News Update - July 19, 2008

By Alan Lee, Esq.^†‡

Check Your Freedom of Information Act Request Status On-line

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently added an online status check for individuals to be able to track the status of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

This feature, FOIA Request Status Check, is now available on the USCIS website (http://www.uscis.gov) . Simply enter in the assigned control number, and you will get one of two responses. “Pending” means that the request is still in a queue waiting to be completed and the response will indicate the position of the FOIA request in the queue, e.g. – 2,000 out of 15,000 requested. “Processed” means that the request was processed and responded to within the past 6 months and the response will indicate the date of processing.

Customers are still able to check their status by phone by calling the USCIS FOIA Requester Service Center at (816) 350-5785 from 7 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. (Central Time).

† The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

‡ This article © 2008 Alan Lee, Esq.

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The information provided here is of a general nature and may not apply to any particular set of facts or circumstances. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an engagement of the Law Office of Alan Lee or establish an attorney-client relationship.