The CIS Ombudsman's Webinar Series: 2024 Annual Report

On July 30, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CIS Ombudsman) hosted a webinar highlighting its 2024 Annual Report to Congress.

During this engagement, CIS Ombudsman staff members provided an overview of the report and shared some of the report’s 33 recommendations made to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to improve the administration of immigration benefits and services.

Below are the topics and some of the recommendations discussed:

Year in Review: An Overview of 2023 

• In 2023, USCIS reduced its pending net backlog despite having to divert staff to conduct credible fear interviews and support other humanitarian caseloads. USCIS focused on digitization efforts, technology, and staffing increases to accomplish its mission. 
• The agency launched new initiatives, including parole processes for nationals of several countries and new family reunification programs.
• The CIS Ombudsman received a record number of requests for case assistance and introduced four regional representatives across the country.

No Longer on the Defensive: Recommendations for a Proactive Approach to Collecting Biometrics from Asylum Applicants in Removal Proceedings

• Since 2005, USCIS has scheduled and completed biometric appointments for defensive asylum applicants – both principal and dependents. USCIS does not receive funding for this activity yet it must allocate significant resources to manage this workload.
• In 2023, a frontlog of approximately 100,000 applications developed, causing delays that impact immigration court proceedings, the agency, and individual applicants.
• The CIS Ombudsman makes three recommendations to USCIS to improve the quality of customer service provided to defensive asylum applicants experiencing intake and biometric scheduling issues. In the long-term, USCIS should work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to modernize biometric procedures and reduce its role in collecting biometrics for defensive asylum applicants.

Reexamining the Administration of the English Portion of the Naturalization Test

• In December 2022, USCIS announced a major naturalization test redesign effort, acknowledging that its current approach had the potential to create barriers for applicants.
• Stakeholders expressed that USCIS’ proposed revisions to assess English proficiency could create more unintended barriers discouraging applicants from applying for naturalization or making the process more difficult to complete.
• The CIS Ombudsman makes five recommendations for USCIS to consider to improve the testing of English for naturalization.

USCIS’ Prioritization Dilemmas: Lessons from the Form I-601A Backlog

• USCIS must constantly balance workloads, prioritizing some workloads at the expense of others. Often, these decisions are influenced by factors beyond the agency’s control.
• The backlog of Form I-601A, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver, is an example of the consequences of sidelining one benefit over others for an extended period. In response to these challenges, USCIS established the Humanitarian, Adjustment, Removing Conditions, and Travel Documents (HART) Service Center in early 2023 to address competing priorities.
• The CIS Ombudsman offered three key strategies based on lessons learned from establishing the HART Service Center that USCIS should consider moving forward to prevent backlogs caused by deprioritized workloads. 

Lost Mail and the Challenges of Delivering USCIS Documents

• Delayed or lost documents and notices can lead applicants or petitioners to miss required actions, resulting in delays or denials, the impact of which can range from inconvenient to severe.
• To address this issue, USCIS has made some notices, such as receipt or appointment notices and requests for evidence, available through online accounts. Many applicants and petitioners must still rely on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to receive USCIS communications, and everyone must rely on USPS for approval notices and other secure documents.
• The CIS Ombudsman recommends that USCIS take further steps to improve its mail delivery process by increasing online options and encouraging the use of tools that permit closer coordination for mail delivery. 

Meeting the Growing Demand for Employment Authorization Documents 

• The growth in demand for employment authorization documents (EADs) over the past several years has presented challenges to USCIS in terms of sheer numbers. USCIS’ card production and facility operations are working at capacity to meet this volume.
• USCIS implemented some methods to ease EAD production limitations, such as allowing people to use EADs beyond the card expiration date when combined with receipt notices, Federal Register notices, or other documentation extending their validity.
• The CIS Ombudsman recommends that USCIS consider additional short- and long-term actions to increase card production capability and explore ways to reduce the number of cards the agency needs to produce.

Clarifying Processing Times to Improve Inquiries and Manage Expectations

• Processing time-related inquiries are among the most common customer service requests USCIS receives.
• Inquiries about cases in longer queues, processing normally despite the wait, can be counterproductive. Responding to these inquiries requires USCIS to divert resources to researching case status instead of completing cases, and customers gain little additional information beyond what is available with an online self-service tool.
• The CIS Ombudsman recommends options for USCIS to redesign their current self-service tools and offers ideas to enhance communication to better manage customer expectations.

Looking Backward, Looking Forward: Thoughts on the Future of USCIS

• Since 2003, the CIS Ombudsman has written about the impacts of backlogs and competing priorities on USCIS’ work. The Executive Branch’s responses to outside forces have created workloads for USCIS without corresponding funding.
• The greatest challenge facing USCIS is the constant need to realign and pivot personnel and resources to address sudden workloads and operational pressures.
• In this “thinkpiece,” the CIS Ombudsman offers some perspective on the challenges USCIS has faced recently and ideas for consideration as the agency tries to move past them.

The CIS Ombudsman tracks USCIS’ progress in responding to recommendations in our Annual Report to Congress and posts the agency’s responses on our USCIS Responses to Annual Reports to Congress page. USCIS is required to respond to our report, and the agency determines whether to accept and implement our recommendations. The agency may act on some recommendations immediately while others may take longer to result in change. Our office will continue to collaborate with USCIS on these recommendations to improve the administration of our nation’s immigration system.

Questions Received 

More than 650 stakeholders joined the webinar. Attendees submitted written questions and comments, several of which CIS Ombudsman staff members answered directly during the event. 

Below is a sample of the questions received that relate to our annual reports:

• Is USCIS considering using questions 1-8 on the Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, as the sole criteria for determining an applicant’s level of English proficiency? Some countries require upper intermediate (B-2 level) language proficiency to qualify for the equivalent of a Green Card, raising concerns that we may be significantly lowering our standards for assessing English proficiency.
  
  We recommend that USCIS consider using only Parts 1-8 on the Form N‑400 to assess an applicant's understanding and speaking of English. In our report, we discuss how the Immigration and Nationality Act requires an applicant to be able to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language. We provide examples of how the questions in Part 9 require a complex skill level that goes beyond typical everyday language. USCIS recognizes some concepts and terms on the Form N-400 may exceed the English language requirement set by Congress and continues to review possibilities surrounding limiting the questions on the form
   
• Does the CIS Ombudsman recommend for USCIS to implement in the online filing system a mechanism for applicants to submit Form I-912, Request for Fee Waiver?
  
  In our 2022 Annual Report to Congress, we recommended that USCIS make application programming interface (API) integration and online filing for Form I-912 immediate priorities. We also stated our support for calls by stakeholders to digitize Form I-912. In its response, USCIS indicated that its Office of Information Technology (OIT) was working with stakeholders to develop an API for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests as an initial use-case and launched a publicly available developer portal (developer.uscis.gov) to encourage industry developer teams to participate. In response to our recommendations about Temporary Protected Status in our 2023 Annual Report to Congress, the agency said it is "working on making the fee waiver request possible for online submission and will provide updates as we make progress on this priority.” 

While there were many questions directed to the CIS Ombudsman, there were also questions that did not relate to our annual report. We are not responding to those questions here but will take them into consideration to raise during our regular meetings with USCIS. 

Lastly, we would like to address the following question so that stakeholders can better understand how to engage with our office:

• How can advocacy groups like ours effectively collaborate with the CIS Ombudsman to provide feedback to USCIS and contribute to policy improvements for Refugee Travel Documents, such as extending the validity period for these documents beyond the current one-year limit?
  
  Groups can collaborate with us by contacting the CIS Ombudsman’s Public Engagement Division. Stakeholders invested in the immigration system can request an engagement with our office on a specific topic or issue. Our Policy Division uses the feedback from these engagements to make both formal and informal recommendations to USCIS. To request an engagement, please visit our Public Engagement page to find contact information for our headquarters team or the regional representative who serves your area.

Speakers 

• Nathan Stiefel, acting CIS ombudsman
• Teresa Andrade, community outreach specialist (moderator)
• Elissa McGovern, chief of Policy
• Fatimah Mateen, assistant chief of Policy 
• Edgar Muñoz, policy analyst
• Fred Troncone, senior advisor
• Janet Banos, senior advisor
• Michael Onka, senior advisor