About Us
Jonathan Micale is a 25-year immigration practitioner and former USCIS operational executive who is recognized as a leading authority on the processing and adjudication of applications and petitions for immigration benefits. Jonathan’s unique background includes expertise in all aspects of the immigration benefits processing lifecycle to include: receipt, ingestion, preparation, adjudication, and data analysis of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) applications and petitions. Jonathan has both private and public sector experience as an immigration attorney and has participated in the policy design and implementation of some of the most significant immigration benefits programs over the last 21+ years.
At USCIS, Jonathan led five separate adjudication divisions covering nearly all USCIS form types. In leading these adjudication divisions, Jonathan regularly led the review and revision of adjudication procedures and maximized the efficiency of these processes. As a prior immigration attorney himself, Jonathan also worked closely with his partners in the USCIS Office of the Chief Counsel to resolve litigation brought against the agency and implemented process improvements to streamline coordination between the Office of the Chief Counsel and adjudication division clients.
Amongst Jonathan’s skills is his ability to evaluate the organizational health and performance of large workforces and assess the ability of employees to complete the adjudication of immigration benefits within defined timeframes. Additionally, Jonathan has a comprehensive understanding of the nuances in immigration benefits data based upon his over two decades of experience leading and managing teams that evaluated this data, resolved discrepancies in the data itself, and presented it to senior leaders at USCIS to make data-driven decisions.
During his 20+ years as senior leader at USCIS, Jonathan served in numerous cross functional leadership roles and most recently included serving as the first permanent Director for the Humanitarian, Adjustment, Removing Conditions & Travel (HART) Service Center. The HART Service Center is the only virtual agency office staffed by a geographically distributed workforce. As a result of Jonathan’s leadership, the HART Service Center achieved significant improvements in efficiency, productivity, employee retention, and timeliness for HART adjudicated forms.
Jonathan also served as the Deputy Director for the Vermont Service Center (VSC). At the VSC, Jonathan implemented programs to digitize thousands of paper A-files and successfully resolved numerous contractor performance issues associated with the receipt and ingestion of immigration applications and petitions. In addition, Jonathan previously served in various leadership positions including Associate Center Director for the Texas Service Center (TSC), Service Center Operations (SCOPS) HQ Acting Chief of Adjudications, and SCOPS HQ Acting Division Chief for the Center Operations and Resources Division (CORD). In each of these roles, Jonathan was recognized as an agency-wide leader for his ability to evaluate qualitative and quantitative data for immigration benefits and explain it in layman’s terms to senior agency leaders so that they could make data-driven decisions.
Jonathan first joined the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as charter employee of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, a DHS headquarters program office in 2004. In 2006, Jonathan transferred to USCIS, and in February 2007, Jonathan became an Immigration Services Officer upon graduation from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Brunswick, Georgia.
Jonathan attended the George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Syracuse University, College of Law. Following graduation, Jonathan practiced exclusively in immigration and nationality law, representing clients in both business immigration and deportation/removal defense matters.
Jonathan is a member of the Connecticut Bar.
