Certain Ombudsman's Recommendations Accepted by USCIS
Posted Feb 15, 2008
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman's office recently released a recommendations status chart (PDF 181KB) of all of the formal and Annual Report recommendations made to the USCIS since the establishment of the CIS Ombudsman's Office in July 2003. This chart also includes a summary of the USCIS's response and any implementation of a recommendation.
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History of the CIS Ombudsman's Office
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As long-time MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers may recall from our August 8, 2003 article, DHS Watch: New Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman, Mr. Prakash Khatri was selected as the CIS Ombudsman. His role was to act as intermediary between the USCIS and those using the USCIS to file for immigration benefits, including employers and employees, families, community organizations, and those representing foreign nationals and/or their employers.
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Certain Recommendations by Ombudsman's Office Accepted
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The USCIS has agreed, as a whole or in part, with a number of the Ombudsman's recommendations, and has implemented or agreed to make changes. Some of the areas addressed include: improvement in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) operations, standardization of business processes for O and P visas, high rates of rejections of N-400 citizenship applications due to a lack of pre-application security screenings, improved fingerprint storage and retrieval capabilities, wrap-around security checks to prevent expirations that require additional background investigations, delivery of permanent resident cards using U.S. Postal Service "return receipt requested," reforming employment-based permanent residence application processes, providing a breakdown of pending immigration benefits cases, coordinating change-of-addresses and the status of AR-11 filings, and changes to the eFiling system.
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As is evident from this list, the Ombudsman's office tries to address system-wide problems and inefficiencies. There is clearly a need for this type of broad review of real-world problems faced by foreign nationals and others trying to work within the immigration system.
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Conclusion
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We at the Murthy Law Firm appreciate the CIS Ombudsman's efforts since 2003 to persuade the DHS and the USCIS to implement formal and annual report recommendations. The Ombudsman's role is valuable and has the potential to improve the level and efficiency of services provided by the USCIS to all those who use its services for immigration petitions or filings.