Earlier this month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a report by the DHS Inspector General on Green Card processing time. The report concluded the “USCIS has unclear website information and unrealistic time goals for adjudicating green card application”. USCIS has an expressed goal of adjudication application in 120 however processing time are currently taking an average of 282 days.
Read the Report
From the Report:
USCIS regularly posts information on its website about the time it takes field offices to adjudicate green card applications (processing time). Yet, the information is unclear and not helpful to USCIS’ customers because it does not reflect the actual amount of time it takes field offices, on average, to complete green card applications. In addition, the actual average time it takes USCIS to complete green card applications has lengthened, and USCIS is not meeting its goal of adjudicating applications in 120 days. In fact, since fiscal year 2011, the overall average number of days it takes to complete applications has risen to more than twice the goal. Although USCIS has tried to help field offices stay close to the 120-day goal, we believe the time goal is unrealistic, given the number of factors that can slow the process and the importance of continuing to thoroughly vet green card applicants.
Recommendation 1: Implement plans to present information on the USCIS website that more accurately reflects the length of the adjudication process for green card applications, so the website information is clear and helpful to stakeholders.
Recommendation 2: Reassess the current green card application processing time goal of 120 days to determine whether it is reasonable and realistic and increase the timeframe if necessary.
