The total national backlog of asylum applications is 398,000 cases. Both New York and New Jersey Asylum Offices adhere to the following scheduling priority:
1 - all rescheduled cases;
2 - cases pending 100 days or less;
3 - all other filings.
The request has been sent to the Asylum Office Headquarters to post information on their website to inform applicants about their position in the queue so they can prepare and update their documents after years of waiting in advance, rather than within a few weeks after receiving an interview notice.
Newark Asylum Office, which consists of Newark, NJ and Manhattan, NY branches, has 116 employees. However, due to the Covid-19-related restrictions, only five or six of them are physically present on each given day in both Newark and Manhattan offices. The office has 25,000 cases in its backlog with the oldest cases dated from September - October 2015, but some cases that were transferred from other offices are from 2014. Only two interviews are held in Newark, and six in Manhattan each business day. Some 500 cases are awaiting post-interview decisions, of which 400 are waiting for three months or more. Manhattan is current on the filings, Newark is not. The office has 300 cases in the shortlist pool.
