October 12, 2010
The CIS Ombudsman issued its Annual Report to Congress on July 8, 2010. The full report can be seen here. The report notes that, in the last year, the Immigration Service has increased its outreach to the public, provided greater transparency, and has been operating more efficiently and with more consistency. However, the report made 20 specific recommendations for improvement. Some of those include:
- The USCIS should improve its RFE process, through requiring its adjudicators to specify the facts, circumstances and/or derogatory information necessitating the issuance of an RFE and initiating a pilot program with 100% supervisory review and internal checklists for one product line;
- The USCIS should establish clear adjudicatory L-1B guidelines by issuing regulations;
- The USCIS should improve the access for the public to speak to an actual person with knowledge of a specific case;
- The USCIS should improve the I-824 adjudications, including establishing a goal to process requests for duplicate approval notices within days of receipt
