By Debbie McGoldrick

Some holiday cheer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) customers in the New York metro area — the agency announced productivity figures on Monday, and for the just ended fiscal year 2005, the New York district processed over 33,000 cases than it had in the previous year.

According to a press release, for fiscal year 2005, which ended on September 30, the USCIS New York district completed over 170,000 applications for citizenship and legal permanent residency; the figure for the year before was 137,000.

“Our customers are waiting too long and we’re fixing it,” says Mary Ann Gantner, director of the USCIS New York district. “We have a ways to go, but we’re getting there. This time next year, people filing for citizenship or a green card in New York will get a decision in six months or less.”

That certainly will be music to the ears of often-beleaguered USCIS customers who have to wait for months, even years, on end for case processing. The agency’s nationwide goal is to cut the wait time for all cases to six months by the end of fiscal year 2006. Clearly they’re making all the right moves towards achieving that goal.

In New York, one of the busiest USCIS districts, the agency hired more staff and transferred work to other less busy offices to achieve increased productivity, which makes lots of sense.

Some USCIS are underworked, as evidenced by a look at the newest processing times at various district offices throughout the country.

For example, as of October 19, 2005, in New York City, I-485 adjustment of status applications filed on or before December 16, 2002 were being called for processing. Compare this to Kansas City, Missouri, where I-485s filed on or before March 31, 2005 — yes, 2005! — are ready for completion.

The same story applies for N-400 naturalization applications. Currently in New York, those filed on or before July 10, 2004 are being finalized; in Kansas City, the date jumps to July 25, 2005.

From an immigration standpoint at least, it certainly pays to live in a less-populated part of the country.