DACA to cause further TSC delays?????

[Calicolom 266]

Once you Pay and once they know your name, you will be last in line. This is the Government and not Private Business.

[Rob L 3,811]

Is this thread about the impact of DACA to TSC processing times or is a reflection of our personal views on whether the petitions of others are valid for political reasons? If the later this thread should move outside the scope of Service Center dicussions.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Rob L

[Boiler 45,940]

Former

[NYC10065 24]

I was speaking to my attorney today and asked specifically how DACA impacted processing times when it was introduced in 2012 and how the current situation of illegal unaccompanied immigrant children along the southern border would impact processing times.

Firstly, she said that USCIS would never admit that processing times were impacted but she and virtually every immigration lawyer she knows saw a meaningful and material deterioration of processing times when DACA was first introduced in 2012 and applications started to come in. Why? First, because adjudicators had to be trained to handle DACA petitions. Second, because the massive influx of new petitions created an entirely new line of work which had to be dealt with. Eventually, things settled down and TSC, for example, was faster at processing petitions last year vs this year when officers became better acquainted with DACA petitions.

Secondly, any expansion of DACA as the current speculation indicates is part of the President's plans for a new executive order to deal with immigration reform will likely result in the same experience as was felt particularly in the early days of DACA (ie. training of staff to handle the new petition which would mean fewer active staff dealing with existing petitions and a first, large wave of petitions which would require an adjustment of work and workloads).

Thirdly, the current "emergency" situation along the southern border would not directly impact the processing of cases by service centers because adjudication officers at the service centers would likely not be diverted to the border. However, my attorney believes (again, USCIS would never confirm this), that certain budgets would be reallocated to handle the "emergency" situation which would potentially impact things like overtime policies at the service centers. What does that mean? In normal times, when a large backlog of petitions has developed at service centers, local managers would have the budgetary ability to approve overtime to reduce wait times and improve timelines. However, given the current situation and particularly since Congress has failed to approve new funds to help alleviate the situation along the southern border, whenever the Administration talks about "reallocation" of resources, there is a sense that this would have an indirect impact on case processing by limiting or even eliminating the ability of local managers to use overtime to alleviate backlogs. The result is an increase in case processing times without any concrete way to tackle the problem since budgets are reallocated for a different use.

Finally, my attorney says she has seen a real deterioration in case processing times particularly at the Texas Service Center over the past couple of months and while things were particularly bad at the end of 2013 and start of 2014 and things were getting "better" by April/May, she says that things "appear" to have gotten worse again with both June and July. Are they as bad as they were in Dec 2013/Jan 2014? We won't really know until USCIS posts their stats for June later this month.

So -- the question as to whether DACA has impacted case processing particularly at TSC is a real one. Again, USCIS would never acknowledge a problem but real life experiences from and since 2012 would indicate unequivocally that case processing times worsened as soon as DACA was implemented. Some could claim this was a mere coincidence but logic would dictate that the link between the introduction of DACA and the deterioration of processing times at TSC is very real.

Edited August 6, 2014 by NYC10065

[Rob L 3,811]

Good information NYC, it probably sums up most we are able to speculate about at this point I plan to use the bones of that information to ask my representatives, probably will have no direct effect on the immediate situation, but I have been impressed with where some simple questions have led in the past

It might be a powerful topic in the hands of the right journalist. The June data is something we will all be looking for.

.

[mrs thb 331]

When will the June data be released?

Texas is beyond slow. I cannot believe this is really happening in 2014 to law abiding clean citizens.

Come on America, wake up!

It's a disgrace.

[James & Tara 0]

When will the June data be released?

Texas is beyond slow. I cannot believe this is really happening in 2014 to law abiding clean citizens.

Come on America, wake up!

It's a disgrace.

Check out my timeline. 287 days from NOA 1 to interview back in 2010... then another 10+ months for my GC approval. It's never been good sadly...