September 25, 2004

They got up long before dawn, lining up in the dark outside the federal building, sometimes in bitter cold or pouring rain, hoping to be at or near the front of the line when the doors opened at 8 a.m., all for a chance to speak to an immigration officer or file a form.

Sometimes they saw someone who could help; sometimes they didn't, and had to leave with nothing more than a lost day of work for their troubles.

Now, a new system that lets immigrants schedule appointments over the Internet is making things somewhat easier for the newly arrived. Called InfoPass, the online system started in Newark on Aug. 4, and is now up and running at all 33 of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services district offices nationwide.

"It was extremely easy," said Nieves Miller of Cedar Grove, who made an appointment from home, where she is nursing a young baby. "Before, I would have to get up at 2 o'clock in the morning and get there at 5 and wait in line. It was a very unpleasant experience."

Lines have shrunk greatly outside the Peter W. Rodino Federal Building, which houses the agency's Newark offices. The system debuted last year in Miami and has all but eliminated lines at that office as well, USCIS director Eduardo Aguirre said.

"It's a lot better than before because now you don't have to go over there for every single thing," said Hatem El-Hedoudhy,a self-employed menswear salesman from East Orange who works in south Jersey.

The agency also lets online users file eight of the more commonly used forms that account for more than half of all applications filed each year.

"It's been a wonderful success for us," said Kimberly Zanotti, a spokeswoman for the Newark immigration office. "It's eliminated our line. Before InfoPass, they'd have to bundle up and get here pretty early in the morning, and they could pretty much count on missing an entire day of work. This lets them schedule appointments that are more convenient for them."

In August, the Newark immigration office scheduled 2,024 applications over the Internet, and had booked 3,875 so far in September. Starting out at 88 per day in August, the Newark office is devoting a greater portion of its time slots to online reservations. It now reserves 204 appointments per day for online users, and will increase that figure to 275 as of Oct. 1, Zanotti said.

But it's not a cure-all. Many immigrants don't have access to a computer and thus can't benefit from the service.

"In other countries, some of the agencies have a computer terminal in the lobby that immigrants could use," said Sohail Mohammed, a Clifton immigration lawyer. "Something like that would definitely be useful here."

Zanotti said such a terminal is being considered. In the meantime, applicants can use computers at public libraries, or can still come to the immigration offices in person, she said.

El-Hedoudhy, who came to the United States from Egypt in 1999 and is still seeking permanent resident status, says the new system isn't perfect.

"The last time I tried to use it (online help), it asked for my ZIP code and then said there was no information available for my area, so I had to call," he said. "When you call, you wait a long time, at least a half hour before they answer."

Indeed, earlier this week the Web site rebuffed applicants trying to make an appointment from the Newark area with a message reading "At this time, there are no information appointments available for the office in your area. Please try back again later."

Miller, who immigrated from Peru several years ago, had the same problem, but persevered for several hours, and finally landed an appointment to inquire about a work card about two weeks hence.

Zanotti acknowledged the slots fill up quickly, but said each day at midnight, a new block of appointment slots becomes available online.

El-Hedoudhy said it beats the old way of queuing up outside the building.

"You would have to take a day off because you don't know how long you're going to be there," he said. "There are long lines. They stop you at the entrance of the federal building for security reasons, and sometimes you have to get in another line at the window, and at the end, they give you an appointment. Or they tell you to come back another time.

"The last time I tried to get an appointment, I took a day off and drove an hour there," El-Hedoudhy said. "I had to wait in two lines for several hours, and they finally said they can't do anything for me."

Applicants using the Web site can choose among 12 languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Creole, French, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Russian and Vietnamese.

Source - http://www.newsday.com/