Overview:
USCIS functions can take months or years to course of, leaving immigrants uncertain of what comes subsequent. This information explains how one can monitor your USCIS case, perceive processing timelines and submit a service request in case your software is delayed.
Submitting an immigration petition with USCIS might be overwhelming — and lengthy. Whether or not you’re making use of for a piece allow, for asylum or one thing else, you’ll have to wait till USCIS offers you a call. There are official instruments that may inform you roughly how lengthy you can be ready.
This information will stroll by means of a basic timeline of a USCIS software with the place to submit a assist request when you’re encountering delays or different widespread processing points.
This data just isn’t an alternative choice to authorized recommendation from a certified legal professional or accredited consultant. The content material was final up to date December 2025.
Discovering your receipt discover from USCIS
After submitting an software to USCS, you’re going to get a kind referred to as an I-797C, Discover of Motion, referred to as a receipt discover. Normally, you’ll obtain this within the mail inside just a few weeks of submission. An instance of the receipt discover beneath:
The receipt discover will embody vital details about the applying you simply filed, together with the shape sort, date of receipt, your receipt quantity and your A-number.
Verify USCIS case processing
When you obtain this discover, you should utilize the USCIS case check case processing tool to verify on the standing of your software and the place within the course of your software is. You’ll must share your receipt quantity, the title of the shape you filed, the date it was filed, an e-mail deal with and your A-Quantity, if relevant.
If you happen to can’t discover your receipt quantity, you’ll be able to name USCIS at 800-375-5283.
After checking on the standing of your particular person software, you’ll be able to then seek the advice of the USCIS case processing times instrument to study extra about how a lot time it’s typically taking the company to course of circumstances like yours. The instrument asks for kind sort and the title of the USCIS processing middle your case was assigned to, all of which might be present in your receipt discover.
When you enter this data within the case processing instrument, you will notice how lengthy it’s taking USCIS to course of circumstances like yours.
You too can try the chart of historic average processing times to see how lengthy sure functions or petitions have taken prior to now for USCIS to finish.
If my case is taking too lengthy, when can I submit a service request?
In case your case has been pending longer than the typical case processing time, you can be requested to enter your receipt date after which click on “get inquiry date” to study when you’ll be able to comply with up in your case. The inquiry date is when you’ll be able to submit an inquiry to USCIS in regards to the delay in your case. An instance of that course of is beneath.
After finishing these steps, you’ll higher perceive the place your specific case falls inside the basic processing instances of USCIS functions.
USCIS has many various choices for submitting an inquiry relying in your concern in case your software is delayed. There are alternatives to:
These instruments are supposed to present data and assist for delays, nonetheless, when you proceed to face points, you’ll be able to search help out of your congress particular person in escalating the inquiry. Here is where you can discover out who represents you. As soon as you discover your consultant, you’ll be able to go to their web site for extra details about how they’ll assist you in following up with USCIS. This page is an example of what the federal assist providers can seem like for somebody who lives in Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s district.