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ARTICLE · 15 APRIL 2022

Lengthy Immigration Processing Times Are Impacting U.S. Competitiveness – Is Help On The Way?

Klasko Immigration Law Partners
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United States Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS") has recently announced a limited expansion of expedited processing for critical permanent residence categories that are utilized by highly skilled foreign nationals.

United StatesImmigration
Andrew J. Zeltner
Andrew J. Zeltner
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United States Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS") has recently announced a limited expansion of expedited processing for critical permanent residence categories that are utilized by highly skilled foreign nationals. In addition, USCIS has indicated a commitment to provide faster overall processing times for cases that are not eligible for expedited processing. USCIS has committed to increasing capacity, enhancing its technology framework, and expanding staffing in the hopes of making needed improvements to case processing times over the next several months. This is a welcome development as the USCIS backlog has surged from 5.7 million applications at the end of FY2019, to approximately 9.5 million cases that currently await review. While the Biden Administration did not create the backlog, this announcement is a hopeful sign that the Administration will begin to seriously address these issues, as it settles into its second year in office.

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