[This message has been edited by Gary Bala]
Meeting w/ VSC Director, Adjudications:
I am a member here of the Philadelphia Chapter of AILA
(American Immigration Lawyers Assn.).
http://www.aila.org/
On Thursday, April 21, 2005, along with other Chapter members
at our group meeting, I met and spoke with the Director of Adjudications
of VSC, immigration's "legendary" Service Center located in St. Albans, VT.
As many of you know who are doing your own visa petitions for
your fiancees and spouses, VSC handles many immigration petitions
for the states from State of Maine down to Commonwealth of Virginia
with renowned speed and efficiency, deciding many family petitions in
30 days or less.
VSC's Director of Adjudications, Keith Canney spoke for over
an hour and graciously answered some of our questions at our
dinner meeting at a local Italian restaurant in Old City Philadelphia.
Since I handle many fiancee and spousal visa petitions for my clients,
and at VSC, I hit him with some relevant questions in my mind.
One relevant question: Why are fiancee visa petitions consistently adjudicated
so fast at VSC? Answer: Internal priority on family petitions, overtime
authorization, a "term" or temp. staff of 150, and very interestingly the fact
that some officers might actually see I-129Fs as "fun work" e.g. reading
"love E-mails" etc., and usually more simple and quick to decide in many
cases than other immigration petitions.
Anyone interested in more details of questions and answers
at the meeting, see:
http://www.usaimmigrationattorney.com/VSCDirectorOfAdjudicationsMeeting.html
Other People Issues:
Rice to Visit South & Central America
Sect. of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador
and Chile from April 26-30, 2005 to discuss a wide range of issues
with national leaders, including immigration policy, crime and
narco-traffiking issues and security concerns.
New Immigration Director
USCIS Director Eduardo Aguirre has been appointed by President George
W. Bush to be Ambassador to Spain, to be confirmed by the Senate.
This means that USCIS (Immigration Service) will have a new national
Director. Aguirre served from the start of USCIS, but that has only been
since Nov. 2003. IMHO, Aguirre, a long-time Houstonian, former
head of the U.S. Import-Export Agency and Cuban immigrant,
was largely a political appointment, in my view.
I hope that the Administration will now consider a true "heavyweight"
immigration lawyer, judge or professor for the Director position.
In my opinion, the new Director will continue to have a massive challenge:
maintaining security while extending immigration benefits timely,
with still too few resources and staff, excessive case volume and
high expectations for speed and efficiency from the "petition-filing" public.
VSC, however, remains the gem in the system and hopefully a systematic
way can be found to spread their results elsewhere.
Regards,
GB
PS: I myself plan to swing through Barranquilla and Cali
from mid to late June 2005. My Cell in Colombia is:
315-416-2746.