what in the world is going on with
immigration case processing times
friends things have slowed down you've
heard me talk about it in other videos
and for you out there who may have filed
paperwork with the government and you're
waiting to hear back you of yourself
know that something is going on
something's wrong so let's talk about
that in this video stay tuned
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there need good information so let's
just get right to it
we know from practice right when I say
we I mean lawyers but you of yourself
know as well that things have slowed
down and what is going on the government
is taken much longer to process the
i-130 Family petitions the
naturalization application the n400 the
adjustment of status application we're
seeing this pretty much across the board
right meaning that it's not just one or
two offices USCIS offices that are just
taken longer to process petitions and
applications than other offices no
really what's happening is more on a
system level it's a systemic problem and
a few months ago actually a LUP the
American Immigration Lawyers Association
of which I'm a member as you guys
probably know that already
Ella did a study just recently in fact
that looked at the case processing times
and compared more recent trends with
previous years and what Ella is finding
and we're going to go through that just
in a few minutes or we're gonna get to
that shortly what Ella is finding is
that across the board things have slowed
down and we don't know the real reason
why things have slowed down I mean
certainly we know that newer policies
that have been coming out of the Trump
administration have made the problem
worse has slowed things down even more
significantly than previous
administrations and previous years but
we don't know really what's going on
behind the scenes on the
agency-level that's really causing all
of this to slow down one may think well
they've slowed down simply because
they're receiving more applications
right that's what you would think but
that's actually not what l have found so
let's just go right into the data so
here's what l have found l a-- has found
in there - january 30th 2019 study that
the overall average case processing time
surged by 46 percent over the past two
fiscal years the other thing that l a--
found in its report is that USCIS
process 94% of its forms more slowly in
fiscal year 2018 than in fiscal year
2014 and right now the USCIS has a
backlog a net backlog exceed in 2.3
million cases so what does that mean it
means cases are delayed people like you
right human beings families who are
trying to immigrate to the United States
or you may be here and you're trying to
get a green card or citizenship you're
finding that you're waiting longer then
you should and so there's the reason for
that is because USCIS is processing
cases more slowly today than it did
three years ago four years ago five
years ago the more recent policies like
policies to issue notice to appear in
court and all of those other denial the
denial policy that came out last summer
just a number of things that came out in
the recent year or two actually have
really exacerbated this problem what
else does this report says earlier I
said that you would think that the
reason for the slowdown is because the
agency is slammed it just it's receiving
more applications and petitions than it
did in previous years but that's not the
case what Ella has found is that even
though that the volume of those case
receipts the volume of those receipts
have actually declined while the case
processing times increased so you have
this imbalance going on here
it's not because the agency is slammed
with more petitions and actually
anecdotally that's what I thought
right that's what I thought it was the
initial problem you know with respect to
the agency that you know once President
Trump became president more people
feared and they do they do I see them
every day they fear immigration
enforcement tactics and so they hurry up
and they try to apply for a benefit and
therefore the agency is slammed and it's
cause you know this backlog and things
to slow down but that's not what's
happened that is not the issue - the
receipts of case submissions be meaning
people who are filing for a benefit have
actually declined and yet the case
processing times have increased further
just recently as a matter of fact on May
13th 36 US senators on Capitol Hill got
together and they wrote a nice little
letter to the agency indicated that they
are very concerned about the process and
times and that it's impacting families
it's impacting US businesses because
workers are also impacted by this and so
this letter was just submitted to the
agency by 36 US senators so friends I'm
going to do more videos on case
processing times as the information
becomes available to me I will share it
with you because you're asking me on a
fairly regular basis on YouTube and on
Facebook and even an on Instagram what
is going on why is it taking so long why
am i waiting so long and so now you kind
of have a sense of what's going on
behind the scenes the agency has slowed
down and it's a historical slowdown it's
a historical issue that Ella has looked
at here in its recent study and so stay
tuned friends as I talk a little bit
more about case processing times thanks
very much for watching this video and I
will see you in the next one bye bye