NSC Liaison Q&As on Humanitarian/Document Production and Status/Family Divisions Issues (7/14/16)

AILA Q&As submitted for 7/14/2016 NSC Stakeholder Call on Humanitarian/Document Production and Status/Family Divisions Issues

1. Members report receiving an automatically generated letter in response to a defensive asylum application being filed at NSC that states that a G-28 was not filed with the asylum application. For defensive asylum applications, the form instructions say to include a copy of the EOIR-28, not the G-28 Why is this reminder generated by NSC? Does NSC now want to have attorneys include a G-28, too?

   The instructions on the USCIS website is accurate. However, NSC Records discovered attorneys were submitting an EOIR28 when filing the I589 and NSC does not recognize the EOIR28 since that is used for immigration court proceedings. Therefore, the attorney was not receiving the receipt or biometrics appointment notices. We have made a change in our process. As a courtesy, NSC will key-in the EOIR27 or EOIR28 attorney and send a letter notifying the attorney that if they would like future correspondence regarding immigration proceedings, they will need to file a G28.

   At this time, a duplicate receipt notice cannot be generated. We are working with HQ to further address this issue. HQ reports they were having issues with ASC appointment notices last fall/winter, but those issues have been resolved. Please contact the NCSC regarding any ASC or bios appointment notices.

2. Currently, the processing times report shows five months for all I-130's processed at NSC - whether the I-130 is for an Immediate Relative (IR) or 4th preference petition. Does NSC consider how long a particular I-130 petition's priority date is backlogged when prioritizing adjudications? In light of the extremely long priority date backlogs for 1st, 3rd and 4th preference categories, could the NSC considering giving priority to the IR cases, thereby reducing processing times for cases that are not subject to the preference category backlog? We note that this would not prejudice the preference category cases, as a visa is not immediately available to them. Moreover, we note that CSC and VSC appear to prioritize I-130 petitions in this manner.

   Here at NSC, the preference cases make up approximately 3% of our total I-130 workload and most of the preference cases we receive come to us in family packs with immediate relative petitions. We adjudicate family members together, regardless of visa availability.