News Update - March 14 2009
By Alan Lee, Esq.†‡
USCIS Officers No Longer Authorized to Approve Applications Pending
FBI Name Checks
In a February 9, 2009 Memorandum, USCIS Acting Associate Director
of Domestic Operations, Donald Neufeld, informed USCIS officers
that they can no longer automatically approve certain immigration
benefit applications prior to receiving the results of the FBI name
check. Last year, due to delays in FBI name checks, USCIS officers
had the authority to approve Form I-485, Adjustment of Status, Form
I-601, Waiver for Ground of Inadmissibility, Form I-687, Status
as a Temporary Resident Under § 245A of the INA, and Form I-698,
Adjust Status for Temporary to Permanent Resident, that were otherwise
approvable except for the FBI name check request still pending beyond
180 days. Since the FBI is now able to process most name checks
in an average of 90 days, any of the above applications that are
otherwise approvable except for FBI name check requests pending
beyond 180 days, must obtain USCIS Headquarter authorization prior
to their approval by a USCIS officer.
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