USCIS Prepares to Decrease Staff by 70% (13 Thousand Workers)

[Fullbien 11]

Hi guys- to all those talking about fee hikes, are you thinking this would apply to the NVC fees as well? Or just the fees to file petitions with USCIS. I know nobody can know for sure what will happen but I welcome any insight.

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

2 minutes ago, Fullbien said:

Hi guys- to all those talking about fee hikes, are you thinking this would apply to the NVC fees as well? Or just the fees to file petitions with USCIS. I know nobody can know for sure what will happen but I welcome any insight.

USCIS seems to be where the shortfall is.....not the DOS.......but any speculation is useless until new fee schedules are published.

[Fullbien 11]

1 minute ago, Lucky Cat said:

USCIS seems to be where the shortfall is.....not the DOS.......but any speculation is useless until new fee schedules are published.

Thanks Lucky Cat!

[IBE2CA 34]

3 minutes ago, Fullbien said:

Hi guys- to all those talking about fee hikes, are you thinking this would apply to the NVC fees as well? Or just the fees to file petitions with USCIS. I know nobody can know for sure what will happen but I welcome any insight.

I would not doubt fee hikes in all classes or departments.  Lower the case load and keep the income.  I cant imagine they will add “surcharges” to cases already begun and a check was cashed to start that process.  

[Fullbien 11]

2 minutes ago, IBE2CA said:

I would not doubt fee hikes in all classes or departments.  Lower the case load and keep the income.  I cant imagine they will add “surcharges” to cases already begun and a check was cashed to start that process.  

Thanks IBE2CA, this makes sense too!  I think I will pay the NVC fees ASAP even though I don't have all the documents ready just in case. 

[aperson 44]

2 hours ago, lazylady said:

Stupid question but it's burning me as I have 2 petitions just submitted and I'm frozen in fear that I'll be in a limbo forever:

 

Can we start a gofundme or some sort of crowd sourcing for USCIS so that they won't have to furlough so many staff? I know it won't be anywhere close the the $1.2bn they said they need, but hey if it helps even just a tiny bit, I'm happy to contribute my part. 

 

And can USCIS receive funding through such crowd sourcing fund?

 

Or, can we start a petition and collect signature so this is going to the White House?

 

 

I was wondering about the same thing. I would think they probably can’t accept funds like that as that might be considered Conflict of Interest type of thing. I’m just guessing.

 

[OrihimeandIchigo 216]

I just saw USCIS employees are already receiving their furlough notices on reddit. So I'm assuming we'll find something about it in a new article soon. 

[aperson 44]

25 minutes ago, OrihimeandIchigo said:

I just saw USCIS employees are already receiving their furlough notices on reddit. So I'm assuming we'll find something about it in a new article soon. 

I saw that too. This is scary for both USCIS employees and immigrants.

 
What is going to happen to the processing time now? How are they gonna prioritize adjudication?

fingers crossed for everyone who might get impacted by this.

[brentos 53]

I am curious about this being caused by fees though. Have people really stopped applying for immigration during this time? Processing times are years for most things, so I feel like people would still be applying for most of the family based Visas. Not sure about business/working ones. But all those family ones are checks that they could be cashing and gathering fees on.

[janet3 1,170]

On 6/25/2020 at 5:14 PM, Lucky Cat said:

I fully believe they need to terminate the I-751 process.  By my calculations less than 1% of ROC cases are actually denied.......just give all spouses a 10 year card......married less than 2 years or not.

This whole thing is heart wrenching to me. I feel horrible about all of the people losing their jobs....but, in addition, this furlough takes place the day before my husband and I can apply for RoC. I feel defeated right now......

[kranthi143 34]

On 6/25/2020 at 11:17 AM, leroyleviticus said:

I totally agree with you - doing something is better than doing nothing. I have been sharing this with everyone I know. Friends, family, coworkers... My thinking is that the more people know about this and understand what it means, the better the chances are of Congress being pressured to take a closer look at this. They may not listen to immigrants but if it blows up, they will have to. Right? I don’t know... Maybe I’m just lost in wishful thinking.

Even if they won’t listen to immigrants, they would certainly listen to the 13k potentially furloughed/unemployed federal employees.

[harden4mvp 3]

So here is the thing: If there are too many applications -- sorry we are backlogged and processing will take a long time; If there are too few applications -- sorry our operation relies on fees and since you're not paying us we're gonna take a long long time to process your cases.  Either way, it's our fault, the immigrations'

[Harold_Oakland 133]

7 hours ago, harden4mvp said:

So here is the thing: If there are too many applications -- sorry we are backlogged and processing will take a long time; If there are too few applications -- sorry our operation relies on fees and since you're not paying us we're gonna take a long long time to process your cases.  Either way, it's our fault, the immigrations'

That is sad. Sorry the process is such a pain!

[lesly87 27]

Thought I would provide an update to this thread. The furloughs have already begun. Please see more deets in my post below. There are some employees in another forum who confirmed they got their notices earlier this week as well.

 

 

[eirinlinn 105]

What does this furlough mean? How long is this furlough going to last I wonder? 

 So basically they are going to be working in a skeleton crew?