Published by: MYind.net - April 05, 2025
https://myind.net/Home/viewArticle/us-shuts-down-key-immigration-helpde…
Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv in the article:
Immigration attorney Rajiv S Khanna, based in Arlington, explained that visa holders, especially those on F-1 and H-1B visas, often contacted the Ombudsman when delays at USCIS jeopardized their legal status. “F-1 and H-1B visa holders turned to the CIS Ombudsman when they hit bureaucratic roadblocks within US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that threatened their legal status and livelihoods,” he stated.
He shared an example of an engineer from Bangalore whose H-1B extension was stuck for nearly a year. Even after following all the necessary steps and submitting several service requests, the case didn’t move forward until the Ombudsman got involved. “After the Ombudsman’s intervention, approval came within two weeks,” Khanna further said.
Students have also seen positive outcomes when there were mistakes in handling Optional Practical Training (OPT) applications. Khanna shared an example where a student’s OPT was incorrectly denied because the documents were misunderstood. Thanks to the Ombudsman’s intervention, the case was reopened, helping the students keep their jobs and immigration status.
“What made the Ombudsman uniquely valuable was its independence from USCIS – they could objectively evaluate whether the agency was following its own procedures and policies,” Khanna conveyed. He explained that the Ombudsman plays a key role in situations where it’s unclear how to fix mistakes. In one example, a researcher’s green card application had been delayed for over three years because a background check wasn’t recorded correctly. Thanks to the Ombudsman’s intervention, the issue was finally resolved.
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