On March 29, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would implement three new actions to reduce lengthy processing times that resulted from COVID-19–related delays.
USCIS has established new goals for its “cycle times,” an internal metric the agency uses to measure how many months’ worth of pending cases for a particular form are awaiting a decision. In an attempt to reduce processing times by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2023, the agency will hire more personnel and improve technology to process cases and meet the new timelines for adjudication.
USCIS released the following chart outlining the new cycle time goals:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule on March 30, 2022, to expand premium processing services to several case types. Currently, USCIS offers premium processing only for certain Form I-129 and I-140 petitions.
The final rule proposes a gradual expansion of premium processing services to additional types of filings, starting with the following case types, which DHS anticipates implementing by the end of FY 2022: Form I-140 (EB-1 Multinational Executive or Manager and EB-2 National Interest Waiver); Form I-539 (Change of Status to F, J, or M); and Form I-765 (Employment Authorization Document [EAD] for F-1 Optional Practical Training [OPT] and J exchange visitors).
For additional categories, the expansion will be...
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