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USCIS New Webpage goes Live: Reduced Clutter, Navigation Easier, Greater Transparency

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

The new USCIS.gov webpage has gone live and with it brings less confusing navigation, reduced clutter, and in some cases better transparency into the immigration process. Generally speaking, the “same” information is presented however USCIS seems to have taken some tips from modern web design and made it more ‘human’ friendly. With a fresh swipe of lipstick the new USCIS website welcomes guests and prominently states, “Need help with USCIS immigration Benefits and Services? Call 1-800-375-5283″. This is a great effort to put a human voice behind USCIS, however a newly designed homepage does not necessarily mean the USCIS hotline will be any better than in the past — time will tell if improvements have been made to the hotline as well!

Overall the new look, navigation and improved attempts at transparency are welcome. Cutting directly to the chase, below are several key areas that have taken great strides with the new USCIS homepage.

The new Main Page:

USCIS New Homepage (Sept 2009)

The new homepage features easy navigation tabs on the top: Topics, Forms, Resources, Law, News, About Us. This new navigation is not that “new” over what was there previously so for now lets move on. What “is” new is a nice little box on the upper left that says, “Where to Start”. This allows users to select “what they are trying to do”. For example you can select “I am a US Citizen” trying to “Bring my Fiance to the US”. The user is then provided with a starting point and basic information on what he or she may need to do. This is a welcome improvement and should at least give “new” immigration visitors a quick way to find out the basics on their immigration road ahead.

Also on the left of the main page is a series of links to “Customer Tools”. This up front section is clearly labeled and provides easy access to the e-tools that USCIS customers may need through the process.

USCIS Tools Menu

One of the most improved areas is the USCIS processing time webpage. While many elements of the previous webpage still exist (USCIS Service Center “current” processing dates), the USCIS webpage now allows users to select their benefit using drop down menus and to see “processing goal” periods for the petition (how long the USCIS hopes to process their petition in) and “actual” current processing times (how long the USCIS is actually processing them in). One question that immediately jumps out is, “how up to date and accurate is the processing in xx months estimate?”. Our guess is that it may simply generated from the USCIS “current” dates for given petitions at a Service Center (previously available information) but “maybe” (if we are lucky) USCIS has opened a deeper data source with more “live” information. We will report back once this becomes clear. Again, one thing that is certainly new and welcome is that USCIS now publishes processing time “goals” where previously they simply gave users no clue on how long they hoped to process petitions in. Kudos for this.

USCIS Processing Time Estimates

In addition to checking how long your petition may take, the USCIS case status system has been “improved” and now visually shows you where your petition sits in the process. This is a welcome step and helps give users an idea of “where” they are at along the road to their application being complete.

USCIS Case Status

In addition to knowing where you sit in the process, USCIS also now allows you to receive “text messages” to your mobile device when updates are available. Previously this information was available online and also via email. For all those “case status” junkies out there (nothing to be ashamed about!) this is a welcome addition!

In an interesting move, the last major notable addition to the processing time page is a new feature (we mentioned greater transparency) to allow users to see current “National Processing” Volumes and Trends. This is an excellent source of information that allows users to see if USCIS is slowing down or speeding up and if their case loads are doing the same. The same question about “where is this data coming from and how accurate is it” still remains, but this is a welcome addition regardless.

The USCIS “Volumes and Trends” charts are quite interesting and show both National and “Specific” Office (local and Service Center) information for petitions relating to many different benefits. Their data is about one to two months old but still very useful. Both Graphs (visual) and “csv” (data) are provided. As an example, here are the graphs showing Trends for I-129F petitions (for a Fiance of a US Citizen) at both the National level and the California Service Center:

USCIS I-129F National Trends

USCIS I-129F CSC Trends

This data mainly shows “cases” received, pending, completed and waiting on customer replies (RFEs). Although this does not directly indicate the current “processing time” (other portions as noted above of the USCIS site provide this) it does allow users to understand and visualize the “work” being done by USCIS on received cases. You could interpret the graphs in one case as:

— Rising pending cases indicates a slow down and increased processing time; the cause can be identified potentially as ‘customer driven’ if there are a lot of new petitions received (see a jump on the graph), or ‘USCIS driven’ if there are no jumps in new received cases but only a jump is pending cases.

A last feature of note that many may glance over are the new “feeds” available on USCIS pages. You can now receive rss feeds on most USCIS pages including notifications when updates are made. This is a excellent way to track updates at USCIS and a terrific addition.

USCIS Feeds

So these are the “big” areas of note for now on the new USCIS homepage. Overall we give a thumbs up to the improvements. On a five star scale we give it 3.5 out of 5 stars (not bad for a big government website). The only major thorn that we have is that we wish that USCIS would have been able to shorten their urls a little…

Example: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=9059d9808bcbd010VgnVCM100000d1f1d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=9059d9808bcbd010VgnVCM100000d1f1d6a1RCRD

…which to us would be more more useful if it read:

http://www.uscis.gov/forms/file-my-application-online

This gripe aside, USCIS certainly has a nice starting point for their new homepage and with any luck things will only improve!

Note: We will check back with USCIS.gov and update this article once they fix a few bugs that are preventing certain new features from working. Updates will be made here so check back later.

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Proxy wedding means Marine’s widow, baby unwelcome

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Hotaru Ferschke just wants to raise her 8-month-old son in his grandparents’ Tennessee home, surrounded by photos and memories of the father he’ll never meet: a Marine who died in combat a month after marrying her from thousands of miles away.

Sgt. Michael Ferschke was killed in Iraq in 2008, leaving his widow and infant son, both Japanese citizens, in immigration limbo: A 1950s legal standard meant to curb marriage fraud means U.S. authorities do not recognize the marriage, even though the military does.

Ferschke and his bride had been together in Japan for more than a year, and she was pregnant when he deployed. They married by signing their names on separate continents and did not have a chance to meet again in person after the wedding, which a 57-year-old immigration law requires for the union to be considered consummated.

“She is being denied because they are saying her marriage is not valid because it was not consummated — despite the fact that they have a child together,” said Brent Renison, an immigration lawyer in Oregon who has advised the family.

Hotaru Ferschke and the baby, Michael “Mikey” Ferschke III, are staying for now on a temporary visa at the home of her parents-in-law, in the Smoky Mountains town of Maryville. Robin and Michael Ferschke Sr., who are fighting for their daughter-in-law to stay, have emblazoned their son’s picture on everything from a blanket draped on the back of the couch to a waving banner on the fence outside.

continued at AP.org

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USCIS Update: USCIS Issues Guidance for Surviving Spouses of U.S. Citizens

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Relating to previous signs of action…

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today issued guidance on requesting deferred action for surviving spouses of U.S. citizens who died before the second anniversary of their marriage. Surviving spouses qualify for this temporary program if they were married to, but not legally separated from, their U.S. citizen spouse at the time of that spouse’s death; did not remarry; and are currently residing in the United States.

Surviving spouses qualify for deferred action regardless of whether the U.S. citizen spouse filed a Form I-130 petition for them. Surviving spouses may ask to have their qualifying children included in their deferred action request. To be considered a “qualifying child” of a surviving spouse, the child must be younger than age 21 or otherwise qualify as a child when the deferred action request is submitted; currently reside in the United States; and be unmarried.

USCIS has revised the instructions to the Forms I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant, I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, and I-131, Application for Travel Document, as they relate to this temporary new program.

Surviving spouses who apply for deferred action will need to file Form I-360 with supporting documentation and the $375 filing fee with the Vermont Service Center.

Work authorization will be available to surviving spouses and qualifying children who are granted deferred action and who can establish economic necessity. Form I-765 is used for this purpose (separate applications are required for each person seeking work authorization).

Travel authorization will also be available to surviving spouses and qualified children granted deferred action under this program.

USCIS has posted on the Web, an accompanying list of questions and answers and a fact sheet about this program. For additional information about this and other immigration services, please call the National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283, or visit the USCIS homepage.

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Archive for September, 2009

USCIS New Webpage goes Live: Reduced Clutter, Navigation Easier, Greater Transparency

Proxy wedding means Marine’s widow, baby unwelcome

USCIS Update: USCIS Issues Guidance for Surviving Spouses of U.S. Citizens

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