Alex Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Dear friends: On August 20 I shared with you the fact I had sent a letter to the attention of our esteemed Secretary Of State. My diplomatic and polite letter basically addressed the frustration of those in K-1 wait, and the need for a more time efficient process in Guangzhou . Today I received a conspicuous manila envelope from D.O.S. In it was my original letter with a response attached to it. It's a bit long, but I believe posting its entire contents would be good reading for the CFL family. It says somethings D.O.S. has not uttered to me by phone. It looks like some thought is actually behind the letter. Read this and sound off. I'd like to know what you think. Dear Mr____ This is in response to your letter of August 20 addressed to Secretary of State Colin Powell, regarding xxxxx's application for a fiance visa. Guangzhou is devoting most resources to processing and printing visas for people interviewed and approved some time ago. Processing of new cases has slowed as a result, but all are handled in order of receipt during regularly scheduled overtime. While it is not always possible to provide an up-to-the-minute status report on the receipt of a particular form or piece of correspondence, this does not mean that the case is not being processed. We are aware of the long delays that some visa applicants have endured . the State Deaprtment has already had some success in streamlining the process by trying a number of approaches in our attempts to clear pending cases as quickly as possible. the Department is committed to clearing this backlog and has taken many steps, including providing additional staff to guangzhou, to help process visa cases in a timely manner. We ask for your understanding and cooperation as we simultaneously work to strengthen U.S. homeland security and process visa cases. We hope this information is helpful. Link to comment
Guest Gene Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Alex I would say that you get Double Bogie Bonus Points for the effort, and the response does sound like there was some thought put into it, but it still does not give any answers or insight into the process, why the delays, and if clearing the backlog as quickly as possible means two months or two years, especialy when the whole process seems to be slowly getting slower and slower and .............. Link to comment
Jeikun Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 The sending of more personnel to GZ sounds promising. But as for the "streamlining" I wonder if this is where the "blue slips based on gut instinct" and "One overcome attempt then send back to the US" comes from. Link to comment
Robert S. Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 I know this is going to sound like I have turned into the same kind of geezer that my grandfather was . . . but because you want to know the truth you need to understand that the Department of State, in their diplomatic way, has mollified you with the same pablum they fed us two years ago. In fact if I felt like resurrecting the letter they sent me in response to our group letter with 80 co-signers I could show you the language itself is almost a carbon copy. It is true they are trying to do a better job. They know they have problems. They are not intentionally dragging their feet. They just don't have enough resouces devoted to this kind of processing. It is very low priority. Congress will not provide adequate funding for this kind of thing. Where's the payoff? What political power do people requesting K visas for foreign ladies have? Is there any compelling national interest necessitating the importation of beautiful ladies from all over the world to America? No, it is just a nice thing that the law provides us the opportunity for, a leftover from WWII when the GIs brought home a lot of exotic ladies and those old warriors had the political power to make the govt provide a way to get their ladies legal. I sometimes believe that all K visa processing would have been frozen if it were not for Sandy Berger getting killed in Moscow when he had gone over there to try to push the embassy to process his K visa case and he got caught in the theater when the Chechens took it over and the Russian police then gassed the place. The govt could not freeze the processing permanently after that, afraid of the political fallout of letting terrorists "win" against Americans. So they keep on processing visas but still the terrorists win against us in particular because of all the accumulated man-and-woman-years wasted with all the ridiculous checks that they do on our ladies, as if they are going to be making exploding dumplings. To close this rant, I would just say do your very best to not make any mistakes in your paperwork and try to keep focused on the main thing, that they cannot delay you forever and the case will be processed at some point as long as the law provides us with this chance. In the meantime try to live one day at a time and talk on the phone to her a lot. Take comfort you will not have to wait as long as I did, 19 months. Link to comment
oregonknl Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Robert, Thanks for the perspective --- and the history about why the Candle was formed, and is alive today... When I joined in April, the Sandy Berger story was already a thing of the past, but I was fortunate enough to discover it when searching past posts... It is all too possible that another "black hole" could hit this whole process, largely because this administration has really done nothing on the home front to prevent it --- but I have several posts on that issue... Sad to say that while we do have a couple of members at 19+ months and still waiting, but that your experience post 9-11 was the norm here rather than the exception.... ....exploding dumplings... ? Link to comment
Alex Posted October 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Thanks for that reply Robert. Your experience and opinion makes a lot of sense. . I'm taking this thing one day at a time because, frankly, I got tired of being frustrated...being that way for three months got me sick to the point I had to go for a complete physical...all my symptoms from stress!! I have surrendered to the reality there is nothing I can do to speed up this process...but at the same time I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, and the recent activity of scheduled interviews and success stories from CFL members has made me feel a tad hopeful ...you might say I'm trying to see the positive side of things. Things have not slowed down lately..they've actually picked up, and that's good news to all of us in this endless line. Link to comment
ski518 Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 They are adding 28 more processing windows, (there are 12 now) and they should be up and running mid-2005, per the Thurs afternoon guy. Hopefully, this will really happen. Link to comment
hypoclear Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 ....exploding dumplings... ?Yes Kim. This speaks of the violent intestinal reaction to the food. It is a terrible affliction but hushed up for obvious political reasons. 19 months Robert S.... I think we made that mark as well. Mark and Bea Link to comment
johnxiaoying Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 It seems to me that the part "Guangzhou is devoting most resources to processing and printing visas for people interviewed and approved some time ago" infers that our K visas have been placed on the back burner. This is why they are only interviewing 2 weeks worth of P3's each month. Just trickling a few through. Link to comment
AngryTexan Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Robert S., Your post did bring back some bad memories. We waited 17 months, from 10-01 to 03-03. There were some around our time period who waited even longer. To say it really sucked would be an understatement All I can say to all who are now enduring the unconscionable wait is that it WILL end. Keep the faith. Link to comment
tonymasiello Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 My opinion is that voicing one's concern's to DC is probably the best way to go about bringing forth some change. I also agree with Robert, about the politcal power of those seeking K visas. We don't have a lot. But I think that voicing our concerns to DOS, our Senators and Congresspersons, could at least make the process more defined and transparent for those who come after us. Link to comment
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