During quarantine, USCIS secretly stopped processing requests for green cards: data from an internal document

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced to its employees that the agency is “resuming processing” of all permanent residency applications (green cards) after an informal termination. However, she issued a guide on how to work in the new environment. Writes about it Rollcall.

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In its guide for USCIS employees, she paused a pause in the process of processing applications for a green card with a decree from US President Donald Trump, who suspended the entry of most immigrants from abroad. Note that the decree did not affect the receipt of a green card by applicants already residing in the United States. But the agency stopped processing absolutely all applications, in particular, those received from immigrants located in the United States. Although exceptions for special categories have been made. It is not clear only when such a restriction was introduced, but it became known about it in early June.

However, on Tuesday, June 16, the agency informed its employees about the lifting of these measures. On a special page of the intra-departmental network, where employees receive recommendations and instructions on the work of offices, they announced: a "general decision" was made to resume consideration of applications for green cards from immigrants residing in the United States. A pause in the issuance of a green card was used both in cases requiring personal interviews and in situations where these interviews could be canceled.

“The quarantine allowed us to focus on several priority issues, such as office closures to help mitigate COVID-19, as well as processing cases pending naturalization ceremonies,” Citizenship and Immigration Services officials said.

“Now that USCIS expects us to have completed nearly all of our pandemic-delayed naturalization ceremonies by the end of July, we will be able to resume processing applications for change of status, citizenship, and other in-person services in offices that maintain health and safety protocols.” , said a statement on the department’s internal web page.

The service acknowledged that it posted material on the termination of processing of applications from immigrants located within the country on the “web page used by USCIS staff to obtain guidance,” and explained: this statement contained “incorrect information”, so it was deleted.

“This post has been removed and does not reflect current guidance,” the department said.

On the subject: USCIS resumes work: how to reassign a quarantined meeting

A USCIS employee who wished to remain anonymous said that some offices were informally ordered to stop processing green card applications back in April. His colleague from another office, who also did not identify himself, said that they began talking about the cessation of processing applications in May.

Both USCIS employees expressed concern about how the information was disseminated, but were unable to pinpoint whether this was due to the administration’s intentional decision to block the issuance of green cards, or due to negligence.

“I think the reasons for this decision may be related to the pandemic,” one employee said.

According to USCIS, between March 30 and June 1, approximately 45 applications for green cards were submitted from immigrants in the United States, but it is not clear how many were outside the exception categories listed at the agency’s disposal. According to last year's statistics, about 000 such applications were submitted for the same period in 2019.

USCIS, which is fully funded by filing fees, requested Congressional emergency funding of $ 1,2 billion due to a lack of funds due to a reduction in the number of applications in the wake of the pandemic.

According to the American Federation of Local Government Workers, a union representing USCIS workers, it is expected that 70 percent of the agency’s workforce will be laid off if Congress is unable to allocate money.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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