Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

It's simple math. Less people equals less work.

Yet in the midst of record setting USCIS filings, layoffs were announced in early December for one of the most well known USCIS service centers, the Vermont Service Center.                                                                                                  

In Fiscal Year 2023, USCIS received a whopping 10.97 million immigration filings. That number doesn't include the amount of USCIS filings still pending from another filed year, just the new ones filed this year. USCIS received more immigration filings in this last fiscal year than it has ever before, yet it is letting some people go, rather than hiring extra people!

Although the rumblings of whether USCIS would issue layoffs have been brewing for several months, employees were still caught by surprise in early December when 74 employees at the USCIS Vermont Service Center received layoff notices. Almost 400 people used to be employed at the Vermont Service Center, but in today's world the 74 people laid off amounted to almost half of the current staff at the Vermont Service Center.

The layoffs feel like a sign of the times. On the West Coast, USCIS's California Service Center used to have 400 employees, but now is reported to have none. According to USCIS records, the staff reductions are part of a “broader shift by the federal government to draw down paper-based immigration filing and move toward electronic filing.” USCIS has plans for all its forms to be available for online filing by the end of 2026, but for now the vast majority of its forms still require snail mail. Currently most mailed applications are received at a service center and then digitized by USCIS there.                                                                                                                                                                                                   None of us know exactly what the future holds, but knowing that two USCIS service centers have had massive reductions leads us to believe that there will likely be processing delays in government filings. Once you have received a receipt notice number you can always check the status of your pending application at the USCIS website. 

If you have questions about your immigration status or need help filing an immigration petition, you can reach us at (757) 422-8472, or send us a message on our website. You can also schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys by clicking on this link.