U.S. Visa News Headlines
Is There a Halt on I-485 Adjudications?
By Lorenzo Lleras Friday, December 13, 2002
While the INS does not call it a "halt," there is no doubt that adjudications for asylum, I-485, and naturalization cases have slowed down to a trickle. The reason is more fallout from 9/11.
In November, INS officers were given instructions that they are not to grant permanent residence or citizenship to applicants until a response is received from the INS. For years, INS has operated with a policy that if they do not hear back from the FBI, it means that they can proceed with the granting of permanent residence or U.S. citizenship. Pursuant to the new instructions, INS now has to wait for a "yes" or "no" response for every single petition.
There is no system for the FBI and the INS to communicate on such a massive scale, so not only is the FBI backlogged with the number of requests from INS, the two agencies now have to find a way to communicate the results of each background check in an intelligent and efficient manner. We do know that the FBI has recently sent a CD to INS containing positive responses on over one-half of the I-485, asylum, and citizenship applications in the backlog. This CD contains the names of tens of thousands of applicants. Therefore, in the near future we should see a big jump in the processing dates for I-485s.
This is not unlike what is happening with SSN applications. As most of you remember, the SSN application process used to be a process of no more than a couple of weeks. That is no longer the case: now it takes 2-3 months. Why? The Social Security Administration now has to wait until they get information directly from INS stating that they have approved a work petition on behalf of the particular applicant. as
So that's it folks, that is why your petitions are taking longer.
Is There a Halt on I-485 Adjudications?
By Lorenzo Lleras Friday, December 13, 2002
While the INS does not call it a "halt," there is no doubt that adjudications for asylum, I-485, and naturalization cases have slowed down to a trickle. The reason is more fallout from 9/11.
In November, INS officers were given instructions that they are not to grant permanent residence or citizenship to applicants until a response is received from the INS. For years, INS has operated with a policy that if they do not hear back from the FBI, it means that they can proceed with the granting of permanent residence or U.S. citizenship. Pursuant to the new instructions, INS now has to wait for a "yes" or "no" response for every single petition.
There is no system for the FBI and the INS to communicate on such a massive scale, so not only is the FBI backlogged with the number of requests from INS, the two agencies now have to find a way to communicate the results of each background check in an intelligent and efficient manner. We do know that the FBI has recently sent a CD to INS containing positive responses on over one-half of the I-485, asylum, and citizenship applications in the backlog. This CD contains the names of tens of thousands of applicants. Therefore, in the near future we should see a big jump in the processing dates for I-485s.
This is not unlike what is happening with SSN applications. As most of you remember, the SSN application process used to be a process of no more than a couple of weeks. That is no longer the case: now it takes 2-3 months. Why? The Social Security Administration now has to wait until they get information directly from INS stating that they have approved a work petition on behalf of the particular applicant. as
So that's it folks, that is why your petitions are taking longer.