Immigration & Green Card Law Firm, Lawyers, Attorneys: San Franscisco Bay Area to San Jose: VISA BULLETIN FIASCO II, What's Wrong With USCIS?

Thursday, July 19, 2007

VISA BULLETIN FIASCO II, What's Wrong With USCIS?

Clients have been asking me "what is going on with this 'everybody' can adjust thing?" My answer is that the USCIS is 'broken', meaning that it is a confused governmental agency, with no real funding, i.e., money, but more importantly, no direction or will to act with focus.

There is a 'history' here, a story to tell. Years ago, I'd say about 20 years back, the former INS pretty much told politicians and Congress what was needed in terms of changes that needed be made to the immigration law, and Congress went ahead and gave them what they needed (including funding); the INS proposed regulations, and, even technical corrections (when they needed to), and they were summarily adopted and implemented. Today, the attitude of the USCIS is, "We will not take the lead", "you go first"; we will not act as the experts we are, "you tell us". Therefore, no one is willing to act, or if Congress acts, as they have several times in the past, we end up with ridiculous 'political', often draconian solutions, and the INS/USCIS justs says "ok". Everyone is afraid. Congress won't, and now politically "can't" act - so things are frozen and we are stuck with a broken system that was never meant to work in a totally different environment, under a completely different economy, and labor situation. Of course, the last time we produced engineers, and even scientists, was in the 1950s. Nor can we fulfill the needs of Silicon Valley - Congress woke up for awhile, when they increased the quota for H-1bs, but that is long past.

People, including those in Congress, don't understand that even our 'preference system' was designed with far fewer people wanting to come here. The 'lines' that we have all come to see and experience, the "wait", was never meant to be. Can you imagine anyone telling a PR who marries someone overseas, or for that matter, even someone here, that they must wait 3-5 years to bring their spouse to the country to join them, or allow them to maintain a legal status here? It's absurd and never meant to be - but is a direct result of a broken system that no one is willing to fix.

But here is the point of this 'blog'; what is happening (by accident) now, under the recently 'revised' visa bulletin, that is, allowing everyone, from every country, regardless of the wait, or line, on the employment-based side, to adjust their status (if otherwise eligible), makes alot of sense - and should be continued long past August 17, 2007.

I'd like my readers to comment on this - to see if you know where I am going.

Or just email me: heller@hilglaw.com.

More tomorrow, or early next week; thank you.

Best,
Paul

1 comment:

PericoSF said...

Thanks for you blog Paul, I just started the Labor Certification for a EB2 GC and still have a long way until I get a GC, but your posts make all easier to understand.