USCIS has now published that, in partnership with the FBI, the backlog for name checks that have been pending for more than six months has been eliminated. This is the fourth milestone met by USCIS and the FBI in their joint goal to completely eliminate all backlogged name checks, says the federal agency.

Sixteen months ago, there were nearly 350,000 pending name checks, with roughly 150,000 of those pending for over six months. As of February 28, 2009, all requests from USCIS to the FBI for name checks that had been pending for more than six motnhs have been responded to by the FBI’s National Name Check Program.

In April 2008, USCIS and the FBI announced that they would work together to prioritize work as they aimed to eliminate all pending name checks. Both agencies are currently on schedule to continue to reach their milestones. They propose to clear all name check requests pending for more than 90 days by May 30, 2009 and to clear 98 percent of all name check requests pending for more than 90 days by May 30, 2009 and to clear 98 percent of all name check requests within 30 days and the rest within 3 months by June 30, 2009.