Prakash Khatri

Prakash Khatri, Ombudsman at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) section of the Department of Homeland Security, has called for speedier processing of visa applications, especially those for family reunification, a major issue with Indian Americans and other ethnic minorities, as well as in issuing Green Cards.

In the introduction to his annual report to Congress submitted end of July, Khatri states that he has focused on recommending initiatives that enhance national security, create substantial efficiencies and dramatically improve customer service, and will continue to identify and implement more efficient and responsive methods for providing immigration services which respect the dignity and value of individuals while simultaneously protecting against those who seek to cause us harm.

The report states that Ombudsman Khatri instituted a holistic approach, identifying and arranging priorities by the time and effort typically required to effect the corresponding change. In this first year, he has focused on introducing recommendations which primarily involve changes to existing policies and procedures so that rapid implementation of several pilot programs could go into effect, to result in rapid and dramatic benefits.

The report states that in the upcoming year, the Ombudsman will not only continue to introduce additional recommendations of this nature, but also focus on formulating recommendations that require more time-intensive statutory, regulatory and/or infrastructure modifications.

The specific initiatives recommended by Khatri in his first year serving as USCIS Ombudsman were to streamline family-based immigrant processing, reengineer Green Card replacement processing and streamline employment-based immigrant processing. Four pilot programs were developed and initiated in response to Khatri’s recommendations, which he is now monitoring to determine if the programs effect resolution of the identified problems.

Before submitting the report, Khatri outlined new immigration procedures and policies at a Washington press conference.

As a nation of immigrants with a rich immigration heritage, obviously a significant challenge that we in the U.S. have in the 21st century is forging a system that ensures both the safety of our borders, and yety welcomes immigrants as we have done for generations in the past here, declared Khatri who submitted his annual report at the end of one year of his appointment as Ombudsman starting July 2003.

He identified three issues his office currently is studying in order to make policy recommendations: Prolonged processing times for visas, immigration benefits fraud and case-status information improvement.

To do those three in a way that is non-intrusive, customer-friendly, and shows the welcoming nature of the American immigration system is truly what we’re all committed to, and that’s what we’re hoping that we will be able to do, Khatri said, noting that he was charged with making recommendations for changes to the USCIS on problems that both individuals and employers are having in their communications and their trying to seek the benefits that the section provides.

His annual report recommends streamlining the immediate-relative immigrant processing system and the reengineering of the permanent resident card replacement program, which many permanent residents of the U.S. who travel quite frequently were having issues with, he emphasized at his press briefing.

We made a recommendation on the family-based immigrant processing. Here in the U.S., if you have a foreign national that has come to the U.S. and is married to a U.S. citizen or is the parent or child of a U.S. citizen, they can file, in most cases, an application to get their Green Card here, Khatri said. And what we did was we actually made a recommendation to do the processing in a manner which would substantially increase the speed.

He noted that a USCIS pilot program in Dallas lowered Green Card processing time to 75 days or less, in contrast with New York City where processing can take three years or more.

When asked how much time it takes for sponsorship of an immediate relative to be processed, Khatri responded that, for individuals who are immediate relatives, such as parents, spouses or children, there is no limit on the number of immigrants that can come in. What we are trying to focus on is ensuring that USCIS is using the most up-to-date technology to quickly and securely process all of these applications, he added.

Once a person is here in the country with an application for a Green Card, if they have a family emergency they’re required to have what’s known as advance parole to leave this country, and then return in that same status so that they can continue to get the benefit that they initially sought, Khatri said.

He noted there should not be a situation where a person cannot leave the U.S. because the immigration service was unable to process an advance parole. We have been working on a number of fixes to that, and some recommendations will be forthcoming in the coming months on the advance parole issue that a number of people that are impacted, Khatri said.

Khatri, who was born in Zambia, was appointed by Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and was the first Ombudsman ever appointed to this new department. Prior to taking on this post, he worked five years as Manager of Immigration and Visa Processing for Walt Disney World in Florida, traveling to U.S. consular posts in more than 18 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and the Caribbean.

At Disney, he developed and implemented an automated high-volume visa processing system and other innovations that reduced paperwork and made handling employee visa applications more efficient, according to DHS.

Before Disney, he ran a private practice specializing in Immigration Law for 14 years. He was admitted to the Florida State Bar in 1984, and, at the age of 22, was the youngest attorney in the state bar’s history. He is also a past president of the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Council of Central Florida Inc. He earned his bachelor’s from Stetson University and J.D. from Stetson University College of Law.