01/25/03: DHS Scheduled to Start Immigration Services on March 1, 2003
The Secretary of DHS announced that the DHS would start the immigration adjudications and services function on March 1, 2003. Pending the transition, the adjudications of nonimmigrant and immigrant cases at the field offices have remained de fact halt or at snail pace. Despite the INS HQ announcement that I-485 freeze had been lifted, the Service Centers' processing times reports reflect that EB-485 remains at halt except a handful of cases that have been transferred to the local district offices. Additionally, for an unknown reasons, the Service Centers have been adjudicating non-skilled workers cases for both I-140 (EB-3GW) petitions and I-129 nonimmigrant petitions (such as H-2A and H-2B) and the immigrant and nonimmigrant petitions for professional occupations such as I-140 in EB-1, EB-2, EB-31 and I-129 (H-1B) show a snail-pace of adjudications.
There is no confirmed information about the sources of this continuing freeze or halt or snail-pace adjudication of certain types of cases, but it is obvious that certain types of cases, especially I-485, I-129 H-1B, I-140, will not move ahead in a speed which the immigrant community wants to see pending the transition. Apparently, such dragnet is not limited to the Service Centers. Reportedly, the on-going special registrations take away a substantial amount of the local INS district offices' adjudication resources, and probably until the special registration is over on March 28, 2003, the adjudication at the local district offices is also expected to experience a substantial slow-down.
One good news is looming up, though. Unconfirmed sources indicate that the family-based I-130/I-485 and naturalization cases will be taken away from the local district offices to the Missouri Service Center as early as June 2003. Currently these cases are filed at the local INS district offices. Once this change takes place, the local district offices' function may be restricted to interview and fingerprinting when it comes to the immigration services function. The nationalization of processing of the family-based green card applications and naturalization applications will at least remove a long line of people on the ground of the government buildings in the dawn and in the cold and in the heat.
The Secretary of DHS announced that the DHS would start the immigration adjudications and services function on March 1, 2003. Pending the transition, the adjudications of nonimmigrant and immigrant cases at the field offices have remained de fact halt or at snail pace. Despite the INS HQ announcement that I-485 freeze had been lifted, the Service Centers' processing times reports reflect that EB-485 remains at halt except a handful of cases that have been transferred to the local district offices. Additionally, for an unknown reasons, the Service Centers have been adjudicating non-skilled workers cases for both I-140 (EB-3GW) petitions and I-129 nonimmigrant petitions (such as H-2A and H-2B) and the immigrant and nonimmigrant petitions for professional occupations such as I-140 in EB-1, EB-2, EB-31 and I-129 (H-1B) show a snail-pace of adjudications.
There is no confirmed information about the sources of this continuing freeze or halt or snail-pace adjudication of certain types of cases, but it is obvious that certain types of cases, especially I-485, I-129 H-1B, I-140, will not move ahead in a speed which the immigrant community wants to see pending the transition. Apparently, such dragnet is not limited to the Service Centers. Reportedly, the on-going special registrations take away a substantial amount of the local INS district offices' adjudication resources, and probably until the special registration is over on March 28, 2003, the adjudication at the local district offices is also expected to experience a substantial slow-down.
One good news is looming up, though. Unconfirmed sources indicate that the family-based I-130/I-485 and naturalization cases will be taken away from the local district offices to the Missouri Service Center as early as June 2003. Currently these cases are filed at the local INS district offices. Once this change takes place, the local district offices' function may be restricted to interview and fingerprinting when it comes to the immigration services function. The nationalization of processing of the family-based green card applications and naturalization applications will at least remove a long line of people on the ground of the government buildings in the dawn and in the cold and in the heat.
