New USCIS Phone System : Direct Access to Information Officers
Posted May 07, 2004

Direct telephone access to immigration information officers at the USCIS Service Centers is expected to resume later in 2004. The announcement came from the Director of Customer Service at USCIS in late April 2004. There is a new telephone system under development to facilitate direct access to the immigration information officers. This would allow for questions on pending cases.
 
The new system is part of overall efforts to improve customer service. In addition to the changes in the telephone system, the USCIS is working on plans to provide an online customer service portal. This will allow persons to directly send case inquiries to the Service Centers or the local offices. While we will not be able to test these two programs until they are implemented, we have been able to test the new online tracking system. This new system allows for the simultaneous tracking of multiple pending cases. It provides notification via eMail if there is any progress on a case. Individuals must sign up for the program and manually enter the receipt numbers they wish to track.

Direct telephone access would be a welcome change to foreign nationals and immigration practitioners alike. Direct access to the Service Centers was cut off in June 2003, over the protest of many. The limited access to information available through the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) has been less than satisfactory. See our September 19, 2003 article, Dissatisfaction with NCSC Telephone System, available on MurthyDotCom.

We applaud the USCIS for its efforts to improve customer service. Many individuals with immigration cases pending and many attorneys have been unable to obtain meaningful and timely information about cases since direct telephone access to the Service Centers was discontinued. We look forward to these new systems that the USCIS plans, and has already started, to implement.