A new U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services policy should help reduce the number of immigrants whose green card applications are held up by background checks.

In a memo released last week, USCIS announced that immigrants whose permanent resident application is otherwise approvable and who have been waiting for more than 180 days for the completion of their FBI background check will be granted lawful permanent resident status and will receive a green card. If the background check later comes back showing "adverse information," USCIS may rescind the green card and place the individual in deportation proceedings.

The memo is the first action USCIS has taken to address significant background check backlogs that have plagued the agency. More than 300,000 green card and citizenship applicants were waiting for their background checks to be completed as of August 2007; more than 150,000 had waited more than six months.

The wait time faced by green card and naturalization applicants soared after the Department of Homeland Security made the FBI background and name checks a part of the adjudication process following September 11, 2001. The number of people awaiting the background checks rose significantly again in 2007 when USCIS announced significant fee increases for immigration applications.

The new policy will not affect permanent residents awaiting background checks for their naturalization applications, the agency told McClatchy news service, because citizenship is more difficult to rescind in the event that a background check uncovers security concerns. However, with the new policy the agency acknowledged that most green card applicants do not pose a security risk and those eligible for permanent residence should not have to endure years of FBI delays to obtain a green card.