Petition Information Management Service Pims

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USCIS and the Department of State(DOS) have developed a process that will facilitate the entry of non immigrant petition-based employment visa petitions (H, L, O, P, and Q) into the DOS' PIMS system where an extension of stay, change of status, or petition amendment is requested.

Background

Before issuing an H, L, O, P or Q visa, the petition approval must be verified by the Consular's office through the Consular Consolidated Database(CCD) in a new report called "PIMS". The petition must still be verified even if the applicant has a paper Form I-797 approval notice. If the petition approval information is not in the CCD, the post must e-mail the Kentucky Consular Center's (KCC) Fraud Protection Unit (FPU). The FPU will "research approval of the petition and, if able to confirm its approval, and make details available through the CCD within two working days."

Prior to this new process, only initial I-129 petition approvals were being entered into the PIMS system. Beneficiaries of an approved change, extension, or petition amendment were not being entered into the system, and therefore were subject to a delay while the consular office sought confirmation of the approval through KCC.

This process was developed to allow an approved change, extension, or petition amendment to be entered into the system.

Process

Upon approval of a petition, USCIS will send a duplicate copy to the State Department's Kentucky Consular (KCC) for scanning and entry into the PIMS database if:

the petitioner provides duplicate original copies to USCIS
both duplicate original petitions contain original signatures on all forms as would otherwise be done for consular notification
The duplicate petition is identified with a brightly-colored cover sheet marked "Please send this copy to KCC upon approval."

When should a Petitioning Employer Use this Process

If there is a chance that the beneficiary will need to obtain a visa at a consulate, USCIS advises that the petitioning employer file a duplicate petition set with original signatures on the forms and cover sheet as described above.