More than one million new U. S. citizens were welcomed through USCIS in fiscal year 2022, a 62% relief in the backlog of naturalization applications.
U. S. Citizenship and Immigration ServicesThe U. S. Department of Health and Drug Administration said in a new report that the firm “changed course on its pending cases” and prevented their backlog from developing “thanks to a continued increase in hiring and a preference for finding new efficiencies in case processing. “
The USCIS 2022 progress report also notes how the company increased its resources to fulfill the wishes of war-affected refugees under Operation Allies Welcome and United for Ukraine, with more than 92,000 paintings issued to Afghan citizens and nearly 120,000 issued. to Ukrainiansnational and their immediate circle of family members.
USCIS also highlighted the implementation of several new designations, redesignations and extensions of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), adding for Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen. In fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022 combined, USCIS won 483,000 initial GST programs, a normal number of new filings, of which nearly a portion were approved,” the report says.
“Every immigration case assigned to us represents an individual or circle of relatives seeking to build a better life in the United States,” USCIS Director Ur Jaddou said in a report accompanying the report. “We have made measurable progress towards building a more humane immigration formula. through USCIS workforce innovation and determination. There is still work to be done, namely to reduce processing times for everyone we serve, and congressional help is critical to achieving our ambitious backlog alleviation goals in the coming year.
More than one million new U. S. citizens were welcomed through USCIS in fiscal year 2022: “62% relief on the net accrual of naturalization programs (Form N-400) from the end of fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2022, and the number of naturalized citizens in just about 15 years.
USCIS and the State Department worked together to account for “all employment-based immigrant visas to be obtained in fiscal year 2022, double the number prior to the pandemic. “
“This was an ongoing enterprise-wide effort, as any unused visa at the end of the fiscal year would not be available as of October 1, 2022, at the beginning of fiscal year 2023,” the report said. “During the last quarter, USCIS proceeded 7 days a week to successfully process termination requests. This accumulation of resources for overtime was made possible by congressional appropriations, particularly for efforts to alleviate delays.
The report notes that innovation has been key to reducing program backlog and processing times, as well as “all staff, policies and operational tools” available to the agency, such as a “temporary final rule, published in May 2022, that extended the validity period [of employment authorization documents] for more than 400,000 non-citizens and immediately restored the ability to work for dozens of thousands of non-citizens whose EADs had expired through no fault of their own” due to the agency’s decision to reduce capacity closures due to COVID-19.
The backlog has returned to grades for immigrant visa applicants awaiting EAD renewal, USCIS said, as the company strives to meet more backlog relief goals in the coming year.
In the fiscal year, more H-2B visas were made for seasonal nonfarm employees than ever before: 64,716. The firm also doubled the typical number of employment-based immigrant visas, he said.
USCIS said the goals for fiscal year 2023 are to “implement premium processing for all employer programs for immigrant personnel (Form I-140) and certain EAD programs for academics and replacement visitors (Form I-765), the requirement to submit biometrics to replace applicants and expand nonimmigrant standing (Form I-539) and simplifying several primary forms, adding programs for EAD (Form I-765), adjustment of prestige (Form I-485), and naturalization (Form N-400). “
USCIS also committed to asylum applications and disposition processes during the upcoming fiscal year, employing “strong public engagement in humanitarian immigration programs” and “leveraging technological responses to develop the integrity and power of TPS processing. “
The report also highlights the company’s recovery from its currency hit at the height of pandemic restrictions, as historically 96% of the company’s budget comes from tariffs. reserves aimed at reaching the designated target level, to ensure that the company avoids a budget crisis,” the report says.
“In early 2022, USCIS halted the expansion of the backlog through a continued increase in hiring and a preference for finding new efficiencies in case processing,” the report said. -extensive efforts such as Operation Allies Welcome and United for Ukraine.
Going forward, the firm added, USCIS “will want Congress to continue to help it eliminate its existing net arrears and fulfill its humanitarian mission, and plans to pursue a new payment rule to prevent the accumulation of new arrears in the future. “