Presidential Commission Votes To Process All Green Card Applications Within 6 Months

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What’s happening with the status of green card processing with USCIS? In this video, attorney Jacob Sapochnick, discusses an exciting new update for green card applicants recently handed down by the Presidential Advisory Commission.

Want to know more? Just keep on watching.

Overview

Things are looking up in the world of immigration. We have recently learned that a U.S. Presidential Advisory Commission has voted to reduce the processing time of green card applications to a period of 6 months. The Advisory Commission has recommended these recommendations be enacted by President Biden, to provide relief to applicants waiting in the enormous backlogs to attain permanent resident status.

What is this all about?

The President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (PACAANHPI) has recommended that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) establish a new internal cycle time goal by eliminating inefficiencies such as redundancies, facilitating automation of approvals, and improving internal systems. The Advisory Commission hopes that the new cycle time for processing forms will drastically reduce green card processing times to just 6 months for all forms related to all green card applications, family-based green card applications and DACA renewals. The Commission has also recommended for the National Visa Center (NVC) to hire additional officers to support additional capabilities to schedule immigrant visa (IV) interviews.

The objective is to increase processing capacity by 100% by August 2022 and reach 150% capacity by April of 2023.

Once the National Visa Center is able to catch up with pent up demand, U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide should also increase capacity by hiring more officers and become more efficient to meet the 6-month time cycle proposed by the Presidential Advisory Commission.

If this recommendation is adopted, it will speed up the processing of thousands of green card applications currently stuck in the backlogs and result in faster approvals.

The Advisory Commission reviewed I-485 green card applications pending in the United States and requested USCIS to try to process associated I-765 work permits and I-131 travel permits also within 90 days.

According to the Commission, the system that is currently used to calculate the number of immigrant visas available both on the employment-based and family-based immigration is antiquated and flawed. The system must be modernized and improved to ensure that visa numbers are not being wasted. For nationals of certain countries applying under certain preference categories, it can take more than 10 years for an immigrant visa to become available. This causes great frustration and obstructs the reunification of families.

Finally, the Commission recommended the expansion of premium processing service to additional categories of immigrant and non-immigrant petitions filed with USCIS. This expansion would be mutually beneficial as it would provide much needed capital to the agency, while allowing applicants to receive faster processing of their applications.

While these proposals are certain to bring about necessary change, it remains to be seen whether these recommendations will be adopted, and how the White House will respond to them. However, this initiative signals that positive changes may soon be on their way.

As always, we will monitor these developments closely and report back with any updates.

We hope this information was helpful. If you need more information help please contact us to schedule a consultation.

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