Standard Operating Procedures I-129 and I-140

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Standard operating procedures ("SOP"), including mail room procedures and document order information, for I-129 filings for O, H-1B, and L-1 petitions and for I-140 filings for EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 petitions.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jay Gairson

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 16, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 16, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

FOIA request COW2013000633 is not responsive to this request.

While there is potentially some overlap between this response and COW2013000633, any overlap is minor and incidental. Furthermore, COW2013000633 received a partial response (which I have chosen not to appeal) with the incoming mail SOPs. This request differs from that request substantially. Here the requested documents were:

"Standard operating procedures ("SOP"), including mail room procedures and document order information, for I-129 filings for O, H-1B, and L-1 petitions and for I-140 filings for EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 petitions."

To break that out those documents are:

* Standard operating procedures (SOP) for I-129 filings for O, H-1B, and L-1 petitions.
* Standard operating procedures (SOP) for I-140 filings for EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 petitions.
* Document order information for I-129 filings for O, H-1B, and L-1 petitions.
* Document order information for I-140 filings for EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 petitions.
* Mail room procedures specific to I-129 filings for O, H-1B, and L-1 petitions.
* Mail room procedures specific to I-140 filings for EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 petitions.

The only items in that list that COW2013000633's response partially covers are the last two. The first four documents are not covered at all. Furthermore, COW2013000633 only covered receipt procedures, it did not cover extraction or document management procedures.

I am seeking the most recent version of these documents. I know that they used to exist because the "I-129 H-1B Standard Operating Procedures" procured via "I-LINK" were previously published by AILA on July 26, 2007. (AILA Document Number 07072668). That was over six years ago and only for the I-129 H-1B SOPs. The existence of that document six years ago implies that such a document likely exists now and exists for other filing types in additional to the previously released I-129 H-1B exclusive SOPs.

Please continue processing this request as I have now provided you with clarification that eliminates the perceived redundancy between these requests.

I apologize for any confusion that may have occurred if my request was in any way unclear.

Yours,

Jay Gairson

"Document order information" is a generic term referring to any information or documents or procedures or electronic databases or etc pertaining to the manner in which a file should be organized. However, in this case, it is requested specifically for the case types cited. If it is not available for these specific case types, then the generic information would be acceptable.

Request COW2013000745 is for "Outgoing mail procedures". This request is for "Standard Operating Procedures" related to I-129 and I-140 filings. Note I did request that any information specific to these case types that are mailroom procedures be provided.

If there is any overlap between the requested documents for this request and COW2013000745, then I authorize you to release the overlapping documents with COW2013000745 and to focus on documents that specifically address this request and are not duplicative.

If you would be willing to give me a list, database copy, spreadsheet, index, or other information providing information as to the titles and whatever other information is in that list/index/database/spreadsheet/whatever of all agency documents I could narrow my requests and keep them from being duplicative. However, barring a list of such things, I can only ensure that you will be responsive to my requests by using longer lists of terms rather than absolute specificity.

Sincerely,

Jay Gairson

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 16, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #COW2013000838.

Thank you for your help.

This notice is being sent to you to notify you that I am submitting an appeal on this case. I have prepared an appeal of the fee waiver denial on this request #COW2013000838 and have consolidated the fee waiver denial appeal with the fee waiver denials on requests COW2013000745, COW2013000793, and COW2013000796. The consolidated appeal is being sent under a separate heading from this message.

Sincerely,

Jay Gairson

Greetings:

In order to avoid delays while I pursue alternative remedies due to the appeal denial, I hereby state that I am willing to pay up to $50 in costs and request an estimate of any remaining fees that may need to be paid by category if fees are to exceed $50.

By authorizing payment up to $50, I do not waive my argument or belief that I qualify for a fee waiver. Nor do I acknowledge a receipt of a denial in regards to this particular request.

Thank you,

Jay Gairson

Please provide me with information as to the estimated cost of production. I request this information under protest and reserve the right to pursue judicial remedies.

Sincerely,

Jay Gairson

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 16, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #APP2013001804.

Thank you for your help.