How to Check your USCIS case Processing Times Online

By Jessica Suotmaa 0

One of the most common questions we receive in the office is “when will my form be processed?” Or when can I expect to be approved? When will I receive ________? While we can give you an estimate based on United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processing times and our experience with other clients, the best way to check processing times is to view the official website.

Before, checking the processing time “table” on the USCIS website was a long and arduous process. Today, USCIS has changed the format of checking processing times, making it easier for the layman to navigate.

Here’s how to check the processing time of a family-based I-130 Petition for Alien Relative:

  1. Go to USCIS: Check Processing Times website:

      2. Select the form you filed. For our example, we’re selecting I-130.

      3. Select the Processing Center. For our example, we’re selecting California Processing Center.

      4. Find the type of form that’s applicable to you.

Select the “Form Type” that applies to you. For our example, we might look at U.S. citizen filing for unmarried son or daughter over 21, and see that the estimated processing time is 23.5 to 30.5 months, so about 2-2.5 years.  If we filed our I-130 petition in January 2010, we can see from the “Case Inquiry Date” that USCIS is currently processing September 10, 2009, which means that we still need to wait before they will process January 2010.

 

We hope this guide has helped you how to check processing times online. If you have any further questions regarding case processing, feel free to contact our office for more assistance.

Attorney with laptop

By Justin Lum 3

Choosing an attorney is a personal decision.  No one can tell you who you should hire. Having said that, here’s a few factors that people often consider when choosing an attorney.

Fame

You can definitely think of at least one “famous” attorney. Maybe you’ve seen his billboard ad. Perhaps you saw his many ads in the newspaper, on top of a Google search, or on a website you were browsing. A famous attorney may even have given an interview on the radio or purchased television ads on your favorite TV station.

You probably feel very comfortable going to a famous attorney because it feels like you already know him. You’ve seen his face, you’ve seen his office, and you’ve heard his voice. He feels familiar.  However, it’s important to note that you’ve only seen the side of him he wants to show you.

Also, most well-known attorneys have several attorneys and paralegals on payroll, and there is no guarantee that he will personally take your case rather than assign you to someone else.  It could be that you never even see his face.

Finally, a famous attorney receives multiple client leads a day and can pick and choose which cases he takes on. He might choose to take a case because it will pay well. Or a case that is “easy”. Or maybe just because he finds it “exciting”. The bottom line is, he might not take your case.

 

Referrals

You might’ve been referred to this page by a friend, family member, or acquaintance. The attorneys at Lum Law Group have primarily relied on referrals over the years as we choose not to market ourselves. Instead, we service our clients with lower fees and better customer service since we rely on your word-of-mouth for our next business.

 

Special Offers

Many law offices will offer a “free consultation” or a reduced cost consultation in an effort to get clients “in the door”.  Although there are perfectly qualified and honest attorneys who advertise such special offers, many will end up over-promising or over-charging.  Many of our clients initially went for these special offers thinking they could save money, but ended up needing to hire us to “fix” the problems that arose.