USCIS Avoids Furlough of Its Workforce But will have to slow down its processing times as a result
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Link: https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-averts-furlough-of-nearly-70-of-workforce
Pasricha & Patel
USCIS has announced that it will be able to avoid furloughing more than 130,000 of its employees, which is almost 70% of its workforce, after originally planning to begin the furlough on August 30, 2020. USCIS explained that they are able to avoid the furlough due to unprecedented spending cuts and a steady increase in daily incoming revenue and receipts.
While USCIS does expect that it can continue to operate until the end of Fiscal Year 2020 (September 30, 2020), the spending cuts implemented by the USCIS at this juncture will impact various aspects of the USCIS operations, including increased wait times for pending case inquiries with the USCIS Contact Center, longer case processing times, and increased adjudication times for adjustment of status application, and naturalization applications. However, USCIS does say that naturalization ceremonies will continue as scheduled.
USCIS also states that there is no guarantee on their part that there will not be any future furloughs planned, and a return to normal operating procedure will still need increased Congressional funding in order to maintain agency’s operations through Fiscal Year 2021.
From what we can see here, while it is good news that the USCIS will not furlough its workers as originally planned, the negative impact will still be felt by all service customers due to the expected lengthening of various processing times.
The hope is that there will be bipartisan Congressional action in place to help steer the USCIS and its operations back to normal as soon as possible.
Due to the fast changing nature of immigration developments, we do suggest our readers to continue to check back with our site in order to keep up with various news and developments. Should you have more specific questions about this or any other immigration-related matter, we request you to contact our office to schedule formal consultation.