Acknowledging the issue of increasing migration and subsequent visa approval backlogs, Jonathan Scharfen head of the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has spoken out about his plans for reform.

The United States of America has long been a country seen by many the world over to offer its occupants freedom and chances therefore prompting a large number of potential inhabitants to seek U.S visas every year.

Scharfen acknowledged record number of applicants last year; he then further addressed the issues surrounding such immigration processes and shared his plans for eliminating them in forthcoming months.

With the backlog in citizenship applications rising year-on-year Scharfen acknowledged the efforts of immigration staff around the country to clear this workload, however in doing so he highlighted a number of issues which are hindering the process.

The need to modernize the paper based processes which are currently in use is an issue which was addressed as top priority. In a current digital age many have explained how essential the conversion away from paper bureaucracy is for the department. This move will make it easier to manage and to track applications.

Speaking about the plans to abolish the existing process, Scharfen said "We have a transformation contract that's going to be awarded, aimed at taking our agency from this old-fashioned way of doing business, this paper-based system, which is inefficient, expensive and doesn't allow us to do modern management techniques with it, or national security analysis ... to the modern electronic system."

Aside from the need for department modernization the current system is also facing a number of obstacles which are subsequently slowing down its processes.

Firstly is the issue of FBI checks. In the midst of the 9/11 terror attacks the security checks have become a much slower process. The Immigration and Citizenship department estimates that applications have been held up to a current status of 130,000 six month old cases in the systems at any one time.

Secondly is the present law which restricts immigration on an employment based visa. It has been argued that the current law which limits how many people can emigrate in these employment based preference categories each year has prompted demand to often far exceed supply.

This problem shows the need for a curb on such a law, subsequently limiting the number of applications which are allowed to build up.

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