November 26, 2007

USCIS and FBI Release Joint Plan to Eliminate Backlog of FBI Name Checks

Partnership Establishes Series of Milestones To Complete Checks

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on April 2, 2008, a joint plan to eliminate the backlog of name checks pending with the FBI.

FBI Name Check is one of the security checks conducted by USCIS for all cases involving a petition or application for an immigrant service or benefit. The other two are the Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS) Name Check and FBI Fingerprint check. Immigration applications that require security checks include Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (I-485), Application for Waiver of Ground Inadmissibility (I-601); Application for Status as a Temporary Resident Under Section 245A of the Immigration Nationality Act (I-687) and Application to Adjust from Temporary to Permanent Resident (I-698). Recently, the USCIS modified its existing guidance for the aforementioned applications to allow approval of certain applications without full FBI name checks completed, where the immigration laws provides for the detention and removal of individuals if actionable information from a FBI name check response is received after approval. However no application for lawful permanent residence will be approved until a definitive FBI fingerprint check and IBIS check are completed and resolved favorably.

The FBI has already eliminated all name check cases pending more than four years. By increasing staff, expanding resources, and applying new business processes, the goal is to complete 98 percent of all name checks within 30 days. USCIS and the FBI intend to resolve the remaining two percent, which represent the most difficult name checks and require additional time to complete, within 90 days or less. The goal is to achieve and sustain these processing times by June 2009.

The joint plan will focus on resolving the oldest pending FBI name checks first. USCIS has also
requested that the FBI prioritize resolution of approximately 29,800 pending name checks for naturalization applicants submitted to the FBI before May 2006 where the individual was already interviewed.

The target milestones for processing name checks are:

Completion Goal Category
May 2008 Process all name checks pending more than three years
July 2008 Process all name checks pending more than two years
Nov. 2008 Process all name checks pending more than one year
Feb. 2009 Process all name checks pending more than 180 days
June 2009 Process 98 percent of all name checks within 30 days and process the remaining two percent within 90 days.