Got security name check Cleared!!

[Guest worthington]

Dear Honorable Congressman Herger,

My fiancee - Dr. Olga V. of Russia (Case No. MOS 20023 XX XXX) - has been waiting for the past 7 months for an addition security checks to receive her K1 visa. I was promised that these security checks would require no more than 3 months.

I would like to ask for help getting some information so I can better understand why the delays are occurring.

1. What is the name (or ID) of the law that requires additional security checks for citizens of Russia?
2. Is there one check or many checks?
3. What Department (or Departments and sub departments) perform these security checks?
4. What database(s) are searched during the name check process?
5. Who is the person or persons who have a ministerial duty to perform these security checks?
6. Who receives the reports about the security clearances?

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

I have the names of State Department Employees that may know the answer. Unfortunately, I do not have their phone numbers:

Maura Harty, Fax: 202-647-0341

Attached is the letter I am preparing for a court order to order these people to do their job.

Sincerely,



Sean H. Worthington


Here is my Writ of Mandamus:

ORDER TO COMPLY OR BE SUED


This letter respectfully shows:
1. We are America citizens who are men and are either married or engaged with woman who were born in what is now the Russian Federation. Our quality of lives, the lives of our children and future children have been greatly injured because of a few government employees who are failing to perform their duty.

2. John Doe is the Clerk of Security checks_ of the United States Department of *Something* and *Jane_Doe is ***Deputy Clerk of Security Checks** of the United States Department of *Something*.

3. Clerk *John Doe* has the ministerial duty of checking the backgrounds of immigrants from Russia. She must perform the background check and report any finding to the *DOS. If she is sick, on leave or vacation, or in any other way incapacitated, It is *Jane Does ministerial duty to perform these security checks and report to the *DOS.

4. We American Citizens married and engaged to Russian women demanded *Jane Doe and *John Doe perform these acts on *Date Demanded, by August 8, 2002; but notwithistanding the said demand, *Jane Doe and *John Doe* failed and continue to fail to perform these acts as required. They have not performed the required security checks and have not reported to the *DOS. Instead they seem to have done nothing.

5. There is a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy to this problem. *Jane Doe must perform a search in the *Security database for the names of our wives and fiances and report the findings to DOS.

Wherefore, we pray that you, the *Federal Court, will Mandate *Jane Doe and *John Doe comply by April 25th, 2003, or show cause in public why they should not do so.

Security checking from INS service centers
IBIS and NIIS
In May of 2002, the INS ordered name checks through the Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS). This is a huge database that contains criminal information and immigration histories supplied by the INS, the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service and other federal agencies. Additionally, the INS requires all cases be run through the Nonimmigrant Information System (NIIS) and that the file must reflect evidence that these checks have occurred. All petitioners are now checked through these databases.
Petition processing has slowed down significantly while the adjudiction officers in the service centers were waiting for access and training on IBIS. The processing continues to be slow while they await guidance from INS Headquarters on how to resolve cases in which a "hit" appears in IBIS. In the interim, thousands of applications are continuing to be received, and backlogs are growing.
Imagin your name comes up on the "hit" list, yet you are completely innocent because the "hit" was on someone who had the same name. Your case then goes to investigation and that takes precious time with limited people and resources to do the investigation. Now suppose your name is John Anderson..... We at Apex have anticipated this and know how to prevent such delays from getting out of hand.
In order to avoid further delays and to try to bring processing up to date, INS Headquarters is implementing software improvements. These enhancements should be available in October 2002 but will undergo testing before they can be fully implemented. Consider that each service center has their own particular problems with equipment, training and special processing. The Nebraska center, for example, has additional workload tasks such as I-765 processing that others don't. Such things will continue to cause delay time differences between them and other service centers until they get that particular problem worked out.
As new INS employees are brought in and trained, and new computers are installed for more workstations, the IBIS checking and case processing should become more integrated and should improve steadily.
Congress is fully aware of these problems. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., said the backlog and computer problem is very widespread. He said, "This is another example of the dysfunctionality of the INS." "These (applicants) are legal aliens in this country who deserve to have a prompt ... response."
Sensenbrenner, whose bill to abolish the INS and replace it with two Justice Department bureaus overwhelmingly passed the House. Now if we can just get Democrat Senator Thomas Daschle to stop playing politics by holding up this bill, we can get on with fixing the system.

[JoeLiyan]

VERY interesting!!! Nothing surprises me in this response - what was always (at least) my thought was going on is just now confirmed with these statements.

 

Irks me that politics and government workers not doing their jobs (NO, can't be! ) along with political wrangling has caused us such emotional turmoil throughout this process. B)

 

I'll give you another tidbit gentleman/ladies: while waiting in GUZ for Liyan to drop off her passport, I spoke to a very knowledgable American who once worked for an American ISP. His knowledge of call centers to respond to customer service needs and how those phone systems functioned led him to deduce what was going on with GUZ phone lines - and to this day (though much is resolved) continues to happen.

 

John Doe calls in and gets into the queue. How many are in that queue? Hmm, good question. From his knowledge of systems (government system may differ from mainstream massive telco systems) X number remain in the system for a pre-determined X number of minutes.

 

This X can be "DUMPED" AND RE-QUEUED" so to speak by Jane Doe chinese phone taker in GUZ at any time. They're sick of the amount of calls coming in, eh, let's DUMP THE QUEUE - viola! That's the click and "if you'd like to make a call..." you get after being on hold for 30 minutes plus!

 

There's also a "switch" that automatically dumps, but (again) is pre-determined (all this stuff is high tech - pre-programmed for mass flow of callers) if the queue gets too full. If you happen to be on the back end of that queue, you're dumped. You now call back, get on the front end, and chances are good you'll get in this time.

 

My American friend who now has his Visa and is back in the states spoke to Adams about this switch failing and he had promised to look into it's functionality. Assume ( ) he did and that's why things got better during that two hour call span.

 

This is not MY opinion but this guys...I felt pretty confident he knew his stuff...I'm just reporting it as he described it. The fact that GUZ operators can just dump at will irks the hell out of me though. Too emotionally tied to OUR emotions, if you ask me...and our desire for answers from these people.

[Eric&Yuhui]

snip/// Now suppose your name is John Anderson..... We at Apex have anticipated this and know how to prevent such delays from getting out of hand.///snip

This is rather a bold claim.

I'd be interested to know how..

[Robert S.]

This idea of a legal approach would have gotten a powerful reception back last year when the delay was still new. At one point the Russia guys on G7 were planning to get together $50,000 as a basic starting price to an attorney who was experienced at handling the kind of huge federal lawsuit being envisioned. This idea of a writ of mandamus would have been a thunderbolt in that discussion!!!

 

Over a period of a couple days it was decided to go ahead with the lawsuit and try to collect the money. At the same time discussions were held with a New York publicist to see what could be done about getting some media attention. Finally what happened was that they put together $2000 and bought a banner advertisement on the drudge dot-com site which publicized their web site freethefiancees dot-com which had a radical message back then that WE are not the terrorists. The incredible activism of those Russia guys resulted in articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major media outlets, which finally culminated with the report on CNN most of us remember. They never did have to go through with the lawsuit because the logjam got broken.

 

On freethefiancees dot-com right now there is a message asking why the law as it is written is not being followed. It is still taking far too long for visa processing.

 

Check out the original visa delay website