U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has unveiled a new service center, making it the sixth within the Service Center Operations (SCOPS) directorate. The Humanitarian, Adjustment, Removing Conditions, and Travel Documents (HART) Service Center will concentrate on humanitarian and workload-related cases. The establishment of this center, complete with a dedicated workforce, aims to enhance the efficiency and quality of processing for eligible case types by providing a unified and consistent adjudication process.
The introduction of the HART USCIS service center comes as a result of an evaluation of USCIS and processing times for humanitarian petitioners. Initially, HART will operate as a hybrid service location, offering virtual adjudication and collaborating with other service centers for some administrative support. Eventually, HART will become a fully virtual service center, capable of operating across multiple time zones without geographic restrictions.
The center will handle both paper-based and digital applications and petitions, working closely with other service centers that handle in-person requirements. HART will initially provide the following services:
- VAWA-based Form I-360
- Refugee/Asylee Relative Petitions, form I-730
- Bona Fide Determination (BFD), Form I-918, U Nonimmigrant Status Petition
- Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver, Form I-601A
At present, HART is operating with 30% of its staff, consisting of 150 positions. Plans are in progress to achieve a fully staffed center of 480 trained professionals by the end of FY2024.
