On June 16, the Director of USCIS, Eduardo Aguirre, submitted to Congress a revised version of the INS’ original 2002 Backlog Elimination Plan. 

The 2002 plan challenged INS to reach a national average cycle time of six months or less for all applications by the end of 2003 and included the following commitments:

·         Achieve a high-level of performance by establishing clear, concrete milestones and actively monitoring progress towards these milestones;

·         Transform business practices by implementing significant information technology improvements and identifying processing improvements to transform the current way of doing business; and

·         Ensure integrity by instituting comprehensive quality assurance measures.

Due to the tragic events of September 11, 2001 new security responsibilities increased the duties of USCIS and affected production of adjudicating applications.  The two main programs that effected production were the National Security Entry Exit Registration System (NSEERS) which required the registration and fingerprinting of nationals already living in the United States; and the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) which was the replacement of the student immigrant tracking system including re-certification of schools and increased oversight of the program. Both of these programs have been transferred to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau within the DHS.

This updated Backlog Elimination Plan includes a strategy for elimination of all USCIS backlogs, including those in the Asylum Division.  This plan also meets the requirements of §459(a) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which calls for the submission of a plan to Congress detailing how USCIS will complete efficiently, fairly, within a reasonable time the adjudication of non-immigrant, immigrant, naturalization, and Asylum/Refugee applications and petitions.  This updated plan is intended to

§         Report on the current size of the application backlog;

§         Identify the next steps to eliminate the backlog and achieve a six-month or less cycle time target for all forms by the end of 2006;

§         Establish annual production goals; and

§         Provide a plan to measure progress through quarterly reports and on-line information available on each district office and service center.

Defining Cases: Pending versus Backlog

Pending cases are cases that have been received, but not adjudicated.  Backlog cases are cases that are pending but older than their target cycle time.  The original Backlog Elimination Plan computed applications as: (backlog = current month pending/average last 12 months’ completions) – processing time targets).  This computation did not accurately quantify the number of applications that were part of the backlog.

The Updated Plan will use new computations as: (backlog = pending – last six months’ receipts). This new computation better reflects the idea that the USCIS is processing applications within the target cycle time.  This new understanding of the differences between backlog and pending will allow USCIS to estimate the size of the backlog.  Currently, the backlog is 3.7 million cases out of 6.1 million cases, including cases in the Asylum Division.  And over the last eight years, due to new reforms, the Asylum Division has reduced its pending caseload 44%. 

The productivity of USCIS must improve 19.6%, and the Asylum Division’s output must increase 3.4% in order to achieve cycle time goals and fully eliminate the backlog.  To reach these goals the USCIS will maintain:

§         Reengineering processes and automated manual workflow processes wherever possible to achieve greater efficiencies;

§         Updated policies and procedures to streamline adjudications and increase the percentage of cases completed at initial review by an adjudicator;

§         Managed production against milestones — beginning with collaboratively setting goals, reporting progress, and identifying additional improvement opportunities; and

§         Work with the Office of the Ombudsman on pilot projects to test alternative processing approaches and new applications of proven off-the-shelf technology.

In February, USCIS began planning for the following pilot initiatives intended to eliminate backlogs, improve customer service, and enhance national security:

1.      Streamlining existing procedures

§                                 Risk assessment

§                                 Form I-90

§                                 Request for evidence

§                                 Form I-130

§                                 Pre-certification

§                                 Asylum

2.      Quality initiatives

§                     National Standard Operating Procedures

§                     The Naturalization Quality Procedures program

§                     Continually updating field manuals and expanding access to electronic libraries

§                     An end product review process at Service Centers to determine decision quality

§                     Assuring adherence to national standards in the Quality Assurance (QA) program

§                     Redesigned internal communications to provide employees with key information quickly and efficiently

3.      Fraud assessment and deterrence initiatives

4.      Refugee corps

5.      Information technology

§                                 E-filing

§                                 InfoPass

§                                 Case Status Online

The other components to this updated plan are for USCIS to use backlog elimination milestones to work with service centers and offices to setup current and future production plans.  USCIS will also provide Congress with quarterly progress reports to monitor its Backlog Elimination accomplishments.  This plan, along with the staff and leadership, will ensure that the USCIS will meet the President’s goals no later than the end of 2006.

A press release last week from the U.S. Chamber of Congress commended the release of this updated plan.  Randel K. Johnson, Vice President of Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits says the Chamber is looking forward to working with Director Aguirre and his staff to ensure that these ambitious goals can be met.

While some agree with the current updated Backlog Elimination Plan, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports this week that this objective will be ineffective as long as the current failed immigration policy remains in place.  The problem, according to Dan Stein, executive director of FAIR, is the policy of extended family chain migration that is overpowering the system and must be stopped.  According to Stein, a large percentage of the 3.7 million people waiting to have applications processed have applied as extended family members of other immigrants.  He suggested that Congress freeze new extended family applications as a solution to the elimination of the current backlog of petitions. 

Immigration advocates, on the other hand, praised the measure and noted that the number fraudulent applications will likely decline when interim benefits are no longer needed due to faster processing. The main note of concern from these groups is the intention to reduce the number of Requests for Evidence. RFEs are issued routinely when an examiner is not sure that an applicant is eligible. A recent USCIS indicated that examiners should more willingly deny a case rather than issuing an RFE when they believe there is no eligibility for the benefit offered. Immigration lawyers have indicated that many examiners are not informed on every aspect of immigration law and the RFE process allows lawyers to explain their case.