Assistant Secretary Harty's Office

[Bob & Minglian]

Late yesterday I sent an e-mail to Assistant Secretary Harty. I also faxed a letter to her early today. Below is the e-mail I received in response to my e-mail. I have "X'd" out our last names to maintain our privacy. As you will note in reading the response it is merely a personalized form letter with no useful information. We still wait for NVC (since March 18), not knowing when or even if ...

 

"Dear Mr. Xxxxxx:

 

Assistant Secretary Maura Harty has asked us to respond to your e-mail of September 3 requesting information about the K3 visa petition you filed for Minglian Xx.

 

The National Visa Center (NVC) recently assumed responsibility for initiating the required interagency clearance process for these cases. Such clearances will now be obtained before the petitions are sent abroad to the issuing post. This change in procedure is one of the innovations we have introduced to expedite visa processing.

 

Since the clearances are done by other agencies, we are not able to estimate when any individual clearance will be completed.

 

I hope this information is helpful.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kathryn Cabral

Chief

Public Inquiries Division

Visa Services"

[Bob & Minglian]

... Daily email is overkill, but weekly is fine. Start building a trail and keep your name in front of them.

Would you suggest I send the same e-mail, without change in wording, once each week? Maybe skip the faxed letter or do that as well?

[Bob & Minglian]

Thanks. Once again, sound advice. Tomorrow, I mail a letter. I'm not so sure for me it would be a good idea to number the letters, though, since I did receive a response. Not at all helpful but, nonetheless, a response. Thoughts?

[gail_loves]

Here's another suggestion for what it is worth. Write the Committee on Government Reform. They do not have direct control over Department of State but they can get answers or find out what the problems are. We know that the problems are within Department of State and the Embassies -- not with the FBI, who they directly oversee. But the FBI is getting the slack from Department of State and the Embassies. My presumption is based on common sense -- if the FBI is getting a bum rap then so is this committee who oversees the FBI. Maybe if enough of us write explaining what the problems are that we know of, how inconsiderate the Department of State is, how imcompetent they are, and how they just give these standard answers, which end up costing taxpayers money -- e.g. more phone calls, more emails, more letters, = more employee time wasted versus if they took 10 minutes to help us out then we would not be calling, writing letters, faxing, and emailing. Additionally, it is in the best interest of the Committee to show the errors on someone else's committee not theirs.

 

Committee on Government Reform

2154 Rayburn House Office Building

(202) 225-5074

(202) 225-3974 Fax

Chairman Tom Davis

 

Another idea I had a while back and didn't have time to follow-up on it is for everyone to get the names of everyone they speak with. When they tell us these standard answers or things we know for a fact are incorrect, fax a letter to the Human Resources Division of Department of State. I did find out that their salary increases are dependent to some degree on customer service as well as work performance. Now the key to this is saving those standard emails. For example, I have 3 emails from Kathry Cabral, responding on behalf of Harty that states the namecheck was pending with Washington agencies. But then I have one treasured letter from Namecheck Division stating it was never requested. The treasured letter is one where someone took time to look up the case. We all have the proof to get this process turned around -- we have the letters, emails, and faxes. We just need to get all this to the right people. I am a firm believer in our government should work for us and not against us -- that is the foundation this country was built on and passing the buck just doesn't cut it with me.

[notsosimple]

I agree with gail_loves. That it would be a good way to prove to them exactly how they have made mistakes. I'm pretty sure they would at least need to write a report on it, if it has not been done already.

 

I also received emails and letters with the reply of still pending, yet later searching by the records division revealed that the clearance was never started.

 

Leisha

[Bob & Minglian]

Gail_loves points are certainly well-taken. My concern is that if take an aggressive approach and become confrontational it may not serve me well. Other people, perhaps, just not me. As much as I'd love to be the martyr and relentlessly confront these issues head on I also don't want to jeopardize in any way the chance for my wife and I to be together soon. I piss off a few of these people a little too much or a little too often and I may find my file is simply "lost" or delayed even more. I think the best approach for me is to call every week, write a letter every week, and do my level best to be professional all the while requesting urgent consideration for my case. Not to mean that I am not frustrated with this whole process because I am as much as anyone in this visa discussion forum. Believe me!

[skrunks]

"My concern is that if take an aggressive approach and become confrontational it may not serve me well. Other people, perhaps, just not me. As much as I'd love to be the martyr and relentlessly confront these issues head on I also don't want to jeopardize in any way the chance for my wife and I to be together soon. I piss off a few of these people a little too much or a little too often and I may find my file is simply "lost" or delayed even more."

 

Agree 100%. At one point, I received EXACTLY the same response from Kathryn Cabral. HOWEVER, the subsequent letter I wrote to Ms Harty did not tell anyone they sucked canal water or that the system was broken, but rather that I believed in our system, those who led the system and 'could you please help?'...etc etc. I sprinkled in a few kindnesses and they flowered. In fact, Ms Harty asked her executive assistant to look into it for me, rather than being delegated down the food chain. As a result, i had an answer in two days, the name check was done and forwarded to GZ the third day. Honey vs vinegar, y'know? Be patiently persistent!