USCIS Averts Furlough of Nearly 70% of Workforce (merged)

[xxlian 100]

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that the agency will avert an administrative furlough of more than 13,000 employees, scheduled to begin Aug. 30 as a result of unprecedented spending cuts and a steady increase in daily incoming revenue and receipts.

 

Source: https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-averts-furlough-of-nearly-70-of-workforce

[Claire6 26]

  On 8/25/2020 at 5:34 PM, xxlian said:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that the agency will avert an administrative furlough of more than 13,000 employees, scheduled to begin Aug. 30 as a result of unprecedented spending cuts and a steady increase in daily incoming revenue and receipts.

 

Source: https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-averts-furlough-of-nearly-70-of-workforce

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This is amazing news, but I am kind of worried by the wording in their statement. So are they saying processing times are going to increase anyway? 😐

[Pats5415 97]

  On 8/25/2020 at 5:37 PM, Claire6 said:

This is amazing news, but I am kind of worried by the wording in their statement. So are they saying processing times are going to increase anyway? 😐

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Just read that. So they won't furlough thousands of staff anymore by aggressively cutting costs within. Just as stated, backlogs will increase even with keeping all staff. At this point i think furloughs or not, backlog is going to increase regardless until more funding is provided.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Pats5415

[Claire6 26]

  On 8/25/2020 at 5:39 PM, Pats5415 said:

Just read that. So they won't furlough thousands of staff buy aggressively cutting costs within. Just as stated, backlogs will increase even with keeping all staff. At this point i think furloughs or not, backlog is going to increase regardless. 

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I got so happy when I found out they cancelled them, because I have been stressing like crazy over these furloughs. Just to read in the end that it does not even matter lmao.

[Cheburashka34 228]

I don't get why keeping them is going to delay processing? I was trying to understand what exactly they are going to cut with costs, but didn't understand.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Cheburashka34
Adding

[Pats5415 97]

  On 8/25/2020 at 5:54 PM, Cheburashka34 said:

I don't get why keeping them is going to delay processing?

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I am not sure honestly, maybe there are other factors involved that contribute to day-to-day operations for the employees? Would be nice for more transparency.

[Fenja 229]

  On 8/25/2020 at 5:54 PM, Cheburashka34 said:

I don't get why keeping them is going to delay processing? I was trying to understand what exactly they are going to cut with costs, but didn't understand.

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  On 8/25/2020 at 6:00 PM, Pats5415 said:

I am not sure honestly, maybe there are other factors involved that contribute to day-to-day operations for the employees? Would be nice for more transparency.

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“The additional cost savings come through the descoping of federal contracts that assist USCIS adjudicators in processing and preparing case files as well as a myriad of other support activities.”

Sounds like they had people that prepared case briefs or similar things for them to speed up decision time and now they are having to do that themselves.

[jan22 3,097]

Sounds like they are going to reduce contracts for part of the support staff that do things like dealing with mail, data entry/scanning as needed, filing, answering the phones, organizing the case files...all of the things that need to be done to a case before it ready to go to an adjudicator.  Means cases will take longer to be ready to move from the submittal stage to the adjudicator stage.

[Cheburashka34 228]

That makes more sense. I was wondering what contracts they were referring to. Thanks!

Also, didn't the house recently pass an emergency bill on funding for USCIS? How does that play into this? If it goes into effect in September when they come back from recess then will they not do cut backs on costs?

Edited August 25, 2020 by Cheburashka34

[Fenja 229]

  On 8/25/2020 at 6:52 PM, Cheburashka34 said:

That makes more sense. I was wondering what contracts they were referring to. Thanks!

Also, didn't the house recently pass an emergency bill on funding for USCIS? How does that play into this? If it goes into effect in September when they come back from recess then will they not do cut backs on costs?

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Do you mean this one? The House did, but the Senate hasn’t passed it and the president hasn’t signed it so it will be awhile before this would kick in. Also it would only allow USCIS to charge certain premium fees, it wouldn’t be giving them extra money from the federal budget.

[millefleur 5,050]

Just checking, so the fiscal year for the USCIS ends September 30th. So fiscal year 2021 would begin October 2020? Is that fiscal year 2021?

[gregcrs2 1,778]

  On 8/25/2020 at 7:43 PM, millefleur said:

Just checking, so the fiscal year for the USCIS ends September 30th. So fiscal year 2021 would begin October 2020? Is that fiscal year 2021?

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Fiscal Year 2021 begins on October 1st, 2020.

[millefleur 5,050]

  On 8/25/2020 at 7:45 PM, gregcrs2 said:

Fiscal Year 2021 begins on October 1st, 2020.

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Got it. So basically the "good news" is only going to last until the end of September, then we have to wait again and see what happens.

[gregcrs2 1,778]

  On 8/25/2020 at 7:46 PM, millefleur said:

Got it. So basically the "good news" is only going to last until the end of September, then we have to wait again and see what happens.

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That's what it sounds like.

[AJ2019 58]

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/513600-furlough-cancelled-for-13000-immigration-services-workers