Dear Resettlement Directors,
Beginning today, you will see a new folder in your OneDrive entitled “Travel Schedules.” Inside the folder you will find one or two separate spreadsheets:
- Travel Schedules Linked Cases (Assured)
- Travel Schedules Linked Cases (Allocated, Not Assured) – this spreadsheet will only appear if you have any remaining outstanding assurances.
The spreadsheets will provide you with additional case information regarding Afghan travel schedules and cross-referenced cases. We will upload the new spreadsheets on a weekly basis to account for any changes to your caseloads.
Travel Schedules
Now that the majority of cases are assured, the Refugee Processing Center (RPC) has been able to create a master schedule for all Afghan weekly travel up to February 15. You will notice on both spreadsheets an additional column entitled “Planned Departure Period” that includes a one-week date range. Although the majority of cases are not currently booked for travel, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will book cases within their specified date range. We hope this will better enable you to plan for your arrivals now that you will have a better idea of when your cases will travel.
A few important notes:
- The plan includes all Assigned and Assured cases. Please continue to assure your caseloads at your earliest possible convenience or otherwise reject cases you cannot serve so that they can be allocated elsewhere.
- The plan does not cover travel for ~6500 individuals that we currently do not have capacity for across all networks. Any increased affiliate capacity will be used to cover these individuals.
- IOM will be using the Planned Departure Period to begin booking all cases not currently booked for travel.
- The plan will adjust over time to account for independent departures, capacity increases, and extenuating circumstances. However, information in the spreadsheet will be the baseline for all future travel schedule adjustments. USCCB will upload a refreshed version of the spreadsheet on a weekly basis.
Cross-reference Cases
The Hummingbird database includes a new functionality that links cross-reference cases together by a unique Group Number. We hope this information will make your planning process easier as you prepare for your arrivals. We also hope this information will help you when assuring cases, since you will either want to assure or reject all cases within a cross-reference group.
You will see several new columns in the spreadsheet that will enable you to identify linked cases:
- GROUP NUMBER: All cases/individuals with the same group number are cross-reference cases
- GROUP COUNT: This column displays the number of cases in a cross-reference group
- GROUP TRAVELERS: This column displays the number of individuals in a cross-reference group
- NUMBER OF TRAVELERS: Not a new column/displays the number of individuals on a case
We hope the additional information in the new “Travel Schedules” folder will make planning for your arrivals easier. We understand how hard you are working during a truly unprecedented resettlement situation and we are tremendously grateful for your partnership and for your service.
Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
In gratitude,
Colleen Tighe
Associate Director, Processing Operations
USCCB/MRS
