The new USCIS Directory, , announced the launch of the new http://www.uscis.gov website today.

Today our agency took a major step forward to put these ideas into action. After much hard work, including substantial feedback from the public, we launched a new and vastly improved USCIS.gov website. This new one-stop-shop will provide a range of tools and features for those looking for information, including case status updates. For example:

* The site features a My Case Status tool that allows users to type in a receipt number and find out what processing step their case is in, how that fits into the overall process, and what the local case processing times are.

* A National Dashboard that allows the public to compare national processing volumes and trends and download raw data.

* A better search engine so it is easier to find what a user is looking for.

* New options to receive status updates via email or text alerts

Leadership Journal: Exciting Changes at USCIS.

This website is considered by many, based on USCIS announcements earlier this year about technological improvements to its systems via their partnership with IBM, as a precursor to more detailed changes that will help USCIS achieve its 4 month processing goal.

The point about a national dashboard that allows public to copmare national processing volumes piqued my interest the most. So are they planning to offer something like Trackitt? I set out to their website to find out.

Right off the bat, I noticed the cleaner, nicer-looking home page that finally reflects some class for a website that must have a whole team updating/maintaining it. The improved search functionality does work, unlike in the past, where I constantly had to save bookmarks or spend a while trying to find things on their website. A search for “case status online” results in dozens of results, and the top result is not the actual case status tool but some press release that the USCIS released about the case status tool. I wish the search returned fewer results with higher relevance. Not an easy task, but hey, we pay TOP dollar on our application fees, annual renewal of Advance parole and EAD, fees with every H1 transfer, H1-stamping, H1-to-H4 transfer…and the list goes on. Anyway, at least it works.

Since they talked about imoroved case status, I thought that the improvements would be in features available after logging in to my account. But I was wrong, no changes there. The changes are on the public features.For instance, you are able to look at the average processing time for your petition at your service center without having to read the NSC, TSC, etc. processing times page. OK, helpful, but for someone like me, this is just a presentation level improvement. No new data surfaced to me yet.

USCIS Processing Times New Display

USCIS Processing Times New Display

The other feature is to visually view the status of your petition by entering your Receipt number on the screen -

USCIS Petition Status Graphical Display

USCIS Petition Status Graphical Display

Alright, that’s good, but again, just aesthetic in my opinion, more than anything else. But now comes the really useful stuff. They have trending and volume charts for most petitions - by service center. See a report below that I ran for I-485 petitions at the Nebraska Service Center. This is great stuff. More accurate than what TrackItt offers without having to dig into USCIS and DOL document releases in their archives. Finally, one thing useful out of my tax money!

I haven’t really had a chance to play with this too much but overall, I’d say - good start! This provides a ray of hope that other processes in USCIS will also start to improve. And while we are on that optimistic note, may be, just may be…that decade long wait for a green card might ease up on us a little bit? I know, who am I kidding?

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