Olsi Vrapi for TX Chapter Secretary

Dear Chapter Members:

I was recently honored and humbled to receive the nomination for Chapter Secretary. I am writing to ask for your vote and support in the upcoming chapter elections. I believe to be the best candidate for the job. Here are some of my ideas for the chapter and some of my qualifications.

I have several ideas which I believe will benefit Chapter members individually and the Chapter as a whole.

· Institute a mentor program within the Chapter akin to the AILA Mentor Program. 43% of TX Chapter members are new members. The chapter is a great source of support to its members, but I believe it can do more.

· Encourage Chapter unity. Our chapter is quite big both in numbers and geographically. I personally practice in NM. Because of the geographical spread our Chapter tends to have certain areas isolated from the rest such as El Paso/NM which comprise a small percentage of Chapter membership. I intend to encourage fostering greater Chapter unity and collaboration so that every member from every corner of the Chapter's geographical spread has a chance to contribute to the mission of our chapter and AILA as a whole.

· Continue to provide excellent conferences. I have served on the planning committees of several conferences including the last two annual conferences. The Chapter organizes great conferences and I intend to continue that trend and provide leadership in raising the bar.

I have served in various capacities at AILA which has given me the leadership skills to be able to be an effective leader in our Chapter. I have served or am currently serving as follows:

AILA Amicus Committee Member 2009-2010

AILA Publications Committee Member 2009-2010

AILA Criminal Removal Conference Committee Member 2009-2010

AILA Publications Committee Chair 2010-2011

AILA Annual Conference Planning Committee Member 2010-2011

AILA Annual Conference Planning Committee Due Process Track Chair 2011-2012

AILA EOIR Liaison Committee Member 2011-2012

AILA I-601 Provisional Waiver Comment Team Member 2012

AILA Albuquerque ICE liaison 2010-Present.

Speaker at every AILA Annual Conference since 2009

Speaker at various other TX Chapter and other conferences

TX Chapter Spring 2012 Conference Accommodations Chair.

I was also honored by AILA National with two awards. The 2010 Jack Wasserman Award for Excellence in Litigation for my work as part of the AILA Amicus Committee and most recently I am being awarded the 2012 Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award at the upcoming AILA Annual Conference in Nashville, TN.

My track record speaks for itself. I have given much to AILA and want to continue to give to our Chapter just as the Chapter has given to me. For this I ask for your vote in the upcoming election.

Thank you!

Olsi Vrapi

I-601 Lockbox Filing

At a recent stakeholders' teleconference, USCIS announced a change in the I-601 waiver world which is lockbox filing. This announcement took place on March 9, 2012. This change is certain to occur and is expected to roll out in late Spring, early Summer 2012. Under this new system all foreign filed waivers will be centralized at the Nebraska Service Center to be adjudicated by a core of 26 adjudicators. Initially there will be 13 adjudicators, a number which will eventually reach approximately 26 when the program is fully phased in. Presently, USCIS International Operations adjudicates around 23,000 per year with about 17,000 of that being filed in Cd. Juarez. With this new core of adjudicators it appears that each officer will adjudicate approximately 1,000 per year. This means that each adjudicator will have about 2 hours to dedicate to each waiver packet. This is a considerable difference to the current triage process at Cd. Juarez where there are only 4 officers reviewing more than 4 times as many waivers per adjudicator thus giving them less than 30 minutes to review a waiver packet.

The waivers will be filed at the Phoenix lockbox which will eventually forward the waiver to the Nebraska Service Center after initial processing. The waiver can be filed as soon as the consular interview has occurred and the client found inadmissible by a consular officer. The waiver cannot be filed prior to the consular interview at this time. If this is done the waiver will be denied as no inadmissibility finding has been made at the time of filing. If the concurrent filing of waivers is implemented this will likely change in some respects.

When the waiver is received at the NSC the USCIS officer will review the computer system which is linked to the Department of State database. This system will reveal to the USCIS officer the ground of inadmissibility applied by the consular officer. Upon approval, the decision will be communicated to the Department of State for issuance of a visa. A question arises; what happens if the consular officer applies a ground of inadmissibility we disagree with, especially one that has no waiver available such as false claim to U.S. citizenship? USCIS has stated that it is working with Department of State to establish protocols where the two agencies would confer to come to a decision. Ultimately, the consular officer is the gatekeeper so the USCIS position is that it cannot order DOS to apply or not apply a certain ground of inadmissibility.

For the first few months of the new process being rolled out applicants will have the option of filing either abroad or with the lockbox. If a waiver is filed in both locations the two files will be matched up and be adjudicated at the NSC. USCIS announced that the current backlog is unlikely to move to the NSC for adjudication.

There will be no initial triage like there is now at the Cd. Juarez office. All waivers will receive full consideration in due course. USCIS estimates that waiver adjudications at the NSC will take 6 months or less.

There are several reasons for this change, such as cost and consistency. The Department of State charges USCIS approximately $275 for each waiver it accepts and forwards to the overseas USCIS with jurisdiction over the applicant’s residence. This change will funnel all filing fees to USCIS instead of giving almost half to DOS. USCIS has stated that it is looking to provide consistent adjudication in waivers. FY 2010 statistics from the Department of State show that among all grounds of inadmissibility applied worldwide, 85% of unlawful presence waivers, 30% of criminal waivers and 25% of fraud waivers were approved. This is so even though the standard is the same: extreme hardship. Will the same approval levels be maintained by NSC? It remains to be seen.

I-130/I-601 concurrent filing?

Since the USCIS Ombudsman's recommendation on June 10, 2010 on the concurrent filing of I-130s and I-601s for those who have to process their immigrant visas abroad, there has been a lot of joy, hope, speculation, anxiety and exasperation (in that order) from those of us who handle a substantial amount of those cases. The response from USCIS in late 2010 to that recommendation was "USCIS is considering this recommendation."

Where does that leave us attorneys and the public? It has been over a year since the recommendation and USCIS response.

Some events that have occurred that are not necessarily readily apparent to those who do not practice in this field are instructive. Taking these events into account, I am thinking there will be a major change coming up soon.

In early 2011, Warren Janssen, who was the Field Office Director at USCIS Cd. Juarez was transferred and promoted to Deputy Director of the Nebraska Service Center. One should think that that was Mr. Janssen's reward for combat duty in Cd. Juarez for so many years. I don't dispute that. Mr. Janssen has sacrificed a lot in Cd. Juarez and he deserves his new post. I think he is an excellent civil servant. However, I suspect the move emcompassed some strategic reasons as well. Mr. Janssen's move came after the Ombudsman's recommendation and the USCIS announcement of a working group on the concurrent filing issue.

For a while this issue went dormant until the late summer of 2011. USCIS had given several indications that something was in the works; however, to our disappointment, all signs pointed to a centralization of foreign filed I-601 adjudications to the United States, but this was to be done after the consular interview. This meant no concurrent filing. If anything, this would make things worse for Mexican cases since they would now have to wait normal processing and the rapid adjudication program in Cd. Juarez would be officially over. This centralization was scheduled to start implementation in November 2011. November came and went and nothing was announced one way or the other.

At around this time USCIS appears to have reduced adjudicatory staff in Cd. Juarez. It appears they reduced something like 75% of adjudicators there. This change appears to have been consistent with the USCIS plan to centralize I-601s adjudications in the U.S. We all felt the reduction in adjudicators at USCIS last year since cases were taking forever even for rapid adjudication. Rapid wasn't so rapid anymore.

A question arises: why would USCIS reduce staff at USCIS in anticipation of centralization only not to implement centralization and leave the new Field Office Director, Yolanda Miranda, hanging with no help for considerable time after the November plan?

The answer I suspect: the Administration had a change of heart and decided to go with the Ombudsman's recommendation and I have a feeling it will announce concurrent filing of I-130s and I-601s pretty soon.

What does concurrent filing mean for your clients? It means that the I-601 will be adjudicated while your client is still in the U.S. (for those who are already here, obviously). That shortens the time the immigrant will have to wait abroad from months to a couple of weeks to pick up the immigrant visa. In addition, any denials of the I-601 will give the immigrant two options, drop the process while still in the U.S., or appeal while still being home for dinner every night during the 2-3 years it takes AAO to adjudicate these appeals. This is not a guaranteed system however as the consulate can always discover new grounds that apply to the client which would necessitate a new waiver post-consular interview, but that's an issue for another blog.

I have my fingers crossed and I'm hoping USCIS will have an announcement soon. After all, elections are coming in about 10 months and the President needs the Latino vote.