News Update - February 16, 2008
By Alan Lee, Esq.†‡
News On Adjustment of Status to Permanent Residence Cases –
FBI Name Check Cases Being Searched for by USCIS; And a New Way
of Processing Employment Based I-485 Applications
U.S.C.I.S. has confirmed that its service centers are conducting
sweeps of cases to discover cases that can be approved under the
new memorandum on name checks dated February 4, 2008, that I-485s
which have been pending 180 days and are otherwise approvable except
for FBI name check clearance can now be approved. It has asked members
of the American Immigration Lawyers Association to hold off submitting
liaison inquiries to the Service centers on cases pending security
clearances until after April 30, 2008, to give U.S.C.I.S. a chance
to identify and take action on these cases. We assume that the same
holds true for other members of the public.
U.S.C.I.S. has also started a pilot program at the Texas Service
Center which promises to speed up many employment based cases by
having one officer handle an entire package rather than breaking
it up into component parts and sending each part to a different
officer for adjudication. For example, a packet including an I-140
employment based immigrant visa petition, I-485, I-765 employment
authorization application, and I-131 application for advance parole,
will now be handled by one officer rather than each form going to
a different one. Requests for Further Evidence (RFEs) in the future
may include requests for information covering multiple forms.
|