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06/22/2009 Entry: "USCIS Announces Elimination of FBI Namecheck Backlog"
On 6/22/09 USCIS and the FBI announced that all milestones set forth in a business plan announced on 4/2/08 have been met, resulting in the elimination of the FBI National Namecheck Program backlog.
USCIS, FBI Eliminate National Name Check Backlog
WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that, in
partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), it has met all milestones set forth in a joint
business plan announced April 2, 2008, resulting in the elimination of the FBI National Name Check
Program (NNCP) backlog.
“Our close partnership with the FBI has resulted in the accomplishment of this significant achievement
with national security as its foundation,” said USCIS Acting Deputy Director Michael Aytes. “This
continued working relationship will help to ensure that name check processing is accomplished as quickly
as possible without compromising security concerns.”
The final goal of the business plan was to achieve a sustainable performance level by the NNCP of
completing 98 percent of name check requests submitted by USCIS within 30 days, and the remaining
two percent within 90 days. This performance level will become the new standard.
These vastly improved performance levels were achieved through a variety of collaborative steps taken by
USCIS and the FBI, including:
• an increase in NNCP staffing made possible by the transfer of appropriated funds from USCIS
funding and additional fee revenue for name check processing;
• name check process improvements initiated by the FBI;
• refinements in the name check file search criteria which enabled the FBI to focus on files most
likely to yield pertinent search results;
• training of NNCP staff on USCIS adjudication requirements and the applicability of name check
search results to USCIS adjudications; and
• other cooperative measures including assignment of USCIS personnel to the NNCP.
As is the case with all security checks undertaken by USCIS, any information provided by the FBI
through these checks may require further evaluation and may need additional interaction with agencies
outside USCIS to obtain updated or additional information. This could result in additional delays in
processing and is not governed by the processing goals contained in the joint business plan.
In the majority of instances, however, the completion of a backlogged FBI name check has resulted in a
“no record response.” As a result, USCIS has been able to resume normal processing of most cases which
most often ends in a final determination of eligibility. Next steps in the adjudication of cases that were
previously delayed as a result a pending FBI name check request may now include updating fingerprint
results, scheduling interviews, requesting additional evidence and other reviews to determine whether the
applicant is eligible for the requested immigration benefit.
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