************************************************************** IFCSS Headquarters News Release No.5018 July 19, 1993 ************************************************************** Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS) 733 15th Street, N.W., Suite 440, Washington, D.C.20005 Tel. (202)347-0017 Fax: (202)347-0018 Email: ifcss@wam.umd.edu INS Held Community Forum in LA On July 15, at the request of the City Council of Monterey Park, INS Western Service Center and Los Angeles District Office held a community forum on CSPA. About 1,200 CSPA applicants and family members attended the forum. Shi Heping, IFCSS Vice President, was also present and received a warm welcome from the students. Mr. Sam Kiang, councilman of Monterey Park, presided over the meeting. On behalf of Chinese students nation-wide, Shi Heping expressed thanks to INS officers for their hard work. Mr. Joseph Thomas, Director of Western Service Center, and four other INS officers introduced CSPA operation and answered questions from applicants. According to the INS officers, after the Service Center receives an application, it will send out a receipt. But applicants with incorrect fees or not properly signed will be returned to the sender. If any document is missing, it will inform the applicant; if not, the application will be sent to other government offices for examination. At the end of 45 days, the application goes to an INS examiner, who determines if it is necessary to conduct an interview. If it is not necessary, the examiner will request a visa number from the Department of State, which usually takes a long time. The INS officers stressed that the applicant should not send any supplementary document without being notified to do so, for it will delay the processing. The overriding concern expressed at the forum is about late- arriving dependents. Shi Heping explained the current arrangement using Voluntary Departure and reiterated that IFCSS would continue to work on the issue and would send out notices via e-mail network and newspaper if any progress was made. The INS officers also mentioned that if an applicant had sent in just one finger-print chart and if it was not clear, the application would be returned to the applicant, who would have no priority date until INS received the application for the second time. Many students at the forum were unhappy with such handling. Shi Heping promised to talk to the INS HQ about this, because the Additional Instruction for I-485 required one instead of two finger-print charts. ********************************************************************* * IFCSS Headquarters Office * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * President: Lin Changsheng Vice President: Shi Heping * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * PBS-L is IFCSS's news distribution list for individuals. To sign * * on or off from the list, please send email to listserv@ifcss.org * * leave the subject line open and put in the mail body: * * (For signing on) sub PBS-L last name first name * * (For signing off) unsub PBS-L last name first name * * For more information about IFCSS, write to ifcss-info@ifcss.org * *********************************************************************