Update from DOS Waiver Review Branch
Posted Feb 26, 2000

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) held a meeting with representatives of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) to discuss procedures at the Waiver Review Branch, which now handles J-1 Waiver applications. As readers of the MURTHYBULLETIN may recall, this function was transferred on October 1, 1999 from the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) to the DOS.

Apparently, the transition to DOS has not gone smoothly. It has become close to impossible to obtain status information on pending cases, there are administrative problems in collecting fees, and processing times need to be substantially improved. DOS officials have acknowledged that "dramatic and immediate changes are needed." 

A variety of improvements are now in process. Starting on March 31, 2000, payments will be made off-site through St. Louis, enabling the officer who has been inputting the payments, to return to her real job of issuing advisory opinions. By the end of 2000, DOS would like to implement technology to enter case data and scan documents from St. Louis at the time of fee payment. Creating such an electronic record of the case at the beginning of the process would apparently eliminate many months of waiting time. A similar system is already in place for visa revalidations, and once the system is fully operational DOS expects that visa revalidation will take only two weeks.

AILA asked whether it would be possible for officers at the waiver review branch to be available to discuss cases at certain times of the day by telephone. This customer service measure was adamantly imposed by DOS, on the grounds that too much time would be taken away from the main job of adjudicating cases, and status information can be provided by other means such as the public inquiries branch.  DOS officials also expressed the opinion that the USIA system enabled "those that  'yell the loudest'" to be treated more favorably. "We do not want to provide any preference to those applicants that have congressional contacts, aggressive (or better) lawyers, or are willing to call incessantly themselves," they commented. "The best thing we can do is develop systems for efficient and very timely results."

[Editor's note of The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C.: AILA mentioned in its report on the meeting that DOS is not receiving additional funds to handle this new responsibility, and so the agency is under pressure to do the best it can with available resources. It is therefore not surprising that they would prefer that the officers spend their time in processing the applications rather than discussing them over the telephone!]

DOS also provided updated processing times for waiver matters as follows:

CURRENT REAL-TIME PROCESSING TIMES FOR WAIVER REVIEW BRANCH AT DOS (from date that last required document is received at DOS):

There have been problems with the automated telephone system for checking status, but DOS reports that they have almost completed the process of ensuring that the telephone system is compatible with the DOS computer systems, and ensuring that the data is entered correctly.