The Los Angeles Times reported that the U.S. Immigration Services (USCIS) and immigration-related agencies, which have deepened since the COVID-19 pandemic, have worsened the backlog of procedures to the worst, requiring major reforms.<\/p>\n
The LA Times cited the case of an Indian applicant who died of COVID-19 last year ahead of an interview for a permanent residency after waiting for more than 16 years for the door to open the door to immigration with family invitations. He pointed out that he had reached the point of dying first while waiting.<\/p>\n
According to an analysis by the Cato Institute, an estimated 1.6 million elderly applicants die before they get approval because of the long waiting period for family invitation immigration, the Los Angeles Times reported.<\/p>\n
The number of applications pending at USCIS, ranging from permanent residency procedures to work permits, visa applications and citizenship, has increased by one-third since the pandemic, reaching 8.6 million as of March.<\/p>\n
In addition, the number of backlogs pending in federal immigration courts reached 1.8 million, up 25 percent from pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
In addition, the time required for work permits to be processed by the Federal Department of Labor prior to the Immigration Service’s review was previously possible within two months, but now it takes more than seven months, the LA Times reported.<\/p>\n
Not only this. The backlog of visa procedures at US embassies abroad, which is in charge of the State Department, is also very high, so in the case of last month, cases that should have already been granted visas had not yet been scheduled for an interview. In total, it was found that there were more than 410,000 cases. This is a significant increase from the average monthly waiting list of 61,000 people before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
The waiting period at the US embassy for a B1 or B2 visa interview, such as for travel or business, was only 17 days during the pandemic, but now averages 247 days, the Cato Research Institute analyzed.<\/p>\n
The USCIS auditor’s office analyzed that the root cause of this situation was a combination of an increase in immigration applications, a shortage of USCIS budget and staff, and a situation in which immigration services were paralyzed during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
In relation to this, the federal congress allocated $275 million in the budget for relieving the immigration backlog, including the expansion of immigration at the Immigration Service, in this fiscal year, but it seems unlikely that the immigration backlog will be fundamentally resolved, the newspaper pointed out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"