The pandemic causes delays in immigration processes

Naturally, the massive outbreak of Coronavirus in the North American territory tremendously affected multiple sectors of society as we know it.

Speaking specifically about immigration in the US, it is one of the sectors that has been substantially modified during the current juncture.

On the one hand, the Trump administration banned immigrants from entering the country for more than three months and suspended the issuance of some visas until further notice.

On the other hand, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is the entity in charge of processing immigration applications, closed its offices to the public for more than two months and canceled the issuance of most visas during the massive outbreak of Coronavirus, following the government order.

It is important to clarify that the USCIS income is highly dependent on fees that applicants must pay when submitting an immigration request. Thus, the fact that immigration services were paused for more than two months caused a devastating downturn in revenue for the federal agency.

The USCIS proposed several alternatives to be able to satisfactorily overcome its downturn in revenue.

The USCIS Proposals

Since May, 2020, the USCIS had announced a downturn in revenue that could hurt a portion of its employees. This is why the federal immigration entity proposed several options to overcome the crisis:

1. The USCIS asked Congress for a total of $1.2 million to protect employee wages until it could bring its economy back into balance.
2. Almost 70% of the USCIS employees were going to be furloughed by the end of August until the agency received enough funds to cover the salaries of its employees.
3. The USCIS announced an increase in fees for most applications effective October 2, 2020.

For now, Congress has not reached an agreement to disburse the monetary aid and bail out the USCIS.

However, the US House of Representatives decided to intervene and proposed to the USCIS to increase fees for “premium processing”, in order to avoid suspending such a large portion of its employees.

The USCIS announces delays in immigration processes

Finally, after more than three months, the USCIS decided to cancel the scheduled furloughs and will implement a different strategy in order to assist applicants.

The USCIS announced that waiting times are going to be substantially lengthened on some visa services, mainly because it has a budget calculated to only answer a certain number of applications per month and avoid an even greater downturn in revenue.

In fact, the USCIS Deputy Director for Policy stated: “Averting this furlough comes at a severe operational cost that will increase backlogs and wait times across the board, with no guarantee we can avoid future furloughs.”

Use this time wisely

Constant dedication and experts’ guidance are needed to successfully submit an immigration application. Therefore, we recommend for you to use this time wisely and start preparing the necessary documentation for your immigration case as soon as possible, following the advice of specialists.

In this way, you ensure that you choose the right process and organize your case in the best possible way to avoid a rejection by the USCIS.

If you have any questions about an immigration issue or relating to a case you may have currently in progress, then please don’t hesitate to contact us for a FREE Phone Consultation with one of our expert immigration attorneys.

Simply call Motion Law today at: (202) 918-1799.