USCIS should be privatized

[jarta 24]

I think USCIS should be privatized, and given to about 5 competent companies. This will bring competition which will result in better services and faster processing time, because people will have the choice of the service centers to send their applications. I know people will bring up the issue of national security – this can be fixed. As it is right now, USCIS is the only body that does this work so people have no choice but to deal with the long and painful wait. Processing fees will get a little expensive (I bet the government is probably subsidizing the processing fees) but it will be worth it because results will be produced in a timely fashion.

what do you guys think?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I think USCIS should be privatized, and given to about 5 competent companies. This will bring competition which will result in better services and faster processing time, because people will have the choice of the service centers to send their applications. I know people will bring up the issue of national security – this can be fixed. As it is right now, USCIS is the only body that does this work so people have no choice but to deal with the long and painful wait. Processing fees will get a little expensive (I bet the government is probably subsidizing the processing fees) but it will be worth it because results will be produced in a timely fashion.

what do you guys think?

Good idea.

How do you feel about getting rid of USCIS and letting them run our health care instead?

[AKteacher 104]

Wrong. The USCIS is almost entirely self sufficient in its funding. The fees that are paid with visa petitions fund the USCIS operations. There are some (but very few) fees (such as for military naturalizations) that are paid by the US government.

For a more detailed discussion, see: http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/19491.pdf

Some people think (due to ideological reasons) that privatization of government services is a good thing in and of itself. The reality is that there have been some successes (think airfares) and some failures (most notably prisons). Fees would probably increase substantially in order to pay for company profits, and there are national security issues. Seems to me it would be penny wise and pound foolish to try to privatize such an important function that is probably best left centralized and under direct government control.

Just my two cents...

[William33 110]

Although this is Off Topic subject matter, I will not move it to the Off Topic area.

Instead, I will move it to the K-1 Progress (commentary topic).

As a member of VJ and not acting as a Moderator, I disagree with privatization of this very important service, that has national security implications at the heart. USCIS does employ contractors, but they are under the watchful eye of the USG staff.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Even if you could make USCIS private the embassy is still a government controlled spot and you would get even worse power struggles between the private version of USCIS and the embassy . Once an applicant was determined to be non admissable the data might become a national security issue and how would that get handled ? The cost for a private security clearance would make the cost of doing business a lot higher than it currently is. Would you be willing to spend twice the money for petitions ?

[jarta 24]

Wrong. The USCIS is almost entirely self sufficient in its funding. The fees that are paid with visa petitions fund the USCIS operations. There are some (but very few) fees (such as for military naturalizations) that are paid by the US government.

For a more detailed discussion, see: http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/19491.pdf

Some people think (due to ideological reasons) that privatization of government services is a good thing in and of itself. The reality is that there have been some successes (think airfares) and some failures (most notably prisons). Fees would probably increase substantially in order to pay for company profits, and there are national security issues. Seems to me it would be penny wise and pound foolish to try to privatize such an important function that is probably best left centralized and under direct government control.

Just my two cents...

I humbled disagree with you that it will be wise to leave it under the government. First of all I think most people don’t mind paying more for good or quality services. And secondly, most business under direct government control of the government end up in trouble e.g. social security or heavily subsidized with money that the country doesn’t have e.g Amtrak.

Why then should we leave something that we both consider to be very important under a group of people that have shown us over and over again that they usually fail at running businesses?

[Anh map 2,098]

I think USCIS should be privatized, and given to about 5 competent companies. This will bring competition which will result in better services and faster processing time, because people will have the choice of the service centers to send their applications. I know people will bring up the issue of national security – this can be fixed. As it is right now, USCIS is the only body that does this work so people have no choice but to deal with the long and painful wait. Processing fees will get a little expensive (I bet the government is probably subsidizing the processing fees) but it will be worth it because results will be produced in a timely fashion.

what do you guys think?

Where do you see the process speeding up?

[jarta 24]

Where do you see the process speeding up?

do you think it takes about 5 to 6 months to do background checks on one person? i bet a one man job has been broken down to about a 3 or 4 man job. all of that causes delays..

Edited September 5, 2011 by jarta

[Anh map 2,098]

do you think it takes about 5 to 6 months to do background checks on one person? i bet a one man job has been broken down to about a 3 or 4 man job. all of that causes delays..

Each case is unique. Some take longer, some not. 2 months from submission to consulate in our case. Would be the same whether gov't or private.

[maning 36]

do you think it takes about 5 to 6 months to do background checks on one person? i bet a one man job has been broken down to about a 3 or 4 man job. all of that causes delays..

I thought the FBI was responsible for doing background checks for the USCIS. I guess we have to privatize the FBI as well.

[jarta 24]

Each case is unique. Some take longer, some not. 2 months from submission to consulate in our case. Would be the same whether gov't or private.

yeah i do understand each case is unique and difference...but do you really think USCIS's service would not improve drastically if its services is privatized to about 5 or 6 competent companies? i think it would. competition has shown over and over again that, its what helps to bring the best out of people\companies.

[jarta 24]

I thought the FBI was responsible for doing background checks for the USCIS. I guess we have to privatize the FBI as well.

i wouldnt go as far as saying the FBI should be privatized...but if the government has once used the services of Blackwater USA (a private military company), why cant the government just privatize USCIS and look into the issue of national security. i bet there will be ways to be deal with the national security issues

[rostov007 29]

The process will not speed up if privatized, because as a rule corporations in the US attempt to achieve higher profits by lowering their universally largest expense, labor. The reason it takes 5 months from file to embassy is a 5 month pile of files on their desks waiting to be worked. What they need, in an ideal world, is more labor not less.

Also, keeping the profit motive from the award of a visa is a great thing. Can you imagine how much corruption would creep in if the company running it was paid on the number of Visas processed? Osama bin Laden would probably have gotten one. Just look at the privatization of prisons. In one case from the top of my head, the CEO of the prison company paid a judge to send him more prisoners, people who would otherwise have gotten fines suddenly started going to jail.

The reason the US Visa process is above reproach is strict ethical guidelines and no profit motive. If you want it to move faster, lobby your Senator and Congressmen to increase the NVC, USCIS, FBI, etc. budgets. Until then, wait in line like everyone else.

IMHO

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

Each case is unique. Some take longer, some not.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I read on the one forum that actually reviewing case between NOA1 and NOA2 takes really short time. Most time of waiting our cases just being in a long queue till somebody in USCIS will take envelope from shelf, clean dust and will open it to see if it's something wrong there or not. So I read that waiting for a 4-5 months doesn't mean that all the time case is processing. It does mean that for a few months our cases just getting to be covered with dust on shelves more and more without anybody working about it. I want to reinsure - I don't know it by myself, I got this info on forum. It's Victor from Russia writing.

[jarta 24]

The process will not speed up if privatized, because as a rule corporations in the US attempt to achieve higher profits by lowering their universally largest expense, labor. The reason it takes 5 months from file to embassy is a 5 month pile of files on their desks waiting to be worked. What they need, in an ideal world, is more labor not less.

Also, keeping the profit motive from the award of a visa is a great thing. Can you imagine how much corruption would creep in if the company running it was paid on the number of Visas processed? Osama bin Laden would probably have gotten one. Just look at the privatization of prisons. In one case from the top of my head, the CEO of the prison company paid a judge to send him more prisoners, people who would otherwise have gotten fines suddenly started going to jail.

The reason the US Visa process is above reproach is strict ethical guidelines and no profit motive. If you want it to move faster, lobby your Senator and Congressmen to increase the NVC, USCIS, FBI, etc. budgets. Until then, wait in line like everyone else.

IMHO

hey mann, you have made lots of good point above. but i dont agree with you on a couple. i do agree that more labor is needed to get the process going faster. but as you can see right now, that labor is not coming. if its privatized to about 6 companies, competing for customers money, will make companies hire more labor to increase productivity (or will do whatever it takes to reduce the processing time). i really dont see anything happening soon about processing times at the USCIS and i am not expecting anything new. and as you have said, i should wait in line like everyone else - that is exactly what i am doing. i am just discussing an idea with my fellow VJ members.