Think Immigration: AILA Is Tracking Trends For You!

This blog post is part of our series from the Member Experience Committee highlighting the ways AILA members can join in, build community, access resources, advocate, and enhance the overall AILA member experience.

Clients expect us to be aware of patterns, trends, and potential issues before they have a negative impact on their cases, provide insight into what can be done to resolve an issue, and what is being done to resolve these issues on a larger scale. The AILA Trend Tracker provides AILA members direct access to a database that keeps members fully apprised of patterns in both adjudication and processing tends. AILA’s Trend Tracker not only compiles, anonymizes, and shares trends to equip you with the information to avoid pitfalls in your practice and warn clients of potential issues, but also provides you with resources and updates which may help resolve your case.

The AILA Trend Tracker is a comprehensive live tool that identifies the issues AILA is tracking, the actions AILA has taken, and provides links to AILA resources such as Practice Alerts and Practice Pointers. The AILA Trend Tracker compiles trends and reports received from Calls for Examples, from National Committees or direct reports sent to Reports@aila.org. Please note that a trend circling via email on a listserv is not included in the AILA Trend Tracker – an official report to AILA through a National Committee or submitting documentation to reports@aila.org is needed.

In the tracker, you can filter trends by Title, Month, Year, AILA Action, Status, Category, Date Created and Modified Date. Some of the AILA Actions include issuing a Call for Examples, issuing a Practice Alert/Practice Pointer, raising the issued to the appropriate government agency or AILA National Committee, or monitoring the concern. If a Practice Alert/Practice Pointer is available, it may be accessed from a link in the AILA Trend Tracker.

When searching for the status of a trend, under the status column options to filter data include Agency Action Taken, Awaiting Response from Agency, Monitoring, Partial Agency Response and Resolved.

For example, when USCIS issued a new version (08/28/2024) of the Form I-914, Application for T Nonimmigrant Status, without a grace period, on August 30, 2024, AILA raised the issue with USCIS. The agency agreed to allow a 30-day grace period before requiring the new version. AILA then posted a Practice Alert “AILA and Partners Request USCIS to Accept Prior Editions of Form I-914.”

Trends that AILA has raised to USCIS thus far in 2025 include:

• Need for a correction to the USCIS filing address page for Form I-765 as the filing address for (c)(9) I-765s based on a pending I-360/I-485 is missing.
• How USCIS is handling Forms I-290B which were erroneously rejected due to discrepancies in the filing location instructions – will backdated receipt notices be issued?
• Continued issuance of Requests for Evidence (RFE) for birth certificates when originally submitted as part of an application to adjust status (Form I-485).

In addition to keeping AILA members abreast of issues, the information compiled in the AILA Trend Tracker is used to leverage agency case resolution, congressional oversight, media advocacy, and litigation to challenge problematic issues and trends.

The AILA Trend Tracker provides insight into what issues are having an impact on the broader AILA membership and into what action we are taking in terms of monitoring, raising, and resolving broad problematic adjudication trends and provides practice resources and alerts to our members. Links within the AILA Trend Tracker place at your fingertips the results of liaison meetings and engagements between AILA National and the federal agencies and increasing the visibility of AILA’s liaison activities related to the specific problematic trend.

As AILA President Kelli Stump reminds us “At AILA, we believe that knowledge is power”; but remembering where to find the “knowledge” can be a challenge given the plethora of resources. Using the AILA Trend Tracker is a great place to start!

You can watch a YouTube video about the AILA Trend Tracker at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTORmzfjSgo&t=4s.

You can also help improve AILA’s Trend Tracker by completing the AILA Trend Tracker Accessibility and Improvement Survey.