Agencies ease bottleneck in processing immigration benefits forms

The pile of immigration benefits applications awaiting FBI name checks shrunk significantly over the summer, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ombudsman reported earlier this week.

Ombudsman Michael Dougherty said in a statement on Tuesday that the backlog decreased from 269,943 on May 6 to 95,449 on Aug. 12. The name checks -- one of the security tools used by USCIS during the immigrant vetting process -- consistently have been cited as a primary reason for delays in awarding benefits such as green cards, work and student visas, and refugee status.

USCIS and the FBI also made a dent in name checks that had been pending more than six months; often, those are the most difficult to resolve. In May there were 185,162 checks that had taken more than six months to process; there are now 61,817. USCIS also met its goal of processing all name checks pending for more than two years by July.

"The significant reduction in long-pending FBI name checks will result in improved service for USCIS customers," Dougherty said.

He praised USCIS and FBI officials for their resolve, and Congress for providing funding to address the backlog.

"Both lack of funding and delays had been a significant concern of my office," Dougherty said. "We are happy to see significant progress is being made."

USCIS and the FBI announced a joint plan to eliminate the backlog in April, establishing a series of milestones that prioritized work based on how long name checks had been pending. They announced that by June 2009, they would complete 98 percent of all name checks within 30 days, and said they would reach this goal "by increasing staff, expanding resources and applying new business processes." The agencies are aiming to resolve the remaining 2 percent of name checks, which are the most difficult and require additional time, within 90 days or less.

Prakash Khatri, former USCIS ombudsman and owner of the immigration and homeland security consulting firm KPK Global Solutions, said it took some pressure, particularly from the ombudsman's office, for USCIS leaders and the FBI to take the backlog seriously. But now the agencies seem to be on track, he said.

He praised the FBI for increasing the number of employees working on name checks from 30 to 300, and USCIS acting director Jonathan (Jock) Scharfen for boosting his staff simultaneously.

"I can't say it enough that the leadership of Scharfen has really changed the direction of this agency and he's to be credited with some of these tremendous changes," Khatri said. "He recognized some of the things our office and others were saying and actually listened and made the changes that were necessary."

Neither the FBI nor USCIS returned calls for comment.