Wonder why your immigration applications are delayed?

Some immigration applicants may find that their case is taking an abnormally long time to process. They wait for weeks or months longer than expected and the case does not move forward. The processing times are advancing very slowly. It is as if the application is stuck in limbo. What on earth could be going on behind the scenes?

It is no secret that USCIS has a huge backlog of cases.  The net backlog for FY 2018 is estimated to be 2,415,573 cases, bringing the accumulated gross backlog to 5,691,839 cases.  This compares to  543,859 case net backlog and 3,290,668 case gross backlog in FY 2014. This backlog is immense and continues to accumulate at an astounding rate.

In February, Congress sent an inquiry to USCIS requesting explanations and statistics on the backlog. USCIS' response gives us some insight on the matter.

The five-year "completions per hour" statistics USCIS provides tells us a lot about the situation. For almost every prominent application category, the case completions per hour decreases with each year from FY 2014 to FY 2018. Form I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker (used for H-1B, O-1, L-1, R-1, etc.) went from 1.1 completions per hour in 2014 to 0.64 in 2018. I-130 Petition for Alien Relative dropped from 1.7 to 1, and employment-based I-485 (green card) went from 0.95 to 0.57.

USCIS attributes much of its delays to policy changes requiring more strict vetting procedures. Their response cites the President's executive order, which suspended refugee travel for 120 days and created more vetting procedures for USCIS to follow. Other policy changes that prolonged processing times include the in-person interview for employment-based green card applicants and for relatives of refugees and asylees applying for a green card. Applications such as I-129 employment petitions are also affected by the policy changes, which stresses strict evaluations even for extension requests for previously approved petitions.

USCIS also states that there is a lack of facilities and trained staff.

The good news is that some strategies targeting inefficiencies have produced results. The "Last In, First Out" policy for I-589 affirmative asylum applications (an application with an especially large backlog) has reduced the backlog. An online process to adjudicate Form I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card has resulted in a reported 75% drop in the I-90 backlog as of September 2018. It is hoped that the upcoming I-129 H-1B CAP electronic registration process (which is expected to be rolled out in April 2020) would also speed up the average processing time for H-1B petitions.