In the aftermath of 9/11, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) now conducts International Border Inspection System (IBIS) checks on each beneficiary of every petition immediately after the petition is logged in the mailroom. It may well repeat those checks before issuing the I-797 approval notice. On occasion, USCIS may also conduct a similar check on the individual signing the petition. Including the passport biographical data page enables USCIS to operate more efficiently.

In addition to the IBIS checks, USCIS appears in some cases to be running additional organized crime-related checks. When USCIS encounters the occasional "hit," meaning only that there is adverse information somewhere in the system, the result can be unexplained (often interminable) delays. In such cases, USCIS generally sends a Request for Evidence or other notice to the petitioner cryptically stating that the identified beneficiaries may be subject to additional processing delays, and that the petitioner may wish to authorize USCIS to drop the beneficiaries from the petition. In ALL such cases, the petitioner must recognize that failure to drop the beneficiaries at issue will, at least for the foreseeable future, stop adjudication of the petition in question in its tracks. In short, if you encounter this situation, drop the beneficiaries or face interminable delay.

Another security-related consideration has to do with the increasing reluctance of U.S. consulates abroad to issue visas in the face of typos on USCIS-generated I-797 approval notices, which contain an alphabetical list of the beneficiaries, their birth date and country of birth. Some consulates take this reluctance to an unfortunate extreme. In consequence, it is essential that the petitioner: a) not rely solely on the beneficiary or the group representative to provide individual data such as names, birthdates and the like; b) rather, to the extent possible, to take that data directly from the passport biographical data pages; c) take extreme care in entering all pertinent beneficiary data on the petition or beneficiary list, and re-check it several times, making sure that the names used correspond exactly to those in the passports, and that the birthdates are accurate and not transposed from any other format; d) check the I-797 filing receipt, or the e-receipt in case of Premium Processing against the list submitted to USCIS, and notify USCIS (by fax or email if premium processing or by calling the National Call Service Center (NCSC) if regular processing, 1-800-375-5283) immediately if errors appear on the list; e) re-check the approval notice when received and respond similarly if need be. In short, implement a zero-typo rule for beneficiary information.