Fixing the outdated CIS system is only part of the problem, since there's still no technological hook-up between CIS and other immigration agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, an official said.

By Hernán Rozemberg
San Antonio Express-News

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Immigrants navigating the labyrinthine federal immigration benefits system usually learn a quick lesson: Better be patient, as it may easily take months or even years before getting a response on their applications.

But a long-awaited overhaul of the system is now in the works, and within a few years the application process will be dramatically streamlined - forms could be approved or rejected the same day they're filed.

That's the ambitious goal the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the benefits-side holdover from the defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service, has set for itself. To get there, it has tapped tech giant IBM to do the legwork with a five-year, $491 million contract.

The "transformation" project is the government coming through on its promise to use last year's application fee hikes for unprecedented technological improvements, said Bill Wright, spokesman for CIS in Washington, D.C.

The updated system will create individual, customized electronic accounts for applicants, who will be able to track progress online. The objective is to eventually make the entire process paperless.

Currently, the agency manages more than 70 million paper files - between 6 and 8 million new applications are filed annually - stored in more than 200 offices across the country.

IBM is in charge of developing the technology to bring the immigration benefits system into the digital age.

"We believe this project will serve as an important model for other agencies seeking to transform the delivery of important government services," said Charles Prow, in charge of IBM Global Business Services.

It's a valiant and overdue change, but one that will not be easy to achieve, said Dan Kowalski, a veteran immigration lawyer in Austin and editor of a newsletter that's closely followed in immigration law circles.

Five years may not be enough, he said.

Fixing the outdated CIS system is only part of the problem, since there's still no technological hook-up between CIS and other immigration agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, Kowalski said.

"Getting everyone on the same page will take time, money and effort," he said.

A few bells and whistles won't solve all of the system's problems, said Prakash Khatri, a former CIS internal watchdog who was intensely critical of the agency's slog toward progress.

As part of post-9-11 federal law, CIS was ordered to have an independent ombudsman. Khatri was the first to fill those shoes, from the inception of DHS in 2003 until he resigned earlier this year.

He's hoping for the best, but remains skeptical he said, considering that the agency for years has been wasting millions for technicians to "dumb down" the current computer system, set up in the 1970s with only slight tweaks since then.

Bottom line, said Khatri, the agency cannot afford - financially or politically - to keep using the facade of security to postpone critical internal changes

"Assuming they'll incorporate our longstanding recommendations, this transformation will be the single largest change in the history of the agency," said Khatri, who now directs KPK Global Solutions, a security-consulting group.

"It will literally bring it out of the darkness and into the light," he said.

Copyright 2008 San Antonio Express-News