US shuts Manila immigration office
Credit to Author: BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO| Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2019 16:18:19 +0000
THE United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCis) will permanently close its Manila office next month and has already stopped accepting applications under a plan to end international operations for lack of resources.
Some services were halted earlier in May. The last day the Manila office was open to the public to accept applications and petitions was May 31, the USCis said on its website.
Full closure has been scheduled on July 5.
The USCis offices handle family visa requests, international adoptions, refugee applications and the naturalization of US military service members who are not yet American citizens.
In a tweet on Monday, the US Embassy in the Philippines reiterated that new applications and petitions were no longer being accepted. It said filing instructions and updates would be available on the USCis website.
The USCis said the US embassy had assumed responsibility for certain limited services previously provided by the Manila office to individuals in the Philippines, New Guinea, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Wallis, Futuna, New Caledonia, Pitcairn Island, the overseas French territories of French Polynesia, and most island nations in the Pacific region that were not covered by other Asia-Pacific field offices.
For those seeking to migrate under the Filipino World War 2 Veterans Parole Program, the USCis said: “You must file your application with the USCis lockbox facility in Chicago. If your petition is accepted, it will be forwarded to a USCis service center for adjudication.”
“If the service center conditionally approves your application, it will forward it to the Department of State National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will transfer your case to the USCis office or US embassy or consulate abroad where your beneficiary relative will be interviewed,” it added.
The plan to shutter the USCis’ international division was announced in March. According to reports, officials said it would allow the agency to act on a backlog of asylum applications.
Critics said it would disrupt the US’ legal migration processes at a time when more and more people were being forcibly displaced elsewhere in the world.
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