Online I 130 time reduced

[JFH 12,189]

20 minutes ago, SaeedA said:

My original response lacked clarity.

 

I said "assuming" it makes things faster. Also, I said things being faster is dependent on rate of application intake staying the same.

 

I tired saying any gains in throughput would probably be nullified by increase in applications. 

 

I didn't say it will make things faster for sure.

 

I hadn't thought about the how things would speed up when I wrote my post. However, reading your response gave me one possible idea. Reallocation of freed up resources to actual case processing. Money saved can be used to hire and train more officers who process the cases.

 

Of course, that depends on what the current administration wants to accomplish with this move. Free up more money for immigration enforcement or reduce legal immigration delays.

I do believe I read somewhere that the mail room people at the lock boxes are contracted from a private company and not actual USCIS employees. How long it would take to train people to be adjudicators and how long it would take to get the extra office space (new builds? Extensions to existing office buildings?) is another matter. That would take years before we saw any improvement in processing times. Maybe the lock box staff don’t want to become adjudicators? So many variables. But we agree that it all comes down to how much public spending the current administration wishes to devote to the process. 

[Ryan H 3,790]

~~~Hijack posts removed~~~

[cbro 58]

On 11/4/2019 at 5:24 AM, JFH said:

contracted from a private company and not actual USCIS employees.

I think I read the same on a LinkedIn post or something - maybe it was JP Morgan or something??

 

One might think that eventually with forms "online" that processing times across the centers might balance out.  It really shouldn't matter what center your case is at, it should all be FIFO if you ask me.  That's what is most frustrating, its just luck/chance.  Someone could file their i130 months after I filed mine, get Texas or Potamac, and get their's approved before mine (because mine's at Nebraska).  I also wish there could be certain circumstances that could put your case into a "fast lane" - some criteria like number of years married, beneficiary coming from countries perhaps already part of VWP or something.  Plenty of red flags to slow you down but nothing to help speed anything up...

[OhWow 83]

You have to be really naive to think that the forms are only read by the officer when they open your case, and all that data never see the light of day after that. There's probably all kinds of background checks and automated processes that requires those forms to be digitalized (why do you think you need to use black ink only?).

 

For this reason, I'm sure online processing, by itself, will be faster. Even the process of moving paper is an overhead that doesn't exist with the digital format.

 

It almost feels like people who did the paper form are hoping that online processing is slower... jeez....

[geowrian 22,335]

44 minutes ago, OhWow said:

You have to be really naive to think that the forms are only read by the officer when they open your case, and all that data never see the light of day after that. There's probably all kinds of background checks and automated processes that requires those forms to be digitalized (why do you think you need to use black ink only?).

Because black ink shows up well when a document is covered to grayscale or B&W.

Digitization of the documents submitted has been around for many years. That's one of the reasons why they don't accept photo books, suggest not using sleeves, etc. Anything sent must be something they can scan.

The data from any document submitted for any immigration benefit is open for review. For an I-130 specifically, it is reviewed by USCIS, then the CO, possible during ROC, possibly during naturalization, and possibly again iof they ever petition somebody else.

 

44 minutes ago, OhWow said:

For this reason, I'm sure online processing, by itself, will be faster. Even the process of moving paper is an overhead that doesn't exist with the digital format.

 

It almost feels like people who did the paper form are hoping that online processing is slower... jeez....

I don't think anybody is suggesting it won't be faster, at least once kinks are worked out. It's just that the primary delay is not a function of moving physical documents but of the backlog to review the documents. Submitting the documents electronically will be faster than mailing + scanning like they do now.

After that, the document sits waiting for review & adjudication. There may or may not be very marginal improvements from there before adjudication.

Sending the approved petition to NVC, once they get the kinks worked out, will probably be faster as there is no mailing required again.

 

I don't think anybody is hoping the process will be slower. It's just that there's not a reason to believe it will have a significant impact on the overall timeline. We're talking a couple weeks (mailing/scanning times) out of a process that is taking over a year on average. That's good, but not a whole lot to get excited about.

Personally, I'm more excited that it is a simpler process IMO, and much less prone to error. You can't forget a signature. Wrong payment issues should be resolved. Documents getting lost shouldn't be a thing. Missing fields should be much less frequent.