In Service of its Customers? How USCIS has Become Increasingly Inaccessible and Costly to Applicants
/By Grace Anderson
Started in 2002, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency was created by Congress to effectively administer immigrant benefits to its customer, including both noncitizens and US citizen petitioners. USCIS was fundamentally intended to be a customer service agency, and is 97% funded by fees from its customers. However, in recent years – and worsening during this past year’s COVID-19 pandemic—the services provided by USCIS have become more inaccessible and costly to applicants due to the agency’s ineffective policies and disorganized bureaucracy. Customers have struggled with significantly longer wait times for case adjudication and inquiries, difficulties scheduling in-person appointments, and trouble navigating the complicated phone system. Despite its stated mission of customer service, USCIS’s recent policies and operations have made the agency more of a headache than a help to its customers.
Over time, and at an accelerating pace since 2017, USCIS has created many hurdles for customers to contact service representatives with case inquiries. One of the administrative hurdles plaguing operations is the excessive three-step process used to schedule appointments at local USCIS field offices. In 2017, the USCIS replaced its online portal system, InfoPass, where customers could self-schedule their appointments, with InfoMod, an antiquated three-step process that is completed over the phone. With this phone system come excessive hold times, untimely callback hours, and navigating a long series of prompts to speak with a live representative — if you can even reach one. USCIS has also limited who can raise questions or submit service requests using the toll-free number to customers and their respective attorneys only. So, other law firm staff are unable to assist in the time-consuming process of reaching a live representative. On top of a more complicated and inefficient phone system, USCIS has gotten rid of local and national email inquiry boxes, which previously allowed customers and attorneys to more easily follow up on case inquiries. These changes have essentially left customers with the sole option of using USCIS’s contact center to track cases and submit inquiries.
In recent years, the USCIS has drastically reduced customers’ ability to engage with agency staff. The agency has eliminated its CRO (Community Relations) and CEO (Community Engagement Officers), cutting customers’ ability to talk to staff who are familiar with their cases. Now, customers must use the USCIS Customer Service Center for all requests and inquiries, a system which has proven itself an ineffective substitute. On top of this, the USCIS has canceled walk-in hours at local offices — a service that had been a lifeline for some clients.
Possibly most detrimental to customers is the surging processing times of cases and inquiries. Despite receiving fewer cases, USCIS’s average case processing time spiked by 25% between 2017 and 2019, though case processing times had already been growing dramatically prior to that period. There are currently millions of backlogged cases — the culprit? — once again, the inefficient policies of USCIS, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. An example of these inefficient policies is the 2017 implementation of universal in-person interviews for all employment-based immigration applications and Refugee/Asylee Relative Petitions, as well as family-based immigration applications that had previously been eligible for interview waivers. Interviewing people who are not deemed to be a concern by the agency has been a waste of time and money. The backlog of cases has further worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, as interviews were canceled for a period of several months and employees have been struggling to keep up with cases while working from home. The rise in processing times has caused much hardship to applicants and their families and employers – including lapsed work authorization and extended periods of family separations.
During the new Biden administration, new legislation appears to be on the horizon. Along with more immigration-friendly policy, such as Biden’s proposed 8-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, Congress and USCIS must work to make the agency more efficient and accessible to customers as part of an overall program of streamlining the immigration system. A clear first step would be to rescind the inefficient, expensive, and unnecessary policies that have been hindering the agency for the last four years, like the universal interview requirement. For increased accessibility, USCIS should reinstate walk-in hours at local offices, refill the positions of CRO and CEOs, and re-create local and national email inquiry boxes. This, along with commonsense technological changes like the use of online portals rather than lengthy phone calls, could make the USCIS vastly more helpful to customers. It is worrisome that over the past four years the USCIS has drifted away from its customer service mission and towards being an impersonal, disorganized bureaucracy, but with smart policy and technology changes, the agency could begin to better serve its customers and help create a more orderly immigration system.
Vigoda Law Firm has been tirelessly supporting individuals, families, and businesses throughout all the ups and downs of the US immigration system for many years, and looks forward to continuing to do so. If you are ready for legal support and guidance as you navigate this complex and ever-changing system, we invite you to reach out to us here.