Source: www.forumdaily.com
The Biden administration has announced three measures to reduce the growing multimillion-dollar backlog of immigration applications that are undermining the US government's ability to process them in a timely manner.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to expand the number of applicants who can pay additional fees to speed up processing of their immigration petitions, propose a rule that will make life easier for immigrants waiting to renew work permits, and establish a request for anonymity as of February USCIS greenlighted 9.5 million pending applications, a 66% increase over the end of FY 2019.
A growing backlog of legal cases has led to a dramatic increase in delays in processing applications, leaving many immigrants — from asylum seekers and green card applicants to collegial U.S. citizens — in legal limbo for months, potentially losing their jobs, driver's licenses, licenses and sources of income.
"USCIS remains committed to making timely and fair decisions for everyone we serve," USCIS Director Ur Jaddu said on March 29. "Every application we review reflects the hopes and dreams of immigrants and their families, as well as their needs, such as financial stability and humanitarian protection."
New measures
Among the new USCIS measures is a rule to expand "premium processing," which allows some applicants to pay an additional fee of $2,500 to have their cases processed on an expedited basis. Currently, the service is available only to applicants who file Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Workers, and to certain employment-based immigrant visa applicants who file Form I-140, Petition for Foreign Workers. This final rule expands the categories of forms that are ultimately eligible for premium processing services, including Form I-539, Application for Extension/Change of Nonimmigrant Status; Form I-765, application for work authorization; and additional classifications on Form I-140.
The rule, which will take effect in 60 days, will extend premium processing to additional employment-based green card applications, all work authorization petitions and requests to extend temporary immigration status, allowing applicants to pay 45 days. Premium processing will be expanded gradually, starting with green card petitions for executives or managers and professionals with advanced degrees or "exceptional ability." They will be able to immigrate to the US without a job offer, which is usually required.
A senior USCIS official said the phased implementation will ensure that other applications are not delayed by the expansion of premium processing, which was authorized by Congress in 2020 when USCIS faced a financial crisis that threatened to lay off employees13. "We can't just divert all our resources to premium bids while everyone else suffers," the official said. USCIS will also issue another rule to provide temporary relief to immigrants affected by work authorization delays by extending the work authorization period for those applying for extensions, the official said.
The rule was recently submitted to the White House for consideration. Currently, most work permit holders who apply for extensions are eligible for an automatic 180-day extension if their work permit expires. However, many immigrants wait longer to renew their work authorization, often more than 10 months, USCIS data show. A complete list of previous actions taken by USCIS to reduce processing times and pending USCIS cases is available on the website.
"We routinely cannot rule on these extensions, not only by the expiration date, but also by those 180 days after the expiration date," a USCIS official said. USCIS' third measure includes hiring more social workers and improving processing technology to meet the new application deadlines, which it could achieve by September 2023. According to USCIS, USCIS currently has several thousand vacancies.
USCIS will instruct social workers to process requests for temporary work programs, such as H-1B and H-2A visas for agricultural workers, within two months. Requests for work permits, travel documents, and temporary extensions or changes in status must be processed within three months. Under the new processing rules, USCIS officials must process other applications, including applications for U.S. citizenship, DACA extensions, and green card requests for immigrants sponsored by family members or U.S. employers, within six months. "It's pretty unprecedented for the director of USCIS to say to the entire agency, to the entire staff, 'Our processing times are too high, it's preventing us from fulfilling our mission and therefore the goals that USCIS is going to pursue and is going to achieve,'" said a USCIS official.
You're Always Worried
Jairo Umana, a Nicaraguan political dissident seeking asylum in the United States, has been waiting almost a year for his work permit to be renewed. Since his permit expired, he works as a roofer in the Miami area, using a 180-day automatic work permit extension.
As the sole breadwinner of his two children, Umana says he worries about losing his work permit and driver's license, which are tied to his work permit. "It's stress. You were always worried, Umana said in Spanish. "Not having a job starts a chain reaction: no income, no money for rent, no food." Backlogs at USCIS are part of the dead end in the immigration system.
The Department of Justice currently handles 1.7 million pending cases of immigrants facing deportation, while the State Department handles more than 400,000 immigrant visa applicants awaiting interviews. The Biden administration has vowed to reduce that backlog, which it attributes in part to Trump-era policies that cut legal immigration and put more immigrants in deportation proceedings.
USCIS has made bureaucratic changes aimed at speeding up processing, but still relies on paper records and forms.
As part of a massive spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month, USCIS received more than $400 million to address processing delays and backlogs. On March 28, President Biden asked Congress to provide USCIS with an additional $765 million in fiscal year 2023 to fund backlog reduction efforts. Conchita Cruz, co-founder of the Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project (ASAP), an organization that works with more than 280,000 immigrants who have sought asylum in the US, called USCIS's proposal to extend the automatic extension of work permits a "huge victory."
"This expansion will not only help ASAP members, but also asylum seekers, other immigrant workers, as well as their employers and the communities that rely on them as doctors, construction workers, truck drivers, software engineers and more." Cruz said. Linden Melmed, USCIS's chief legal officer under the George W. Bush administration, said the March 29 announcement shows that USCIS is aware of the urgency of the backlog and processing crisis, as well as its humanitarian impact on applicants and the economic consequences for Americans. "At a time when every company is scrambling to find workers, they're forced to lay off workers because the government can't process a four-page application in more than a year," Melmed said.
