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The Ombudsman's Annual Report to Congress
By statute, the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman submits an Annual Report to Congress by June 30 of each year. The Ombudsman’s Annual Report must provide a summary of the most pervasive and serious problems encountered by individuals and employers applying for immigration benefits with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The Annual Report also reviews past recommendations to improve USCIS programs and services.
Annual Report 2016
Ombudsman's Message
USCIS … still has much work to do to resolve longstanding systemic issues that compromise efficiency, quality of adjudications, and customer service.… With a myriad of competing priorities, the agency has made insufficient progress to address processing times delays (critically on the rise in the past 2 years); inconsistencies in adjudications across service centers; substantial failure to meet the 90-day regulatory adjudication deadline for employment authorization documents; and the continued issuance of overly burdensome and unnecessary requests for evidence. I believe USCIS will achieve its full potential as a 21st century immigration agency when its customer service and adjudicatory functions are consistently prioritized, resourced, and afforded equal oversight….
Ombudsman Maria M. Odom's message to Congress on June 29, 2016.
Annual Report Highlights
- Humanitarian: Despite efforts by USCIS to address the increasing number of asylum requests, applicants are experiencing longer delays. The Special Immigrant Juvenile program as well as in-country refugee/parole processing in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras offer critical protections for vulnerable youth. The Ombudsman has issued formal recommendations to USCIS pertaining to the SIJ program and a U visa parole process for persons placed on the U visa waiting list. The Ombudsman continues to be concerned with inconsistent processing of provisional waivers and will monitor implementation of new policy pertaining to the applicable “extreme hardship” standard.
- Interagency, Customer Service, and Process Integrity: In this Annual Report, the Ombudsman delves into the background checks and security screening process and continues to focus on the proper delivery of USCIS notices and documents, prolonged processing times, and efforts in implementing Transformation. The Ombudsman also encourages USCIS and the U.S. Department of State to resolve issues pertaining to consular returns.
- Business and Employment: In this year’s Annual Report, the Ombudsman reviews issues involving the mobility of beneficiaries of employment-based petitions; the integrity of immigrant investor petitions; challenges faced by employees and employers in the H-2 programs; and delays in obtaining employment authorization documents.
- Families and Children: The Ombudsman observed a 68 percent increase in requests for case assistance involving naturalization applications. The Annual Report notes that military personnel are experiencing longer delays in the processing of their naturalization applications. In March 2015, USCIS began making changes to the fee waiver form and process, culminating in a proposed rule that would, among other things, expand fee waiver eligibility for naturalization applicants. In the coming year, the Ombudsman will monitor the implementation of the new naturalization fee waiver, as well as processing delays of petitions to remove the condition on permanent resident status.
Complete Annual Reports and Executive Summaries
- Executive Summary - Ombudsman 2016 Annual Report to Congress
- Complete Ombudsman 2016 Annual Report to Congress
If you have difficulties accessing a file or need assistance, please contact CIS Ombudsman.