Petition Information Management Service

PIMS is basically a transfer process of information from USCIS to the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) Fraud Protection Unit (FPU) to the U.S. Embassies and Consulates that will more quickly facilitate visa issuance in the H, L, O, P, and Q visa categories at the embassy or consulate when an extension of stay, change of status or petition amendment has been requested overseas by consular processing.. It permits consular processing to use the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) to verify the visa petition even if the applicant has a USCIS paper Form I-797 approval notice.

Submission Process

To assist the USCIS the employer when initially filing its petition it must send duplicate original petitions both with original signatures and identify the duplicate with a brightly colored cover sheet marked "Please send this copy to KCC upon approval".

Remember, "with immigration nothing is as simple as it first appears." (S.M.)