Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — In a major policy shift aimed at reducing a ballooning immigration backlog, the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of applicants before the FBI completes a required background check.
Those eligible are immigrants whose fingerprints have cleared the FBI database of criminal convictions and arrests but whose names have not yet cleared the FBI’s criminal or intelligence files after six months of waiting.
Those who are granted permanent status — getting their green cards — will be expected eventually to clear the FBI’s name check. If they don’t, their legal status will be revoked.
