Here's an excerpt from page 19 of 26 of Ombudsman's report:
At present, non-citizens with employment skills needed by American employers are subjected to extensive processing times and potential loss of employment opportunity when applying for lawful permanent residence or a Green Card. Average processing times are a cause for concern, as these are well over twelve months. Additionally, while an employment-based application package8 for permanent residence is pending, an applicant is eligible to apply for interim benefits which generally are renewed on an annual basis, requiring the expenditure of additional filing fees with each subsequent application and perpetuating the already substantial backlog. Further, the current operational procedure employed by USCIS entails processing tandem applications and petitions through separate workflows. This processing method is inherently inefficient as it involves expending duplicative efforts.
To address these concerns, the Ombudsman recommended to USCIS a one-step, frontend adjudication process whereby applicants would appear at a USCIS local office to file applications for permanent residence and be interviewed on the same day. Qualified applicants would be issued a Green Card within 90 days. In ensuring equitable treatment, pending applicants would be given the opportunity to assume their place in this new line by resubmitting a duplicate of their original application including all required supporting documentation without fee when presenting the original receipt.
I do know for a fact that CSC asked existing applications not to resubmit their applications. I am not sure what my post is gonna achieve, perhaps I'm just whining, but someone needs to point out the CSC memo to the Ombudsman.
