U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced new measures to streamline the nation's legal immigration system.
According to a press release, USCIS announced a total of three efforts aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing the burdens carried by the overall legal immigration system, including the setting of new agency-wide backlog reduction goals, expanding premium processing to additional form types, and working to improve timely access to employment authorization documents.
“USCIS remains committed to delivering timely and fair decisions to all we serve,” USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said, according to the press release. “Every application we adjudicate represents the hopes and dreams of immigrants and their families, as well as their critical immediate needs such as financial stability and humanitarian protection.”
The agency established new internal cycle time goals during the month of March in hopes to reduce the pending caseload experienced by USCIS.
The time goals refer to internal metrics that will guide the backlog reduction efforts, affecting how long it takes USCIS to process cases.
The agency has experienced a significant backlog of pending cases and increased processing times as a result of impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.
