USCIS Yearly Report and Plans for the Future
The USCIS has made some important milestones in 2008. For example, it has granted citizenship to more than 1,000,000 individuals. Other key accomplishments for the year include the following:
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Completed more than 1.17 million naturalization applications, up more than 50 percent from FY07.
Reduced naturalization application processing times to 9-10 months, down from the 16-18 months projected after the surge of applications in late FY07.
Hired 1,600 new adjudications officers during FY08. Significantly revised and restructed the existing training curriculum and developed the BASIC training program at the USCIS Training Academy, preparing new officers to be “job-ready’ upon completion of training.
Worked with the FBI to effectively eliminate all name checks pending more than two years and reduced the cases waiting for a name check final result from almost 350,000 in late FY07 to less than 37,000.
Interviewed more than 100,000 refugee applicants and completed more than 47,000 asylum applications.
Increased participation in E-Verify, the nation’s preeminent employment eligibility verification system, by 260 percent over last year, resulting in the verification of more than 10 percent of the Nation’s new hires.
For next year, the agency expects to reduce 20 percent in processing times of applications including a five-month processing time for N-400 naturalization application and a four month processing time for both adjustment of status applications (I-485s) and petitions for alien workers (I-140s). If achieved, these goals will bring very good news for tens of thousands of prospective immigrants.
