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USCIS NEWSUSCIS Update April 22, 2008 USCIS RELEASES PROJECTED NATURALIZATION PROCESSING TIMES FOR LOCAL OFFICES WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released today the projected times for local offices to complete processing of applications for citizenship from individuals who filed during the summer of 2007. Last July, USCIS received 460,000 applications for naturalization. That was three times the record for any previous month. For the year, USCIS received 1.4 million naturalization applications, almost double the normal annual volume. USCIS is hiring and training hundreds of additional immigration officers to adjudicate these cases. The agency is also conducting naturalization interviews on weekends, after normal business hours and in additional locations. The processing times listed below provide a sense of how quickly a case may be processed if there are no complicating factors. Still, some cases will take longer to complete for such reasons as:
Projected Local USCIS Office Processing Times at end of September 2008
USCIS continues to report delays: Advisory on Processing Times USCIS has received a significant increase in the number of applications filed. In July and August, nearly 2.5 million applications and petitions of all types were received. This compares to 1.2 million applications and petitions received in the same time period last year. This fiscal year, we received 1.4 million applications for naturalization; nearly double the volume we received the year before. The agency is working to improve processes and focus increased resources, including hiring approximately 1,500 new employees, to address this workload. As a result, average processing times for certain application types may grow longer. In particular, naturalization applications filed after June 1, 2007 may take approximately 16-18 months to process. USCIS has several informational services to keep you apprised of the agency's progress. We encourage you to take advantage of information posted on our website and to create and monitor your profile in our Case Status Online system to properly track your case. We will continue to provide additional information on application processing times as it becomes available. USCIS Advisory on Processing Times U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) advises customers that processing of fee payments and entry of cases into our tracking system remains behind schedule due to the tremendous increase in the number of applications filed. As a result, applicants are experiencing delays in receiving notices of receipt. USCIS is working hard to deal with the increased volume. *Date Received in Mailroom – USCIS will honor the actual date that an application was received in our mailroom; this date will be indicated on the receipt (in the Received Date box) when Form I-797, Notice of Action, is mailed. You can see a sample Form I-797. If your case is affected by the receipt delay, arrival of your receipt may take up to 12 weeks for adjustment-of-status applications and 15 weeks for naturalization and other applications. Weekly updates on Receipting – Until this situation is resolved, USCIS will provide these weekly updates on progress in issuing receipt notices to our customers. Additional information is available in Additional information is available in Frequently Asked Questions. *Applications Received Prior to Posted Receipting Dates – If your application was received by USCIS before the posted dates below and you still have no receipt, please contact USCIS Customer Service toll-free at 1-800-375-5283. We appreciate your understanding. IMPORTANT: Contact Customer Service toll-free at 1-800-375-5283 for: Change of Address – If you have submitted your application and are changing your address, but have not yet received your receipt. (If you have a receipt, you can report your change of address from the website, using USCIS' Change of Address Online.) Unusual Delay – If you have not received a receipt within the timeframe indicated below for the Service Center where you filed your application. USCIS Application and Receipting Update As of February 15, 2008, all receipting operations at USCIS Service Centers and the Chicago Lockbox are current. Last updated: 02/19/2008 Click for USCIS Website Application and Receipting Update USCIS Updates Projected Naturalization Case Processing Time Agency To Complete 36-percent More Naturalization Cases Than Last Year WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will finish more than one million naturalization cases during fiscal year 2008 – far exceeding the number of cases completed last year. This update comes following a thorough analysis of the work completed during the last six months. “By the end of the year, I expect USCIS will have finished 36 percent more naturalization cases than last year without compromising national security or the integrity of the naturalization process,” said USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez. The agency recently updated the expected time it will take to complete naturalization cases, projecting processing times averaging 13-15 months. That’s a three month improvement from the 16-18 month projection that USCIS made six months ago. A critical component of the strategy for addressing this workload is to quickly grow the capacity to handle the influx of additional cases. That includes expanding the USCIS workforce by adding nearly 3,000 new employees, detailing employees to work in the most heavily affected offices, quadrupling the funding for overtime and using Asylum Office facilities and staff to conduct naturalization interviews. Last summer, USCIS received an unprecedented number of applications and petitions for immigration benefits. During June, July and August alone, USCIS received nearly three million filings, compared to 1.8 million filings during the same period the previous year. This sudden surge included 1.4 million naturalization applications last year – 460,000 in July alone. While historically filing increases have occurred in advance of fee increases, Presidential elections, immigration debates and new legislation, none of the past increases are close to the magnitude of the last summer’s surge. Related Files · Press Release (27KB PDF) USCIS and FBI Release Joint Plan to Eliminate Backlog of FBI Name Checks Partnership Establishes Series of Milestones To Complete Checks WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today announced a joint plan to eliminate the backlog of name checks pending with the FBI. USCIS and the FBI established a series of milestones prioritizing work based on the age of the pending name check. The FBI has already eliminated all name check cases pending more than four years. “This plan of action is the product of a strong partnership between USCIS and the FBI to eliminate the backlogs and to strengthen national security,” said USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez. By increasing staff, expanding resources, and applying new business processes, the goal is to complete 98 percent of all name checks within 30 days. USCIS and the FBI intend to resolve the remaining two percent, which represent the most difficult name checks and require additional time to complete, within 90 days or less. The goal is to achieve and sustain these processing times by June 2009. The joint plan will focus on resolving the oldest pending FBI name checks first. USCIS has also requested that the FBI prioritize resolution of approximately 29,800 pending name checks from naturalization applicants submitted to the FBI before May 2006 where the naturalization applicant was already interviewed. The target milestones for processing name checks are: May 2008 - Process all name checks pending more than three years Related Files · Press Release (28KB PDF)
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