based AOS applications, (excluding approved/denied) in the following categories sorted on a priority date basis from 2001.

EB-2 China & India: Number of employment based AOS applications pending with USCIS sorted by priority date on a yearly basis from year 2001 till now

EB-3 China, India, Mexico & Philippines & Rest of the World: Number of employment based AOS applications pending with USCIS sorted by priority date on a yearly basis from year 2001 till now

Thanks,

John Doe.

[EkAurAaya]

In my opinion this is ridiculous... it is clear how they don't want to share the information by comming up with this!

I think you should forward this to The President! show him how open his offices are about sharing information under the Freedom of Information Act - i dont see how is this different then pay-per view on cable!

EDIT: F$%&ng ridiculous 5000$ to write a sql query... excuse my language

[anilsal]

Overall - $5000.

Advance - $2500 within 30 days to start the work.

Is the overall work something like 100K that they have divided by the number of requests to yield 5K per request? Unlikely. I think they just sent standard 5K demand to each FOIA request to shut it down.

[tdasara]

Beyond logic! Above law!

[breddy2000]

Originally Posted by anilsal

Overall - $5000.

Advance - $2500 within 30 days to start the work.

Is the overall work something like 100K that they have divided by the number of requests to yield 5K per request? Unlikely. I think they just sent standard 5K demand to each FOIA request to shut it down.

Even if they pay me $2500 for pulling out this info. Just 5 mins job to run the query and imagine if they get 10 requests per day. Man I wud be a millionaire within no time.

Atleast they acknowledged that it requires highly skilled individual(from their perspective) to do the job.

[sparky_jones]

Someone once said...."Freedom comes at a cost.". After reading this, I am thinking...."Freedom of Information comes at a cost too....$5k to be precise"!

[nc14]

I was amused and angry at the same time. I am just wondering if we can somehow pool money and one of us can get them started by sending a $2500 check and see where it goes.

Assuming thay the information they will share is what all of us are seeking, it is not going to be a bad deal if we can find 500 people willing to chip in for this initiative (optimist me ).

[eb3_2004]

Guys,,
This is a good chance..If we get 50 people with 100$ each...we can see where it goes....I pledge 100$ if we can get 50 people..

[anilsal]

Originally Posted by nc14

Assuming thay the information they will share is what all of us are seeking, it is not going to be a bad deal if we can find 500 people willing to chip in for this initiative (I am an optimist guys).

If they are going to give out the information, then it should be ok to pay $5k.

Questions are:
a) How soon will the work be finished?
b) Can they please integrate this request into their processes that they generate the numbers periodically, such that visa bulletins reflect demand appropriately?

[prasadn]

Originally Posted by eb3_2004

Guys,,
This is a good chance..If we get 50 people with 100$ each...we can see where it goes....I pledge 100$ if we can get 50 people..

Probably we should aim to get 200 people to contribute $25 each....if we get 100 people in the next two weeks, we can at least get USCIS started on this. I am ready to contribute $25.

Thanks,
Prasad

[pa_arora]

Originally Posted by anilsal

If they are going to give out the information, then it should be ok to pay $5k.

Questions are:
a) How soon will the work be finished?
b) Can they please integrate this request into their processes that they generate the numbers periodically, such that visa bulletins reflect demand appropriately?

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.

[pa_arora]

on another thought...even if we pay them and get the work done...how do we know they give us the right figures. remember we are dealing with USCIS here. ;-)

[vikki76]

Let's see if giving them 5K brings more transparency..seems like a good idea about pooling in money

[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.

[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.