INS Eliminates Wait for CIA Name Checks in I-485 Processing
Posted Dec 27, 1999

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has started a policy of processing I-485 applications without waiting for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) name checks. If problems are detected, the INS can take remedial steps after approval of the I-485 application.

By way of background, as part of the routine process for adjustment of status (I-485) applications, the INS routinely provides certain identifying information about the applicant to the CIA. Due to case backlogs at the CIA, along with some software problems, beginning January 19, 1999, INS headquarters began a policy of holding I-485s until the CIA notified INS that processing was completed on cases received through a certain month. Cases prior to that month were held, and when the CIA completed processing through the next month, those cases could then proceed to final INS adjudication.

The above policy slowed the I-485 process considerably, and in order to avoid hardship for dependent children about to "age out" (i.e. turn 21 and become ineligible to obtain their green cards as dependents), INS allowed an exception to be made for such cases. The result was that such age-out cases could be completed without a delay. A similar policy was later implemented for "visa lottery" cases, which likewise must be completed by a certain date. (CIA checks would still continue, with the possibility that a problem could be found which would have to be addressed after-the-fact.)

In a notice issued on November 24, 1999, INS has now decided to expand the procedure used for age-out and lottery cases to all I-485 applications. Apparently the information obtained as a result of the CIA name checks was not terribly useful, for INS purposes anyway. The revised policy applies to both new and pending applications. This change is likely to significantly speed up I-485 processing times, though the effects may not be apparent immediately since there is a considerable backlog. Before the monthly release policy was suspended, INS was cleared to adjudicate cases received up through August of 1998, so there is quite a backlog at this point. Furthermore, INS has been flooded with I-485 applications ever since the employment-based categories became current for nationals of China and India in August of 1999.

As reported previously in The Law Office of Sheela Murthy, P.C. Bulletin, the reason that the State Department made the India and China numbers current, was that INS was not completing many cases, and therefore not utilizing many visa numbers. Once INS begins processing I-485 applications more quickly, we expect the inevitable and significant retrogression on the priority-date chart, particularly for nationals of India and China.