Our firm has frequently discussed USCIS’s backlog causing delays in case processing, and there have been promises of efforts to reduce it. On February 9, USCIS released data showing progress towards its goals for fiscal year 2023. Surprisingly, the agency managed to decrease its net backlog despite a record number of filings. However, USCIS remains under considerable strain. Over the past four fiscal years, the backlog increased significantly, peaking at 5 million cases in FY 2022 due to various factors including hiring freezes and pandemic-related slowdowns. Nevertheless, by September 2023, the backlog had decreased to 4.3 million cases through increased hiring and improved efficiencies. USCIS has prioritized addressing barriers to naturalization and maximizing employment-based visas, achieving significant milestones such as processing over 1 million citizenship cases in FY 2023 and handling all available employment-based green card applications for two consecutive years. Efforts have also been made to reduce work permit backlogs and enhance online filing systems, though challenges such as processing time accuracy and website issues persist. While USCIS plans to recover processing costs through proposed fee adjustments, complete elimination of current backlogs will require congressional support.
Please stay tuned to our firm for ongoing updates regarding this matter.