منتدى الهجرة واللجوء > الهجرة و واللاجئين
=عسكري امريكي ناشط "رونالد بين" يساعد المهاجرين الافغان والعراقيين IOM+SIV
sparky:
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
رمضان كريم وتقبل الله الطاعات
فلقد كتب الرجل رونالد ان السبب الرئيسي بالتاخير لموضوع الموافقات الاداريه لبرنامج الاس اي في هو الاخطاء الشائعه واللي ربما بعض المقدمين غير مركزين عليها او ربما لم يعطوها الاهتمام الكبير والتي تؤثر بصوره سلبيه في تاخير اتخاذ القرار بشان طلبهم للفيزا واللي خلت ولاتزال واضعه اناس كثيره تحت الاجراءات الاداريه ونقلنا ماكتبه الرجل الاميركي الناشط للفائده العامه :-
والمصدر هو من الصفحه الخاصه بالفيس بوك للرجل المعني :-
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IraqSIVapplicantAssociation/permalink/192755597559869/
POST BY RONALD PAYNE – In my last Post we talked about collecting and organizing your information and documents. I recommended using the Form SF-86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions) as a tool to collect and organize your information and documents. Sufficient time has passed from my last Post (I’ve been very busy with other endeavors) so I am assuming that many of our members here have downloaded the SF-86 and completed its preparation by now. Now unless you are planning on joining the United States Military or becoming employed with the United States Government at a latter time, this form is only a “worksheet”, but much of the information contained within this Form will be asked of you latter in the Immigration and Resettlement process. So let’s begin…
In both Iraq and Afghanistan the Passport is you most important document because it proves both Identity and Citizenship. This is also the first document that your identifying information will be compared against all of your other information and documents. Thus this is the most important document to have the correct information listed therein. The Second most important document is the Afghanistan Taskera (which is BOTH a National Identification Document AND a Birth Certificate) or the Iraqi Jensia and Birth Certificate. Your information on these documents must be accurate and match the Passport, and just as important, their English Translations must also be accurate and match the English portion of the Passport. After names, then the (1) Date of Birth and (2) Place of Birth must match. Parents names should also be checked and be a match on both documents as applicable. After these documents the Name and Date of Birth should also match the Local National Employee Badges. After that, a check should be done to ensure that all of your other information is also exact, meaning, if your name is “Mohammad Afghan Iraqi” then that should be the name on your (1) Passport, (2) Jensia/Taskera, and as it is listed on all of your SIV Application Packet and on all of your Immigration/Resettlement Applications and Forms. The key to everything is that all of your information should be the same on every document and in every SIV Application Packet and every Immigration/Resettlement Application or Form.
So that leads into the second part of this discussion, what if the information is incorrect or there is a discrepancy. The answer to that problem depends on what stage of the process you are in… Obviously I would prefer that the stage of processing would be Pre-Submission. So we will start there. If you have NOT yet submitted (or re-submitted) a SIV Application Packet, then I would advise you to get all of your documents corrected (even if it means paying corruption). Now if that is not possible, then you will need to prepare your Bio-Data Sheet with the CORRECT Information and then prepare a Statement that explains what in your Documents is incorrect and sets forth what the correct information is. Now in the case of a name discrepancy, that statement could be corroborated by a “One and the Same Person Memorandum” that is written by a US Citizen Supervisor. So for example, lets say that you name is “Mohammad Afghan Iraqi” and that is what your Passport says… but your Taskera/Jensia says your name is “Mohammed Afghan” (do you see the first and second errors?) and your LN Bade says that your name is “Mohammad Iraqi” (do you see the error?), and lets say that your true Date of Birth is 12 June 1985 and that is listed in your Jensia/Taskera, but your Passport and LN Bade says that your Date of Birth is 01 January 1985 (do you see the errors?)… A fix to this would be to get a new Passport and Taskera/Jensia, but that may not be possible, so you would have your US Citizen Supervisor make a copy of all there documents and write a memorandum that say that he was your US Citizen Supervisor and personally knows you, and that you and all of your documents are “one and the same person”, and you would attach his/her memorandum to your “Statement of Explanation of Errors and Discrepancies”… Now in the case where you have already submitted your SIV Application Packet and/or other Immigration/Resettlement Applications and Forms, you may want to consider getting your documents corrected to show the accurate information and to then submit an amendment and explanation of any such errors and discrepancies that you found. Your Statement should include what Application or Form contained the error or discrepancy, its page number and block or box number if applicable, what the error or discrepancy was , and what the correct information is, and if possible, the evidence that you have to support what you are submitting.
In conclusion, it is essential that all of your information is correct and consistent throughout your entire SIV Application packet and throughout all of your Immigration and Resettlement Applications and Forms, and that your information and supporting documentation (ie. Passport, Jensia/Taskera, LN Badge, Awards, Certificates, LOR’s, so on and so forth) match your information (or you can explain the error, inconsistency, or discrepancy easily). When I conduct a review of a SIV Case, this is what I am looking for, I am looking for Administrative Errors, this is what can be prevented, or what can be corrected after submission… Now stuff involving derogatory information, that is beyond either of our control, but if you know you have derogatory information, then submitting an explanation may help (you have nothing to lose by trying)… If you follow my directions exactly, 90% of the cases can be reviewed by yourself, but if you want me to conduct a review, then naturally the accuracy of my review will depend on the extent of the record available for review, and what I would require at a minimum (or what you should look at as a minimum) is the (1) SIV Application Packet, (2) COM LOR or Denial Notice, (3) I-360, (4) DS-230 or DS-260, (5) DS-157, (6) DS-234, and (7) all of the documents submitted with any of these forms (ie. Passport, taskera/Jensia, so on and so forth)… Finally, where there is an error or discrepancy, fix it or explain it…
sparky:
تحديث بشان الموضوع
الرجل الناشط الطيب ( السيد رونالد بين ) اللي ديساعد الناس اللي مقدمين يطلب راجيا ان يكتب في بند الموضوع وبند المعلومات وفي بداية الايميلات المتوجهه له حين طلب المساعده منه - الكلمات التاليه لكي يتمكن من ترتيب قضاياه والفصل بين القضايا التابعه للبرنامجين للاي او ام IOM عن الاس اي في SIV حيث كتب قائلا بالضبط الكلمات التاليه :- :
generally what I prefer is someone to send me an email,
Subject line: SIV Applicant Case number BGHXXXXXX
and in the Body to say the same thing
رياض ركابي:
انه دزيتله رسالة هوه ضافني كصديق بس ماجاوبني على رسالتي صارلي تقريبا 20 يوم
sparky:
المعلومه اللي عندي - والله اعلم - انه هناك عدد كبير من الاخوه ديراسلونه ولكنه بالنهايه سيجيب وهذا مانعرفه وماسمعناه من الاخوه الكرام
فقط نتمنى انكم ارسلتم له على بريده الرسمي - العسكري - لضمان المحافظه على معلوماتكم الشخصيه وليكون الموضوع فقط بينكم وبينه
الايميل الرسمي هو :-
ronald.c.payne@us.army.mil
ثم انه موجود على صفحة الفيس بوك الخاصه بالعراقيين والمفضل انك تسجل هناك لان الكروب متواصل وان الكروب فيه من السريه انه فقط الاعضاء المشتركين بامكانهم الاطلاع على مايكتبه الرجل الامريكي وانصحك بالانضمام هناك على صفحة الفيس بوك لمعرفة اخر التطورات والمستجدات والتي يتناول فيها مواضيع كثيره ومفيده فيما يخص البرنامجين المتاحه للهجره
وهذه هي الصفحه الخاصه للعراقيين :-
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IraqSIVapplicantAssociation/
وهناك صفحه اخرى للاخوه الافغانيين والذين عملوا مع الجيش الامريكي في افغانستان عبر الصفحه الخاصه لهم وعبر اللينك ادناه - والله ييسر امور الجميع -
https://www.facebook.com/AfghanSivApplicants
sparky:
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
فلقد كتب هذا الرجل الامريكي العسكري بعض المعلومات عن البرنامج وعبر الفيس بوك لجماعة برنامج الاس اي في العراقيه ومن على اللينك ادناه :-
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IraqSIVapplicantAssociation/permalink/218966884938740/
POST BY RONALD PAYNE – Today’s topic of discussion will be Immediate, Short-Term, and Long-Term Housing. In discussing this subject I am making the following assumptions. (1) The SIV is either Married and has Children (wife and 2 children) or is Single with no Children, (2) That both SIV’s has more than $5000 but less than $10000, (3) that the SIV is traveling to the USA on their own (because this issue would not apply to a SIV that traveled via IOM because IOM and the Refugee Resettlement Agency (RRA) would have already arraigned for the SIV’s Housing)., and (4) the SIV is completely on their own, meaning that they have absolutely no Sponsor, Family, or Friends to help them in any way. As a disclaimer, I am using San Antonio as the example for this discussion, however, the concept will be the same in just about every other location in the USA that has a Refugee Resettlement Agency.
Let’s begin at the Airport since that will be the actual beginning point of this discussion. Your first step is to travel from the Airport to a Hotel/Motel. This will be effected by taking a taxi. Now you should also know that Taxi’s in the USA are very expensive (they charge on average about $2.50 just to get in the taxi, and then about $3.00 for each mile traveled).
SIDE NOTE: There are two kinds of hotel/motel’s in San Antonio (and other major cities). These would be (1) short-stay, and (2) extended-stay hotel/motels. Short-Stay Hotels/Motels basically consist of a room with the facilities to sleep (ie. bed) and to perform bodily functions and personal hygiene (ie. toilet and shower/bathtub). The key here is to identify that in a Short-Stay Hotel/Motel there is to facilities for the preparation of food (ie. no kitchen or cooking capabilities). The average cost of a Short-Stay Hotel/Motel is about $75 per night. An Extended-Stay Hotel/Motel is equipped with the same facilities of a Short-Stay Hotel/Motel, but it also contains facilities for food preparation (ie. Stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator, sink, you get the idea). Extended-Stay Hotels/Motels are usually rented by the week and month. When rented by the month the cost can be about 25% less expensive than if it was to be rented by the week. The average cost of an Extended-Stay Hotel/Motel is about $300 per week. Now the average SIV takes approximately one week to find and rent an apartment, but I always say to think conservatively and plan to be in a Hotel/Motel for the first two weeks of arrival in the USA. So do some math, in a Short-Stay Hotel/Motel that costs about $75 per night, for 14 nights, then you should expect to pay about $1000… While if you stayed for 2 weeks in an Extended-Stay Hotel/Motel it would cost you about $650… Now there is one more thing to think about, and that would be the cost of food. If you stayed in a Short-Stay Hotel/Motel then you would realistically be getting most of your food at a restaurant and the average meal will cost you about $15 per meal. So assuming that you ate twice per day, that would cost you $30 per day, times 14 days, that would cost you about $500. So adding the cost of the Hotel/Motel and Food, that is a grand expense of about $1500 for the first two weeks… on the other hand, by temporarily residing in an Extended-Stay Hotel/Motel you could buy regular groceries and cook “at home” for easily half the cost of eating in restaurants, which by comparison would cost the Extended-Stay SIV about $800 for the same period of time. In short, I would highly recommend that anyone that is going to be staying in a Hotel/Motel for longer than a few days, should stay in an Extended-Stay Hotel/Motel…
So back to the main point of this discussion… For the purpose of this discussion we will assume that the SIV has elected to stay at an Extended-Stay Hotel/Motel, and the place that was chosen was “Budget Suites of America” which is located at 7880 Fredericksburg Road, San Antonio, Texas 78240 (DISCLAIMER: I am only mentioning this specific Extended-Stay Hotel/Motel because it has become a regular destination in San Antonio for First Time and Returning SIV’s and these SIV’s reported to be that their experience in this place has been favorable).
Using the taxi Trip Cost Estimator on the Yellow Cab Taxi Service Website (http://www.yellowcabsanantonio.com/Fare_info.aspx) the distance between the Airport and the Hotel/Motel is 7.5 miles, it will take 14 minutes to make the journey, and the estimated fare will cost $24 dollars.
You checked into the Hotel/Motel and paid for one week’s rent ($300). You then went out to a restaurant within walking distance and got something to eat (Married $75, Single $20) and went back to your Hotel/Motel and went to sleep. Life sucks for you and you follow my advice and wake up at 4am and everyone feels sick and tired, but you get up anyways, perform personal hygiene, get dressed, and call a taxi at 5am. You then take you (and your family as applicable) with your passports/visas and travel to the Social Security Office that is located at 411 Richland Hills Road, San Antonio, Texas 78245. You get there between 5:30 and 5:45am and you are the only one there. You are getting pissed off at me right about now because it is dark, cold, windy, and you’re the only one standing in a non-existent line, and the taxi cost you $25 dollars. At about 6am the second person shows up, and about every minute after that 2 to 5 people show up and start getting in line, and by 7am the line is about 100 people long and is wrapped around the building. Then it registers in your mind, “now I understand why Ronald Payne told me to come at this time”… yeah, because the Social Security Office opens at 8am and if you show up anytime after 6:30am to get in line, you will be waiting all day (like in at least 4 to 6 hours) before you are even seen (at it will be one miserable experience to sit in a Social Security Office Waiting-Room for any real length of time). But you were the very first in line and waited for 90 minutes, but in under 45 minutes of the door opening, you were in and out. Now your purpose of going to the Social Security Office was to apply for a Social Security Card/Number, and you need the Receipt that you applied for it BEFORE you can apply for and receive your ORR Resettlement Benefits.
So you then take another taxi from the Social Security Office to Catholic Charities Refugee Services which is located at 202 West French Place, San Antonio, Texas 78212 and your taxi cost you about $10 dollars. You then get seen by a Case Manager and apply for your ORR Benefits. This process takes you about 2 hours to complete. By this time you are getting very sick and tired so you decide to call it a day and go back to your Hotel/Motel to get something to eat and to get some sleep. You call a taxi and the taxi ride costs you about $20 dollars.
OK, so minus some other things that you will be required to take care of during the next week, you now begin your search for an apartment. You started this search by asking for a housing referral from your case Manager at Catholic Charities refugee Services. You are told about a couple of Apartment Complexes that Catholic Charities Refugee Services has a contact with. Some are better than others, and each has their positive and negative points of consideration, and you have resigned yourself to accepting that you will be living in a piece of shit place for the first 6 months. So you pick the worst place of them all, and for the Single SIV you picked “Fairways V Apartment Complex” (http://www.fairways5.com/) which is going to cost you about $550 per month for a studio/efficiency or about $650 for a one-bedroom apartment. But that is not the total cost, they are also going to charge you about $30 per month for cable television and between $30 to $50 per month for electricity and gas. So your real cost is going to be between $600 and $700 per month. But cut that in half if you have a room-mate (ie. another SIV) hint hint hint… Now the married SIV sunk even lower and rented a place at “Dove-Tree Apartment Complex” which is located at 4515 Gardendale Street, San Antonio, Texas 78240 where they got a two bedroom apartment and are being over-charged at about $800 to $850 per month, not including electricity and gas which will cost you on average of about $100 to $250 per month. You take the deal even though you know that this place is stealing the money right out of your pocket. But you thankfully only signed a 6 month lease.
Now other options are out there in your search for apartments in San Antonio, and now assuming that you took your time to do your research and made some phone calls before you went out to check a place out (because each trip in a taxi is costing you a lot of money)… hint hint hint, what you really did was do your research while you were still in Iraq or Afghanistan… and what you did was to search some of the more popular apartment search websites, such as:
http://www.apartmentlistings.com/
http://www.forrent.com/
http://www.apartmentguide.com/
and of course you could conduct an open internet search in Google or Yahoo under “[name any city] apartments for rent”… or for example “San Antonio Apartments for Rent”…
Now, sometimes there are some good deals on a website called “craigslist”, but I would strongly suggest that you stay away from this website until you been in the USA for awhile, because this website is full of scams and frauds, and the scammers and fraudsters using this website are very good at perpetrating their crimes and you don’t have enough money to be scammed or defrauded during your resettlement…
OK, so you did your research and you found a place that you want to move into. So your next step is to go to the Apartment Complex Leasing/Rental Office and to apply for an Apartment Lease or Rent. So let’s stop here for a moment, what is a Lease and what is Rent (ie. Month to Month Rent)… A LEASE is a contractual agreement where the Apartment Complex agrees to rent you an Apartment for the term of the contractual agreement, AND you agree that you will rent the Apartment for the term of the contractual agreement. Most Apartment Complexes in the USA will only rent an Apartment via the Lease Option, and most Leases are either 6 Months, 12 Months, and sometimes 18 to 24 Months. Most Leases are 6 or 12 Months. Now what that means is that if you lease an apartment for 6 or 12 months, the good part is the monthly rent will stay the same for the entire contract period of time. The bad part is that if you want to leave early, you are in a contract and they can make you pay for the apartment for the rest of the contract period of time, or most apartment complexes will have a “Lease Break” Provision in the lease Contract that will allow you to “break the lease” if you pay a fee, and that fee is usually the cost of one month’s rent. The other part of a lease is that at the end of the lease, if the person wanted to stay there, the price of rent could go up with the next lease contract period of time. Now the other option is a “Month-to-Month” rental agreement. This option is rare with most apartment complexes, but it does exist. In this option, the person pays the rent every month, they can leave at the end of any month and they have nothing extra to pay if they so choose to leave. On the other side, if the owner or manager of the apartment complex does not like you, then they can choose to tell you to leave, and on a month-to-month rental agreement, if that is the case, you got to go, and your in deep shit trouble of your don’t have another place to go to…
So at this point you filled out your Apartment lease/Rental Agreement and you have “No Credit” (we will talk about this in another post) because you are new to the USA. And I am also assuming that at this time, you have no income except your ORR benefits, which will add up for their purposes to about $450 per person, so if you have a family of 4, that would be $1800 per month. But if your single, $450 is not much. So they tell you that you either (1) have to pay everything for the full lease period up front, which if you have a $800 per month apartment, will cost you $4800 for a 6 month lease, or (2) you have to pay FIRST-LAST-SECURITY DEPOSIT… Now sometimes, you will manage to rent an apartment without these costs, but for planning purposes, you should assume that every place you go to will want to charge you the FIRST-LAST-SECURITY DEPOSIT…
So what is a FIRST-LAST-SECURITY DEPOSIT?... well that would be an up-front payment of the First Month Rent, the Last Month Rent, and a Security Deposit that is usually equal to the cost of one month’s rent. So for example, a $800 per month apartment with a 6 month lease would cost you $1600 in up-front rent for month 1 and month 6, and $800 in a “Security Deposit”… Now the person would be responsible to pay the rent for Month’s 2, 3, 4, and 5… if they were leaving, then month 6 is already paid, and of they were staying, they would pay for month 6 and the “last” would carry forward until the final month that they would live there until they left. Now the “Security Deposit” is money that is given to the Apartment Complex to pay for any damages to the apartment that was caused by the renter. Theoretically if there are no damages and only normal wear and tear of the apartment, then the money is supposed to be returned when the person moves out. But historically, there is always claimed damages above normal wear and tear and only part of the security deposit is returned when the person moves out. The key to getting the most back is to fully inspect the apartment when moving in and recording any pre-existing damages and ideally taking pictures of this, and then recording the condition of the apartment when leaving, and ideally by photograph or video, and that way if the owner or manager of the apartment complex says there is anything that is not true, you can say (and show) that you have pictures or video to prove otherwise, and then “we can let the court decide” what is true or not true. Usually that is enough to get your money back. But if you actually damage the place, then rightfully it should be expected that whatever it cost to fix the damage will be taken out of the security deposit. So in short, at an absolute minimum, you should plan that it will cost you three times the amount of the monthly rent to lease/rent an apartment, and in the case of a $800 per month apartment, that estimated cost for planning purposes should be no less than $250o (which includes the apartment application fee)… Now on that note, almost all apartment complexes will charge you a small application fee (about $15 to 25) and this will include the fee to run a credit report on you (we will talk about credit reports and credit scores in another post).
The last thing is the cost of utilities (ie. Electricity and gas). Some apartment complexes will manage those services and add the cost of those services to your monthly rent, and for those that do not, the apartment complex will provide you with the contact information of those who do…
Now one very last thing, there are some apartment complexes that are all inclusive, meaning that the cost of utilities and everything is included in the rent. For a single person who really wants to live alone, and is ok with a small place, there is an apartment complex in san Antonio called “Warren House” (http://www.warrenproperties.com/index.php?option=com_properties&view=locality&lid=41&Itemid=76) that have apartments that are fully furnished and includes all utilities and cost between $450 to $500 per month. There are several SIV’s who are living there and I have not heard any complaints from them, and the cost of moving in there is much less expensive than renting a traditional apartment. Here is the link to the website of the location that they are staying at:
http://www.warrenproperties.com/index.php?option=com_properties&view=property&cid&id=79&Itemid=28
Now for the very very last thing that I have to say… Married people and Families obviously are going to stay in their own place, but for Single People, I recommend that they get room-mates, and the most cheapest way to do this is to have 2 people per bedroom, so if 4 SIV’s rented a 2 bedroom apartment, and that apartment cost $800 per month, simple math would say that the per person cost is $200 per month. Hint hint hint… If your ORR rental Benefit is $245 per month, and 4 SIV’s shared a 2 bedroom apartment, then that $245 ORR Rental Benefit would easily pay for the Rent and Utilities, this is the standard of housing standards from which that ORR Benefit amount was determined. Likewise, take a married person with 2 kids, and the ORR housing Benefit is $245 per-person, that would be a total of $980, of which if they stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment that cost $800 per month, then that would leave $180 per month to pay for utilities. Once again, see how that ORR Rental Benefit amount was set at $245 per-person per-month…
OK, that concludes today’ discussion, and although I used San Antonio as the example for this discussion, the concept is the same for just about every city in the United States. Until my next post, everyone stay safe
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