Immigration reform news 2015: Digital approach could speed up citizenship process

Reuters

Obtaining U.S. citizenship is normally a long-process but with the new United States Digital Service (USDS) system that president Barrack Obama is putting in place, such could prove to be beneficial and accurate if applied properly.

One can imagine the large number of individuals seeking visas, something that is seemingly slower than usual if processed under the old and traditional means. But technology has been known to streamline and make things simpler and the USDS to do just that to eliminate tons of paper work, which would eat up a lot of time.

A report entitled "Modernizing and Streamlining Our Legal Immigration System for the 21st Century," which was released Wednesday, is something that carries many potential improvements to address the snail pace and build up of individuals seeking U.S. citizenship.

With the new system, documentation and digital transactions should be handled better, not to mention accessible to applicants; and it should lead the way to enhancing data transparency.

An improved online interface should make it easier to manage and process records, although the system is currently in the testing stages on select locations.

Another area that could get improvements is the payments side, which was previously deemed as too complicated. Under the recommended new process, payments will be split up and made simple likened to how online buying is done using online shopping carts.

Communication is another issue, which the automation aims to address. With applications expected to come from people of varying languages, translating the application or at least some portions of it should make it easier and more accurate to reduce room for errors.

Overall, the issues cited by the said report do seem basic. But if taken as a whole, it results into something pretty complicated.

Could these adoptions of modern technology help in the immigration reform issues known to date? President Obama seems committed to it but all these can only prosper if Congress does its part.