Delayed Oath Ceremonies

caused by coding error at USCIS

Background Check Glitch Causes Some Oath Ceremonies to be Cancelled - AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association: AILA)

AILA Doc. No. 16120261, December 2, 2016 - "In response to reports received regarding cancelled naturalization oath ceremonies, the AILA Field Operations Committee reached out to USCIS HQ and learned that on Monday, November 28, 2016, a computer coding error impacted the accuracy of the FBI background checks for about 15,000 of the 240,000+ pending naturalization cases. Of those, 3,000 cases were pending at the field office, either to be interviewed, waiting on a decision post-interview, or waiting to be scheduled for an oath ceremony. To make sure that appropriate checks are conducted, USCIS cancelled oath ceremonies for about 550 people who were scheduled to take the oath on Tuesday, November 29. All of the 15,000 names that were impacted have been resubmitted to the FBI and USCIS has asked the FBI to expedite the background checks. In the meantime, interviews will proceed, but until the background checks clear, affected individuals will not be scheduled to take the oath."