Popescu, Iosepovici & Associates Announce Two Recent Changes In The Bureau Of Citizenship & Immigration Service’ Processing Of Adjustment Of Status Applications In New York City
In order to provide the most up-to-date immigration law and procedure information to the Romanian community, the Law Firm of Popescu, Iosepovici & Associates wishes to inform the readers of this publication of two recent changes in the way the Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Service ("BCIS") office in New York City is processing Adjustment of Status (Green card) cases.
The first change is that after an applicant’s Adjustment of Status application packet is received by the New York City office of the BCIS, the entire packet is sent to the BCIS’ Missouri Service Center. Subsequently, the Missouri Service Center will send confirmation notices to the applicanta, as well as a request to appear at a BCIS fingerprints processing support center. Only after the fingerprints are cleared by the FBI and all background checks are complete will the application be deemed "interview ready," and the Missouri Service Center will schedule an applicant for an Adjustment of Status interview in New York City. In the past, such notices went out before the results of background checks and final fingerprint clearance were received, with the result that after the interview, many applicants were told that the case could not be finally adjudicated until all results were received. This led to significant delays in the processing of Adjustment of Status cases and required applicants and attorneys to make repeated visits to the BCIS office in order to determine the status of the case.
The main reason for this change in BCIS processing procedures is the government desire to only schedule for interviews those applicants whose fingerprints and name background security checks have cleared. Thus, after the interview, the application is either granted or not, but not delayed for later action. The BCIS hopes to substantially reduce the case backlog in the New York City office by avoiding the previous common occurrence where an application could not be approved due to an incomplete background security check.
In addition to (hopefully) reducing backlogs, another advantage of the new procedure is that the applicant will be able to check the status of a case online because the confirmation notices sent from the Missouri Service Center will include a BCIS case number. (Previously, the BCIS office in New York City did not provide applicants with case numbers.) This should allay some of the anxiety that applicants often feel while their case is pending. With a case number the status of case can be checked on line at www.bcis.gov.
It is too early to tell whether or not this process will reduce the significant waiting period for Adjustment of Status applicants in New York City. However, it is important for all applicants to remember that, notwithstanding the fact that the application packet is sent to the Missouri Service Center, the application packet must still be filed with the BCIS Adjustment of Status Office in New York City. You cannot send the application directly to the Missouri Service Center.
The second change that has recently been implemented is that some Adjustment of Status applicants will begin to receive interview notices for the BCIS office located in Garden City (Long Island). This location was previously used only for Naturalization interviews, and its addition as a venue of Adjustment of Status interviews significantly increases the number of interviews that can be held. This too is an attempt to reduce the tremendous backlog of Adjustment of Status files in New York City, and the BCIS has already began to schedule interviews at its Garden City satellite office. Obviously, this is a positive development as this can only help reduce the waiting period for an Adjustment of Status interview.
All of us at Popescu, Iosepovici & Associates will continue to monitor all new developments in immigration law and procedures which can affect the Romanian community. We are currently monitoring several proposed legislative acts in Congress which, if and when enacted, will profoundly affect the rights of aliens in the United States. We will of course inform our community of any significant developments in this area.
Armand Fried, Zamir Iosepovici & Robert Popescu
