Each year U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) receives millions of immigration application and petition forms. In 2019, 7,636,073 applications were filed with USCIS and a total of 6,477,470 applications were approved. These applications range from family based to employment based and humanitarian based.
Family Based
Family Based applications allow the petitioner to bring an immediate relative to the U.S., a fiancé(e), or even the child of a fiancé(e). Although the overall statistics from USCIS may seem encouraging; a high number of applications remain pending each year. At the end of 2019, the USCIS form with the highest number of pending applications was the I-130. The I-130 is a family based application for immediate and preference relatives. As 2019 came to an end, a total of 1,564,880 of the applications remained pending.
Employment Based
Employment Based applications are primarily for immigrant workers or immigrant investors. Immigrant workers are divided into smaller sub categories of first, second, and third preference workers. First preference workers have extraordinary abilities or are outstanding in their field. Second preference workers are professionals that obtain an advanced degree. Third preference workers can be a skilled worker, a professional, or an unskilled worker. Visas are also given to immigrants who are coming to the U.S. to invest rather than work. An Immigrant Investor Visa is for an immigrant who invests at least one million dollars into a commercial enterprise with a minimum of ten employees.
The most received application in 2019 by USCIS was, by far, the Employment Authorization form, or I-765. In 2019, 2,189,243 of the received applications were for employment authorization and a total of 1,726,688 of those applications were approved.
Humanitarian
Humanitarian based applications cover the widest range of applications but have the lowest number of applications. These applications range from asylum to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In 2019, 744,715 applications were filed under the humanitarian category and 577,315 of those applications were approved.
For more statistics on the specific applications and their approval and denial rates in 2019 check out the USCIS website.
If you are looking to contact an experienced immigration attorney to discuss your options for obtaining status, contact Attorney Barbara Griffin at 330-673-3444 or by email at bgriffin@wwklaw.com.
