The Beacon

The USCIS Electronic Immigration System’s First 1,000 Cases

Posted by Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Every day, USCIS receives thousands of paper applications for immigration benefits - more than 6 million each year. For generations, we have received, reviewed, shipped, and stored paper applications and files throughout our agency. This paper-based process consumes a great deal of resources and employee time.

USCIS, the world’s largest immigration benefits agency, reached a significant milestone on May 22, 2012 with the launch of our new electronic immigration system, USCIS ELIS. USCIS ELIS allows applicants and their attorneys and accredited representatives to create an online account and submit and track their immigration benefit requests 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Currently, individuals applying to change or extend their nonimmigrant status, Form I-539, can use the system. We will roll out additional form types and functions over time until all USCIS applications and petitions can be processed through the system. USCIS ELIS also has enhanced tools to combat fraud and safeguard national security.

Not long ago, we received our 1,000th electronically-filed application through USCIS ELIS. We have also seen a commensurate drop in the number of paper Form I-539 applications submitted since the system’s launch. USCIS ELIS has already delivered for our early users the timeliness, convenience, and added security of a more modern immigration system.

While its use is not mandatory, I encourage all individuals who are eligible to file Form I-539 to use USCIS ELIS. We continue to build this system for our customers, our dedicated workforce, and our federal partners. Your feedback is important as we prepare future releases of USCIS ELIS to meet your needs today and into the future. Please visit the USCIS ELIS Web page to learn more about USCIS ELIS and its benefits, and please share your user story with us here in our comments section or by emailing us at uscis-elis-feedback@uscis.dhs.gov. I look forward to your comments as we continue to modernize our agency.

Labels: Director's Posts, USCIS ELIS

Federal News Radio and Next.gov discuss USCIS ELIS

Federal News Radio and Next.gov posted articles on the launch of the first phase of our electronic immigration benefits system, known as USCIS ELIS. The system is designed to modernize the process for filing and adjudicating immigration benefits. To read the full articles go to Nextgov’s and Federal News Radio’s websites. An audio interview with Director Alejandro Mayorkas where he discusses USCIS ELIS is also available on Federal News Radio.

Labels: USCIS ELIS

USCIS Develops Transformation System: Testing in Progress

Posted by Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

UPDATE: Listen to a radio interview with Director Mayorkas on Transformation.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is in the post-development testing phase of a new system that will transform our paper-based agency into an electronic, online organization. This is an unprecedented step for the world’s largest and most complex immigration system. To view what we have developed – the USCIS Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) – we encourage you to watch our informational video.

USCIS’s transformation to ELIS will be accomplished in periodic releases, with each release covering different immigration benefits or adding enhanced functionality. The first release, covering one benefit type (the Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status), provides the foundational architecture for the remaining releases. The post-development testing phase now underway is time consuming and challenging, as is characteristic of projects of this scale, complexity, and ambition. While we sought to roll-out the first release this month, our testing is not complete. We will inform you of our recalibrated timeframe for our first release after more testing is completed in the next few weeks. We are committed to comprehensive testing in order to deliver a quality release for the benefit of our employees and our customers.

We are grateful to the OIG and GAO for their recent reports and recommendations that support our transformation process and sharpen our ability to deploy sequenced releases in a cost-efficient and timely manner. We have concurred with and begun implementation of their recommended actions.

Past efforts to transform our agency have not reached the point where we are today: the testing phase of a system that has been developed. Our progress is attributable to hard work and tremendous dedication, and to a vision that all of us share of a modernized agency in the service of its noble mission.

For more, you can visit our new Transformation Web pages which give more detailed information on USCIS ELIS and the Transformation endeavor.

Labels: Director's Posts, USCIS ELIS