Why is uscis taking so long

Processing times are defined as the number of months it took for an application, petition, or request to be processed from receipt to completion in a given time period. Visa regressed Is and revoked petitions or applications are excluded. The number of months presented is the median. Historical processing times are not comparable to the processing times posted on the USCIS processing times webpage for certain form types due to different methodologies for example, cycle time methodology versus processing time methodology.

For more information, visit the Case Processing Times webpage. The new policy enables USCIS to review petitions more efficiently, and provide the benefits of employment authorization and deferred action to more petitioners in a shorter time period than the waiting list process. As with the waiting list, petitions will generally be adjudicated under the BFD process in the order they were received. Five years ago, an average case was taking about five months to process.

By Fiscal Year FY , that same applicant waited nearly 10 months. You and other people applying for family-based benefits, employment-based benefits, naturalization, travel documents, and employment authorization are all experiencing delays. In FY, a staggering 94 percent of all immigration petitions and application form types took longer to process when compared to FY Many factors can slow down your case.

Ready to start? Learn more , or get started today! The spike in recent years is largely due to a naturalization application backlog. In addition, a recent report from Boundless found that the postponement of naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies due to the coronavirus pandemic led to a surge in wait times. To handle the enormous volume of applications it receives, USCIS is supported by field offices across the United States, and each applicant is assigned to a field office based on their ZIP code.

Every field office receives a different number of applications, directly impacting its processing speed compared with other offices. USCIS then publishes the processing wait times for each field office and updates the figures once every month. This will bring up the relevant field office. In the first dropdown box select your type of application, and in the second dropdown box select the field office or service center that is handling the application. You will see the processing times presented as a range between two numbers.

For example, the processing time range for naturalization applications Form N at the Seattle, WA field office was Using these two numbers, you will be able to see a range that the majority of cases are falling into during that specific period of time — remember, these numbers are updated weekly.

Boundless turns all the government requirements into simple questions you can answer online — typically in under a couple of hours. We make it easy to complete your naturalization application. As always, there will be a wait time as processing gets underway. First, check the processing times for the office or service center handling your application using the USCIS processing time tool.