USCIS Response to USCIS Ombudsman 

Annual Report 2004
	

September 2004 
 Prepared for the United States Congress 
	

The Honorable Orrin Hatch, Chairman
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Committee on the Judiciary
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United States Senate
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The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member
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Committee on the Judiciary
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United States Senate
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The Honorable James Sensenbrenner, Chairman
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Committee on the Judiciary
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U.S. House of Representatives
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The Honorable John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Minority Member
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Committee on the Judiciary
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U.S. House of Representatives

 The Honorable Saxby Chambliss, Chairman
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Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship
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Committee on the Judiciary
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United States Senate
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The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy, Ranking Minority Member
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Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship
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Committee on the Judiciary
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United States Senate
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The Honorable John Hostettler, Chairman
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Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims
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Committee on the Judiciary
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U.S. House of Representatives
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The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Minority Member
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Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims
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Committee on the Judiciary
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U.S. House of Representatives
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The Homeland Security Act of 2002 requires the Director of U.S. 

Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to respond to any 

recommendations submitted in the USCIS Ombudsman’s annual 

report to Congress within three months after its submission to 

Congress. 

“The Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman Annual 

Report 2004” was submitted to Congress in June of 2004 and 

reported on three improvement recommendations: 1) Streamlining 

Family-based Immigrant Processing, 2) Reengineering “Green Card” 

Replacement Processing, and 3) Streamlining Employment-based 

Immigrant Processing. 

USCIS Director Eduardo Aguirre has worked cooperatively with 

the Office of the Ombudsman to turn these recommendations into 

pilot projects in four USCIS locations. The purpose of the Pilot 

Projects is to test certain concepts presented by the Ombudsman to 

determine viability in terms of operational impact, customer service, 

cost savings, and scalability. 

USCIS selected four pilot sites and began implementing the pilot 

projects in March of 2004. The pilots will run through September 

30, 2004, and will be evaluated throughout the pilot period. Based 

on statistical evaluations of the pilot projects, decisions will be made 

to expand, modify or terminate one or more of the projects. 

Streamlining Family-based Immigrant Processing 

The CIS Ombudsman recommended a “one-step, front-end 

adjudication process whereby applicants would appear at a USCIS 

local office to file applications packages for permanent residence and 

be interviewed on the same day.” 

The recommendation was intended to shorten the amount of time 

it takes USCIS to process an application. The objectives are to 

eliminate the need for interim work and travel authorization and to 

reduce the number of times security checks are repeated on the same 

applicant. Applicants are typically provided interim benefits while 

an application for permanent residence is pending. The time period 

for issuing interim benefits is 90 days, as is the period of validity of 

certain security checks. 

In response to the Ombudsman’s recommendation, USCIS planned 

and implemented two pilot projects that will run through September 

30, 2004. One pilot project in Dallas, Texas follows closely the 

process proposed by the Ombudsman to meet the objectives. The 

applicant initiates the process by scheduling an interview and 

USCIS’ processing occurs after the interview is conducted. 

The New York City local office is the location of a second pilot 

project for this family-based initiative. The New York pilot differs 

from the Dallas pilot in that in New York, USCIS rather than 

the applicant schedules the interview appointment. This enables 

USCIS to complete security checks and obtain relevant files prior 

to the interview. In order to meet the same objectives as the Dallas 

pilot, the interviews are scheduled within 90 days of filing, before 

the expiration of security checks and before the point when interim 

employment and travel authorization is required to be issued. 

Preliminary data from the Dallas and New York Pilots show mixed 

results, 45% of cases are completed within 90 days, but pilot cases 

incur additional costs beyond normal processing. At this point, the 

data are not complete enough to draw conclusions about the efficacy 

of the pilots. 

Reengineering “Green Card “ Replacement Processing 

The Ombudsman recommended a “one-step, front-end process 

whereby the applicants would appear at a USCIS local office 

where identity would be verified, status confirmed, security checks 

performed, and a preliminary decision rendered.” The underlying 

objective was to produce and issue a Permanent Resident Card 

(Green Card) within 90 days so that initial security checks would not 

expire and need to be run a second time. 

At the time of the original recommendation to Director Aguirre, 

USCIS had been in the planning stages of a similar project that 

would reduce the processing time from over 12 months to less than 

30 days by leveraging the resources at USCIS’ Application Support 

Centers. 

USCIS is currently piloting a project in the Los Angeles, California 

Application Support Centers that meets the objectives of the 

Ombudsman’s proposal. Applicants who electronically file an 

Application for Replacement or Renewal of a Permanent Resident 

Card are instructed to schedule themselves for an appointment at a 

local Application Support Center (ASC). At the ASC, an applicant’s 

fingerprints, photograph and signature are captured electronically, 

identity is verified, and status is confirmed. At the time of filing, 

security checks are initiated and typically are completed at the 

time of appointment. Applications filed by eligible applicants are 

approved on the day of the appointment and a Permanent Resident 

Card is ordered on that day. That card is produced and mailed 

to the applicant within 48 hours of the order. Those applications 

that require additional research are referred to the district office for 

resolution. 

Preliminary data from the Los Angeles Pilot show that 88% of the 

applications were able to be completed within 90 days but other data 

about impact on other operations, cost, and scalability are not yet 

available. 

Streamlining Employment-based Immigrant Processing 

The recommendation for employment-based immigrant processing 

is similar to that of the family-based process: a “one-step, frontend adjudication process whereby the applicants would appear at 

a USCIS local office to file applications for permanent residence 

and be interviewed on the same day.” The overarching goal was 

for USCIS to complete the entire process within 90 days, to avoid 

needing to issue interim employment and travel authorization and 

to complete applications before the expiration date of the original 

security check. 

USCIS developed a pilot project based on this recommendation 

that meets the overarching goal but allows processing to remain at 

a Service Center. These applications normally are filed at Service 

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Centers and often are adjudicated without interview. Rather than 

change the filing procedure for applicants or add local interviews 

to the process, USCIS designed this pilot to occur in the Service 

Center environment. 

The pilot was designed for the California Service Center’s 

applications for aliens with advanced degrees. Security checks 

are initiated at the time of filing and the cases are referred to an 

adjudicator for action before day 90. Eligible applicants whose 

security checks have been completed and returned as negative are 

approved and Permanent Resident Cards are ordered at the time of 

initial review. Applications that do not establish eligibility or whose 

security checks are not complete are handled on an exception basis. 

Preliminary data from this pilot is disappointing because only 25% 

of the cases are completed in 90 days or less, but the sample size is 

relatively small. Data collection and analysis will continue. 

Conclusion 

Over the past year, USCIS has made tremendous strides in reducing 

its backlogs while at the same time maintaining a focus on quality 

and public safety and security. We have done this by being open to 

innovation and critically evaluating programs and processes. We 

have done this to old programs, new programs, and pilots. 

USCIS will continue to work cooperatively with the USCIS 

Ombudsman and to evaluate these pilots as well as other 

recommendations. 

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