INS Service

Re “Seeing Red About Getting a Green Card,” Voices, Jan. 10: Richard Rogers claims that “customer service” is one of the top priorities of the INS. What kind of customer service does he mean, I wonder?

I received a letter from the INS saying, “Please go to Rm. 8024 as soon as possible so that your I-89 can be taken.” There was no explanation of what I-89 was, no information about office hours. I went to the INS the next day. In Room 8024 I was told by the woman behind the counter, “Come any day except Tuesday.” She did not explain why that day, a Thursday, was no good; only through further questioning was I told that on that day all officers were “training.” She refused to tell me what the I-89 was. When I asked her neighbor for clarification on this point the woman turned to me saying, “Are you still here? I don’t know how you were let into the country.”

Although such open disrespect is, I hope, rare at the INS, the underlying impression that one receives through the tortuous procedure of applying for a green card is indeed that the INS grants a favor, not that it provides a service.

P.S. I already have the necessary stamp in my passport.

JACK BURNETT-STUART

Los Angeles