In a significant move, the Trump administration has shut down the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman, an independent oversight agency that had played a crucial role in assisting thousands of immigrants with navigating complicated visa-related processes. The decision has sparked criticism from immigration attorneys and advocates, who warn that the closure will especially affect H-1B visa holders, F-1 international students, and green card applicants, including many from the Indian diaspora.
The CIS Ombudsman was known for providing assistance in cases involving delays, administrative errors, and disputes with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Last year alone, the office responded to nearly 30,000 individual requests, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, senior director for government relations at AILA, highlighted the range of issues the Ombudsman addressed. “Individuals or businesses sought assistance from the CIS Ombudsman for a variety of issues, ranging from erroneous rejections of filings and denials to typographical errors on secure documents (such as Green Cards and Employment Authorization Documents) and even mailing issues. Last year, the Ombudsman’s office assisted approximately 30,000 applicants,” she said in a statement to journalist Lubna Kably.
The closure of this office has raised serious concerns about decreased transparency and accountability in the USCIS, which oversees the adjudication of various immigration and visa matters. Without the Ombudsman’s independent role, immigration attorneys say there is now a significant void in oversight and recourse for applicants facing issues within the system.
Rajiv S. Khanna, an immigration lawyer based in Arlington, emphasized the importance of the Ombudsman in situations where delays and administrative errors jeopardized legal immigration status. “F-1 and H-1B visa holders turned to the CIS Ombudsman when they hit bureaucratic roadblocks within US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that threatened their legal status and livelihoods,” he said.
Khanna recalled a notable case involving an engineer from Bangalore who had been waiting 11 months for a decision on an H-1B extension. Despite repeated efforts, the USCIS had not resolved the case. The situation was finally resolved only after the Ombudsman intervened. “After the Ombudsman’s intervention, approval came within two weeks,” Khanna explained.
Students also benefited from the office’s help when facing problems with their Optional Practical Training (OPT) applications. Khanna described a case where a student’s OPT request was mistakenly denied due to misinterpreted documents. The CIS Ombudsman stepped in, and the case was reopened, preserving the student’s right to work and legal standing. In another case highlighted by Dalal-Dheini, a STEM OPT application was rejected two months after submission due to a bank processing issue. Because the application window had closed, the student couldn’t reapply. However, with the Ombudsman’s help, the case was brought to the attention of USCIS and the student was reapproved. “The CIS Ombudsman negotiated with the USCIS and was able to get the student reapproved,” she noted.
Adam Cohen, a partner at the immigration law firm Siskind Susser, also pointed to the Ombudsman’s role in helping applicants receive critical documentation that was either delayed or lost in the system. “The CIS Ombudsman helped in acquiring receipt or approval notices, which were not received and USCIS insisted on filing Form I-824 which entailed a prolonged process to get another one (i.e.: a duplicate),” Cohen explained.
The Ombudsman’s work extended beyond just case intervention—it also collaborated with USCIS to release official guidance and host informational sessions about common problems surrounding student and employment visas. Dalal-Dheini emphasized that even employers found the Ombudsman helpful when addressing delays or missing documents for their foreign workers.
Khanna added that what made the office particularly important was its independence from USCIS. “What made the Ombudsman uniquely valuable was its independence from USCIS – they could objectively evaluate whether the agency was following its own procedures and policies,” he said. He went on to describe a case involving a researcher whose green card application had been stalled for more than three years due to an improperly logged background check. The Ombudsman’s intervention led to a resolution that otherwise might never have occurred.
The office’s ability to objectively scrutinize USCIS decisions and help resolve lingering issues provided a safety net for many immigrants who found themselves entangled in bureaucratic delays. Now, with that safety net removed, attorneys warn that legal immigrants will have fewer avenues to challenge procedural failures or advocate for timely case resolutions.
As for concerns about whether the Ombudsman could have supported students facing threats of self-deportation due to campus activism, Cohen clarified that this fell outside the office’s scope. “It involves other agencies, viz – Department of State (DOS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – the Ombudsman’s office never had a review of DOS and ICE as part of its mission,” he explained.
The termination of the CIS Ombudsman, along with two other immigration oversight bodies, has intensified concerns that immigrants will be left with limited options to address problems within the immigration system. With USCIS already grappling with significant delays, backlogs, and inconsistencies, the elimination of a neutral intermediary agency only worsens the challenges for applicants seeking timely and fair adjudication.
Immigration advocates fear that without an independent channel to raise grievances, thousands of immigrants may find themselves caught in limbo, with no means to resolve errors, address delays, or secure their legal status in the United States.
The closure also underscores a broader pattern of immigration policy decisions under the Trump administration, which critics argue have systematically reduced avenues for legal recourse and created greater uncertainty for immigrants. As immigration attorneys and advocates try to fill the gap left behind by the Ombudsman’s closure, many remain concerned that the lack of oversight and accountability will ultimately harm the most vulnerable members of the immigrant community.