News Update - August 8, 2009

By Alan Lee, Esq.^†‡

U.S.C.I.S. Officially Announces Change in Method of Inquiry for Pending Cases

Immigration practitioner and members of the public who have inquired on pending cases with U.S.C.I.S. Service Centers recently have been left with the frustrated feeling that the agency is not responsive or attentive - especially as many written queries have been returned in whole without responsive answer. In most cases, U.S.C.I.S. service centers have just attached a form letter saying that the address was updated as requested even though no address change was provided and for the writer to contact the National Customer Service Center (NCSC). It has become increasingly apparent that U.S.C.I.S. is discouraging written inquiries, and that it wishes all contact with the service centers to go through the NCSC. The NCSC was established in 2003 to head off routine inquiries to the service centers. The idea was to save officer time by having contract employees armed with a book of scripted responses answer routine questions on pending cases. The move was initially considered a disaster by practitioners and the public as seen by the unrelenting criticism at the time.

Now U.S.C.I.S. has confirmed this feeling on August 6, 2009, in announcing new instructions for inquiring on cases in which Step 1 is to contact the NCSC at 1-800-375-5283, explain the problem, and take note of the following information:

-- Name and/or id #of the NCSC representative
-- The date and time of the call
-- Any Service request referral number, if a service referral on a pending case is taken.

In Step 2, if more than 30 days have passed since contacting the NCSC and the issue has not been resolved or explained, individuals can e-mail the proper U.S.C.I.S. Service Center to check the status of their cases at:

California Service Center: csc-ncsc-followup@dhs.gov
Vermont Service Center: vsc.ncscfollowup@dhs.gov
Nebraska Service Center: ncscfollowup.nsc@dhs.gov
Texas Service Center: tsc.ncscfollowup@dhs.gov

There is also Step 3 in the event that there is no response within 21 days of contacting the appropriate service center, in which case individuals can e-mail the U.S.C.I.S. Headquarters Office of Service Center Operations at SCOPSSCATA@dhs.gov, and receive a response from the e-mail address within 10 days.

Hopefully the agency gets it correct this time and will put resources behind answering the questions and satisfying its customers.

† 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 © 2009 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.