attached is the PDF with detailed information.
Is this good news?
The ideal situation is to actually have the namecheck done and completed before the issuance of a Green Card. That way, unless you violate the terms of your residency after issuance you should be fine.
In the procedures outlined, if the namecheck has been pending for 180 days, you get an approval assuming you qualify on other grounds. The scary part is, if the results of the namecheck come in unsatisfactory, your status can be revoked and you can be put in removal proceedings for deportation.
I prefer the old way.
What needed to be done was to speed up the process to completion not issue GC's with the possibility of revocation due to namecheck issues.
Like austriacus has mentioned, what indeed does happen if you are outside the country and the results of the namecheck come in unsatisfactory, will you be refused entry? If yes, that creates a very big mess with family, job, house etc
Majority of these pending name checks are on clean records. Would you prefer to wait for your GC for 4 years (some of these are pending for 4+ years) or get your GC after 6 months and then clear name check a couple of years later?
I for sure would prefer the second scenario. If someone has a clean record the name check is going to clear sooner or later and they have nothing to worry about.
AsPapi,
What would you then say about those who were cleared after a few years anyway? Why keep them waiting indefinitely?
They were fine but were subjected to waiting forever. Its good to note that those who took the government to court did so out of frustration!
keihei, I assume it means that USCIS will start processing the ones already pending for 6 months, but they probably have a backlog of them to go through (= another USCIS backlog created!).
My comment to whose whose record is clean and favor getting their GC sooner even if the name check is still pending ... while I agree with all the practical advantages (no more EAD, no more AP, accruing permanent residence towards citizenship, and other rights and privileges of permanent residents), I'm sure there will be some cases where unsuspecting people will later be put in removal proceedings due to error. If someone's name was flagged by the FBI for the name check, you'd have to assume there's a small chance FBI is confusing you with someone else if your name shouldn't show up in their database. All I can suggest is that those who had a pending name check and their GC gets approved, should still keep the consequences of their still pending name check in mind. What I think would make this new policy much better is that people should be kept informed about the status of their name check so they don't have to live in fear of losing their GC. Perhaps almost like how you can request a credit report, you should be able to request a name check report. Or can you request this already, under the Freedom of Information Act perhaps?