Web Posted 11/17/2008 4:41 CST

Benefits System Overhaul Expected to Expedite Results

By Hernán Rozemberg - Express-News

Immigrants navigating the labyrinthine federal immigration benefits system usually learn a quick lesson: Better be patient, as it may easily take months or even years before getting a response on their applications.

But a long-awaited overhaul of the system is now in the works, and within a few years the application process will be dramatically streamlined — forms could be approved or rejected the same day they’re filed.

That’s the ambitious goal the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the benefits-side holdover from the defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service, has set for itself. To get there, it has tapped tech giant IBM to do the legwork with a five-year, $491 million contract.

The “transformationâ€