AILA-NSC Teleconference
January 30, 2002
Notes prepared by Gregory P. Adams
EB I-485
1. Please share with us the NSC's approach to EB I-485s where the applicant changes
jobs or leaves the sponsoring employer within 180 days of filing an I-485 provided that on
the 181st day the I-485 remained unadjudicated. (Assume that the applicant was in all
respects eligible for approval of the I-485 on the original date the I-485 was filed.)
ANSWER: We will look at these cases on a case-by-case basis. Depending on the
circumstances, it is possible that we might choose not to grant an interview waiver but,
instead, to relocate the case to the district office for an interview.
2. Does the NSC have any guidance to offer on what documentation attorneys should
provide to the INS on pending I-485 cases where the alien "ports" to a new
employer while awaiting adjudication of the I-485?
ANSWER: We are interested in evidence of ongoing eligibility, which will enable us to
compare primary duties, job requirements, and wage/salary information. It would helpful if
the new permanent employer were to provide a letter, signed by a person with authority to
provide such a letter, addressing the nature of the primary duties, job requirements and
salary offered by the new employer. It would also be helpful to have evidence of the new
employer's ability to pay the offered wage. We are interested in the essential information
that will help us to determine whether the new position is similar to the one on which the
adjustment application was based.
3. A rumor is circulating that the NSC has a new procedure to "speed up"
EB I-485s pending for a long time by encouraging the proactive filing of an updated
employment verification letter on the one year anniversary of the I-485 filing. Any truth
to this?
ANSWER: No truth.
4. What is the progress on the fingerprint problem for EB I-485s filed between
January and April 2001? Have notices been sent out? Are notices still being sent
out?
ANSWER: We are still looking into this situation. We are working with ADP to run a sweep
of our system to locate these cases. Approximately 8,000 cases did not get scheduled in
May, but many of those cases did go out as ASC-scheduled cases in November and December.
We still have approximately 1,500 cases to be scheduled and are running sweeps to locate
these cases. As an aside, in January, we expect to have completed between 15,000 and
18,000 refugee-based and employment-based I-485 cases, and have been hitting new records
in I-485 case completion for the past several months. We expect to average between 13,000
and 15,000 refugee-based and employment-based I-485 adjudications per month from this
point forward.
5. Is NSC still doing periodic "sweeps" to identify and clean out older,
pending EB I-485s? (This seemed to help significantly in reducing the number of attorney
inquiries when it was done after the fall tour in October.)
ANSWER: Yes.
6. There have been several cases recently where RFE's were issued, the attorneys
had in fact responded to the RFE's, but INS denied the I-485 indicating no response had
been received. When submitting an AILA inquiry the concern is whether INS can review the
matter quickly enough so that the attorney can avoid having to file and pay for a motion
to reopen within the
30-(33-) day period following denial. Can the NSC put these cases on an expedited review
so the attorney can find out whether the NSC will reopen the case on its own motion
without the attorney having to file a motion to reopen?
ANSWER: We recommend that the attorney file a motion within the 30-day period afforded by
regulation. We hold for 90 days at the service center those files in which we have issued
a denial. We ask that you give us approximately 120 days from the filing of a motion until
you contact us again if you have not received a decision on the motion.
7. When the NSC responds to an AILA inquiry by indicating that "the file will
be retrieved and reviewed," what is a reasonable period of time to expect before
hearing of further action from the NSC?
ANSWER: Approximately 90 days, unless the case involves an age-out situation.
I-612
8. In a H-1B case, is the NSC willing to pull a pending I-612 (most are no
objection statement-based waiver recommendations from the DOS) and adjudicate it
concurrently with an I-129 seeking H-1B or L-1 status?
ANSWER: If the waiver recommendation or I-612 is pending at the NSC, the NSC will pull the
waiver recommendation/I-612 so that it can be adjudicated with the I-129 petition.
Sometimes, it is difficult for us to locate a waiver recommendation because, as you know,
these recommendations do not contain "A" numbers. If you have received a I-797
Receipt Notice for the waiver application, always include a copy of the Receipt Notice. We
have a backlog of a little over 90 days in I-612 adjudications.
I-539
9. Some members have voiced some concern about the new "checklist" RFEs
for I-539s. These forms, while making the RFE quicker to get out to the applicant, do not
always explain what the request is aimed at. Are these checklists used on all I-539 RFEs
and is there any way for the examiner to indicate what the request really relates to if it
doesn't fit into the checklist?
ANSWER: We are in the process of developing a new I-539 RFE to replace the old one which
is not always helpful.
I-551
10. In our last call, the NSC reported that the production backlog was
approximately nine months but was being worked to bring it down to about half of that
time. Since then, newly adjusted I-485 applicants have been receiving their I-551a very
quickly. Is the backlog being worked on a last-in, first-out basis. Will the very old
cases be worked in the near future?
ANSWER: Our backlog is gone. For I-485s adjudicated at the NSC, the interval between our
receiving a completed I-89 (from the local INS office) until we send a request to card
production to produce an I-551 is approximately seven months. We are currently working on
June 2001 I-89 receipts from INS local offices. We have approximately 22,000 to 28,000
I-89 receipts to work on before these cases go to card production.
RFEs
11. What is the current procedure for processing a response to an RFE? After what
amount of time is an inquiry into the case warranted? Members report instances in which a
decision (approval) was not forthcoming. It appears that the RFE response was not quickly
matched with the file but rather was queued as a new filing.
ANSWER: The process is as follows: the requested evidence arrives in our mailroom
(hopefully, with the red-stripe envelope so that it is easily identified), it then takes
approximately one week to match the requested evidence with the file on our shelf, then
the file and requested evidence go to an adjudication officer, the adjudication officer
works the RFE case before attending to new cases, and if the case is approved, the
adjudication officer updates the case record in CLAIMS. If the case is ultimately denied,
the process is slower because the officer must prepare a written denial which then goes to
a supervisor and from the supervisor to our clerical unit before being mailed out.
12. Members have remarked about a lack of use of faxpress to solve simple problems.
An example is a mailed RFE for the attorney to confirm the consular post to be notified.
Are officers still encouraged to use faxpress to issue RFEs?
ANSWER: We believe that we have a good volume of cases in which we are using faxpress.
With regard to the example sited in your question, please provide us with the file number.
I-129
13. What does the NSC believe the role of the Occupational Outlook Handbook is in
H-1B adjudication?
ANSWER: The OOH is helpful in an advisory capacity. All of our officers rely on it for
information about the Department of Labor's view of job duties, educational requirements,
and similar information.
14. When will the NSC backdate an H-1B approval? When will it not?
ANSWER: We will backdate an H-1B approval when we approve a case seeking a continuation of
previously approved employment without change. We will never backdate an approval in a new
employment or a change of status situation. In these situations, the date of adjudication
(or the date requested if the start date is in the future) will be the "valid
from" date.
Fingerprint Notices
15. Some members report that they have received case denials from NSC after
applicants did not appear for fingerprinting, where neither the applicant nor the attorney
received the fingerprint notice. (This has happened on I-821 TPS applications as well as
on I-90 applications.) Will the NSC entertain a Motion to Reopen/Request for
Re-scheduling?
ANSWER: The NSC will accept a motion to reopen or reschedule if, for example, we sent the
fingerprint notice to an incorrect address. If we look into the file and we discover that
the fingerprint notices went to the correct address or addresses, then we generally will
not reopen the case to schedule a new fingerprint appointment date. Motions to reopen to
reschedule must be filed with the required fee. If, upon review of the motion, the NSC
discovers that it erred in issuing a fingerprint notice, it will consider refunding the
fee paid for the motion.
I-751
16. Where the INS inadvertently accords CR6 rather than IR6 classification, some
local offices have told lawyers that the mechanism to correct this is to file an I-751
with the NSC. Is this a policy change whereby all incorrectly issued cards can only be
corrected through filing an I-751?
ANSWER: The I-751 is not the correct mechanism. File an I-90 with fee waived for INS error
because of the misclassification by the INS.
I-130
17. Members are concerned about the latest processing times on I-130s. I-130
adjudication appears to be stretching to 8 or 9 months. Does the NSC plan to bring the
adjudication time back down and if so, by when do you expect that it will happen?
ANSWER: Our backlog for immediate relative I-130s is approximately 110 days, but our
backlog for IR spouses is close to five and a half months. The April 30, 2001 LIFE Act
filing deadline created a filing bubble for us which is impacting our adjudication of
I-130 IR spouse cases. Because of the LIFE Act filing bubble, it will take us a
considerable period of time to complete adjudication of I-130 LPR spouse cases.
Miscellaneous
18. Please share with us any significant assignment changes at the supervisory
level since our last conference call at the beginning of December.
ANSWER: We have had a slight reorganization in our adjudications division. We have created
a fifth product line and have moved some Immigration Information Officers and some
clerical support to that new product line. We have identified training positions for that
new line in an effort to streamline and make more consistent our training and
adjudications. Our annual officer and supervisor rotation will take place on April 1st.
19. Will the NSC have a corporate fly-in day this year?
ANSWER: We have not yet made a decision. We are currently looking at our liaison program
from a global prospective in an effort to better coordinate and consolidate our handling
of inquiries from various constituent groups.
20. Members note an increased inability to reach the NSC. What is the NSC's current
phone line capability? Are any budgeted improvements expected?
ANSWER: Our information lines are very, very busy. We have looked into the possibility of
adding more lines but our system is at capacity. INS Headquarters continues to assure us
that an on-line inquiry system is coming, but we do not have a timetable for that.
Notes approved by Greg Christian, Deputy Center Director, on February 15, 2002.
CINlibrary/789853.1.38-42
