USCIS Processing Times May Be Affected Under Upcoming Sequester

[florida4life 29]

USCIS Processing Times May Be Affected Under Upcoming Sequester

February 21st, 2013 | Category: Articles,News,USCIS

As many of our clients and readers are aware, unless Congress decides to act on a long-term federal deficit-reduction plan before March 1, the government will suffer automatic slashes under the looming “sequester” plan passed in 2011. It will cut 8 percent from U.S. military spending and 5 percent from other domestic spending budgets. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), which includes Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) is likely to be affected as well — meaning that cuts to DHS programs and staff are likely.

How Would the Sequester Affect USCIS?

One of the questions we hear most often is whether the upcoming sequestration (which seems very likely to happen, as of the date of this article) is, Would the sequestration affect USCIS operations and processing times?

While it appears that DHS’s budget will be affected as a whole, many agencies within DHS will be impacted more than others. For example, the FEMA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are among the agencies hardest hit. All of this means that there will be less agents, airport screeners and border agents on duty, which would affect waiting and processing times.

While USCIS is also slated to lose funding, most of its budget comes from fees collected for processing various applications and services, so the impact to USCIS should not be as significant compared to ICE or CBP. However, even if USCIS does not suffer directly from the cuts, the magnitude of the cuts and the fact that other related agencies are affected is likely to affect at least somewhat USCIS operations. For example, of CBP has to furlough some of its workforce, it may take longer to cross through certain border posts and it may be more difficult to obtain immigration-related benefits by CBP – such as I-94 processing, corrections, FOIA requests.

Conclusion

We remain hopeful that Congress would reach a compromise over the next week or so and avert the sequestration. However, we have urged our clients who rely on federal agencies to consider that there may be an additional delay in obtaining certain immigration-related services. While we do not expect USCIS to be affected as dramatically as other agencies within DHS, it is still possible for our clients and readers to experience notable delays when dealing with USCIS. Therefore, please plan accordingly.

[X Factor 1,112]

How does one plan accordingly?

[Bayareaguy 156]

Great news for the CSC K1'ers!!!!

How does one plan accordingly?

Buy ammo.

[jft 12]

How does one plan accordingly?

I think what florida4life is saying is be even more patient than you are now. Because the sequester hasn't happened yet I haven't mentioned it to my fiancee but if it does I'll certainly try to manage her expectations about how long the process takes (we're only about 7 weeks into waiting yet so we have quite a ways to go). Also calling/writing your congress members urging them to come to an agreement before the sequester hits probably wouldn't hurt either. I plan on writing mine tonight.

[JTB11 1,079]

wow, plan accordingly ...so the average of 7-8 months we are waiting will turn into 10-12 ?

[Darnell 8,479]

noted

[NikLR 13,232]

Ugh... so it's true... Hubs is going to be getting furloughed.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

While I can appreciate there will be some impact especially at border services, what I find most interesting is to try and see what impact sequestering will have on the processing of any immigrant or non-immigrant petitions since USCIS claims that they do not use any tax-based funds to process any immigration related costs. Immigration fees are set at the rates they are because no tax payer dollars are assigned by Congress to be used for immigration purposes - those receiving the benefits must pay the costs related to those benefits -which means that the wages and overhead expenses of those USCIS employees adjudicating and processing petitions and applications should not be affected by sequestering. There should be no real impact on processing time since these people are not going to be affected by sequestering- their wages and overhead costs are not paid for from funds affected by sequestering but are paid by all of the non-government immigrants and sponsors. Crossing the border may take longer because of the lack of security people at the border, but that is going to be the same impact any of us travellling overseas would experience; it is not immigrant specific.

[Caryh 5,206]

The background checks and verification is dependent on other parts of the government. I'd expect the state department side of immigration to also be affected.

[Darnell 8,479]

re: TSA layoffs.

What? There's a special airport security fee we all pay when purchasing an airline ticket. where'd that money go, aye?

[NikLR 13,232]

Into the new machines that scan yer body.