The policy tilt of the USCIS Ombudsman is perfectly clear: no matter what the rules are, No matter how many millions of unemployed residents of the United States there are, let's make sure that every possible alien worker is hired.
If an employer wants to hire a foreign worker rather than a resident one, there are certain basic requirements, like filling out some forms, and paying some fees.
It is sort of a low-level test: If you can't fill out the forms correctly you don't get the worker, and maybe, just maybe, you have to hire an American instead. Shocking, I know.
USCIS' Acting Ombudsman, Debra Rogers, does not think like that, apparently. She has just issued a document titled "Recommendations Regarding USCIS' Role in the Petition Information Management Service".
The thrust of the six-page document is that some would-be nonimmigrant employees of some sloppy U.S. employers are not getting their jobs fast enough because the employers are not following USCIS rules regarding filing petitions in duplicate, as they are supposed to do.
Here's the problem as she sees it (bear in mind that DOS stands for Department of State and that it has a facility in Appalachia to handle some of its paperwork):
It is USCIS policy not to forward a petition package to the DOS Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) when the petitioner fails to submit a duplicate package with the original submission.
Under those circumstances the petition moves slowly, if at all. And whose fault is that? It would seem to be that of the would-be employer of the foreign worker in one of the many nonimmigrant workers' categories, such as H, L, O, P, Q, or R, or in one of the numerous subcategories of those classes.
But in order to help employers hire as many aliens as possible, the Ombudsman is now recommending that USCIS ride to their rescue and that the agency should, at taxpayer expense, copy the applications and send them on to the outpost in Kentucky so that it, in turn, can communicate with our consular officials around the globe and ensure that the alien worker gets that visa and that job in the American economy.
Alternately, and here is a little cost-shifting, she suggests that if USCIS won't do the copying, it should send the original material off to the Kentucky facility and let that agency use its set of Xerox machines.
Another possible response, not mentioned in the USCIS document, would be to send the packages back to the employers and tell them to read the instructions on the application forms.
Thinking about it in family terms, should USCIS pick up the dirty clothes that little Suzie and Sammy leave around the house, or should it tell the kids to pick up their own laundry?
The Ombudsman has just decided that under NO circumstances should the kids be told to tidy up their own rooms.
