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USCIS Opens International Adjudications Support Branch in California

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Introduction

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), through its International Operations Division, recently opened a new support branch in Anaheim, Calif. to assist in processing select paper-based applications and petitions received from its international offices.

Background

The International Adjudications Support Branch (IASB) provides USCIS with greater operational flexibility to address seasonal and periodic fluctuations in the workload of the overseas international offices throughout the year. The IASB also provides USCIS with a ready team of trained staff available to travel overseas to support operations on an as-needed basis. While the support branch will not accept in-person appointments, it will provide invaluable customer service by significantly reducing processing times and allowing officers in international offices to schedule more appointments with customers and perform other operational duties.

Questions and Answers

Q: What types of cases does the support branch process?
A. Initially, the IASB will focus its efforts on adjudicating non-health related applications to waive grounds of inadmissibility, (Form I-601) from USCIS’ office in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Q: May a USCIS customer file a Form I-601 waiver application directly with the IASB?
A. No, customers must continue to file their waiver applications with USCIS at the U.S. Consulate having jurisdiction over their place of residence.

Q: Will the new branch accept in-person inquiries?
A: No, the IASB is not open to the public for in-person inquiries.

Q: How will a customer know if USCIS has transferred their case to the IASB?
A: USCIS will mail customers a notice when the agency transfers their case to the IASB.

Q: Why is the new branch located at the Los Angeles Asylum Office?
A: By maximizing available office space, the support branch was able to immediately stand-up operations and process cases. In addition, the shared facility is close to the Los Angeles international Airport, offering easy access to international cities and simplifying the travel of staff overseas when necessary.

Q: How may the public contact the IASB?
A: The public may contact the IASB by mail to:P.O. Box 65006, Anaheim CA 92815-5006, or by e-mail to: iopsla@fins3.dhs.gov.

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USCIS Revises Filing Instructions and Direct Mail Program for Replacing a Permanent Resident Card

Monday, May 11th, 2009

WASHINGTON — U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) published a Federal Register notice on April 28, 2009 that changed the filing location and filing instructions for the Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (Form I-90). The revised filing instructions require applicants to submit supporting documentation with their applications. Prior to this change, applicants were instructed to bring their supporting documentation to their biometrics appointments. The notice also revises the Direct Mail address for the Form I-90. Applicants must now file their Form I-90 and supporting documentation with the USCIS Lockbox facility in Phoenix.

This change in filing location affects all I-90 applicants filing a paper form, including those applicants filing the I-90 because their previously issued card was never received or because their existing card has incorrect data due to a USCIS error. This notice does not affect applicants filing an I-90 electronically or whose place of residence is outside the United States.

Beginning on April 28, 2009, applicants must submit their Form I-90 and supporting documentation to the USCIS Lockbox facility in Phoenix for initial processing, using the following addresses:

USCIS
P.O. Box 21262
Phoenix, AZ 85036

For USPS Express Mail and Courier Service deliveries, use the following address:

USCIS
ATTN: I-90
1820 Skyharbor Circle S Floor 1
Phoenix. AZ 85034

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Line to become a U.S. citizen is shorter

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Fewer people are joining the long line for U.S. citizenship these days, following a surge of applications two years ago.

More than 1 million immigrants took the oath of citizenship in the year leading up to the 2008 presidential election, and another 330,000 are still waiting for approval. The big wave came just before the government’s application fee jumped to $675 from $400 in July 2007. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it has worked to clear the backlog that resulted, and is now receiving surprisingly low numbers of new applicants.

Immigrants are generally eligible for citizenship once they have completed five years of permanent residency, or “green card” status. There are signs that the bad economy may be causing some to hold off.

“Receipts have not picked up as fast as we thought they would,” said Donald Neufeld, a top official at the agency, during a visit to New York last week.

Read the complete article here

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USCIS Meets Another Milestone in Eliminating FBI Name Check Backlogs

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that, working in close partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the backlog for FBI name checks pending more than six months has been eliminated. This is the fourth milestone met by the agency as part of its joint plan with the FBI to completely eliminate the backlog of pending name checks.

Just 16 months ago, more than 349,000 name checks were pending; of that, nearly 150,000 had been pending for more than six months. All USCIS requests pending for six months or more as of February 28, 2009, have now been responded to by the FBI’s National Name Check Program (NNCP).

In April 2008, USCIS and the FBI established milestones prioritizing work based on the age of the pending name check. Priorities included processing all name checks pending more than three years by May 2008 (the FBI had already eliminated all cases pending more than four years); those pending more than two years by July 2008; and those pending more than one year by November 2008.

USCIS and FBI are on schedule to meet the next two goals: all name checks requests pending longer than 90 days to be completed by May 30, 2009 and, by the end of June 2009, the FBI will complete 98 percent of USCIS name check requests within 30 days and process the remaining two percent within three months. USCIS and the FBI will continue to focus on sustaining a rigorous and efficient screening of each name check request.

Elimination of the name check backlog is an example of USCIS’ commitment to making timely decisions about immigration applications and petitions, while maintaining the security and integrity of America’s immigration system.

[via uscis.gov]

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Immigration head says reform would pose challenge

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

IRVING, Texas — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must prepare for the challenge an immigration reform plan would pose, the agency’s current leader said Wednesday.

During the opening of a new sprawling USCIS district office in the Dallas suburb of Irving, acting deputy director Michael Aytes pointed out such facilities are among the improvements the agency can make to get ready for additional workload if lawmakers reform immigration policies.

“Every day that goes by is a day that we lose if were not doing something to better position ourselves for that reality when it happens,” Aytes said.

USCIS staffers are already trying to work through a backlog of applications of people seeking citizenship, green cards and other services.

In the North Texas district, applications for naturalization are 2 1/2 months behind than the desired goal of five months to process. Petitions to become a legal permanent resident, or green card holder, are behind four to five months, officials said.

While the agency has to focus on the current tasks and customers, it also must continue to invest in building new facilities, develop better case management systems and improve how services are delivered, Aytes said.

“All of those things we’ll help us to better prepare for whatever challenge we’re asked to accept,” he said.

President Barack Obama has said he is committed to comprehensive immigration reform. Latino lawmakers and advocates continue pushing for changes in U.S. immigration policy, including proposals to create a path for citizenship for the estimated 12 million immigrants in the nation illegally.

via AP.com

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USCIS Processing Times Improve for Form I-130

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Over the last three months the USCIS has seen an impressive reduction in the amount of time needed to process I-130 Petitions for a US Citizen’s Spouse. Since the end of 2008 the processing times for this form have gone down nearly three months at both the California and Vermont Service Centers. As of today, the CSC and VSC are taking 99 and 172 days respectively to process an I-130.

This comes as good news to those applicants looking to get an IR-1/CR-1 Visa (instead of a K-3 Visa which is traditionally faster). The benefit of an IR-1/CR-1 Visa is that upon entering the US the holder of the visa immediately becomes a Legal Permanent Resident.

USCIS I-130 Historical Processing Times

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I-134 Form Entry Page Updated: Public Notary Not Needed

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

While members at VisaJourney have known for a while that the new I-134 form did not require a “public notary”, officially the USCIS still listed this as required on the Form Entry Page (FEP) for the I-134. The USCIS always states that the FEP takes precedence over any form instructions so as such VJ has kept the guides and other information as listing the public notary as needed.

Several weeks ago we contacted the USCIS regarding this error and they have finally corrected it. The FEP now reads:

You must sign Form I-134 in your full name. (Note: Signing Form I-134 is under penalty of perjury under U.S. law). For this reason, it is not necessary to sign Form I-134 before a notary, nor to have your signature notarize after you sign it.

As such all Guides on VJ will be updated to reflect this.

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Radio show offers glimpse of professors’ love story

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Traveling thousands of miles, transcending cultural boundaries, reuniting after a long separation — Eric Hayot and Chunyuan Di’s love story is one of persistence, and the Chicago Public Radio was intrigued.

The romance between Hayot, an associate professor of comparative literature and director of Asian Studies, and Di, a lecturer in Chinese, was featured on Sunday night’s the radio station broadcast of This American Life.

The tale was broadcast in State College through WPSU-FM. The broadcast can be heard at the WPSU Web site in the This American Life archives.

Hayot and Di spoke about the great lengths that Hayot took to find Di in Beijing after years of separation and how they struggled through distance and cultural barriers.

Sarah Koenig, a producer for This American Life, said she was at a party with her husband Ben Schreier, Penn State assistant professor of English and Jewish studies, when she first heard about Hayot and Di’s romance.
(more…)

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Rules could infringe on basic civil rights in Tennessee

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

Immigrants, whether they are in the United States legally or illegally, cannot rest easily in Tennessee.

For that matter, people who are natives of the U.S. and whose skin happens to be brown also have reason to be nervous.

That is because the trend of resentment over the steadily growing immigrant population here has gone beyond the intolerance of individuals and threatens to become ingrained in our state and local legal codes.

Government-sponsored racism is an ugly thing.

The signs of this alarming trend, of course, include the well-publicized effort to limit all Metro Nashville communications and publications to English. But other instances have emerged, as well. As reported in The Tennessean earlier this month, a legal permanent U.S. resident who lives in Franklin saw his state ID and green card confiscated at a driver’s license office on unfounded suspicion that the documents were fake. The state Safety Department’s explanation that it is agency policy to investigate “suspicious” documents was sorely lacking.

In Davidson County, a U.S. citizen from Puerto Rico and her immigrant fiance were denied a marriage license simply because the fiance could not produce a Social Security card. Even though state policy was for county clerks to accept a valid passport or visa in the absence of a Social Security card, and the fiance had a valid passport, the couple was denied.

The Franklin man eventually got back his documents, but in the interim had to fear leaving his house without documents and was unable to visit family in Mexico. The couple had to sue the state of Tennessee, and eventually the state attorney general agreed that the marriage-license policy was unfair.

Read Full Article…

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USCIS Revises Direct Mail Program for the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400)

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it is revising the Direct Mail Program for the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400). The notice of this addition is effective on Jan. 22, 2009, and is published in today’s Federal Register. The notice advises the public to file non-military N-400s with the appropriate Lockbox facilities and provides a 30-day transition period after the effective date for USCIS service centers to forward N-400 applications received at their facilities to the appropriate Lockbox location.

Applicants should continue to file military N-400 cases with the Nebraska Service Center (NSC). In order to assist military spouses, NSC will also accept and process N-400s filed by spouses of military members.
(more…)

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Archive for the ‘General Immigration’ Category

USCIS Opens International Adjudications Support Branch in California

USCIS Revises Filing Instructions and Direct Mail Program for Replacing a Permanent Resident Card

Line to become a U.S. citizen is shorter

USCIS Meets Another Milestone in Eliminating FBI Name Check Backlogs

Immigration head says reform would pose challenge

USCIS Processing Times Improve for Form I-130

I-134 Form Entry Page Updated: Public Notary Not Needed

Radio show offers glimpse of professors’ love story

Rules could infringe on basic civil rights in Tennessee

USCIS Revises Direct Mail Program for the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400)

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