However, Congress has diverted a significant portion of these fees to other functions. In addition, under the INS' fee structure, the agency's budget estimates for future years are based on previous years' filings. In addition, filing fees do not cover the costs of updating and maintaining computer, filing and other infrastructure systems, nor do they cover necessary overtime for backlog reduction. While a good start, past experience indicates that it may take more than that to eliminate the backlogs. In addition, due to changes in the qualification requirements in many immigration categories, and the changing nature of employment, the complexity of these filings also has increased dramatically.
Filings thus take longer to evaluate properly, thereby adding to the backlogs.
In the last several years, INS policy decisions and failure to change outdated policies have exacerbated backlogs in adjudicating petitions and applications by requiring additional, unnecessary filings. For example, INS requires applicants for green cards to apply for separate travel permission, instead of allowing them to travel on their current, valid visas. INS also issues documents, such as travel permission and work authorization documents, with very limited validity periods, thus adding more filings to its workload. In addition, many of the agency's computer systems are obsolete, and INS does not have funding to invest in new replacement systems. The Act also authorized, but did not fund, a new Immigration Services and Infrastructure Improvement Account for the INS to which Congress could appropriate funds for backlog reduction and improvements in application and petition processing.