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Ahh yes! the Get-Your-Friend-To-Call-A-Congressman approach. Works like a charm every time ;)

thaeli 6y ago
This is actually how it works. The (small) silver lining is that your friend doesn't have to be anyone particularly important, they just have to be a voter who lives in their district. I've had to go through Constituent Services a few times to get USG paperwork snarls untangled - doesn't matter if they're who I voted for or not.
lxe 6y ago
It actually does work. If you have your family member's nonimmigrant US visa application denied, you can ask your congressperson to help out, and they sometimes do help.
- ThinkingGuy 6y ago
  I think every Congress member has a "constituent services" office just for matters like this. We have some friends whose child's passport application had gotten lost in processing. Their congresswoman was able to intervene and help them get their passports in time for a vacation. Protip: Your House representative is likely to be more responsive than your Senator. Being up for re-election every 2 years rather than every 6, House members have more incentive to directly serve their constituents.
StephenAmar 6y ago
I concur. My citizenship application was stuck for 2 years. I sent an email to the office of Pelosi and 2 months later I was at the oath ceremony.
FpUser 6y ago
I think here in Canada we can ask MP (Member of Parlament) to do this. Not sure how effective is that though as I've never tried it personally.
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  Canadian politician offices typically have constituent services. They usually have access to MP-only phone numbers to sort out regular snafus (often immigration related). But if you’ve been caught in a systematic issue that the government created, and your MP belongs to that party, your MP is unlikely to take any action whatsoever. You can also email the prime minister and sometimes they’ll forward it to the Minister responsible and then they have to reply. Just make sure to phrase it as a non-systemic issue when it was a systemic issue they created ;)
  - FpUser 6y ago
    Thank you. This is sort of revelation to me.
- grecy 6y ago
  I spoke face to face with my MP when I was at my wits end trying to get Permanent Residency. I was working for Bell at the time, as an Engineer. I have a degree in Engineering. My MP told me to get a job at McDonald's, Wal-Mart or Crappy Tire, because they have rubber-stamp approval for Permanent Residency, and that would be the best way. I'd just have to suck it up and earn minimum wage for 2 years. Or be a student for four years. He had no idea how I was supposed to pay for that.
  - jey 6y ago
    Why was it a problem to get the Permanent Residency permit while working for Bell as an Engineer?
    - grecy 6y ago
      Simply having a good job is not enough, there is no "stream" for that. I was on a 2 year working holiday visa for that job, and when the visa ran out I was done. .. eventually though I convinced Bell and the Province I was living in to run me through the "Provincial Nominee" stream, which required TONS of paperwork to prove that no Canadian was willing or able to do the job, and therefore they needed a foreigner like me. That took 2 years of paperwork, interviews, medical tests and background checks and being saddled to that job before I finally got it.
xnyan 6y ago
My wife applied for a renewed US passport 8 months before an international trip. 7 months and dozens of calls, emails and letters later, we had no response besides "we are busy and can't tell you when we will be done, but it will not be sooner than a month." My mother recommended that we contact our local congressperson, David Price. I was extremely doubtful that anything would come of it. We had never had any contact of any kind with him or anyone who knows him before. We are not wealthy or have any special status. We wrote an email to his office, two days later his office called us to tell us that they had contacted the passport agency, and the next day fedex delivered a renewed passport that had been overnighted to us. I did some research and this is actually pretty common. If you want something like a phone call or letter of inquiry to a federal agency, congresspeople are generally happy to do it because it's easy to do and generates goodwill.
- xxpor 6y ago
  Same deal with state agencies in my experience. My mom (unsurprisingly) had issues with unemployment earlier this year, she'd worked 1099 and W-2 jobs in multiple states so determining eligibility was taking forever. One call to her state rep and it was all cleared up within a week.
- amf12 6y ago
  Another anecdote. I was at one point working in the US and had applied for status renewal. I was at a point where if I did not get the approval in 20 days I would have to stop working (after waiting for 5 months already). I reached out to my local congressperson - doubtful they might help me, a non citizen. Lo and behold, I got a letter back from the congress person and renewal in 2 weeks.
- tppiotrowski 6y ago
  If you’re a foreigner attempting to visit the US, you do not have a representative to contact.
  - ornornor 6y ago
    Not sure why you’re downvoted because it’s very true. What do you do then?
sequoia 6y ago
If the article creates the impression that contacting the congressperson is an "unusually well connected person pulling strings," that's the wrong impression. Anyone in the US can contact their congressperson & this is the typical course of redress if one is stuck in a process run by the federal government or having some issue with the federal government. A family member did it once to get a passport application expedited for a trip, it's not unusual.
- rob74 6y ago
  Except if you only want to visit the US as a tourist, and you don't necessarily have acquaintances there who are willing to contact their congressperson on your behalf, then I guess you're screwed. Have to remember to be extra careful which boxes I tick when (or if) I visit next time. But hey, there are lots of other interesting (and more welcoming) countries in the world...
- Robin_Message 6y ago
  Many people who need visas to travel to the US are not current in the US and do not have a congressperson...
denimnerd42 6y ago
This is what we did for my family's visa issues. We wrote them a letter and they fixed it. Calling us with updates along the way. Also worked with VA benefits too..
rwmj 6y ago
US Senator in my case, but yes this is now how it works. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23942466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23942466
SZJX 6y ago
Seeing from comments in this post this seems to be a very common approach/story. It sounds super wrong though. Why should a letter from (the office of) a congressman make such a difference all of a sudden, while the facts regarding the matter hasn't changed at all? In any society priding itself on the rule of law, this sort of process shouldn't make a difference at all, and it sounds an awful lot like personal favor currying both on the side of the congressman and on the government agency that responded to such a letter. So whoever contacted a congressman would suddenly get an edge over whoever that just stays put, while the agency could/should have done its job with the same standard for everybody. Doesn't make logical sense.

This is actually how it works. The (small) silver lining is that your friend doesn't have to be anyone particularly important, they just have to be a voter who lives in their district. I've had to go through Constituent Services a few times to get USG paperwork snarls untangled - doesn't matter if they're who I voted for or not.

lxe 6y ago

It actually does work. If you have your family member's nonimmigrant US visa application denied, you can ask your congressperson to help out, and they sometimes do help.

ThinkingGuy 6y ago
I think every Congress member has a "constituent services" office just for matters like this. We have some friends whose child's passport application had gotten lost in processing. Their congresswoman was able to intervene and help them get their passports in time for a vacation. Protip: Your House representative is likely to be more responsive than your Senator. Being up for re-election every 2 years rather than every 6, House members have more incentive to directly serve their constituents.

StephenAmar 6y ago

I concur. My citizenship application was stuck for 2 years. I sent an email to the office of Pelosi and 2 months later I was at the oath ceremony.

FpUser 6y ago

I think here in Canada we can ask MP (Member of Parlament) to do this. Not sure how effective is that though as I've never tried it personally.

Scoundreller 6y ago
Canadian politician offices typically have constituent services. They usually have access to MP-only phone numbers to sort out regular snafus (often immigration related). But if you’ve been caught in a systematic issue that the government created, and your MP belongs to that party, your MP is unlikely to take any action whatsoever. You can also email the prime minister and sometimes they’ll forward it to the Minister responsible and then they have to reply. Just make sure to phrase it as a non-systemic issue when it was a systemic issue they created ;)
- FpUser 6y ago
  Thank you. This is sort of revelation to me.
grecy 6y ago
I spoke face to face with my MP when I was at my wits end trying to get Permanent Residency. I was working for Bell at the time, as an Engineer. I have a degree in Engineering. My MP told me to get a job at McDonald's, Wal-Mart or Crappy Tire, because they have rubber-stamp approval for Permanent Residency, and that would be the best way. I'd just have to suck it up and earn minimum wage for 2 years. Or be a student for four years. He had no idea how I was supposed to pay for that.
- jey 6y ago
  Why was it a problem to get the Permanent Residency permit while working for Bell as an Engineer?
  - grecy 6y ago
    Simply having a good job is not enough, there is no "stream" for that. I was on a 2 year working holiday visa for that job, and when the visa ran out I was done. .. eventually though I convinced Bell and the Province I was living in to run me through the "Provincial Nominee" stream, which required TONS of paperwork to prove that no Canadian was willing or able to do the job, and therefore they needed a foreigner like me. That took 2 years of paperwork, interviews, medical tests and background checks and being saddled to that job before I finally got it.

xnyan 6y ago

My wife applied for a renewed US passport 8 months before an international trip. 7 months and dozens of calls, emails and letters later, we had no response besides "we are busy and can't tell you when we will be done, but it will not be sooner than a month." My mother recommended that we contact our local congressperson, David Price. I was extremely doubtful that anything would come of it. We had never had any contact of any kind with him or anyone who knows him before. We are not wealthy or have any special status. We wrote an email to his office, two days later his office called us to tell us that they had contacted the passport agency, and the next day fedex delivered a renewed passport that had been overnighted to us. I did some research and this is actually pretty common. If you want something like a phone call or letter of inquiry to a federal agency, congresspeople are generally happy to do it because it's easy to do and generates goodwill.

xxpor 6y ago
Same deal with state agencies in my experience. My mom (unsurprisingly) had issues with unemployment earlier this year, she'd worked 1099 and W-2 jobs in multiple states so determining eligibility was taking forever. One call to her state rep and it was all cleared up within a week.
amf12 6y ago
Another anecdote. I was at one point working in the US and had applied for status renewal. I was at a point where if I did not get the approval in 20 days I would have to stop working (after waiting for 5 months already). I reached out to my local congressperson - doubtful they might help me, a non citizen. Lo and behold, I got a letter back from the congress person and renewal in 2 weeks.
tppiotrowski 6y ago
If you’re a foreigner attempting to visit the US, you do not have a representative to contact.
- ornornor 6y ago
  Not sure why you’re downvoted because it’s very true. What do you do then?

sequoia 6y ago

If the article creates the impression that contacting the congressperson is an "unusually well connected person pulling strings," that's the wrong impression. Anyone in the US can contact their congressperson & this is the typical course of redress if one is stuck in a process run by the federal government or having some issue with the federal government. A family member did it once to get a passport application expedited for a trip, it's not unusual.

rob74 6y ago
Except if you only want to visit the US as a tourist, and you don't necessarily have acquaintances there who are willing to contact their congressperson on your behalf, then I guess you're screwed. Have to remember to be extra careful which boxes I tick when (or if) I visit next time. But hey, there are lots of other interesting (and more welcoming) countries in the world...
Robin_Message 6y ago
Many people who need visas to travel to the US are not current in the US and do not have a congressperson...

denimnerd42 6y ago

This is what we did for my family's visa issues. We wrote them a letter and they fixed it. Calling us with updates along the way. Also worked with VA benefits too..

rwmj 6y ago

US Senator in my case, but yes this is now how it works. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23942466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23942466

SZJX 6y ago

Seeing from comments in this post this seems to be a very common approach/story. It sounds super wrong though. Why should a letter from (the office of) a congressman make such a difference all of a sudden, while the facts regarding the matter hasn't changed at all? In any society priding itself on the rule of law, this sort of process shouldn't make a difference at all, and it sounds an awful lot like personal favor currying both on the side of the congressman and on the government agency that responded to such a letter. So whoever contacted a congressman would suddenly get an edge over whoever that just stays put, while the agency could/should have done its job with the same standard for everybody. Doesn't make logical sense.