U.S. Tries to Speed Flow of Immigration Paperwork

It will take the government at least an additional two years to eliminate a backlog of almost 4 million applications for citizenship, green cards and work permits, the administration’s top immigration official told a congressional subcommittee Thursday.

Eduardo Aguirre Jr., director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, acknowledged that the problem was serious, but he said his agency’s greatest need was time, not funds.

“My challenge lies not in taking more money,” Aguirre told the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, but in making better use of it. “Our budget is adequate to serve our needs.”

At a news conference earlier in the day, Aguirre said his agency needed to make better use of technology and to increase productivity by 20%.

The agency has 6.1 million pending applications for naturalization or other adjustments in immigration status. About 3.7 million applications, or 60%, are considered part of the backlog because they were filed more than six months ago.

At the agency’s Los Angeles district office -- which serves the city as well as Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties -- applications for naturalization require an average of 12 months for processing. Applications for a green card, or permanent residency, take 14 months on average, said agency spokesman Chris Bentley.

Aguirre said his agency recently turned a corner and was now processing more applications than it receives each month. But he warned that “there are no quick fixes” to a problem made worse by the full security checks required since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The backlog has become a sore point with businesses that depend on foreign professionals, as well as with immigrant families. Aguirre said the agency has revamped its computer systems, changed procedures and is eliminating some requirements that only added to the paperwork.

Immigrants will no longer be required to resubmit their fingerprints every 12 to 15 months, for example, because the government now has virtually unlimited capacity for storing digital images of fingerprints, signatures and photographs.

The agency also has begun allowing immigrants in some areas, including Los Angeles, to make appointments and file certain applications using the Internet. Officials think programs such as e-filing and InfoPass will eliminate long lines at agency offices and dramatically reduce the time needed to process applications.

In addition, the agency is encouraging its district offices to streamline procedures. In the past, applicants were often asked to submit additional information, lengthening the processing time. But immigration officers now are being told to make their decisions on the original application when possible.

Another change the agency is making -- one suggested by immigration lawyers and other critics -- is to stop asking immigrants to resubmit information.

In the past, for instance, an immigrant doctor would submit to immigration officials his resume, educational records and documentation from the hospital that was seeking to hire him. But after his case languished for 15 months, an official might ask for the information again.

The new policy is called “decision at first review.”

“I don’t want paralysis by analysis,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre told lawmakers that none of these changes would weaken his agency’s commitment to national security. All immigrants still will have to go through complete security checks, he said. The agency refers suspected fraud cases or security threats to another agency of the Homeland Security Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

President Bush, during his campaign for the White House in 2000, promised to eliminate the immigration backlog and ensure that all immigration applications were processed within six months. But Aguirre said his agency was unlikely to reach that goal before September 2006, almost two years into the next presidential term.

In January, Bush proposed a guest worker program that could result in 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants filing for legal status. Congress has not acted on the proposal.