At a recent stakeholders' teleconference, USCIS announced a change in the I-601 waiver world which is lockbox filing. This announcement took place on March 9, 2012. This change is certain to occur and is expected to roll out in late Spring, early Summer 2012. Under this new system all foreign filed waivers will be centralized at the Nebraska Service Center to be adjudicated by a core of 26 adjudicators. Initially there will be 13 adjudicators, a number which will eventually reach approximately 26 when the program is fully phased in. Presently, USCIS International Operations adjudicates around 23,000 per year with about 17,000 of that being filed in Cd. Juarez. With this new core of adjudicators it appears that each officer will adjudicate approximately 1,000 per year. This means that each adjudicator will have about 2 hours to dedicate to each waiver packet. This is a considerable difference to the current triage process at Cd. Juarez where there are only 4 officers reviewing more than 4 times as many waivers per adjudicator thus giving them less than 30 minutes to review a waiver packet.
The waivers will be filed at the Phoenix lockbox which will eventually forward the waiver to the Nebraska Service Center after initial processing. The waiver can be filed as soon as the consular interview has occurred and the client found inadmissible by a consular officer. The waiver cannot be filed prior to the consular interview at this time. If this is done the waiver will be denied as no inadmissibility finding has been made at the time of filing. If the concurrent filing of waivers is implemented this will likely change in some respects.
When the waiver is received at the NSC the USCIS officer will review the computer system which is linked to the Department of State database. This system will reveal to the USCIS officer the ground of inadmissibility applied by the consular officer. Upon approval, the decision will be communicated to the Department of State for issuance of a visa. A question arises; what happens if the consular officer applies a ground of inadmissibility we disagree with, especially one that has no waiver available such as false claim to U.S. citizenship? USCIS has stated that it is working with Department of State to establish protocols where the two agencies would confer to come to a decision. Ultimately, the consular officer is the gatekeeper so the USCIS position is that it cannot order DOS to apply or not apply a certain ground of inadmissibility.
For the first few months of the new process being rolled out applicants will have the option of filing either abroad or with the lockbox. If a waiver is filed in both locations the two files will be matched up and be adjudicated at the NSC. USCIS announced that the current backlog is unlikely to move to the NSC for adjudication.
There will be no initial triage like there is now at the Cd. Juarez office. All waivers will receive full consideration in due course. USCIS estimates that waiver adjudications at the NSC will take 6 months or less.
There are several reasons for this change, such as cost and consistency. The Department of State charges USCIS approximately $275 for each waiver it accepts and forwards to the overseas USCIS with jurisdiction over the applicant’s residence. This change will funnel all filing fees to USCIS instead of giving almost half to DOS. USCIS has stated that it is looking to provide consistent adjudication in waivers. FY 2010 statistics from the Department of State show that among all grounds of inadmissibility applied worldwide, 85% of unlawful presence waivers, 30% of criminal waivers and 25% of fraud waivers were approved. This is so even though the standard is the same: extreme hardship. Will the same approval levels be maintained by NSC? It remains to be seen.
