Immigration Visas being Rubber Stamped?

[Randy W]

Probe reveals feds pressuring agents to rush immigrant visas – even if fraud is feared

 

“We recognize their right to interpret things as liberally as possible, but you still have to follow the law,” said one high-ranking official who was unhappy with the current push.

 

At least five agency veterans seen as being too tough on applicants were either demoted, or given the choice between a demotion or a relocation from Southern California — where their families were — to San Francisco and Nebraska, according to sources and letters of reassignment provided to The Daily.

 

Those kind of threats have caused lower-level employees to fall in line, sources said.

 

 

Interesting comment, and perhaps pertinent to the 90% claim made by the Beijing Embassy

 

Nevertheless, USCIS approved 86 percent of the 3.9 million immigration cases it reviewed between October 2008 and October 2009 — a 4 percent drop from the year before, according to the most recent data provided to The Daily.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Turns out that the claim made by Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs Charles Bennett was actually this

 

http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/121411amb.html

 

This year we expect about 90 percent of all the people who apply for visas will be issued a visa in China.

 

That's still pretty unbelievable based on what we see, but may be cause for optimism.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Randy W (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

USCIS and DOS are two different things, The Daily is reporting on pressure being applied by higher ups to process petitions in a timely manor, and not the visa approvals out at the consulates like Guangzhou.

 

From the stats, and posts I see the approval rate at USCIS has always been quite high, anyway perhaps in the mid 90 percentile, it is very rare to see a petition denial at the service center level. I believe the pressure has to do with the log jam at the California Service Center, hence the threat to move some of the slower agents to other centers or field offices.

 

Fore example:

http://candleforlove...9-am-i-screwed/

http://candleforlove...ow-down-at-csc/

http://www.visajourn...down-on-i-130s/

http://www.visajourn...s-in-timelines/

http://www.visajourn...sc-speeding-up/

 

 

As for the 90 + approval at the consulates, I suspect that has to do with non-immigrants, which is more in line, with the way the economy has been in the USA, there are actually illegal immigrants moving back home voluntarily because the jobs are not out there, coming to the USA as a non-immigrant visitor and staying probably is not as high of a problem as it use to be.

Edited January 4, 2012 by dnoblett (see edit history)

[Randy W]

USCIS and DOS are two different things, The Daily is reporting on pressure being applied by higher ups to process petitions in a timely manor, and not the visa approvals out at the consulates like Guangzhou.

 

From the stats, and posts I see the approval rate at USCIS has always been quite high anyway perhaps i the mid 90 percentile, is very rare to see a petition denial the the service center level. I believe the pressure has to do with the log jam at the California Service Center, hence the threat to move some of the slower agents to other centers or field offices.

 

Fore example:

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?/topic/44299-am-i-screwed/

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?/topic/43953-slow-down-at-csc/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/322919-csc-slowing-down-on-i-130s/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/331903-what-is-going-on-at-csc-with-the-variances-in-timelines/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/332752-vsc-speeding-up/

 

 

As for the 90 + approval at the consulates, I suspect that has to do with non-immigrants, which is more in line, with the way the economy has been in the USA, there are actually illegal immigrants moving back home voluntarily because the jobs are not out there, coming to the USA as a non-immigrant visitor and staying probably is not as high of a problem as it use to be.

 

 

But it talks about visa applications, which ARE at the consulates/embassies. Like you say, the approval rate for petitions has ALWAYS been high, and denials based more strictly on issues of the law rather than subjective observations (90% would seem low here). With visa applications, 90% worldwide might be a reasonable figure, especially with Beijing saying that the 90% is a goal for this year.

 

I'm guessing the article simply mixed up some different factors in USCIS vs. Dept. of State data - too much confusion there to really make sense of the article, although it does sound like a lightening up of subjective standards SOMEWHERE.

[dnoblett]

But it talks about visa applications, which ARE at the consulates/embassies. Like you say, the approval rate for petitions has ALWAYS been high, and denials based more strictly on issues of the law rather than subjective observations (90% would seem low here). With visa applications, 90% worldwide might be a reasonable figure, especially with Beijing saying that the 90% is a goal for this year.

 

I'm guessing the article simply mixed up some different factors in USCIS vs. Dept. of State data - too much confusion there to really make sense of the article, although it does sound like a lightening up of subjective standards SOMEWHERE.

Reading the whole article, it is all about Homeland Security, Immigrations and USCIS, sounds like petitions (I-130, and I-129F) nothing about applications (DS-230, DS-156, DS-160) the reporter has got the term (Application and Petition) mixed up is all. Everything in the article points at USCIS Service center processing of petitions, not visa interviews in the consulates.

 

Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants¡¯ visa applications, sometimes against the officers¡¯ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily.

 

...

 

At least five agency veterans seen as being too tough on applicants were either demoted, or given the choice between a demotion or a relocation from Southern California ¡ª where their families were ¡ª to San Francisco and Nebraska, according to sources and letters of reassignment provided to The Daily.

 

...

 

Nevertheless, USCIS approved 86 percent of the 3.9 million immigration cases it reviewed between October 2008 and October 2009 ¡ª a 4 percent drop from the year before, according to the most recent data provided to The Daily.

 

...

 

Source: Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, ¡°The Effects of USCIS Adjudication Procedures and Policies on Fraud Detection by Immigration Service Officers,¡± September 2011.

http://www.thedaily....ion-strife-1-3/

[Randy W]

Yes - you may be right - but that hardly seems like news at all, if so. We've seen slow-downs in the name of speeding things up before, but this is a pretty major slowdown for a minor issue (denials of petitions are normally matters of law rather than subjective interpretations), so I just don't know.

 

But it could be a MAJOR issue if they're talking about IGNORING matters of law.

 

I think I'm ready to toss the article, though, in any case.

[Randy W]

But then there are reports like this

I know I got 2 RFI's over our marriage certificate even when Marc Ellis thought I had sent the right stuff to begin with. So them quoting the lawyers saying they are finding crazy stuff to deny over kind of adds up in my book.

 

The article mentions that immigration attorneys are complaining about the same types of things - there could be some serious issues here. ¡°We¡¯re getting ridiculous denials and requests for evidence on things that should be approved very easily,¡±

 

and also "the immense pressure immigration service officers are under to approve visa applications quickly, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security"

[Lee VD]

As we have seen there is a lot of inconsistency in the approvals/rejections at the consulate based on which VO is reviewing it. We see many reports of fraudulent marriages getting through (fueling their over zealous rejections) and then the ridiculous rejections we see here. If they could put more attention into their review criteria to reduce the amount of subjective review, or at least make sure there are multiple levels of concurrence in that subjective review, they could reduce this inconsistency.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Lee VD (see edit history)

[tsap seui]

We've seen so much blather, bluster, and wasted oxygen from the State Department over the years, in my book this article wouldn't even make good terlet paper. Always talking about how good things are going to get, important changes made, more efficency, on and on.

 

I haven't seen anything change......if your "lucky" you get the short simple interview with the visa. If your not lucky you get the drawn out try to break your relationship wait and run through their buzz saw.

 

It's all a bunch of buzz words and hoopla about a process run amoke.

 

tsap seui

[foobaz123]

Interesting...

 

This brings to mind something I've been wondering for a while. Back in June/July the volume of approved/processed I-130s coming out of CSC cut off as with a knife. Every month before that they were processing around 80 - 90% of applications per month and then BAM, no higher than 30% each month from then until now with the trend continuing.

 

This is with VJ user reported data so it isn't the entire data set, but for the purpose of plotting a relative trend it is still useful. I'd really like to know what happened at CSC in Mid-June. They've also been reporting to callers that they've been working on '16June' now for several months.