We Give the New USCIS Website a "B-"

The newly revamped USCIS website went online on September 22.

It is definitely an improvement over the prior website.

For example, it is geared to the person who needs information about immigration. On the left side of the screen appear the words "Where to Start". This allows you to click the arrow next to the words "I am..." and provides you with 21 choices ranging from "U.S. citizen" and ending with "Educator or Volunteer". Below are the words "I want to..." Depending on which of the 21 categories you choose under "I am...", the choices under "I want to..." will vary accordingly.

If you choose "I am a visitor/nonimmigrant", you will be given seven choices in the "I want to..." category. Some of these categories allow you to learn more about becoming a permanent resident through investment, employment, the lottery or as a religious worker, but nothing about becoming a permanent resident through a family member. This is obviously an oversight which we hope will be quickly corrected.

Suppose you choose "I want to find out about becoming a permanent resident (green card holder) through employment". You must click the green button which states "Get Results". This brings you to a page entitled "Green Card Through a Job". A short article about employment-based immigration appears in the middle of the page. Over to the left, there are links to web pages on the following topics: "Green Card Through a Job Offer", "Green Card Through Investment", "Green Card Through Self-Petition" and "Green Card Through Special Categories of Jobs" as well as links to other ways to obtain a green card and green card processes and procedures.

The right side of the screen contains a column entitled "More Information" with the following subtopics: "Forms", "Tools - Before I File", "Tools - After I File", "Other Cases Services", "Other USCIS Links" and "External Links".

All in all, the new USCIS website appears to contain more information than did the old website. Further, it is arranged in a fashion that is much more user-friendly. We link to the new website from our "USCIS" page at

http://shusterman.com/ins.html#1
Another significant improvement to the new website is that there is a Spanish-language version of the site. It is plain to see, however, that many pages which are available in English are not available in Spanish. For example, the Spanish "Soy..." option only contains four possibilities as opposed to the 21 choices for the English "I am...". Hopefully, this will change over time. We link to the Spanish version of the website from

http://shusterman.com/cis_espanol.html

The website allows users to get e-mail updates, text messages on their smart phones regarding the status of their cases, has an RSS feed and multimedia. I watched a video entitled "Becoming a U.S. Citizen: An Overview of the Naturalization Process". As a former INS Citizenship Attorney (1976-82), I was impressed by the quality of the information presented.

We link to the page which allows persons to create an account in order to check their case status and to learn the current processing times from our "USCIS" page at

http://shusterman.com/ins.html#2

Not everyone is impressed with the new website. When I requested a short evaluation of the site from a member of my staff, I received the following:

"The main change to the USCIS website is the layout. The contrast in colors is pleasing to the eye and adds the illusion that the site is that much more organized. What is much more organized is the homepage. The topics that seem to be of main interest to visitors are nicely laid out. However once you click on the topic, you are connected to a page with basic information and on each side there are links that might confuse the visitor at first. After touring around the redesigned site, the visitor realizes that the same links practically exist on every page with minimal change. I don’t think USCIS is providing its visitors with more information, it’s just that the same information has moved!"

I don't know that my evaluation of the new website is as harsh. However, I do have some problems with the new website.

On August 15, a few weeks before the new website went online, we wrote "USCIS' Redesigned Website: Our Suggestions". See

http://carlshusterman.blogspot.com/2009/08/uscis-redesigned-website-our-suggetions.html
Did the new website adopt any of our suggestions? Read on.


* Suggestion # 1 - Please do Something to Improve the Search Engine

As a trial, we typed in the words "L status" into the search engine and got ten results. However, none of the results led us to a page discussing what L status is and how to obtain it. Is there such a page on the USCIS website? Perhaps the search engine still needs some work. Until USCIS improves its website and search engine, feel free to go to our "Intracompany Transferees L-1 Status" page at

http://shusterman.com/l-vsa.html


* Suggestion # 2 - Make the Website Easier to Navigate

Failing to find any information about L status by clicking "Resources" near the top of the new website, we typed "Nonimmigrant Categories" in the search engine, and with a bit more effort, found the following 162-page PDF file about nonimmigrant status:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/Nonimmigrant_Services.pdf

Was this information available on the old website? We don't know. However, why not simply add an easy-to-locate "Nonimmigrant" section on the new website?


* Suggestion # 3 - Make the New Website as Good as the 1999 Website

Here, we searched for the four Nationality Charts. The term "Nationality Charts" yields no results in the search engine. Similarly, opening "Citizenship & Naturalization Based Resources" on the left side of the screen fails to reveal any information regarding obtaining U.S. citizenship through one's parents, through derivation or acquisition. However, a google search revealed that the Nationality Charts are still on the USCIS website located in the Adjudicators' Field Manual. But why torture yourself? We link to all four Nationality Charts on our "Citizenship" page at

http://shusterman.com/toc-usc.html#6


* Suggestion # 4 - What's with the Long URLs?

On the new website, the URL for "Information for Employers and Employees" is


http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=838e2f8b69583210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=838e2f8b69583210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

Need we say more?


* Suggestion # 5 - Help Immigrants and Their Employers Find Good Legal Advice

Under the heading "Humanitarian Benefits Based Resources" on the left side of the screen is the listing "Finding Legal Advice". The new website, like the old, still links to the EOIR "List of Free (sic) Legal Service Providers". As we explained in our blog, this is both misleading and untrue.

Does the new website link to the list of "Certified Specialists in Immigration and Nationality Law" as they promised me in 2006? See

http://shusterman.com/pdf/certsp1106.pdf
Of course not!

All in all, the new USCIS website is an improvement over the old website, but much more remains to be done.

We give the new USCIS website a "B-"

Hopefully, the new website is a work-in-progress. Send your comments to

uscis.webmaster@dhs.gov

USCIS' Redesigned Website: Our Suggestions

The USCIS announced that, on September 22, the agency "will launch a vastly improved public Web site to help customers navigate the immigration system and remain up-to-date regarding their case status." See the USCIS Fact Sheet dated August 11 at

http://www.shusterman.com/pdf/redesign.pdf

Almost 10 years ago, the INS redesigned its website. We were very critical. See our review entitled "INS's New Website Emphasizes Content Over Form(s)" at

http://shusterman.com/sep99.html#6

We pointed out that after spending millions of dollars and employing a great many experts, the INS website did not even allow readers to access as many INS forms as our website. The INS Webmaster responded to our review on September 20, 1999. See

http://www.shusterman.com/beyer.html

Subsequently, the INS established the best U.S. immigration website on the Internet.

However, several years later, the INS again redesigned its website, and in the process, eliminated many of the most helpful features of the site.

Since the USCIS is once again redesigning it's website, we wish to make a few suggestions:

1. Please do something to improve the search engine.

Our website has more links to the USCIS website (several hundred) than any other site on the web. So we empathize with readers who tell us that it is extremely difficult to find information on the USCIS website. For example, take a look at the first link above, the USCIS Fact Sheet dated August 11. We could not find this on the USCIS website, so we scanned in the Fact Sheet and posted it on our website.

Example: What if someone is interested in L status? Whether they type in "L", "L status", "L visa petition" into the USCIS search engine, they get the following answer: "404 - Requested Page Not Found on Site".

The USCIS search engine, even when it is working, leaves a lot to be desired.

2. Make the website easier to navigate.

Your fact sheet lists the following customer comments about the present USCIS website. It is "hard to navigate", "overwhelming" and "frustrating". That's because the layout of the website is illogical. For example, let's say someone is searching for information about L status. How do they find this information at www.uscis.gov?

The website has the following buttons near the top of the page:

* Services & Benefits
* Immigration Forms
* Laws & Regulations
* About USCIS
* Education & Resources
* Press Room

Where would one find information about L status? Probably under "Services & Benefits". Clicking this button leads one to a four-paragraph general introduction which ends with the following guidance: "For information about a particular immigration benefit or service, please select the appropriate button on the menu to your left."

The menu on the left contains a total of 17 different items, none of them clearly relating to L status or temporary visa categories. So we decided to click the "How do I Customer Guides". This page lists six different categories of guides, one of them being "Nonimmigrants". Fine for an attorney, but does the average immigrant realize that the word "Nonimmigrants" relates to temporary visa categories like the L category? Probably not.

However, let's assume that the reader clicks on "Nonimmigrants". This leads to a page which contains three links, the most appropriate being "How do I Change to Another Nonimmigrant Status?" Click on this link, and you are transported to a three-page PDF file. The file lists some of the 40 types of nonimmigrant categories, but provides precious little information about any of these categories. For instance, with reference to the L category, the document states "L-1A or L-1B Intracompany Transfer". Not very helpful, is it?

By this time, the person has probably given up on the USCIS website and found all the information that they need to know about L status on our website at

http://shusterman.com/toc-temp.html#3m

And where did we get all this great information about L status? Confession: We copied and pasted it from the old INS website! (which leads us to our next suggestion...)

3. Bring Back the Old INS Website

Or at least make the new USCIS website as useful as the old INS website was. For example, the USCIS used to include four charts which relate to derivative citizenship. And we linked to all four nationality charts. For example, we linked to the chart for "Acquisition of U.S. Citizenship for Children Born Abroad in Wedlock" at

http://www.uscis.gov/propub/ProPubVAP.jsp dockey=6f3ca27ff6c196d35e87dae2221deee9

Every few weeks, the URL would change and we would have to repair the link. We wrote to the USCIS webmaster about this problem, but we never received a reply. Now, it seems that the USCIS has removed all four nationality charts from their website. Why? We have no idea.

We could write to the USCIS webmaster, but what's the use?

4. What's With the Long URLs?

Check out the following web page:


http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=4f719c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=4f719c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD

What's this, you may ask? It's USCIS' page regarding "Lawful Permanent Residence (Green Card)". Why is the web address (aka, the URL) so long? Maybe there is a reason for the long URLs on the USCIS website, but we don't know what it is.

5. Help Immigrants and Their Employers Find Good Legal Advice

The USCIS website wisely advises persons not to use the services of notarios or "immigration consultants".

However, it does little to advise immigrants where to find knowledgeable and experienced immigration attorneys. USCIS' "Finding Legal Advice" page contains eight links: To the websites of the American Bar Association and the National Organization of Bar Counsel and even to EOIR's list of "Free Legal Service Providers". However, when one clicks on this last link, the list indicates that the services of these attorneys are not necessarily free, and what's more, this list is for persons in removal proceedings who cannot afford an attorney. Not exactly the list that an employer who wants to submit a PERM application or a permanent resident who wants to apply for naturalization needs.

A long time ago, we suggested to the USCIS that since four states (California, Florida, Texas and North Carolina) certify certain attorneys as Specialists in Immigration Law, why not link to the lists of these specialists. On November 6, 2006, Alfonso Aguilar, the Chief of USCIS' Office of Citizenship told us that he would do so. See

http://shusterman.com/pdf/certsp1106.pdf

We have been waiting for this to occur for nearly three years. Please surprise us, and add this to the new USCIS website!