Baltimore USCIS District Office
Posted Oct 08, 2006
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Many of our attorneys from the Murthy Law Firm attended an AILA meeting in late October 2006, at which officials from the Baltimore USCIS District Office discussed issues and answered questions. While many MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers are located outside the Baltimore USCIS District area, may share some of the experiences typical of other USCIS District Offices, as well.
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USCIS Backlog Reduction
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In keeping with USCIS backlog reduction efforts, the Baltimore office has reduced its backlogs of citizenship cases from a processing time of ten months to one of less than six months, in most cases. Adjustment of Status (I-485) cases have also been reduced to a processing time of less than six months; down from a previous level of 15 months. As many frustrated lawyers posed questions, however, it was obvious that there are cases that are long-delayed because of hold-ups in name checks and other security clearances.
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High Rate of I-485 Denials
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Baltimore is experiencing a very high denial rate for I-485s. The denial rate is above what is typical for the USCIS. To address this, the office has promised that the director will review all the denials personally, to determine if they are appropriate.
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Understaffing at Baltimore
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The Baltimore office is only 75% staffed. The case assignment system is centralized, and operates independent of the Baltimore office. Therefore, the district office has no control over case assignments for interview. Accordingly, an inexperienced officer may get cases outside of his/her area of knowledge.
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Problem Officers
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Efforts to address problems between officers and attorneys, in terms of suitable attitudes and behaviors, were promised to be investigated and handled in an appropriate manner. We at the Murthy Law Firm are pleased that the complaints, which appeared to be serious in nature, had at least some impact in alleviating difficulties encountered by those who use the services of the Baltimore District Office.
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Another tool being used to address these matters and to enhance training is the videotaping of interviews. Starting January 2007, all interviews at the Baltimore Office will be videotaped and randomly reviewed. This is a positive step towards avoiding situations of "he said / she said," when there is no recorded evidence of the interviews.
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Interview Rescheduling
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The Baltimore District Office will reschedule interviews, if requested in advance in writing and if the request establishes "good cause" to reschedule. If there are questions about the validity of the request, the officer can ask for documentation of the reason. Failure to appear for an interview, without rescheduling and gaining appropriate approval, will result in denial of the case for abandonment.
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We urge MurthyDotCom and MurthyBulletin readers, no matter where they reside, to try to avoid rescheduling their USCIS interviews if at all possible. There are, of course, situations in which travel, illness, or other such emergencies are unavoidable. It is risky, however, to try to reschedule for any but the most urgent and well-documented reasons. Therefore, all effort should be made to be available and present for a scheduled USCIS interview.
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USCIS Issuing Notices to Appear for Removal Proceedings
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The Baltimore District Office is now issuing Notices to Appear (NTA) in Removal (formerly deportation) proceedings after denials of adjustment of status cases. (This presumes that an individual's permission to remain in the U.S. was based solely on the adjustment of status case, or that some other basis for removal was revealed during the interview.) This is a new procedure and one that any applicant for adjustment appearing at an interview should consider. The Baltimore Office did agree that, in the future, it may make sense to wait until the time to file a Motion to Reopen the I-485 is passed before issuing the NTA.
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Name-Check Delays in I-485 Processing
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Baltimore suffers delays in case processing while waiting for name checks to clear, as does the rest of the country. Attendees of the meeting with the District Office were advised that, nationwide, there are more than 25,000 cases for which name checks have been pending for more than four years. This is apparently not within the control of the USCIS and creates more work and problems for them, as it renders USCIS unable to make final decisions in pending I-485 cases due to security- or name-check delays.
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Conclusion
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The problems at the USCIS Baltimore District Office are not that different from other USCIS district offices in other cities with regard to delays, interviews, insufficient training, etc. The USCIS wants to improve its systems and processes. We at the Murthy Law Firm consider this a worthwhile goal, and join the applause of those who are going through the process.