President Obama campaigned on the promise of hope. One area where he promises hope is in the reform of our immigration laws.
I will not try to address all of the many areas where our immigration laws need effective change, since that would take dozens of blogs to accomplish, but one specific need arises on an urgent basis: reducing the backlog of legal immigration cases. Hard working immigrants are back to waiting several years for an available employment-based visa, and adjudication times for naturalization are also much too long.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano is already looking into the incredible problem of immigration backlogs. In a new Directive, she has specifically ordered the Department to provide a progress report on “reducing the significant backlogs that had developed in the adjudication of naturalization petitions and adjustment of status applications.”
The Directive also addresses the need to fully use the immigration quota for immigrant visas. In past years, slow service by the USCIS has resulted in unused visas, that have been permanently lost because they were not alloted. I am very hopeful that the new administration will finally pay attention to the trials and tribulations of the many legal immigrants who have been struggling to get through the legal immigration process.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jim Erickson // Mar 1, 2009 at 4:48 pm
The backlog is criminal negligence. It is a product of Republican xenophobic hysteria. Now that the Republicans are out of power, the Obama administration needs to take action immediately.
2 PMKR // Aug 14, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Hello,
I just saw your website thru’ google. I’m not sure if the DHS will do anything. Whenever there’s talk about immigration reform, govt. is talking about only those illegal aliens and legalizing them. They don’t even bother or it didn’t even strike them that there’s an unfortunate crowd that came to this country legally thru’ an employment based visa, worked hard for years and paid tax regularly, but made to wait indefinitely to get the GC.
You can take my case for instance :
I’ve started my GC processing in 2005 (by labor substitution) I-140 was approved but I-485 is pending since then. In fact, my priority date is Jan-2001 and my case is being investigated still.
Nebraska Service Center of USCIS (where my application is pending) stated initially that background check was carried out by FBI and that’s the one which delays the process and not the USCIS.
With the help of the local Senator’s office, I’ve contacted the USCIS and here’s what I heard for the series of inquiries I’ve made :
- FBI had completed it’s check in Aug-2007 and passed the file back to USCIS and USCIS’s doing another round of check ;
- USCIS completed it’s check (after the FBI’s check) and the results are reviewed by an USCIS official and once he submits his review, decision will be taken ;
- USCIS official completed his review and USCIS is doing ANOTHER round of checking (JEEZ)
Atleast, this is what I was told by the Senator’s office. I can’t cross-verify b/c USCIS won’t open it’s mouth for ordinary guys like me.
Now that, visa numbers will be available only when the next financial year that opens in Oct, I need to wait till Oct. to see if a visa number is available. Even if it’s, no one will be so sure if my case will be approved or not.
My question is, why the USCIS should have this strong steel curtains ? If a particular case is not approved, why can’t they give proper explanations other than the standard “PENDING” message and advise on what steps should be taken to speed up the processing ?
If they’re doing million rounds of checking AFTER FBI has completed the background checking, why can’t they respond - if inquired - what kind of checking they’re carrying out exactly and if the candidate can do anything to help finish the checking ASAP, by means of providing any additional doccumentation.
Considering the ENORMOUS amounts of delay, one tends to think that, there’s a hidden agenda in not providing the GCs to the eligible candidates and there’s some kind lobby going around to delay the process indefinitely.
With all kinds of technology available today, if they say they’ve huge backlog, one can’t help but laughing out louder.
Even manual processing won’t cause this much delay.
3 admin // Aug 17, 2009 at 10:57 am
We will soon know if the government is serious about cutting down the ridiculously long wait times. With the recession, the number of green card applications have dropped dramatically. The dramatic drop should mean shorter adjudication times by USCIS and a reduction in the Department of State visa backlog. Next year, Congress will also have the opportunity to wipe out wait times in a comprehensive immigration act, which should not just look at the undocumented issue. Of course, politics could derail such action.
4 Aman // Sep 11, 2009 at 9:02 am
The backlog is criminal negligence. It is a product of Republican xenophobic hysteria. Now that the Republicans are out of power, the Obama administration needs to take action immediately….
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