Category Archives: Immigration

I Have Come to the Realization..

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USCIS CSR’s are deaf.

Kelly, my wife, spent about half an hour on the phone with an idiot at USCIS the other day to firstly enquire about my status, and secondly to change the address associated with our cases. This was done for 1 reason – she has an accent. Last time I called I spoke with a woman with a Southern Accent and at times it was difficult to understand her, and I feel like a ditz asking people to repeat things 7 times. Kelly doesn’t have the same problem, because she understands the accent more readily than I.

Anyway, we received a piece of mail today, addressed to me (with a minor name mispelling). It announced that on the correct date, “Holly” had called and done all the stuff.

It also has my A number listed incorrectly (one digit off), fortunately the case number was correct.

I am beginning to seriously wonder whether we can trust anything that USCIS tells us at all.

New Years Day

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I could give a boring diatribe about my goals, my resolutions, all the things I plan to accomplish this year. I don’t have any.

Instead I’m going to update a few things.

Firstly, I’ve run into problems with the VPS already – a 256MB RAM limit with no VPS-side swap. I’ve sent a message to their support, but I don’t know if it will get me anywhere. That leaves me changing the direction and purpose of that server, and I may resolve to selling cheap eggdrop shells. TBA..

I’m still feeling a little under-the-weather. Since Christmas Eve I’ve had congestion and a headache (that comes and goes as it feels). It seems it peaked on the 27th/28th, but is still making its slow spiral away from me. I think Kel will be glad when it is gone too, as I am apparently snoring rather loudly and keeping her awake at night.

That too is ironic in and of itself, since I’m hardly sleeping at night. Not being sleepy until 4am has a lot to do with that, so when I do sleep (at 4am) I get my 8 hours sleep and rise at around 12 or 1pm. Maybe tonight I’ll just stay awake and go to bed at 9 or 10 tomorrow.. Will check plans for tomorrow first.

My immigration status still hangs in the balance. Need to chase up who is doing or waiting for what, and if anything can be done about it. I know we’re waiting for a birth certificate for Kelly’s mom, but I’m not sure where that is at. We also need to chase up the lawyer that Kelly heard about that does free consultations. We can also pray that we can find a lawyer prepared to take our case pro bono.

UCCN seems to be growing, albeit slowly. There is another channel joined late in 2008 with a few users who mostly keep to themselves.

DailySerene recently moved from Ed’s old server to his new server, and seems to be going well. Still looking for photographers who would like some free exposure (ha) of their work, whether it be amateur, professional or some mix in between.

I-aL is still taking vague shape, now more in the form of “Infinitech” – this will likely be the name undertaken if I ever start hosting anything beyond my own sites.

My Ticket Management System came back onto the planning board, and I wanted to kick myself when I realised I didn’t need to code part of the interface as it’s already part of PHP.

I don’t have any goals for the year, however I do have some for the short term future:

  1. Get my sleeping track back on schedule. Down by 12:30am at the latest, up by 9.
  2. Start ‘Working’ during the day. Whether it be working on a PHP project, administrating a server, writing a song or weeding the garden, I want to be working for myself from at least 10 till 3 or 4. I will take a break at around 12 or 1 to talk to mum when she gets up, and for lunch, but beyond this it will be work.
  3. Finish setting up Rizzo in addition to formulating a website and real plan regarding its usage and purpose.
  4. Scratch that plan. Formulate a plan regarding the usage and purpose of all my systems and servers, and arrange the processes on each accordingly.
  5. Eat and drink better. I haven’t been eating lunch most days, and I’m also not drinking nearly enough water. Perhaps this will go in hand with my working during the day.

Those are all things I want to accomplish by the end of JANUARY.

I have very few projects lined up for the rest of the year as yet. The only one that comes to mind is my model railroad, the first project being to buy some timber/lumber and build the coffee table. Considering using purely hand-tools for this, and still mulling the table design over in my mind.

I’m still available for computer repairs, which reminds me. I started work on fixing Kelly’s mom’s old laptop, and found I needed an extra tool. So I bought a new desoldering tool on eBay for under $10. Will let you all know how it works out (as if you really care :-P)

Dear USCIS, You Suck, From Twiddle.

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As mentioned previously I’m a New Zealand Citizen, have lived in NZ since birth, moving in April so as to get married, live and work in the United States. Now, I understand that in a country this big, some things just move slowly. But anyone who claims that getting married in order to gain green cards or citizenship is the easy route, I would disagree strongly (even to the point where it is annoying that people believe this is the case).

Following all the rules, I arrived in April. Kelly and I were married in late May, we visited the USCIS office in Washington DC (as advised on the website that we should) – after waiting an hour or so, were told that we needed to mail our paperwork to Chicago. Frustrated, we drove home, rechecked everything another 3 times and sent as instructed.

Our paperwork was received on July 2nd, and processing began. We were requested to provide extra information, which was sent and received on August 14th, and we were also requested to visit Alexandria, VA, to provide fingerprints.

This is all fine, this is as expected. I have been monitoring our case online, however, as well as watching the case processing times, and am growing disappointed. The case processing time for the National Benefits Center (where our case is) shows three months from point of reception. By my calculations, 3 months from July 2nd is October 2nd, allowing 2-3 days either way. Today is the 25th October, and still nothing has been heard. The other application, the information received in August, says there will be an update or decision (in writing) within 60 days. August 14th + 60 days = October 14th, give or take a few days. Again, no communication has been received.

“Call them and see what’s happening??” I hear you ask! Well, I did. After navigating through their (fairly well designed) computerized phone system I was able to hear the same case status information as is provided online. Asked the phone system to let me speak to a customer services rep, and it said they will only take complaints or update requests if the case status is either more than 30 days beyond the processing date and hasn’t been updated in the last 60 days. I guess I’ll have to wait another couple of weeks.

Migration of the Masses

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Prologue:

I realized, through writing this, why so little is done about immigration issues. It is almost impossible to make any changes without someone, somewhere, becoming very offended. Whether it is the racist voters who threaten to vote against anyone who makes it easier for the “damn Mexicans” to “take our jobs!” (working in chicken plants, or as janitors, or other such lowly jobs as their communities end up working in). Or if it is those who feel that they are people just like everyone else, who have every right to live on the land and breathe the air, and be unpunished, despite breaking a large number of laws (illegal border crossings, the various fake and/or forged documentations, etc). It doesn’t seem overly difficult to cross the border already, and any change that makes it easier for anyone to enter the country increases the chance of ‘terrorists’ slipping through cracks, generating a security risk. I understand that what I outline is not a perfect solution, but I believe it should be at least considered, and adjusted as appropriate for implementation. But hey, what do I know – an outsider, an immigrant myself, albeit a legal one.

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