Right-Sizing Waiting Times in the Refugee

Application Process

Proposal developers: Sarah Stoner, Student, and Mary Siskaninetz, Student

Project location: United States of America

Proposed starting date: 4 February 2019

Duration: Ideal: 1 year. Goal: approximately 3 years

Budget per year: $539,800

Other resources: as needed basis

The Problem:

There is currently a problem in the U.S. immigration and refugee process. According to
Christopher Pogue, Esq, the greatest issue is in the length of the process. He describes it as
unnecessarily long because these processes can be completed in a much shorter time. For
example, a standard wait to receive approval to bring a child into the country is 2 years, but it
used to be required to be completed within 90 days. Pogue has been practicing immigration law
in Cincinnati for several years with multiple article publications. Those caught in the wait period
of the process also experience other obstacles from these extended wait times. Other legal
documents such as a Driver’s License may be forced to expire while a person is waiting on an
extension of their green card. Families must also remain split during this process; the applying
person cannot stay in the U.S. until they are approved. Pogue sees a change in the process from
changes in government administration as the main cause of these extended wait periods. There is
no longer any discretion allowed by the offices in these processes.

Background:

The process by which a person comes to the U.S. can vary based on how they arrived and
what they intend to do while they stay and for how long. If you are an immediate family member
of a U.S. citizen, you will have an easier time receiving a green card than someone without the
familial connection. There is also no limit to the number of people who can receive legal green
cards in this way. Application forms are sent to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) to be reviewed. The length to complete the application and the wait for approval is a
long process. As an example, Visa petitions can take up to 8 months, then review and receiving
the form back will take another one to three months, setting up an interview can take two to four
months, and then additional time to receive the final decision. There are limits to other legal
citizen status approvals. Only 350,000 people can receive a U.S. visa in a fiscal year with family
sponsorships.

While now much more controversial, there was previous morally ambiguous legislation
towards immigrants and refugees. The Obama administration started to crack down on illegal
immigration into the U.S. Deportations had been rising in the U.S. and peaked in 2012 with just
over 400,000 in the fiscal year. These deportation efforts were focused on those caught near the
border and criminals rather than targeting every person trying to enter the country under the
current “zero tolerance” policy. The Obama administration also introduced an option for children
brought illegally to apply for and seek work permits and citizenship (DACA). DACA and other
temporary protective status programs have since been rescinded and left more than a million
individuals uncertain of their legality in the U.S.

In 2014, the average wait time on U.S. citizenship application was 5 months. I big portion
of this extended wait time was due to new policy requiring completion of a much larger
document. The application form was previously 10 pages, but in 2014 it was increased to 21
pages. Pogue noted that most cases ended up looking like a phone book by the end and they can
be difficult to understand if English is not your native language because of the technical terms
used. In addition to these lengthy and confusing application forms, the number of forms
backlogged continued to increase. These backlogs have only worsened over previous years.
According to a report from the National Partnership for New Americans, from July 2016 to July
2018, there has been a 77% increase in backlogged application forms. They also reported that
the USCIS has decreased processing rates while increasing denials. Rather than addressing the
backlogs of applications, USCIS has been focusing on review old and new applications for fraud.
What they consider to be fraud could be confusion by technical terms or slips in English that the
USCIS determines to be fraudulent and sets a person back years in their application.

Proposed Solution

Form a lobbying team among Immigration nonprofits to reduce waiting periods in the
immigration and refugee application. This lobbying group would be called Lobbying Committee
for Refugee Nonprofits.

Beneficiaries and Stakeholders

Project Beneficiaries

This project would directly affect refugees seeking asylum in the United States because
this would decrease the waiting time for the refugee application. Because of this decrease
waiting time, refugees can move out of the hostile situations in their home country and have
asylum in the United States. This decrease in waiting time could be a matter of life or death for
some refugees living among hostile situations in Syria and other war-torn countries. Refugees
would also benefit from this policy change because if the application waiting period decrease
then the United States can increase the amount of refugee application they can review and
hopefully accept more refugees in the country. The number of people this could benefit are
potentially 45,000 or more refugees per year based off the limit of refugees the Trump
administration has proposed for his presidency. If the refugee cap is lifted during Trump’s
presidency or in the next presidency that will be decided in 2020, then possibly more refugee
application can be accepted by the United States. The recommended number of refugees that
should be accepted by the United States by the International Rescue Committee is 110,000
refugees per year. For 2018, the Trump administration is on track to only process and accept
15,000 refugees. We will include refugees into our policy design by directly seeking out
Congresswoman elect Ilhan Omar, who is a refugee herself and will be a congresswoman. The
committee will try to seek out her opinions about the policy we are implementing and hopefully
she will be the one to introduce it to the House. The committee hopes to hire people like
Congresswoman Omar to get their unique perspective on being a refugee and what should be
included in American policy. The implementation and evaluation will mainly include what
should be battled next in the refugee application process after the policy is implemented to
decrease waiting times. The committee will then seek out refugees and lawyers in America that
has gone through the process and see what else can be improved.

Project Stakeholders

In the Committee there would be a representative from Refugee International, World

Relief Services, and the International Rescue Committee. Each organization is unique and would
bring a different quality to the table. Refugee International does a lot of reporting and already
works with politicians to help refugees in the United States. World Relief Services has an
Immigration Legal Clinic. World Relief Services would have preexisting information about the
refugee application process in the United States. The International Rescue Committee seems to
focus more on aid, but they are one of the largest and most influential refugee organizations. We
also picked these three groups because they are all located close to the Washington DC area
where it would be easy to communicate with each other.

The politicians that we decided to focus on gaining support from are Ilhan Omar and
Chris Murphy. Ilhan Omar is a refugee from Somalia who will be a congresswoman in February
of 2019. She has stated in her campaign promises to create a more welcoming America for
refugees and asylum seekers. The next politician we decided to focus on would be Chris
Murphy. Chris Murphy is a senator that was one of Trump’s biggest opposers for the Muslim
ban in 2017-2018. We believe these two representatives would be great champions for our
initiative.

Proposal Implementation and Management Plan

Expected Project Results

Overall results would be these nonprofits work together and achieve more fair and shorter
waiting period for refugee applications. After this is achieved, the committee can work on other
problems in the refugee application and process like increasing the number of refugees accepted
in the United States.

Key areas to change are focusing on the backlog of applications and decreasing the total
number of applications on backlog. Goal is to see at least a 50% decrease in the number of
backlogged applications. Decreasing duration of the application process. Cases involving
children should be expedited and take no longer than a year. Stream line the application to make
it as clear as possible for refugees and immigrants applying. Any changes that can receive
support from other representatives to be passed into law that decreases the time of these
processes.

Some challenges include the unknown of the next presidential election. This project is
based on the increase of supporters of immigration change after the most recent election. We are
hoping that the next presidential election will also bring an administration that wants to help
refugees. If this does happen then we would have support from a presidential administration. If
we do not get this support and someone who does not support immigration and refugee
application reform is elected, then there may be a longer time to push this bill through.

Project Activities and Work Plan

Objective Duration

Find Investors 3 months

Hire Staff 3 months

Establish Constitution and Bylaws for Committee 1 month

Reach out and Connect to other organizations listed 1 month

Establish Committee and agreeable proposal strategy/goals 2 months

Create Bill 1 month

Connect to Politicians 1 month

Edit Bill based on politician’s recommendations 1 month

Bring to floor when politician recommends 2-6 months

Bill is passed 6 months

Consider other problems in refugee application process 2 weeks

 Reach out to refugees for interviews to consider other problems in the process by 1 month
someone who has been through the process

Start next refugee application process ratification plan for other existing problems 1 month

Budget Justification

Our budget was determined based on the expenses of similar organizations. It is estimated to be
split up as described below:

1) Main Staff
a) 1 Head Director
i) $165,000 salary
(1) Average is between $98,898 and $169,049
b) 1 Assistant Director of Communications
i) Salary of $120,000
c) 1 Assistant Director of Governmental Affairs
i) Salary of $120,000
2) Interns
a) 4 total interns (15 an hour)
b) Total salary for interns: $124,800
i) 40 hours/week x 4 interns x 15$/hour x 52 weeks=
3) Office Resources
a) Will be working primarily at home or at the other stakeholders’ offices.
b) Technology: $5,000
i) Approximately $1000 per computer x 5 computers (1 for each director and 2 extra for
interns)
ii) Wi-fi used in office and at home
c) Travel: $5,000 limit a year
i) To travel between offices that are out of state.

Project Monitoring and Evaluation

The Committee’s effectiveness and determination of success will be monitored and

evaluated by the director and assistant directors. They can evaluate progress and impact of the
committee. Ultimately, success will be determined by whether or not the committee and
organizations are able to influence legislative action to improve the process of application for
legal immigration. To monitor progress and effectiveness of this, the director and assistant
directors can issue surveys and feedback forms to represented organizations to gather general
thoughts and opinions of the perceived effectiveness of the committee. The director and assistant
directors will also be responsible for ensuring that actions taken by the committee stay consistent
and in benefit of the purpose to improve legislative policy outlining the immigration and refugee
status process for the United States. They will aim to stick to the established timeline, but this
will need to adjust with the actual duration of events and any other administrative changes or
otherwise that may affect the progress of this lobbying committee. Should a time arise that the
supporting lobbying organizations no longer seek improvement to immigration legislation, then
the committee may come to a resolute dissolution.

Once legislation is passed, the committee will want to monitor the effects of the new
legislation to determine whether it has been successfully implemented. To do this, the committee
will to ensure that it has access to current and historic data on the following metrics prior to any
bill proposal:

1. Number of Applications pending at end of fiscal years

2. Average time to process green card applications
3. Average time to process citizenship application
4. Number of fraudulent cases reported
a. Observe this to see if an increase suggests a flawed application form

After a bill is approved and new legislation is introduced, the committee will monitor the
changes in these metrics to determine whether their proposed bill successfully attained the
intended impact. Should the data not reflect the desired impact, the committee and lobbying
organizations will want to investigate why the intended impact did not occur and what
alternatives could also be proposed for change to cause the intended impact.
Works Cited

Bonet, Sally Wesley. 2016. Why Refugee Resettlement Isn’t Enough. Anthropology News.
Available at: http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2016/05/13/why-refugee-
resettlement-isnt-enough/

Create a Just Immigration System. (2018). Retrieved December 10, 2018, from
https://www.ilhanomar.com/immigration

Cruz, M. (2018, August 20). USCIS' Wait Times for Citizenship Have Doubled. Retrieved
December 10, 2018, from http://immigrationimpact.com/2018/08/20/uscis-wait-times-
citizenship/

Hackett, A. (2018, June 13). An Obama-Era White House Official Breaks Down the Current
State of Immigration Policy. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from https://psmag.com/social-
justice/an-obama-era-white-house-official-breaks-down-the-current-state-of-immigration-policy

Horsley, S. (2016, August 31). 5 Things To Know About Obama's Enforcement Of Immigration
Laws. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/2016/08/31/491965912/5-things-
to-know-about-obamas-enforcement-of-immigration-laws

How Long Does it Take for an Immigrant to Legally Come to the United States? (2011,
December 12). Retrieved December 10, 2018, from https://www.us-immigration.com/us-
immigration-news/us-immigration/how-long-does-it-take-for-an-immigrant-to-legally-come-to-
the-united-states

Ilhan Omar, The 1st Somali-American Elected To Congress, Seeks To Make U.S. More
Welcoming. (2018, November 07). Retrieved December 10, 2018,
from https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2018/11/07/ilhan-omar-the-1st-refugee-elected-to-
congress-seeks-to-make-u-s-more-welcoming/

Immigration | U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. (2018). Retrieved December 10, 2018,
from https://www.murphy.senate.gov/issues/immigration

Refugees in America. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.rescue.org/topic/refugees-

america#how-does-the-resettlement-process-work

Refugee International: Our Mission. (2018). Retrieved December 10, 2018, from
https://www.refugeesinternational.org/what/

World Relief Baltimore | Immigration Legal Clinic. (2018). Retrieved December 10, 2018, from
https://worldrelief.org/baltimore-clinic

Salary for Lobbyist in Washington, DC. Hyperbaric Technician Salaries by Education,

Experience, Location and More - Salary.com (2018). Retrieved December 10, 2018.
https://www1.salary.com/DC/Washington/Lobbyist-Salary.html