By September 2008, the USCIS expects naturalization application processing to average 10-12 months nationally. This is a three-month decrease from earlier projections and an even sharper reduction from the 16-18 month processing time announced last year.
“We are working steadily toward achieving our goal of processing all naturalization applications within five months by this time next year,” said USCIS acting director Jonathan Schafen.
Naturalization applications have seen a sharp increase these recent years resulting in increased processing periods. The USCIS received 1.4 million naturalization applications last year, double the normal annual volume.
The USCIS had made such updates before, the most recent in April, which predicted processing times of 13-15 months.
In early April, it was predicted that the processing will put out 36 percent more naturalization cases than last year without compromising national security or the integrity of the naturalization process according to USCIS director Emilio Gonzalez.
The increases in immigration filings are historically the highest these past two years according to the USCIS. Last year, the USCIS not only has to process 1.4 million naturalization forms, but also other immigration related filings. In the month of July alone, 460,000 naturalization applications were filed.
Numbers in applications and petitions for immigrant benefits surged last year. In the summertime months of June, July and August in 2007, three million filings were received by the USCIS whereas 1.8 million had been filed in 2006.
The targeted processing time of five months is a goal the USCIS is attempting to reach. Resources are being shifted to support this goal. In order to stay on track with its current projections, the USCIS has implemented a strategy to handle the workload in a shorter period of time.
Plans include an addition of approximately 3,000 new employees to the workforce, placing more workers in offices with heavier workloads, and using Asylum Office staff to conduct naturalization interviews. Asylum Offices normally conduct interviews for suspensions of deportation and temporary refuges and do not file applications. These new workers working overtime will require quadruple the amount of overtime funding currently in place.
Some USCIS offices are still processing applications from last year, which has increased the processing times for those particular offices to above the 10-12 month projection. However, some offices that see fewer applications filed have already reached the aim of a 5-month processing time.
Projections released on Aug. 11 also include an estimate of processing times for local offices by the end of September 2008. Processing periods for local offices range from 5 months to 14.9 months.
Local offices in Agana, Guam; Detroit, Michigan; Sacramento, California; and several other areas are projected to process applications in five months. The city of New York is projected to have a processing time of ten months.
The highest processing time projected belongs to the USCIS office in Charlotte, North Carolina, with 14.9 months. These processing times are less than in projections issued last this April, when Helena, Montana was the only local office with a processing time of five months.
