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.

Use your receipt number and check your USCIS case status online

By Lum Law Group 0

Immigration clients often call in for their immigration case statuses, wondering if an attorney has more insight into their USCIS case processing than they do. The truth is that most of the time when they call us, we check their status online.

Back in the day, we would have to make a note of it, call a 1-800 customer service number, hold for an hour or two, and then call our client back with an update.  Today, we can check our client’s USCIS application or petition status while on the phone with them.

We do this so often, we thought we would create a tutorial for those of you who are unfamiliar with the USCIS online status check:

Try it out and tell us what you think!

Now, if your case is well-beyond the USCIS processing times and it still shows an old status (“pending”), then we would send an inquiry on behalf of our client.  Case inquiries used to have to be done by email (they still can be done by email), but now USCIS has created a form submission website for convenience.  Click here to see how USCIS allows you to inquire online.

Did you find that helpful? Would you like to see more video tutorials? Let us know what you think!