The number of applications for immigration with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stood at more than 5.2 million, nearly doubling the number before the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a report recently submitted to Congress by the Office of the Immigration Ombudsman under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), there are currently over 5.2 million applications that have been received by USCIS and have not been processed and are pending. The number of cases reached more than 8.5 million, according to the Federal News Network.
The number of such backlog cases nearly doubled in three years from 2.7 million in July 2019, before the pandemic. USCIS was unable to prevent the deepening of backlogs due to temporary suspension of work and shortage of staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To alleviate this situation, USCIS plans to hire more than 4,000 new employees by the end of this year and work to accelerate the processing period for each immigration application for fiscal year 2022-23.
According to the USCIS, premium processing of work visa application (I-129) and employment immigration petition (I-140) documents, which are expedited by paying an expedited fee, are processed within two weeks of receipt, and regular I-129 applications that are not premium processing has set a goal of processing within two months of receipt.
In addition, four types of applications, including work permit application (I-765), re-entry permit (I-131), extension/change of status of residence (I-539), and addition of permanent residence card for accompanying family members (I-824), are processed within 3 months of receipt. USCIS said it aims to in addition, other application documents such as citizenship application (N-400), permanent residence application (I-485), and I-140 that are not premium processing plans to select a processing time cycle within 6 months of receipt.