Group Letter- Second Draft

[Trigg]

Time is slipping away--let's do it!!!!!!! Set a time and day---soon would be good. then let's rock!!!!

[pingme]

Hank, your revisions look good to me. i think using the same terminology as she has used will help her understand better.

 

as for the phrase:

 

> Please consider the petitions of US citizens for their loved ones to be at least of equal priority as student and business petitions from Chinese Citizens.

 

you are right, a better way to phrase it would be:

 

> Please consider the visa petitions of US citizens for their loved ones to be at least of equal priority as visa requests from Chinese student and business people.

[hypoclear]

As a bit of an old timer here I am sorry to say I haven't been follow this area as much lately. I just finished reading "Dreams dashed...." and am now here to say.. "Where do I sign up!?"

 

To see the support, caring and sharing that Mike and his SO recieved from the members in GZ is wonderful. But to see a celebration with them would be excellent!

 

I feel this manner of dealing with people has got to stop and while there may be no law that says GZ must explain it's actions I would believe there are some laws as pingme points out, that can be used to hold their feet to the fire.

 

Isn't it a basic principle that the government is NOT allowed to run rough shud over it's citizens? Isn't also a basic principle that it be an open government?

 

Perhaps some of us old timers who are with our wives can now safely cause some flack and heartache for these same agencies?

 

If I remember correctly King posted that there is a new person in town at GZ and "he's a gonna make his mark!" I say let us collectively left up.. our legs and make ours..

 

Mark and Bea and Elizabeth

[boba]

I hope you all do not mind but I have written another letter to submitt for your consideration. I have tried to included every one's concerns into a short letter. I know it is by no means perfect and I also hope I am not offending anyone. Having said that here it is:

 

Maura Harty

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Consular Affairs

 

I am a member of “A Candle for Love” (CFL) who is presenting this letter to express my concerns and hardships affecting the common quests to obtain visas for CFL loved ones. The CFL community has grown because of mutual experiences with the United States Consulate in Guangzhou China. CFL members have shared many situations ranging from positive to very negative with respect to applications for various family visas. I implore you to read through my concerns and hope that you can work with CFL to resolve these hardships.

 

The foremost concern shared is the extremely long wait between packet 3 notifications through packet 4 and the ever elusive interview. Concerns range from optimistically hopeful to completely frustrated. These concerns are based on comparisons to other large populated countries that have more than one consulate to process family visas or to the Philippines consulate that handles more cases in a shorter time frame. These comparisons where derived from published information by our own government.

 

Second there is a great concern as to why recipients would receive a white slip and be told to pick up their visa the next day only to be devastated when they find that their white slip has tragically turned into a blue slip followed by a confusing lack of information as to why this has happened.

 

Next we share dismay that there can be such extreme variations between the methods validating officers employ during the interviews that our loved ones have waited so long for. There have been varying reports of professional officers who acted in a respectful manner to extremely unprofessional officers who acted with little or no respect. In addition it seems that some beneficiaries have not been provided with a competent Chinese speaking interpreter.

 

We can provide numerous personal experiences of all the above concerns and several other concerns, not mentioned at this time, upon request.

 

We feel that we are within our rights as American citizens to express our concerns and to request that we be treated equally to all other Americans seeking family visas.

 

In conclusion as a member of CFL I hope that there can be a meeting of minds on this matter. I understand that our government also has concerns with handling family visas in a timely manner with out sacrificing national security. I feel that it is possible to resolve our concerns in a manner agreeable to all and I implore you to please examine these issues and to consider working with CFL to resolve our concerns and lighten our hardship.

 

Respectfully,

 

A member of Candle for Love

[Trigg]

Secretary Maura Harty:

 

their while slip has magically

I like it. You may need to work on the salutation. I'm not sure what her official title is.

 

Typo "while slip=white slip.

 

Ending-post signature

 

"If there is anything we/I can do in assisting your office or should you have any questions concerning this matter, please feel free to contact me/us at your convenience at (phone number, Address etc.....

 

 

Let's do this thing!!!!!!!!!!

[BuffaloPaul]

looks great!

[rogerluli]

Very good...concise, well reasoned, well presented. I would eliminate the word "magically"...sounds a bit corny...how about "tragically". Let's get this out for people to start sending off.

[pingme]

i like boba's latest revision and the suggestions aftewards.

 

i think we are close.

 

warm up those printers, and lick them stamps!

[Trigg]

Well Don, I assumed this was a group letter. "We the members" does conote that CFL is 100% behind the letter. How about "We, the undersigned, are members of CFL, a group that ...."

 

There is no lie in this statement and it in no way infers that all the members ,and owner, of CFL are expressing these views.

[tywy_99]

 

Secretary Maura Harty:

 

their while slip has magically

I like it. You may need to work on the salutation. I'm not sure what her official title is.

 

Typo "while slip=white slip.

 

Ending-post signature

 

"If there is anything we/I can do in assisting your office or should you have any questions concerning this matter, please feel free to contact me/us at your convenience at (phone number, Address etc.....

 

 

Let's do this thing!!!!!!!!!!

Maura Harty

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Consular Affairs

 

I had posted her bio in mari's post from the other day.

[hank]

I agree that Boba's letter is the one.

 

And it is written in a group letter format, so let's go with the group letter. If we want the power of numbers, we can mail the same letter to different decision makers in the DOS.

 

And Tywy_99 is right, that Mrs. Harty should be addressed as:

 

Maura Harty

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Consular Affairs

 

 

So who wants to carry the torch? I would suggest a volunteer who has already received his/her visa.

 

 

 

Let's get moving for our CFL brothers and sisters who really need this.

[hank]

Oh why not, I'll send the group letter. Is everyone okay with that?

 

And we will use Boba's version of the letter.

[boba]

I have done some editing to my letter to hopefuly take into consideration every one's comments and veiws. I apologize for presenting my self as spokes person for CFL.

[Luo_Bin_&_Jialu]

My preference is not with Boba's revision. It seems to be a step backwards toward the one we revised from Hank at the beginning of this thread.

 

You will all find me willing to sign the one that Pingme did the final revisions on--which was a composite of three other letters with a few revisions of each.

 

I think it is page three of this thread...

[Robert S.]

The way we sent it before was that I printed the letter and signed it and then included each of our 88 or so co-signer's name and email address on the following pages with a statement that they were all in agreement with the letter.

 

The letter is looking good but it needs to lose all the talk of "please" or any other form of begging. It needs to lose nearly all the emotional adjectives. And it needs to be re-written so that all members of CFL can sign on, not just ones with cases pending.

 

And we need a great many more people interested in it. Come on, everyone join in, guests included. There is power in numbers.

 

It would be the best if the administrators would get behind the letter and send out an email request to each of the 200 most active members asking them to come and look at the letter and see if they would sign on.

 

Yes, CFL should evolve into a lobbying group.