The US moved into the new year with an increasing backlog of processing delays.
A group of US Senators, in May 2019, wrote to the USCIS for information on why the organization is being inefficient in handling immigration benefits like Work Permits which is disrupting US businesses.
Here are some of the facts:
- The gross backlog of visa applications reached 5,591,839 for the fiscal year 2018. This marked an increase of 69% since 2014 and an increase of 29% since 2016.
- The rate of case completion per hour decreased from 81% between FY2016 and FY2018
- The rate of case completion per hour for Form I-129 applications decreased from 0.97 per hour to 0.64 per hour
This translates to the following processing times as of 30th September 2019:
- I-129 (Non-immigrant visa petition): 3.7 months
- Application for Renewal of Advance Parole: 10.3 months
- Application for Initial Advance Parole: 4.5 months
- I-140 (Immigrant visa petition): 5.3 months
- I-485 (Employment-based status adjustment): 9.5 months
- I-539 (Change/Extend Non-immigrant status): 4 months
- I-765 (Employment Authorization): 4.5 months
- I-400 (Naturalization): 9.9 months
- Waivers, excluding I-601A: 31.6 months
Some of the Trump Government’s new policies have also led to increased processing times. For example, the increase in the Request for Evidence increased security checks, and the increased length and complexity of forms have added to the processing times.
The Request for Evidence has increased by 60% for the H1B Visa alone.
The Government Accountability Office agreed to analyze the visa applications backlog at the end of May 2019. However, the GAO also said that it would take no less than five months to gather a team to analyze the USCIS backlog.
If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to the USA, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.
If you found this blog engaging, you may also like…
Net migration to the US falls to the lowest level of the decade