Got a dream to take them there

March 24, 2008 12:07 PM

Emilio Gonzalez, Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, will be resigning next month. To mark the occasion, the New York Times prints an editorial exposing the magnitude of the case backlog that USCIS currently faces, and their decided lack of speed in handling said backlog. Gonzalez doesn't like the editorial, so he blogs about it. And that's when the comments start rolling in.
posted by Faint of Butt (37 comments total)

Faint of Butt stole this from me. :)

The comments do give a fascinating glimpse into the universe that waiting immigrants live in. Quite an interesting read.
posted by Jenesta at 12:14 PM on March 24, 2008

Just another example of the federal government falling apart under Bush. One of many.
posted by delmoi at 12:16 PM on March 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Godwin. Thread over.
posted by brownpau at 12:25 PM on March 24, 2008

And only 35 comments in.
posted by IndpMed at 12:32 PM on March 24, 2008

brownpau writes "Godwin. Thread over."

pedant/

Godwin's Law: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

Godwin's Law makes no mention of the appropriateness of the comparison, or whether the thread should end.

/pedant
posted by krinklyfig at 12:33 PM on March 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

I especially like this one:


Hello !!! I file in 2001, my brother is my sponsor for the green card and i steel waiting!!!!I have special needs son, and i cant leave the country if i have to go in France( i am French)for any emergency health, Its crazy to wait that long.My case is the 4th priority!!! GREAT !! And i already spend $7500.OO with my immigration Lawer!! What i suppost to do ??? NOTHING !! Just wait!

After all Director Gonzalez may not know that emergency healthcare necessitates a trip to France.

But seriously, what a total mess this all is.
posted by goneill at 12:37 PM on March 24, 2008

Just another example of the federal government falling apart under Bush. One of many.

It's interesting that you mention this, because this is the second example in recent memory when I can think of a high-ranking government employee responding publicly to criticism with blogs that "fight back".

Either someone is approving this somewhere, as a means for dealing with critics, or there are a lot of high-ranking civil servants unhappy with the boss.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:40 PM on March 24, 2008

A lot of these are complaining about the I-130.

Here's a backgrounder article from the Boston Globe for people who aren't necessarily up to speed on all this.
posted by vacapinta at 12:41 PM on March 24, 2008

Are you in any way surprised by this? The US govt can't even handle passport request by US citizens in a timely fashion because they failed to anticipate the number of requests when they required passports for travel to Canada and the Bahamas...
posted by Gungho at 12:42 PM on March 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

After all Director Gonzalez may not know that emergency healthcare necessitates a trip to France.

It certainly does if you actually want to be able to afford it.
posted by delmoi at 12:45 PM on March 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Looks like someone fired a Stalinizer at the blog, 'cause there's one comment there right now and it's glowing with praise.

Yes, nothing like a good Stalinization of public documentation in this great country of ours.

I'm gonna go get drunk.
posted by mephron at 12:46 PM on March 24, 2008

This post reminded me of the recently covered Lawrence Lessig effort Change Congress. Though it's generally bad business, management in the private sector has every right to close itself off from public feedback. The public sector works for us, in our name, and these sorts of interactions should be frequent and exposed.

No government that is serving the needs of its citizens should ever need a public relations* office. It makes as much sense as you hiring a PR rep for your next annual review.
posted by VulcanMike at 12:48 PM on March 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

I beat you to it mephron.

posted by Nick Verstayne at 12:52 PM on March 24, 2008

Naturalized in the mid-70's
posted by Nick Verstayne at 12:54 PM on March 24, 2008

Nick: I can't get drunk until I get out of work, pick up a bottle of Lagavulin, and get home. If you can get plastered on the job, more power to you.

A toast. To Eric Arthur Blair, for teaching us all about retrofitting the truth for our own purposes.
posted by mephron at 12:57 PM on March 24, 2008

mephron, I think the problem is on your end. I can see all the comments just fine.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:03 PM on March 24, 2008

It certainly does if you actually want to be able to afford it.
I totally agree delmoi - and would add a host of other reasons to go elsewhere.
posted by goneill at 1:04 PM on March 24, 2008

Just another example of the federal government falling apart drowning in the bathtub under Bush.

These things are not neglect. They're by design.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 1:32 PM on March 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

The problem is that they are not up to First World standards on efficiency and not up to Third World standards in corruption.

Potential immigrants of the world, let us hope the dollar devalues enough that anyone of you can afford to expedite or buy your way into the USA. Whats a million dollars, like a thousand Euros?
posted by Dr. Curare at 1:37 PM on March 24, 2008 [3 favorites]

My experience with USCIS wasn't fantastic a couple of years ago when I was transitioning from permanent resident to citizen. I waited about 2 years after my application was received. What I heard when I went to the final stages from others was that they had only been waiting months and it had much improved. Also, my daughter's passport application renewal recently only took a couple of weeks.

Generally speaking though my interactions with federal and state government have been fantastic. Polite, helpful people who are generally efficient (including IRS, SSA, DMV!). Definitely a situation where sunlight and openness keeps things working well. I suspect however that it depends on the branch and the clientèle.
posted by idb at 1:45 PM on March 24, 2008

groans you guys don't want me to tell you about the pains I had to go through to get them to respond to my o-1 application back in the day. premium processing my ass. I did get the visa eventually but those were the worst four months of my life.
posted by krautland at 1:54 PM on March 24, 2008

Yah, in general the line is that things have gotten much better since INS was split into USCIS and ICE. No more risk that the local office will be told to stop working on I-129s and I-130s and do nothing but enforcement for six months. And a thousand blessings on whoever created infopass.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:15 PM on March 24, 2008

Not that a repacement is being discussed here, but the story reminded me of this comment by rxrfrx:

Is there a German word that describes how we seem to be continually learning to appreciate worse and worse ex-officials, because the ones they get replaced with are always somehow even worse?
posted by preparat at 2:17 PM on March 24, 2008

For some perspective - My Canadian passport took 3 days. My UK Work Permit took 15 minutes.
posted by srboisvert at 2:21 PM on March 24, 2008

I've known people who have filed for B-1 visa extensions and gotten approval after they were already back home. If I recall, the rule was if you applied for an extension, you had a certain amount of time to stay before you had to leave, even if your initial visa had expired.

Whoa, $20 s&h for the hard copy guide book! Are they shipping them around the world? And why can't people download the instructions as a PDF for free?

Also, it was well known by these travelers that certain points of entry were easier on foreigners than others, so people routed their flights through the "friendly" cities just so they wouldn't get hassled by INS officers (due to their nationality). They were entering legally, with valid visas, too. Oh, and this was before 9/11.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 2:24 PM on March 24, 2008

For some perspective - My Canadian passport took 3 days.

biscotti's Canadian passport, on the other hand, took something like six months.

Whoa, $20 s&h for the hard copy guide book! Are they shipping them around the world? And why can't people download the instructions as a PDF for free?

That's a private company, not the USCIS. You can download all USCIS forms and instructions from their web page.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:56 PM on March 24, 2008

Are you in any way surprised by this? The US govt can't even handle passport request by US citizens in a timely fashion because they failed to anticipate the number of requests when they required passports for travel to Canada and the Bahamas...

That's exactly right. My daughter was born overseas and I adopted her before the law was changed to make foreign-born adoptees automatically citizens. No matter, she became one retroactively when she was about 6. As times have changed and paperwork demands have seriously increased, I've been trying to accumulate more paperwork for her, just to be safe. We renewed her American passport last spring, she went on a trip to Australia with a youth orchestra, came home and promptly lost the new passport.

In early October, I requested a copy of all her paperwork that had been sent in for the renewal done last spring. The State Department cashed my check Nov.1. I have heard nothing since. All I need them to do is send me a copy of my paperwork submitted last spring--go to the file, make a photocopy and send it to me. Absolutely nothing has happened. I paid extra for the State Department to send me certified copies, which would have the benefit of being a little extra, so that when the kid is old enough to get a driver's license, we don't run into problems. Until the passport was lost, that was our main documentation of her citizenship. Now we have nothing and I can't get an answer. I'm about to ask our local congressman for help. Meanwhile, we wait. I've written twice in the last month for an explanation, to no avail.

When people who hold the very idea of government in contempt take power, nothing good is going to happen for us who need its services.
posted by etaoin at 3:29 PM on March 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

After all Director Gonzalez may not know that emergency healthcare necessitates a trip to France.

Well, it's hard to afford health care without health insurance, and it's hard to afford health insurance without a job, and it's hard to get a job without your papers.

My gaijin card in Japan took about 6 weeks, my wifes green card in the US took over 3 years, during which time she had to be paroled out if she wanted to leave, for example, to see her grandfather one last time. He died the day her permission to travel came thru - at least she got to attend the funeral.

I hope every one of those INS fuckers has their whole pension invested in Bear Stearns stock.
posted by bashos_frog at 5:35 PM on March 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Talk about missing the point. Gonzalez jumps to the defence of 70,000 supposedly-wronged immigration workers instead of addressing the actual point of the editorial: to criticize HIM and his incompetent leadership. Good job with that misplaced righteous indignation there, dope.
posted by loiseau at 6:33 PM on March 24, 2008

My H1 and green card process went very smoothly, and fast. And everyone I talked to was really nice. Maybe I'm the lucky exception!
posted by hammurderer at 8:38 PM on March 24, 2008

Wait, wait. Back up a moment. DHS has a blog?! And they are allowing comments on it?

My mind is seriously boggled.
posted by Tehanu at 8:40 PM on March 24, 2008

USCIS is a fraud. But if you really think about it, it makes sense. Who would want to share all this money and all this "freedom"? The bureaucracy has become outrageous. The only explanation is that it's not a bureaucracy at all but exclusive by design. There is a cultural identity at stake as well as true patriotism, which is understandable. Not to mention the nativist turn in sentiments which has seeped through American consciousness since the attacks.

Myself, among those who are most grieved by this state of affairs, have watched undeserving citizens shat on the flag and denounce their allegiance. Youth who take for granted this most prized right. You think how you would've lived differently, been so loyal and proud, then you remember your damnation from the beatific vision and realize your America is but a tiny island, yourself the sole inhabitant. Then you decide: You build a bitter boat and your flag is the jolly roger or abdicate your hopes and bury your head in the sand.
posted by Student of Man at 9:01 PM on March 24, 2008

If you think the process for naturalization is bad, take a look at green cards. Our CEO applied for a green card a few months prior to 9-11 and received it three months ago, after being forced to re-file twice. If that's happening to a successful Canadian professional, imagine how people from less favored nations and those without strong financial support are doing.
posted by cali at 9:09 PM on March 24, 2008

My mind is seriously boggled.

Boggled by a blog. May I be so bold to invent a new word here: bloggled.
posted by DreamerFi at 2:46 AM on March 25, 2008

Boggled by a blog. May I be so bold to invent a new word here: bloggled.

That's a good word. I like it. But I think it should be reserved for cases where the blog itself boggles the mind. In this case it is merely the knowledge that DHS knows about the internet and such Web 2.0 things as blogs that boggles my mind. The blog itself is very disappointing.
posted by Tehanu at 8:21 AM on March 25, 2008

I was in the states on TN status, and even though I was approved for renewal, they told me I couldn't stay in the country until I received the documentation in the mail, which took 2 months. I chose to leave and not come back.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:25 AM on March 25, 2008

Only because others have mentioned it. The procedure to get a live/work permit to join my spouse (EU/non-UK resident) in the UK:

1. Gather my documents and mail them to the British consulate on Friday.
2. Monday I get a nice email that the documents were received.
3. Tuesday I get a nicer email that my visa was approved. Also, my tracking number for UPS overnight.
4. Permit received in the mail.
posted by vacapinta at 10:54 AM on March 25, 2008 [1 favorite]