News Update - February 9, 2008
By Alan Lee, Esq.†‡
U.S.C.I.S. Makes Big Change In FBI Name Check Policy
On February 4, 2008, U.S.C.I.S. reversed its policy that FBI name
check clearances must be received prior to approvals of I-485 adjustment
of status to permanent residence applications. This policy also
applies to I-601 applications for waiver of grounds of inadmissibility,
I-687 applications for status as temporary resident under the 1986
legalization provisions, and I-698 applications to adjust status
from temporary to permanent resident under those same provisions.
Under the new policy, adjudicators are instructed to approve these
cases and proceed with card issuance if the applications have been
pending for more than 180 days and are otherwise approvable. There
is, however, no change in the policy insofar as N-400 applications
for naturalization are concerned. For this type of case, the name
check results must still be obtained and resolved prior to adjudication.
U.S.C.I.S. is to be commended for finally taking a huge step in
ending its stranglehold on long pending I-485 cases for which there
was no previous solution other than suing the government in federal
court. One can only hope that it soon extends the new policy to
N-400 filings. There would appear to be no reason not to do so as
U.S. citizenship status obtained by fraud (non-disclosure on the
N-400 application of crimes and other bars to naturalization) is
revocable.
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