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.

 


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.

 

Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee, Esq.
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.