(The GAO review didn’t include DACA applications.) For those seeking to renew, there were about 84,413 pending applications as of June 30. USCIS ended fiscal year 2021 with 82,621 pending applications for first-time applicants, according to its data. In September, the Biden administration announced a proposed rule change that is expected to keep DACA in place.įor now, only those who currently have DACA can apply to renew their work permits and receive temporary protection from deportation.Īs of June 30 there are 22,260 residents in Arizona who have DACA, according to USCIS data. The decision added more distress to a three-year roller coaster of rulings in several lawsuits and legislative back-and-forth that has made uncertainty the only constant among generations of dreamers and their families. That window of opportunity for new applicants to submit the document-heavy DACA form to USCIS abruptly closed in July, when a Texas judge declared the program unlawful. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly known as DACA, has life-altering benefits for eligible undocumented immigrants who arrived to the country as children.įor more than two years following the Trump administration’s 2017 announcement that it would phase out DACA, people eligible for the program who wanted to apply for the first time were barred from doing so.īut after a court ruled that Trump’s government couldn’t end DACA as planned, USCIS announced in December 2020 that it would accept initial DACA applications, opening the door for thousands of immigrants to temporary protection from deportation and a renewable work permit.
The backlog is also impacting other immigration applications that USCIS adjudicates. In Arizona, there were 11,447 people waiting for their citizenship applications to be processed in June, USCIS shows. Most recent data for June shows a slight decrease to 907,000. The backlog for naturalization applications recently peaked in March, reaching more than 950,000 pending applications nationwide. The wait time for naturalization requests to be processed in Phoenix is between 11 and 14.5 months, according to the USCIS processing times tool. Between October 2020 and September 2021, citizenship applications took an average of 11.5 months to adjudicate, according to USCIS historical processing times table. Galindo’s wait is above the national and Phoenix average for processing naturalization applications. “I’ve thought of just renewing my green card.” “This is taking too long, and I need to travel outside of the country,” Galindo said. During that time, his green card expired, he said. But after waiting for over 15 months, he’s questioning whether he made the right decision.
It’s been many years and it’s necessary,” Galindo said. He has been a permanent resident and eligible to apply for citizenship for many years, but chose to keep renovating his green card - until last year. Galindo has lived in the country for more than 40 years and works at an aluminium manufacturing company. For Phoenix resident Eleuterio Galindo, 58, it means the application for citizenship he submitted in June 2020 still hasn’t been processed. The total USCIS backlog increased 85% from fiscal years 2015 through 2020, the report found. The GAO report found USCIS cited the pandemic, changes in application processes that made the review of cases more time-consuming and insufficient staffing as factors contributing to the increasing caseload.
USCIS is tasked with processing and adjudicating immigration benefits, like work visas, green cards, citizenship applications and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals requests. Citizenship and Immigration Services as a strained and inefficient agency. citizens more than doubled between 20, according to a report from a Government Accountability Office that portrays U.S. The backlog of applications for eligible immigrants to become U.S.
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