1. Overview

Milestones are crucial in effectively managing legal cases. They serve as important checkpoints or stages that mark significant progress or development in the case lifecycle. INSZoom provides case managers with the ability to efficiently track and manage case phases using milestones, streamlining their immigration case management and helping them stay organized.

2. Introduction

In this article, we will explore how firms can utilize case steps, milestones, and case phases in INSZoom to track and report on case progress.

Case Steps: Case Steps are the individual actions or tasks required to be taken by stakeholders on a case. Steps are smaller, manageable components that contribute to the overall advancement of the case. Case Steps are configurable, allowing firms to customize the specific actions and tasks required for each case.

Milestones: Milestones represent significant goals in a case process. They are crucial checkpoints or events within a case that will serve as a measure of progress. Milestones are a set of predefined checkpoints that come out of the box. Firms can tag the user-defined case steps to Zoom-defined milestones to facilitate tracking and reporting.

Case Phases: Case Phases are distinct stages that indicate significant progress of a case. Each case typically undergoes a series of phases. Case Phases are Zoom defined and may vary depending on the case process type and case country. 

The relationship between Case Phases and Milestones is pre-defined that comes out of the box, providing a structured framework for managing cases. When all milestones associated with a case phase are complete, the case phase is automatically marked as complete. 

INSZoom Case Phases cover the entire case lifecycle, from Initiation to Decision. Each immigration process has distinct stages for applications filed with authorities, broadly categorized as:

1. Initiation

2. Data Collection

3. Case Preparation

4. In Review

5. Filing

6. RFE (Request for Evidence)

7. Decision

Note: Case Phases may vary depending on the process type and case country. Based on the process type, additional case phases may become available for tracking.

3. Configuring a Step as a Milestone

The firm has the option to configure a case step as a milestone. This configuration is optional but can be beneficial in automating case phase progress based on the completion of case steps associated with milestones.

However, if no milestones are configured against case steps, the progress of case phases must be updated and tracked manually by the firm.

To configure a step as a milestone, follow the below steps:

1. Go to Setup > Knowledge Base > Petition Templates.
2. Select the desired petition.
3. Navigate to 'Reminders/Steps' and click on 'Set Milestones'.
4. Against the case step, select the milestone from the drop-down menu and click 'Save'.

Note: A step in a case/petition can be linked to only one milestone. When the case step is marked as complete, the milestone is considered complete as well.

When setting a case step as a milestone in the Knowledge Base, the related case phase (pre-defined) associated with the milestone is displayed.

4. Milestones and Case Phases

Case Managers can visually track the progress of a case using case phases. As they work on a case and complete case steps, milestones configured against those case steps are marked as complete. When all configured milestones within a phase are completed, the case phase status is automatically marked as complete. 

Case Managers can view case phases and their progress from all case screens. In the case detail view, when a specific phase is selected, a list of all milestones that are part of the selected case phase and configured against case steps by the firm, along with the completion date of each milestone are displayed. If there are no milestones configured to the case steps, this section will be hidden.

Below you’ll find the list of milestones with their predefined generic case phases that come out of the box.

These are a generic set of milestones and related case phases and may vary depending on the process type and case country.

For example,

• Processes such as H-1B, H-2A, and E-3 include case phases such as LCA Certification/TLC. 
• PERM process includes phases for Wage Determination, Recruitment, and Audit.
• I-485 process includes phases for Biometric and Interview.

Configuring Milestones is optional. If configured, they help in automating the case phase progress. If no milestones are configured against case steps, case phases must be tracked and updated manually.

5. Automate Case Phase Tracking with Milestones

Configuring Milestones against case steps helps in automating case phase progress based on the completion of case steps associated with the milestones. When all milestones associated with a case phase are complete, the case phase is automatically marked as complete. This automation simplifies case progress tracking and ensures accurate reporting.

6. Manual Override of Case Progress

In certain situations, case managers may need to manually change the progress of a case phase, even if the associated milestones have not been completed. INSZoom allows case managers to manually override case phase status in the case phase detail view. 

This flexibility ensures that case managers have full control over tracking and reporting on case progress.

If the case manager intends to update case phases, they may click on the Phase, and it redirects to the respective Process Module with an option to update case phases. Each phase has the following fields/ data points that can be updated to track progress:

• External Deadline Date
• Internal Deadline Date
• Phase Completion Date
• Progress (Off-track. On-Track, Not Applicable, Completed).

Note: The auto-update of status is unidirectional, flowing from case steps to milestones and then to case phases. Manual updates to case phases won't automatically update the status of related milestones or case steps.

7. Reporting on Milestones

INSZoom provides the Progression Tracking Milestone report in Reports 3.0. This report enables you to track case progress based on milestone progression for each case and case manager, providing valuable insights into your cases' status.

This report also provides valuable insights on the time taken to achieve milestones, categorized by corporation, case manager, and citizenship. 

8. Reporting on Case Phases

The Case Summary report in Reports 3.0 is a valuable tool for firm users to get an overview of the statistical distribution of cases across different case phases and to identify any potential imbalances or bottlenecks in the process. Each tile represents a specific case phase and displays the corresponding number of cases in that phase.

By clicking on a specific tile representing a case phase, firm users can access a more detailed report that provides comprehensive information about the cases within the selected phase.