Recently, we have noticed that some NIW cases are being transferred from the Texas Service Center (TSC) to the Nebraska Service Center (NSC). All of the beneficiaries of these petitions lived within the TSC’s jurisdiction when they filed their petitions, but their cases are being transferred nonetheless.

Normally, NIW and other I-140 cases are assigned to either the TSC or the NSC based on where the relevant job offer is—or, in the case of an NIW (which does not require a specific job offer), where the beneficiary lives. The assignments are made as follows:

Nebraska Service Center: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Texas Service Center: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, U.S. Virgin Islands, West Virginia

Again, in all of these cases, the beneficiary lived within the TSC’s jurisdiction when the petition was filed. Furthermore, not all NIW cases filed to the TSC are being transferred; it seems to be happening according to the discretion of each individual USCIS officer.

USCIS is able to transfer these cases relatively easily because they use the Oracle customer relationship management (CRM) system, just like our firm does. Oracle CRM tracks a case online and makes it accessible from any USCIS service center.

There are significant differences in processing times for NIWs between the two service centers. USCIS announced in mid-February that they have reviewed NIW petitions filed on or before the following dates at each service center:

Nebraska: December 5, 2006
Texas: June 27, 2007

Thus, it is possible that having an NIW case transferred from the TSC to the NSC will result in delays.

There has been no formal announcement about this matter from USCIS. We imagine that USCIS considers these transfers to be internal workload reallocation, so we cannot dispute them right now. Since USCIS officers are supposed to use the same standards when they process petitions, we don’t think this transfer will influence the results of the cases being transferred.

However, we will do our best to continue to advocate for our clients’ best interests, including the fastest possible case turnaround, and perform close follow-up on the cases being transferred.