"If you look at recent ombudsman report, you get what is really happening..
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From numerous visits to USCIS facilities, the Ombudsman has observed that adjudicators prefer to work on the cases that are easiest to complete. Adjudicators pick the “low hanging fruit” first because supervisors base performance evaluations on the number of cases completed. Consequently, adjudicators put aside the most difficult and time-intensive cases. These cases remain pending, perhaps for years, while backlog reduction appears generally to be succeeding.
The Ombudsman fully supports USCIS efforts to quickly and efficiently complete the cases. However, the current drive to complete large numbers of cases presents problems. For
example, USCIS provides field offices resources based on what is needed to complete a typical case. It is the Ombudsman’s understanding that if field offices have a workload of 1,000 cases and USCIS determines each case usually takes one hour to complete, USCIS will provide financial support for 1,000 hours. Cases that take longer than an hour to complete are not provided additional resources in the office’s budget. Offices with more than the average numbers of difficult cases or offices that try to work the difficult cases thoroughly will not be adequately funded because the number of completions will be low. Meanwhile, offices that push to complete the easy cases will see their budgets grow. One field office visited by the Ombudsman has a large number of long-pending cases which require substantial adjudicator hours. However, officers at that office indicate that they cannot address the older, difficult cases without negatively affecting their productivity report to USCIS headquarters."