USCIS stated at the AILA/Service Center Operations teleconference last week that it would hold any filings postmarked before April 30 that use the new filing fee rather than return them.  It will return premium-processing cases postmarked before April 30 that use the new fee.

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In a memorandum, the USCIS instructed that District Offices have to provide a new, corrected I-94 for cases in which the USCIS is responsible for issuing an I-94 with erroneous information.  The USCIS will not correct I-94s issued by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), but will direct individuals with erroneous CBP-issued 1-94s to go to CBP for corrections.  The memorandum is located at http://www.aila.org/infonet/fileViewer.aspx?docID=12938.

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An immigration employee in Detroit was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he assisted immigrants become U.S. citizens in exchange for jewelry.  When Robert Walton was employed in the Detroit district office of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service it was found that he engaged in illegal activity involving conspiracy to defraud the United States, bribery and aiding foreign nationals to unlawfully obtain citizenship.  If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to up to 39 years in prison and fined $1.25 million.

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USCIS has announced that a new phone system is in the final stages of development that will allow customers direct access to information officers at the service centers for questions regarding pending cases and to facilitate problem resolution.  Calls will be directed to service centers based upon a caller’s responses to prompts in the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.  The IVR menus are being restructured to facilitate the direct transfer of calls and to incorporate a considerable amount of enhancements that are being added.  The rollout date for the new system is not yet set, but its implementation is projected for later this year.

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The Republic of the Philippines and the United States have established a joint plan addressing the residential issues concerning certain Vietnamese nationals living in the Philippines since 1989. The two countries decided there needs to be a comprehensive humanitarian solution for members of this group, which is made up of approximately 1,855 Vietnamese asylum seekers living in the Philippines.  The United States has agreed to conduct resettlement interviews for the majority of the group and will apply a generous refugee-screening standard during this interview.  For those the US cannot interview or approve, the Philippines will make best efforts to offer residency consistent with its law.

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On April 30, 2004, the new USCIS fee adjustment took effect.  By law, USCIS must ensure that the fees cover the costs of providing immigration services and benefits.  A recent cost analysis discovered that the fees did not cover the costs processing under the new post-September 11 guidelines.

The new USCIS fee schedule can be found at http://uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/newsrels/USCISFeeStructure.pdf.