The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 10.9 million filings and completed over 10 million pending cases in the fiscal year 2023.
The figures show that the USCIS reduced its overall backlogs by a total of 15 per cent, for the first time in over a decade, VisaGuide.World reports.
I’m so proud of the USCIS workforce and our dedication to fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve. We’ve completed a record number of cases, responded to emerging crises around the globe with essential humanitarian relief, and applied innovative solutions to improve customer experience and reduce backlogs.
The agency helped more than 857,5000 new US citizens take the Oath of Allegiance in the fiscal year 2023, taking also into account a total of 12,000 military members, effectively clearing the backlog of naturalization applications.
In addition, the median processing time for naturalization requests declined from 10.5 months to 6.1 months by the end of the fiscal year 2023, thus achieving the agency’s longstanding goal and notably reducing waiting times for most people seeking US citizenship.
USCIS implemented several new technology solutions that meaningfully advance the customer experience for those navigating our immigration system. Our new self-service tool for online rescheduling of biometrics appointments was used to reschedule over 33,000 such appointments in FY 2023.
Through a statement, the USCIS said that the new enterprise change of address capabilities permitted more than 430,000 address changes to be submitted online through December 2023.
The USCIS said that the tool is expected to reduce USCIS Contact Center phone inquiries by up to 31 percent or nearly 1.5 million inquiries every year.
For a period from August to September 2023, USCIS received over 16,000 field office appointment requests using the online request form, while a new text-ahead capability for callers to USCIS number gives them a more predictable call-back window and also reduces missed calls.
Through a statement, the USCIS said that in the fiscal year 2023, it helped meet the needs of US employers by issuing them over 192,000 employment-based immigrant visas, which is far above the pre-pandemic statistics and in the second year, running ensured that no eligible visas went unused.
The USCIS also announced that it interviewed more than 100,000 refugee applicants, more than double the number completed in the previous fiscal year.
In fiscal year 2024, the agency said that it is continuing to build on this progress while also monitoring and addressing remaining processing delays.