A reader writes:
I’m trying to bring my fiancee, who currently lives in Mongolia, to the United States on a K-1 visa. We were both ecstatic when my K-1 visa application was recently approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The next step is for the approved visa application to be forwarded to the National Visa Center, and from there to the U.S. Consulate in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. As I watched the news about the attempt to pass a CR, I thought that it was unfortunate, but wouldn’t affect me directly.
Then suddenly it occurred to me that visa processing was almost certainly considered a “non-essential” government service, so I looked it up, and sure enough, immigration services is one of the things that will be severely curtailed or completely halted by the government shutdown. Which means that my reunion with my fiancee, which had looked to be on track to happen by the end of the year, is now being postponed indefinitely until the shutdown is resolved.
Update from a reader:
I work for USCIS and I can assure you that this is not true. Immigration services within DHS and DOS are entirely fee based. Immigration paperwork is being processed as normal. The only delay will be the normal processing delay that accompanies any application or petition.
Update from the first reader:
It may be true that will USCIS will continue to operate as normal, but as I stated, my visa application has already been approved, which means that USCIS is no longer involved. The visa application has already been moved to the National Visa Center, and from there to the State Department. Per this document, guidance from State in anticipation of the 2011 shutdown indicated that State would severely curtail non-emergency visa-related activities.
I appreciate your effort to put a human face on this political farce.
One more update:
I am a Foreign Service Officer currently serving abroad. In 2011, State Department guidance stated that visa services would be curtailed. This time around, we were given new guidance stating that all visa and citizenship services were fee based and would stay open (see Chapter 2, part C). I hope that your reader can be reunited with his fiancee soon, and thankfully the shutdown should not slow down their reunion.
Another reader:
I work for the Indian Health Service on the Navajo reservation. My rural hospital is “essential” and we are still open for business. We are continuing to get paid, although we cannot take sick leave or vacation. It was heartbreaking to see one of our medical records employees coming back into work on Tuesday less than two weeks after having a baby. Like most of our staff, she is Navajo. The unemployment rate on the reservation nears 50%, so anyone with even a low wage job supports many extended family members. She could not afford to take unpaid leave.
As much as the shutdown impacts our staff, it hurts our patients more.
On October 1st, we got an email stating that we do not have funds to pay for medical care outside of our system. We do not employ cardiologists, oncologists, neurosurgeons, etc. All pending appointments that are not urgently life or limb threatening are cancelled until further notice.
Today, October 3, we got another email stating that our pharmacy does not have funds to buy medicines. We are only ordering medications that are “of a life saving and sustaining nature.” We already work hard to keep medication costs low. But now, for just one example, we are no longer able to stock medications to treat rheumatoid arthritis, a disease with particularly high rates in our population.
The United States government is bound by treaty to provide health care for Native Americans. The lack of a budget is gravely impacting our ability to honor that that obligation.
Another:
I am a furloughed government employee. This government shutdown is so disheartening. I work in an office that deals with international issues and coordinates with the equivalent agencies in other countries. We send delegates frequently to conferences to coordinate cooperative pilot programs, capacity building exercises for developing countries, and the negotiation of international agreements. International meetings are on-going despite the shut-down, and the United States has lost its voice, investments, and subject matter experts for the time being.
It pains me that we have all be locked out of our offices and the missions we serve. However, it’s merely the final step in a long line of insults: no cost of living increases for four years, endless budget uncertainty due to a revolving door of continuing resolutions, hiring freezes, cuts, and the still-continuing sequester. My agency has not seen a Senate-confirmed leader in four years. We have endured audits of 15 years worth of travel and conferences because of the GSA Law Vegas Scandal, though we had nothing to do with it. We are cautioned to not do anything that could be perceived as partisan in the wake of the IRS non-scandal, and have to make unnecessary, inconvenient, expensive accommodations to ensure that our office’s activities ensure money/attention flowing towards the states of the chairmen and ranking members of the congressional committees that oversee us. We’re called leeches and ne’er-do-wells and told we “never created a single job.”
I hate the stereotypes that the Tea-Party has assigned government workers and greatly wish that Speaker Boehner and his party could come and meet us. My office is so diverse: we have grandparents, thirty and forty-somethings, and childless millennials. We have veterans from all five armed service branches, including those who saw active combat in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Kosovo, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We come from almost every state, and numerous colleges, universities, and career paths.
We don’t always agree on everything, but everyone works hard to pursue our office’s mission as a group, and navigate the sometimes draconian regulations that reflect an inherent distrust of us. We all value public service, and there are several co-workers who cannot speak about 9/11 without getting emotional. This is a very painful time emotionally as well as financially/logistically. Some of my co-workers with decades of experience are actively looking for other work, which would be a huge loss to my agency’s institutional memory. I can only imagine how many more across the entire government workforce are now doing the same.
I know I’m probably just a chump, but I believe it’s an honor to serve the People of the United States, and I got teary-eyed when I took my oath to “support and defend the Constitution…” I wonder if the Republicans really believe they are upholding the Constitution as they strive to bring the U.S. to default to invalidate a legitimately passed and judicially-reviewed law?
Read the entire “View From Your Shutdown” series here.
The Dish 