USCIS Announces First Ten Areas of Focus for Agency-wide Policy Review

Here are some highlights this initiative, with questions and answers released by USCIS, and some of my own comments.

Q: What is the USCIS Policy Review?

A: The USCIS Policy Review is a comprehensive review of policy, guidance, and procedures related to its adjudications and customer service. The Policy Review is divided into four stages: (1) assembling and categorizing existing policy documents; (2) deciding which issue areas to review first, with input from surveys of the workforce and external stakeholders; (3) completing a review of policies in each identified issue area; and (4) consolidating and publishing updated policy documents (as appropriate), once approved

Q: What Are The First 10 Issue Areas Under Review?

USCIS considered quantitative and qualitative feedback from the surveys along with operational and programmatic needs to select the first 10 issue areas for the USCIS Policy Review to examine:
• National Customer Service Center
• Nonimmigrant H-1B (specialty occupations)
• Naturalization and Citizenship
• Employment-Based Adjustment of Status
• Family-Based Adjustment of Status
• Employment-Based Immigrants Preference Categories 1, 2 (priority workers, professionals and holders of advanced degrees) and 3 (skilled workers and professionals)
• Refugee and Asylum Adjustment of Status
• Form I-601 (Application for Waiver of Ground of Inadmissibility)
• General Humanitarian Programs
• Employment Authorization and Travel Documents

–Citizenship has had an upgrade in the last few years. The process seems to work fairly well and I am not sure why it needs further examination. However, the H-1B and Employment based categories need serious re-examination. For H-1Bs, I would like to changes to the Cap Number system. With a down economy, it may not be such an important issue, but the story changes when the economy is on the rise. If the economy is booming, why limit the number of skilled workers? The Third Employment based category seems hopelessly backlogged. I hope the re-examination could address the various issues caused by these backlogs.

Q: What prompted the Policy Review?

A. USCIS is committed to ensuring that our policies are consistent and up to date. To that end, the agency has launched the USCIS Policy Review to examine our policies with input from the public it serves and from its workforce.

–That is an entertaining answer. What about complaints by the public? Could that have prompted the Policy Review?

Q. What is the expected length and scope of the Policy Review?

A. The Policy Review is a multi-year effort designed to work thoughtfully through thousands of policy documents, many of which overlap or complement each other, in collaboration with the USCIS workforce and external stakeholders. New policy documents, once drafted, will be submitted through the USCIS clearance process, with many posted on the USCIS website for public comment.

–At least they are having this review. I look forward to seeing some changes. It looks like we will have to wait quite a while to see proposed changes.