Green card woes - what to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is simple, stop booking ticket until he has a green card. This mess is of your own making. Processing times are insane everywhere. But booking a ticket it equally insane.

+1 100%

Right? How is this so hard to understand. She wants to go on a vacation and keep booking tickets, and a vacation is so worth it to abandon the green card process which is not just about the green card, but about giving her child the option to work in two countries?
My family is in Europe, in a country that needs a visa for the U.S. Guess how many plane tickets they booked before they had the U.S. visa? None. Go on your own, op, and stop being stupid.

newsflash - there isn't a single country that doesn't need a visa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is simple, stop booking ticket until he has a green card. This mess is of your own making. Processing times are insane everywhere. But booking a ticket it equally insane.

+1 100%

Right? How is this so hard to understand. She wants to go on a vacation and keep booking tickets, and a vacation is so worth it to abandon the green card process which is not I-just about the green card, but about giving her child the option to work in two countries?
My family is in Europe, in a country that needs a visa for the U.S. Guess how many plane tickets they booked before they had the U.S. visa? None. Go on your own, op, and stop being stupid.

newsflash - there isn't a single country that doesn't need a visa

Actually, there are through the Visa Waiver program:https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-visit/visa-waiver-program.html

OP - Do not abandon that I-485 application, keep waiting, I know it's hard, the backlogs are bad and growing, field offices and the service centers aren't back to full in-office interviews or staffing yet due to COVID safety protocols, morale is in the toilet because of what Trump/Miller did to the agency, we had tons of young staff quit and we are backfilling when we can. You can try an expedite request on the Advanced Parole/EAD, but everyone else is doing the same thing - if everything is an emergency than nothing is, KWIM? Current staff is trained/allocated/reallocated based on processing needs, it's like turning around the Titanic every 2 months. We are throwing everything we can at using up all immigrant visas + leftovers from the last two years. Congress gave us the authorization to allow Premium Processing for I-131/I-765 but the rule to do so is slow moving with no ETA yet.

~long time US Immigration Officer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right? How is this so hard to understand. She wants to go on a vacation and keep booking tickets, and a vacation is so worth it to abandon the green card process which is not just about the green card, but about giving her child the option to work in two countries?
My family is in Europe, in a country that needs a visa for the U.S. Guess how many plane tickets they booked before they had the U.S. visa? None. Go on your own, op, and stop being stupid.

It's completely reasonable to expect to receive the permit to travel faster than 14-16 months!

I applied for green card in late April 2020 and received the travel permit and the employment permit in beginning of September the same year.

[Anonymous]

USCIS was gutted by the Trump admin and due to COVID almost had to furlough 70% of its staff due to a fiscal crisis. Managed to get back on its feet without ever fully closing its doors, but have had a staffing crisis ever since because they couldn't hire at all with funds so tight and many employees started looking elsewhere for jobs because they were afraid of getting furloughed.

They are trying to get form processing back on track but it will take years.

OP the pandemic has made life quite inconvenient. You are in a situation where you will likely get a green card for your son in the next 12 months. Do you know how many people in the world would like to be in that situation? The idea that you would abandon the process after getting so far for a vacation seems pretty insane to me. Its going to take awhile, that is just the reality of the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This seems relatively new
https://helpingdesi.com/uscis-customer-service-talk-to-a-person/

Now, trackitt is another useful forum. You may get more help there than here.

Don’t hesitate to state it’s an emergency. “Yeah we don’t have the doctors note yet but I hear things are pretty bad”.

Also, not every level 2 officer is the same in terms of both compassion and competence. Took me several tries to get to someone who was actually knowledgeable, took the time to listen to me and to tell me what was doing on! He made a note on my file and when my GC didn’t get approved by the time he mentioned, I had no problem filing a “complaint” and it finally got things moving.

Again, good luck! (I am the one who suggested redbus)

Thank you so much! This looks really useful.

[Anonymous]

My wife applied for her green card in late 2020 and everything was approved, processed, and finalized in a little less than 12 months. Our lawyer applied for a travel permit at the same time in case we needed to go anywhere international and I think that was approved 6 months into the process. The green card was through marriage so I’m not sure sure if the timeline is quicker.

[Anonymous]

Call your congressperson again. And again. Don't just sit back and wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is simple, stop booking ticket until he has a green card. This mess is of your own making. Processing times are insane everywhere. But booking a ticket it equally insane.

+1 100%

Right? How is this so hard to understand. She wants to go on a vacation and keep booking tickets, and a vacation is so worth it to abandon the green card process which is not I-just about the green card, but about giving her child the option to work in two countries?
My family is in Europe, in a country that needs a visa for the U.S. Guess how many plane tickets they booked before they had the U.S. visa? None. Go on your own, op, and stop being stupid.

newsflash - there isn't a single country that doesn't need a visa

Actually, there are through the Visa Waiver program:https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-visit/visa-waiver-program.html

OP - Do not abandon that I-485 application, keep waiting, I know it's hard, the backlogs are bad and growing, field offices and the service centers aren't back to full in-office interviews or staffing yet due to COVID safety protocols, morale is in the toilet because of what Trump/Miller did to the agency, we had tons of young staff quit and we are backfilling when we can. You can try an expedite request on the Advanced Parole/EAD, but everyone else is doing the same thing - if everything is an emergency than nothing is, KWIM? Current staff is trained/allocated/reallocated based on processing needs, it's like turning around the Titanic every 2 months. We are throwing everything we can at using up all immigrant visas + leftovers from the last two years. Congress gave us the authorization to allow Premium Processing for I-131/I-765 but the rule to do so is slow moving with no ETA yet.

~long time US Immigration Officer

OP here. I can't imagine what it is like working in that sort of environment and it must be discouraging that the backlog is still growing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to wait, like everyone else. I cannot believe the preciousness of your whiny post.

We got our green cards processed in Jan 2012 and had booked travel to the UK for the summer. But there was a blip on the form for my DD (the doctor checking the form had failed to mark an X by one of her current vaccinations) and her card was delayed while we had this corrected. So we canceled the whole trip - her card arriving just a day after we would have flown out.

This kind of thing happens all the time, even without a pandemic, but you have to understand that there are people desperate to be reunited with family members who are waiting under far more extreme circumstances. You are waiting for a trip back to the UK. Big flipping deal.

Just wait like everyone else. A lawyer cannot speed up a pile of forms, you're an idiot.

Your compassion is overwhelming.

NP here. OP doesn't need any compassion. SHe wants to go to the UK on vacation to see her family, which is fine. BUt she's on here whining about the length of time it's taking to process a form that thousands of others are waiting for--and she doesn't have an urgent need. Her parents might be old, but they are healthy (according to her). THat's just the way it goes. Wait like the rest of us without b#tching about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you just need to be patient and wait. Yes, it absolutely sucks. But so does getting Covid and it's possible the office processing these permits or green cards has had a third to half of the staff out with Covid, in ADDITION to people quitting for all kinds of various reasons. Respect the backlog. Your desire for a vacation is not more important than other people's lives.

Uh, no. USCIS red tape just sucks.

OP - the true and honest answer here is that the US immigration system is not set up for people to navigate it successfully. Unfortunately you are experiencing that in spades.

I'd search out other forums for this discussion - maybe reddit or elsewhere. Maybe speak with another attorney.

But you should be prepared to make the choice that is currently before you - abandon the green card (and the money already spent) or abandon the trip. USCIS has about $700 off of me as we were waiting on a renewal for a nanny. There's literally nothing you can do.

Thanks. You've summed our choice up well. I have booked our flights for mid-July. At that stage, it will be 15 months from applying. I am quite prepared for the processing of the green card to possibly take years but, if the travel permit hasn't been issued then we will just cancel the application. I would be sad for my son but I'm personally ambivalent about it - I do worry for the future of this country and might be relieved if he had no choice but to eventually leave. However, that reflects my own thinking and I realise it should be his decision, not mine. Ultimately, I think it is important that my children see their grandparents. Perhaps this is coloured by the fact that my father died one week after being diagnosed with leukaemia and I was not able to see him before he died (and it had been three years since my last visit). DS has three other citizenships, all excellent options even if he is not as connected to them and they have not been his home. Certainly there are many people in very difficult or desperate circumstances who are suffering more with the backlogs.

[Anonymous]

Just so we are all clear, the OP and/or her spouse are likely well-paid employees of a prestigious international organization. They are applying for a green card for their child so their child can "double dip" and enjoy citizenship privileges and work authorization both in the United States and in a wealthy European country. And now OP is lamenting that her child's travel permit and green card are taking too long. I mean...come on OP. You are choosing to take advantage of a great opportunity to make your privileged child's life even more privileged. Not to mention, you chose a career that takes you far from family. USCIS right now is desperately trying to meet the needs of people who need travel permits for ACTUAL emergencies; humanitarian parole for people in urgent humanitarian circumstances, work permit for people who desperately need to work to support their families. I honestly cannot believe you bothered Raskin's office with this BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife applied for her green card in late 2020 and everything was approved, processed, and finalized in a little less than 12 months. Our lawyer applied for a travel permit at the same time in case we needed to go anywhere international and I think that was approved 6 months into the process. The green card was through marriage so I’m not sure sure if the timeline is quicker.

Not sure it’s any quicker. We applied for my husband’s and it was over 16 months. So long that all his documents expired and he needed to go to USCIS in person somewhere just to get a stamp in his passport. I think it’s all sort of a gamble given how messed up things are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just so we are all clear, the OP and/or her spouse are likely well-paid employees of a prestigious international organization. They are applying for a green card for their child so their child can "double dip" and enjoy citizenship privileges and work authorization both in the United States and in a wealthy European country. And now OP is lamenting that her child's travel permit and green card are taking too long. I mean...come on OP. You are choosing to take advantage of a great opportunity to make your privileged child's life even more privileged. Not to mention, you chose a career that takes you far from family. USCIS right now is desperately trying to meet the needs of people who need travel permits for ACTUAL emergencies; humanitarian parole for people in urgent humanitarian circumstances, work permit for people who desperately need to work to support their families. I honestly cannot believe you bothered Raskin's office with this BS.

Sorry if you think I am came here to complain. I actually posted to seek advice from anybody about expediting the travel permit. Many posters made useful suggestions, shared their experiences or expressed their compassion. A few like you made assumptions about our situation. I gave up a career to accompany DH here and struggled to find work as chronic health problems have made things difficult. In fact, a recent work opportunity was withdrawn as it turns out that USCIS would take about 7 months to renew my work permit given the backlogs. However, I am not complaining about these things. We all bear the consequences of our decisions, foreseen and unforeseen, and many people have suffered during the pandemic much more than we have. I'm also not complaining the green card will take a long time to process - there's a long list of people who have a much greater need and clearly USCIS is struggling. You also imply it's wrong to apply for a green card for my child and we are just trying to increase his economic advantage. Are you aware that many Americans have more than one citizenship? The reality is he's effectively growing up as an American but isn't an American. I am just trying to give him that option.

The travel permit is a pointless bureaucratic hurdle which seems to serve no purpose (for those 'you hate us, go back to your own country' posters, it is possible to criticise a bureaucratic process without criticising a whole country). I am just trying to work out how to navigate that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you just need to be patient and wait. Yes, it absolutely sucks. But so does getting Covid and it's possible the office processing these permits or green cards has had a third to half of the staff out with Covid, in ADDITION to people quitting for all kinds of various reasons. Respect the backlog. Your desire for a vacation is not more important than other people's lives.

Uh, no. USCIS red tape just sucks.

OP - the true and honest answer here is that the US immigration system is not set up for people to navigate it successfully. Unfortunately you are experiencing that in spades.

I'd search out other forums for this discussion - maybe reddit or elsewhere. Maybe speak with another attorney.

But you should be prepared to make the choice that is currently before you - abandon the green card (and the money already spent) or abandon the trip. USCIS has about $700 off of me as we were waiting on a renewal for a nanny. There's literally nothing you can do.

Thanks. You've summed our choice up well. I have booked our flights for mid-July. At that stage, it will be 15 months from applying. I am quite prepared for the processing of the green card to possibly take years but, if the travel permit hasn't been issued then we will just cancel the application. I would be sad for my son but I'm personally ambivalent about it - I do worry for the future of this country and might be relieved if he had no choice but to eventually leave. However, that reflects my own thinking and I realise it should be his decision, not mine. Ultimately, I think it is important that my children see their grandparents. Perhaps this is coloured by the fact that my father died one week after being diagnosed with leukaemia and I was not able to see him before he died (and it had been three years since my last visit). DS has three other citizenships, all excellent options even if he is not as connected to them and they have not been his home. Certainly there are many people in very difficult or desperate circumstances who are suffering more with the backlogs.

You cannot be a citizen of the US with three other citizenships, FYI. Only 3 total.

[Anonymous]

Does CIS have an ombudsman's office? Might CIS have a hardship exception that could expedite review of a travel permit request? Not that I know but if these things exist... might be worth exploring.