United States Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) has been suffering from unprecedented processing delays and backlogs that not solely change into a burden to AILA members and their purchasers, however to the company itself. Whereas functions and petitions throughout the company have been affected by these delays, nowhere is it extra evident than within the processing of I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers. All through the previous a number of years as a member of the AILA Authorities Relations group, I’ve noticed by way of direct expertise that these delays are way over simply an unlucky inconvenience. For a lot of, they symbolize private hardships, separated households and deferred goals. Essentially the most tough half is understanding that a lot of this ache, struggling and disappointment might be prevented if only USCIS could process benefits requests in a timely manner by merely adhering to its personal mission assertion.
By means of background, the American Immigration Attorneys Affiliation (AILA) has a number of advocacy and coverage priorities, two of that are to carry USCIS accountable to make sure the company stays true to its mission to offer immediate, constant and honest adjudications to its stakeholders, and to advocate for the reduction from excessive case processing delays and backlogs. For AILA to deal with the considerations going through members and their purchasers, and work in the direction of advancing our advocacy and coverage priorities, it’s crucial that we hear from our 16,000 + members on how ongoing and rising problematic company developments are impacting their purchasers.
One software that AILA makes use of to gather suggestions and examples of company points and developments is a “Name for Examples,” which is a survey we ship to the membership to evaluate a selected difficulty’s depth and breadth. And that’s precisely what we did after we started to listen to experiences of utmost processing delays associated to Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility and Form I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver, with a particular deal with the latter. The examples flooded in.
Grounds of Inadmissibility and Provisional Illegal Presence Waivers
For context, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) units forth quite a few grounds for inadmissibility, which basically is an inventory of particular classes of people who are usually not permitted by legislation to enter or stay in the USA. These grounds of inadmissibility embrace well being, felony exercise, public cost, nationwide safety, and illegal presence, amongst others. For an entire record of inadmissibility classes, go to USCIS.gov, beneath Unlawful Presence and Inadmissibility.
People who’ve accrued sure statutorily outlined durations of illegal presence, which means these not in a interval of licensed keep within the U.S., may be discovered inadmissible and are topic to three-year (if over 180 days) or ten-year (if over one yr) bars beneath INA 212(a)(9)(B). If an illegal presence floor of inadmissibility is relevant, immigrant visa candidates who’re family members of U.S. residents or lawful everlasting residents (LPR) might apply for a waiver utilizing Kind I-601A, Utility for Provisional Illegal Presence Waiver, earlier than departing the U.S. for an immigrant visa interview at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas. Kind I-601A solely applies to these people who’re inadmissible for having accrued the requisite interval of illegal presence. For different inadmissibility classes, people should apply for a waiver utilizing Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility.
AILA Name for Examples: Lengthy Pending I-601 and I-601A Waiver Purposes
AILA first started to listen to experiences of long-pending I-601 and I-601A waiver functions by way of varied inner listservs, and shortly thereafter issued a Name for Examples to the final membership searching for further info and suggestions. In simply 48 hours, AILA members had submitted an unprecedented 300+ case examples of lengthy pending I-601 and I-601A functions. The parameters used to hunt related examples of Kind I-601 and I-601A functions had been of these pending with USCIS for greater than 12 and 24 months, respectively, as that was the company’s posted processing occasions when launching the survey in November 2022. Out of the 307 case examples acquired, 287 had been of long-pending I-601A functions (“long-pending” signifies I-601A functions pending longer than 24 months). That’s roughly 93% of all case examples submitted.
For context, the USCIS Historical Processing Times web page demonstrates the nationwide median processing occasions from fiscal yr (FY)2017-2022 for all USCIS places of work. Under is an excerpt that gives the median reported processing occasions, measured in months, for Kind I-601A from (FY)2017 to 2022 over the previous six fiscal years. Fiscal Years run from October 1 to September 30, i.e., 10/1/21-9/30/22.
| Kind | Kind Description | Classification or Foundation for Submitting | FY 2017 | FY 2018 | FY 2019 | FY 2020 | FY 2021 | FY 2022 |
| I-601A | Utility for Provisional Illegal Presence Waiver | Provisional Waiver of INA 212(a)(9)(B) | 4.6 | 4.5 | 8.7 | 11.2 | 17.1 | 31.7 |
This information signifies that from (FY)2017 to 2022, processing occasions for Kind I-601A elevated an astounding 590%, and from (FY)2021 to 2022, processing occasions had an 83.3% enhance in only one yr. Whereas the common processing time appears to repeatedly enhance, so does the variety of pending I-601A functions. In line with the newest information revealed by USCIS, there are 121,793 I-601A functions pending with the company. Whereas the onset of COVID-19 and company staffing shortages had been definitely contributing components to the rise in processing occasions from (FY)2020 to current day, it’s an inadequate justification for all of the delay and ensuing hardship. These pending functions symbolize hundreds of people left in an prolonged limbo.
Humanitarian Affect
Behind each lengthy pending case is a person whose life might have been ceaselessly modified. Overseas nationals and their U.S. citizen or LPR family members are going through unbelievable hardships because of USCIS processing delays and backlogs associated to I-601A waiver functions. One such applicant, whose waiver request has been pending for nearly 36 months, has a critically unwell mum or dad overseas and can’t journey for concern of being inadmissible to the USA and topic to a ten-year bar on reentry.
One other applicant’s qualifying relative is terminally unwell and if the applicant doesn’t consular course of earlier than their loss of life, the applicant might now not be eligible for the waiver. Relatedly, one applicant’s qualifying relative handed away almost three years after their underlying petition was filed. As a result of the qualifying relative was not the petitioner, there could also be no reduction out there beneath INA part 204(I) for Surviving Kinfolk or Humanitarian Reinstatement Protections. As a consequence of USCIS delay, this particular person was stripped of a possible profit.
A number of different I-601A candidates famous excessive monetary hardship because of their lack of ability to safe work authorization. Many of those people are the only real monetary help for his or her U.S. citizen or LPR family members, which means the variety of impacted people goes nicely past the info revealed by USCIS. I-601A waiver candidates and their impacted members of the family have been harmed by inefficient company insurance policies whose implementations have triggered catastrophic backlogs.
The ripple impact of USCIS’ extreme delay in I-601A processing is as profound as it’s immeasurable and AILA will proceed to advocate for the reversal of dangerous and inefficient insurance policies and for the implementation of reforms that enhance processing occasions general. It’s important that we now compel USCIS to satisfy its mission and supply cheap processing occasions for not solely I-601A waivers however for all functions and petitions.