USCIS Ombudsman Annual Report Emphasizes Agency Anti-Fraud Initiatives and Confirms Continued Processing Delays

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At a glance

• The USCIS Ombudsman’s Annual Report describes USCIS’s increasingly robust anti-fraud initiatives, including more targeted FDNS site visits and increased personnel and resources devoted to FDNS investigations.
• The report also confirms that continued processing delays remain an issue for many case types.

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A closer look

In her Annual Report to Congress, Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman Julie Kirchner stresses USCIS’s heightened anti-fraud initiatives, specifically highlighting expansion of the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) site visit program. The report also confirms that agency processing delays remain for many types of applications.

The report is issued annually by the Ombudsman’s Office, an independent body created by Congress to recommend improvements to the delivery of citizenship and immigration services and assist immigrants and nonimmigrants facing problems with pending cases. 

USCIS Implements Targeted Anti-Fraud Initiatives

• FDNS moved to a “risk-based” anti-fraud model in 2017, meaning it has shifted a portion of site visits to industries and employers identified as potential fraud risks under a new Targeted Site Visit and Verification Program. Random site visits continue as well.  H-1B, L-1A and L-1B petitions are among the case types subject to site visits.
• In support of its heightened anti-fraud initiative, FDNS has devoted significant new resources to the site visit program. FDNS staffing levels have more than doubled from 756 positions in FY 2012 to 1,548 positions in FY 2018.
• The Ombudsman’s report urges USCIS to make progress on its shift to electronic case filing and case management in order to increase the agency’s ability to combat fraud. 

Adjudication Delays Remain

• The report confirmed that delays in processing times persist across nearly all application categories and, notably, continue to be an issue for employment authorization document applications (I-765).
• Inquiries concerning delayed adjudications remain the largest category of Ombudsman casework for the fifth year in a row.

EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Under Continued Scrutiny

• The report reflected the interest of USCIS and Congress in greater scrutiny of the EB-5 program. The report notes that USCIS is devoting more resources to EB-5 site visits, document audits and increased collaboration with civil and criminal law enforcement agencies.
• Earlier this year, USCIS announced that it will publish two new proposed regulations to reform the EB-5 program in the coming months. Changes to the program in the rules include increased threshold capital amounts and increased compliance requirements on investors and projects. 

In a departure from previous Ombudsman reports, this year’s report did not address the marked increase in RFEs experienced by the business immigration community. Separately, USCIS has confirmed that RFE rates for H-1B filings increased by 45% between 2016 and 2017.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact your designated Fragomen professional.