In this guide, you will learn the best tips to speed up your immigration case with USCIS, with guided examples, and the best part is that there are no fees involved.
So if you’re currently dealing with delays with USCIS, make sure to read this guide through to the end, as this guide will be of tremendous value to you. Tips to speed up your immigration case with USCIS.
USCIS case tracking
You’ve done an excellent job of submitting a completed application to USCS or responded timely to any request for evidence you may have received, and yet your case status is still stuck.
You’re constantly checking the USCIS case tracking tool every day or multiple times a day, hoping to see an update, and you are anxiously reading forms to find out if others are experiencing delays similar to yours.
You keep calling the USCIS customer service only to get a generic response. After waiting for an hour, you’re left in desperate thinking you just have to keep waiting for USCIS to get it together.
Well, this guide will give you in details the most effective things you can do to get USCIS to take action on your case. Most of these are rarely talked about.
How to Speed Up Your Immigration Case with USCIS For Free
Below are best tips to speed up your immigration case with USCIS:
The very first thing to do is to make sure that you’ve checked the current processing time of the USCIS Service Center where you filed your petition.
To get more detail about that, Check this previous post titled “4 Best Ways to Track Your Case Status with USCIS”
So once you have determined that your case falls outside the current processing time of the USCIS Service Center, the first thing you want to do is to submit an online inquiry to USCIS.
- USCIS Case Inquiry
On the homepage of the USCIS website (i.e USCIS.Gov), Click on “Tools”; on the topics, click on “USCIS Tools and Resources”; on the “self-service Tools”, click on “e-Request” and on the case inquiry, click on “Case Outside Normal Processing Time.”
Case Information Section
For example, let’s say you file the form I-765 to USCIS as a qualified F1 academic student, and as you scroll to the bottom of this page, on the form number, you’re going to select “I-765” and your “form subtype” will be a “qualified F1 academic student.”
Here you’re going to type in your “receipt number” as contained on your form I-797C and also type in the “Date your case was filed with USCIS.”
Applicant or petition information section
In the applicant or petition information section, you just type in your “First Name”, your “Last Name” and your “Date of Birth”. And if you happen to have an “alien registration number”, type that into this section as well.
Mailing Address
Fill up your mailing address in the box provided.
Last action taken on your case Section
For example, if you receive the request for evidence from USCIS, make that comment in this section. Fill up your email address.
Filed By
If you file this petition by yourself, then you want to select “Applicant or petitioner” for this section.
And when you’re done, click Submit.
What’s most effective about sending an online inquiry to USCIS is that you get more detailed description on the status of the case, compared to what you can find on the USCIS Case Tracking tool.
Once you’ve submitted an online inquiry to USCIS, you should expect to receive an email describing in detail the current status of your case. That email might also contain the next steps to be taken by USCIS towards processing your case.
- Expedite Request
The next thing you can do is to submit an expedited request to USCIS, and here’s exactly how to do that;
From the home page of the USCIS website at USCIS.Gov, click on “Forms” and on this webpage, on the left hand side, on the forms section, Select “Filing Guidance”.
On the Filing guidance section, click on “Expedite request”, and on this webpage you’re going to find detailed instructions on how to make an expedite request with USCIS.
It is critically important to note that whenever you make any claims in your expedite request, you need to be able to back this up with support and proof.
For example, if you make claims about financial hardships, then you might want to provide documentation such as your bank statements or eviction notices to back up those claims.
The next option is to contact the Congressman representing your district. When you hear the word congressman, you might be saying “but I’m not a U.S citizen”, “How am I supposed to contact the congressman?” What you need to understand is that a congressman is there to represent everyone who lives in your district, be that foreign nationals or U.S citizens.
Generally, when you contact the office of your congressman, you’re going to be asking them to help you speed up your case with USCIS. Given that USCIS is a U.S federal agency that falls under the direct oversight of Congress, your Congressman has a lot of leverage to get USCIS to take action on your case.
In many cases, the process of contacting your congressman to help speed up your case with USCIS could be as easy as visiting your congressman’s website. Let’s take a look at some examples of how to do this.
The first thing you will do is to determine the congressman who represents your district.
To do that, visit www.govtrack.us
On the homepage of this website, click on “Legislators” and select “Members of Congress” and on this webpage under “Find your representatives and senators” enter your current address or your zip code, and in this search result you can find a member of Congress representing your district and you simply visit his official website.
On this website, navigate to services and then click on “Help with the federal agency” and on this webpage you can find detailed instructions to follow in order to get help with the federal agency from this office.
In the case of this office, all you have to do is to complete the online authorization form and once you’re done, print the filled form out, then sign it and mail or Fax it to his office.
Using city in California as an example, in the search results you can find a member of Congress representing a district. You will just go to his official website and on this website, navigate to “services” and click on “help with federal agencies” and once again you can see the protocol to follow to get help with the federal agency using this office.
In the case of this office, all you have to do is to complete and sign the consent form and then scan and email the form to the email address located at the top.
These are the most effective ways and best tips to speed up your immigration case with USCIS.
Make sure to share this guide with someone you know who is experiencing delays with USCIS. Thank you for reading.
DISCLAIMER: This guide and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. The information presented in this guide should not be construed to be formal legal advice. If you need legal advice, you may contact a licensed attorney.