U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating communications processes to provide simple and easy access for individuals to track their case processing wait times. The updates are focused on improving transparency, customer service, and efficiency. Individuals can track when they are able to make an inquire on their case as well.

Processing times are publicly posted to help understand expected wait times for USCIS to process a particular form. Processing time is defined as the number of months that pass between initial application, petition, or request submission and when USCIS issues their decision. The number shown reflects a specific percentage of completed submission for the prior six-month period. As you may imagine, outlier submissions that require additional review will sway the overall completion rate longer than the typical filing. For that reason, USCIS uses a targeted completion percentage to calculate the expected wait time. As such, some cases may be determined sooner or later than the estimated wait time.

Based on the particular case type, individuals can see the expected wait time. Prior, the wait time was shown for an aggregate of all related case types. Other improvements include:

  • Providing drop-down menus for individuals to further narrow their search results based on their particular situation;
  • Giving the user the option to provide their receipt date and receive an immediate response on whether they should contact USCIS with questions, and if so, a link is provided;
  • Providing the user with the 80th percentile processing time to help them estimate their wait time for their submission; and
  • Continuing to revise, streamline, and add content to processing time information shown on the webpage to further improve transparency.

Processing times are meant to provide the user with a reference point. Remember the time shown is not applicable for all cases. As each filing is unique, some will be processed sooner and some later. It solely depends on the facts of each individual case.

USCIS continues to encourage individuals to contact them with feedback. In addition, a national listening session is planned for mid-May 2022. Additional sessions will be planned.

If you have questions about your submission or any other immigration-related issue, contact us at ILBSG. We continue to closely monitor ongoing updates to immigration to ensure our clients get the right advice.

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