Immigration Processing – Slowed Down, Stopped

The Federal Government shutdown has had a cascading slow down effect on the variety of immigration service operations including employment verification, labor certification and visa issuance. Susan Cohen, one of the co-founders of the Boston based Mintz Levin’s Immigration Practice, shared the information regarding the type of immigration services provided by agencies. She broadly classifies the services into security related, fee paying and non fee paying services. She also informs that during the partial Federal Government shutdown, only the security related services would be active while the fee-based and non fee-based services would not be operational.

Most of the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement staff including the Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement are considered essential and would remain on job even during the partial Federal Government shutdown. The U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) are open world wide and would be available for fixing appointments and scheduling interviews. E-Verify, the federally funded employment verification program, would be unavailable during the duration of the shutdown. Employers should continue with their I-9 verification process and defer E-Verify processing until the program resumes. The USCIS Ombudsman services that helps in resolving the clarifications raised by the employers and individuals would also be closed during the shutdown.

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