According to the Legal Immigrant Association (LIA), Congressional Representatives in Washington, DC are arranging a House-Senate Conference to discuss an important amendment that aims to accelerate the FBI name check process.
Amendment 3275 was proposed by Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) on October 15, 2007, and was quickly ratified by the U.S. Senate. It requires the Director of the FBI to report annually to various congressional committees on the status of all in-process name checks. It also encourages the Bureau to automate and streamline its procedures.
However, most observers believe that the amendment is too general to stimulate any real change. Under the current system, approximately twenty percent of all applicants become subject to an extensive background check. Although only a small percentage of these cases take longer than six months to resolve, background checks that take two years or longer are not uncommon. Such an excessive amount of time represents a real hardship for the immigrant and non-immigrant aliens who must wait to clear this bureaucratic hurdle before they can adjust status or enter the United States.
At the upcoming House-Senate Conference, House Representatives have the opportunity to strengthen Amendment 3275 before it takes effect. Paul Donnelly, a lobbyist hired by the LIA, estimates that by adding “Supervisory Review Upon Request,” the amendment “could effectively limit any name check process [to] within one year.” This change would have a positive impact on all F-1, J-1, H-1B and Green Card applicants.
Z&A’s Recent Lobbying Efforts for Immigration Reform
In mid-September, Matthew Graham and attorneys Bennett Wisnieswki and Jerry Zhang took part in an immigration rally and lobbying session in Washington, DC. Over the course of three days in the Capital, they met with numerous Senators and Representatives and urged for a comprehensive package of immigration reforms, including acceleration of the FBI name check procedure.
The Z&A lobbyists argued that the exceedingly lengthy processing time for background checks not only severely inconveniences valuable foreign workers, it also compromises national security efforts to quickly identify potential terrorists. Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) both responded positively to these arguments, and indicated that they may take steps to demand more responsibility from the FBI.
Urge Your Congressman To Act Now
Representatives Gohmert and Lofgren will need the help of their fellow Congressmen and Congresswomen in their effort to improve Amendment 3275. The LIA has identified the following Representatives as key players in this effort:
Alan Mollohan, Chairman, West Virginia;
Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island, district 1;
Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania, district 2;
Dutch Ruppersberger, Maryland, district 2;
Adam Schiff, California, district 29;
Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut, district 3;
David Price, North Carolina, district 4;
Dave Obey, Wisconsin, district 7;
Rodney Frelinghuysen, New Jersey, district 11;
John Culberson, Texas, district 7;
Hal Rogers, Kentucky, district 5;
Tom Latham, Iowa, district 4;
Aderholt, Alabama, district 4;
Jerry Lewis, California, district 41;
Regardless of whether you live in one of the above-listed districts or not, we encourage you to contact your Congressman and express your opinion in favor of strengthening the amendment. We at Zhang & Associates will also continue to lobby for our clients’ best interests. Please join Zhang & Associates, PC and the Legal Immigrant Association in urging Congress to make these necessary changes.
We will keep you posted from time to time.

FBI Name Checks—The FBI name check is not related to the fingerprint check. This check is based on applications, personnel, administrative, criminal and other files compiled by law enforcement. Such checks take 14 days or so to complete. Eighty percent of applicants pass this stage without a problem. The remaining 20 percent are almost all resolved within half a year. If a problem with the name check is identified, it does not always indicate criminal activity. Sometimes there are simply complex circumstances requiring additional research.