At the end of March, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the agency will be working to reduce backlogs, increase premium processing for additional form types, and ensure timely access to employment authorization documents.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and limited resources from the previous administration, USICS has been left with a large number of pending cases, as well as longer processing times. These new steps from the Biden administration are intended to reduce caseloads and the time it takes to process them while ensuring applicants and petitioners receive fair and efficient services.
What is the USCIS Doing to Reduce Backlogs?
In an effort to reduce the 9.5 million-case backlog, USCIS has introduced new internal cycle time goals this month. “Cycle times” are an internal metric the agency uses to monitor the number of pending cases it has by measuring how many months’ worth of cases are still awaiting a decision.
USCIS states that these metrics will help guide the agency in reducing the significant backlogs while decreasing the time it takes to process cases, which should help applicants and petitioners receive quicker decisions.
USCIS’s new cycle time goals are as follows:
2 Weeks
- • I-129 Premium
- • I-140 Premium
2 Weeks
- • I-129 Non-Premium
3 months
- • I-765
- • I-131 Advance Parole
- • I-539
- • I-824
6 months
- • N-400
- • N-600
- • N-600K
- • I-485
- • I-140 Non-Premium
- • I-130 Immediate Relative
- • I-129F Fiancé(e)
- • I-290B
- • I-360
- • I-102
- • I-526
- • I-600
- • I-600A
- • I-600K
- • I-730
- • I-800
- • I-800A
- • I-90
- • I-812D Renewals
How Will USCIS Expand Premium Processing?
Among USCIS’s new measures to reduce the backlog is a new rule to expand premium processing. Premium processing allows applicants and employers to request expedited processing for certain petitions in exchange for an additional fee. Currently, the service is only available to petitioners filing a Form I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and certain employment-based visa petitioners filing a Form I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers.
The new rule, which is set to take effect on May 31, will expand the premium processing service to additional employment-based green card applications, all work permit petitions, and temporary immigration status extension requests, including:
- • Form I-539 Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status
- • Form I-1765 Application for Employment Authorization
- • Additional classifications under Form I-140
These applicants will be able to pay a $2,500 fee to have their cases adjudicated within 45 calendar days instead of the previous timeline of 15 days. Despite the increased timeframe, the expansion of this program is expected to help reduce the backlog overall, as I-140 petitions can take up to 15-48 months, depending on where they’re being processed. However, the expansion of this program will happen gradually through phases.
In addition, USCIS will also follow congressional requirements to ensure that the expansion of premium processing won’t cause increased processing times for regular immigration benefit requests. The first stage of expanding premium processing will begin with offering eligibility to:
- • Form I-140 filers requesting EB-1 immigration classification as a multinational executive or manager
- • Form I-140 filers requesting EB-2 immigrant immigration classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver
How Will USCIS Improve Access to Employment Authorization Documents?
The third part of USCIS’s efforts will be to improve access to authorization documents (EADs) through a temporary final rule called the “Temporary Increase of the Automatic Extension Period of Employment Authorization and Documentation for Certain Renewal Applicants.”
This will help to streamline many EAD processes by providing temporary relief to certain individuals(such as healthcare workers and childcare workers) who have been affected by work authorization delays while their applications were pending with USCIS.Currently, most work permit holders who apply for renewals are eligible for an automatic 180-day extension if their work authorization lapses, but with delays in processing times, many individuals have to wait much longer—often more than 10 months, according to USCIS figures.
Additional Steps USCIS is Taking to Reduce Backlogs
In addition to the above measures, USCIS also plans to hire more caseworkers and improve its processing technology to meet the new target timelines for adjudicating applications. The agency expects to have this completed by September 2023.
Caseworkers will be instructed to try to adjudicate the following requests within a specified timeframe:
Two months
- • Requests for temporary work programs, such as H-1B and H-2A visas for agricultural workers
Three months
- • Work permit requests
- • Requests for temporary status extensions or changes
- • Travel documents
Six months
- • U.S. citizenship requests
- • DACA renewals
- • Green card requests for immigrants sponsored by U.S. family members or employers
Contact Ranchod Law Group to Find Out Your Immigration Options
Understandably, these backlogs have created a lot of stress and uncertainty for those who have seen long delays in the U.S. Immigration system. In addition to the USCIS backlog, the Justice Department is currently overseeing 1.7 million unresolved deportation cases and the State Department has a backlog of over 400,000 immigrant visa applications waiting for interviews at U.S. consulates due to limited operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. While still more is needed to expedite case processing times, these steps taken by USCIS are certainly a step in the right direction.
If you’d like more information about the new USCIS processing times or how they might affect your case, please contact Ranchod Law Group at 916-613-3553 to schedule a consultation, or email us at info@ranchodlaw.com.