USCIS Begins Process of Full Digitization of the Immigration Process

07 Nov 2008

Broad and sweeping changes are in play for the way that immigration is managed in the U.S. The Bush administration has just chosen IBM Corporation to head a major initiative to fully digitize the immigration process for the seven million visa, citizenship and work authorization applications received by the federal organization each year.

The $500 million initiative to change USCIS’s case management system from its current, paper-based system to a fully electronic system, according to USCIS, would drastically reduce the backlogs and delays currently faced by USCIS. This new initiative will be the foundation of USCIS’s new system of reducing the painful effects of bureaucracy and managing potential future changes in immigration regulations, including the Guest Worker program exhaustingly discussed over the past few years.

The choice of IBM to manage USCIS’s digitization of its case management system is the first step in transforming the way USCIS functions, says acting USCIS director, Jonathan Scharfen. We're proud of 2008 and the milestones we've met," said Scharfen. “But, much work remains."