USCIS To Go Paperless

An article in today’s Washington Post reports on the contract USCIS has signed with IBM to overhaul the way USCIS handles documents.  As many of our clients know or have experienced first-hand, the agency’s pre-computer-age paper filing system is extremely frustrating.  The current system incurs $100 million a year in archiving, storage, retrieval and shipping costs; has led to the loss or misplacement of more than 100,000 files; and has contributed to backlogs and delays for millions of cases.

The new system, to be phased-in over the next five years will cost $500 million and will be based on electronic storage and retrieval of documents.  The new digital system is expected to reduce backlogs and processing delays by at least 20 percent, and possibly more than 50 percent, people close to the project have indicated.

This should be welcome news to the immigrant and immigration attorneys’ communities. We are all aware of the problems caused by lost paperwork or by the inability to properly find the paper trail of an immigration filing.  Welcome to the 21st century, USCIS.