Tech

Immigration service adds additional forms to online filing

The Form N-565 and Form N-336 round out the four big pieces of immigration paperwork that are now digital.

May 31, 2018

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As of last week, citizens interacting with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can do even more of the necessary paperwork online.

The agency announced on Friday that Form N-565, the application for replacement of naturalization or citizenship document, and Form N-336, a form people use to request a hearing before an immigration officer if an application for naturalization has been denied, can now be filed online.

“USCIS is making the process of applying for immigration benefits more efficient, secure and convenient,” USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna said in a statement. “We continue to add new forms that applicants can complete online.”

These two forms join Form I-90 and Form N-400 as the four big immigration and naturalization forms that have undergone the digital transition. Form I-90, which is an application to replace a permanent resident card, made it online first in March 2015. The N-400, the massively popular Application for Naturalization, joined in in August 2016.

“We are using innovation and technology to continually meet the needs of our applicants, employees and stakeholders,” the agency stated, in a news release.

Applicants need a USCIS account to file any of the forms, and from that central portal they’re able to monitor the status of their case, update any information necessary and communicate directly with the immigration agency. According to a USCIS news release, applicants who have filed a paper version of these forms can also create an account to track their information.

USCIS has struggled with similar modernization efforts to bring generally paper-based forms into the online world in the past. A November 2017 audit by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General stated categorically that the department’s work to automate the N-400 — the key application for naturalization form — “has not been successful.”

USCIS later said it is taking the criticism seriously, though, and is working to address each of the IG’s concerns.