Coming Changes Could Reduce Green Card and Visa Processing Times
Applying for an immigrant visa to the United States is an all-consuming process. Applicants have to submit paperwork that sometimes spans several years of their lives and make their case in front of immigration officers multiple times. Over the years, the number of applications for immigrant visas has reached record levels. During the Trump administration, we also saw higher denial rates and Requests for Evidence (RFEs) in many categories of immigrant visas. Visa wait times seem to just grow longer.
All of these steps, plus the annual limits in some visa categories, make wait times exceptionally long. During 2020, many applicants for immigrant visas experienced significant delays in their cases due to U.S. immigration offices and embassies’ closures based on COVID-19 protocols.
We know that applying for a U.S. immigrant visa involves “getting in line” with hundreds of thousands of people. But why exactly are visa wait times so long? And what will President Biden do to improve it?
The Immigrant Visa Process, in a Nutshell
An immigrant visa allows you to live and work in the United States permanently. Most people know it as a permanent resident card or “green card.” There are many ways in which a person can become a permanent resident in the United States, but most immigrant visas fall under these categories:
Family-Based Immigrant Visas
Employment-Based Immigrant Visas
Diversity Visas
Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Regardless of the category under which you may qualify, the process involves multiple government agencies, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S. Department of State (if you’re abroad). USCIS manages most of the immigration process. You can see a flowchart of the process here.
The process involves submitting a visa petition with supporting evidence, going through a review process, and completing an interview. For family-based immigration, the sponsor can file the immigrant visa petition (Form I-130) for a beneficiary who is inside the United States (adjustment of status) or outside the U.S. (consular processing). Some applications require an Affidavit of Support (Form I-864), showing that the person petitioning for you, or a qualifying sponsor, will vouch for you financially and step in if you are unable to support yourself while in the U.S. for any reason. That shows the U.S. government that you will not become a “public charge” once you are in the U.S.
RECOMMENDED:Family-Based Immigration in the United States
Interviews may take place in a USCIS field office or a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad, depending on the case. Depending on the situation, the petitioner may have to be present. To facilitate the interview, the applicant should take several supporting documents.
It’s important to understand that the United States receives more immigrant visa applications than any other country in the world. Given that, it’s normal that processing times across the board are high. Most of the time it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your application or USCIS is missing any pieces of information to make a decision in your case.
USCIS updates their estimated processing times each month. To check the processing time for your type of form, go to the USCIS Processing Times website, choose your type of form, and the field office processing your case. You can submit a request about your case when your case is past the date on the highest number of months in the processing times range. At that point, your case is considered “outside of processing times.” Until then, “no news is good news,” most of the time. Processing times don’t explain the ridiculously long waits that some people experience.
The Line Starts Here
Visa wait times are not only dependent on the procedural processing of paperwork as described above. U.S. immigration law limits the number of green cards issued each year in most categories. They use a “priority date” to mark the individual’s place in line.
One of the most important pieces of information in your immigrant visa case is your priority date, which is the date when a visa number will be available for you. As of 2017, there were 3.7 million people waiting for a visa number to become available to them so they can apply for a green card. This is just people waiting to apply while they are outside of the United States. These numbers do not include anyone applying for a green card inside the United States through adjustment of status.
Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, such as spouses, parents, and unmarried children under 21 years old don’t fall under the priority dates. This is because the U.S. immigration system makes it a priority to reunite families. Other family members, such as married children of U.S. citizens over 21 years of age, siblings of U.S. citizens, or spouses and children of permanent residents are subject to priority dates, and have to wait until a visa number is available to them.
Each month, the Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin, which lets you see which priority date is up for your visa category each month.
RECOMMENDED:How to Read the Visa Bulletin
Immigrant Visa Wait Times by Country
We’ve established that visa wait times grow because there is a statutory limit on the number of green cards the government may issue each year. But there’s more. In addition to that, U.S. immigration law says no more than seven percent of all immigrant visas can be given to people of one country in a given year. Applicants from countries that submit a high volume of applications — such as China, India, Mexico, and the Philippines — have the longest waiting times across all categories.
Since 1991, a year after the country quotas were put in place through the Immigration and Nationality Act, visa wait times have grown by four and a half years for Indians and three years and two months, for Mexicans. By 2018, Indians had the longest wait times overall of all countries – eight and a half years, according to statistics compiled by the CATO Institute. The average waiting time for all categories was almost six years.
Wait times become the longest for non-immediate relatives of petitioners. For example, the current wait for Filipino siblings of adult American citizens need to wait an average of 23 years to be eligible for a green card. Children over 21 years of age of U.S. citizens that are either Filipino or Mexican fare better by only a year, as their waiting time for a visa number to be available is 22 years. Family-based visas and employment-based visas based on preference (F and EB visas respectively) command the longest waiting times overall. Family-based visas take more than half of the immigrant visas available on any given year at 62 percent. The CATO Institute points out, as an issue of concern, that “one category — siblings of adult U.S. citizens — accounts for half the entire backlog. There is a significant mismatch between the share of available green cards in each line and the share of applicants in each line.”
Future visa wait times look impossibly grim — in fact, many applicants will die without having the chance to apply for a green card at all. Statistics show that for nationals of some countries, such as Mexican siblings of U.S. citizens may have to wait a whole century in the backlog before being eligible to apply for a green card.
Why Would Your Case be Taking Longer Than Usual
Most of the time, cases are filed properly and it’s just a matter of time to make it through the backlog. However, there are some situations in which your case could be taking longer than usual. Errors and omissions any of the forms will contribute to longer visa wait times. Luckily, most of these are easy to fix:
Your File Is Lost or Misplaced
This is highly unlikely, but certainly not impossible. USCIS utilizes contractors to do the data entry. It’s at this point, that many documents can be shuffled or lost. Before you send your application in, make sure you have copies of everything you sent. If immigration officials lost or misplaced any pieces of your application, you can resubmit documents to your case processing center.
Notices Sent to the Wrong Address
If you change your address at any point during your case processing, make sure you notify USCIS so you don’t miss any notices. Failing to change your address means you could miss important notices, like notices for a biometrics appointment or an in-person interview, which could push your case back or result in a negative decision. If your case is at a stage of processing where offices other than USCIS are processing your case (such as the National Visa Center), you may need to change your address with them as well.
Security Checks
Many applications require a biometrics screening. Immigration officials will collect your fingerprints and use them to run a background check through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). If you have anything on your record, like a previous conviction or arrest, your security check will take longer, while the FBI checks your record with local authorities. The background check may take longer simply to make sure it’s being run for the right person if you have a very common name.
Responding to RFEs with Everything Required
If you receive a Request for Evidence, make sure you go the extra mile and provide as much evidence as possible. Your RFE notice will have specific examples of the kind of evidence they need to see. Submit it in the time specified — RFEs have deadlines, and not responding to them could delay your case or result in a denial.
RECOMMENDED:How to Respond to a USCIS Request for Evidence (RFE) Correctly
The Biden Administration’s Approach
The Biden administration has indicated it intends to address immigration as an immediate priority. Not only do they plan to undo the most controversial measures put in place by the former Trump administration, but anticipate moving aggressively with immigration reform. These are systematic changes to improve immigration.
In fact, Congress is moving on improving the issue of visa wait times before Biden takes office. In December 2020, the Senate passed a bill that, among other things, increases the annual cap for each country on family-based visas from 7 to 15 percent. Most importantly, it eliminates country caps on employment-based visas, which overall relieves the processing times of all visa categories. Senate leadership calls it an important step in ending “nationality discrimination.” The hope is that, by cutting the per-country caps, employment-based visas do become more merit-based and processing times come down.
Biden has already announced plans to provide a path to legal status for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States through an eight-year pathway. These immigrants that are currently out of legal status in the U.S. would be but in a type of probationary status for five years after which they could apply for a green card. After three years as permanent residents, these immigrants could apply for US citizenship. During this “probationary” time, they would need to pass a background check and pay taxes.
As part of the Biden administration’s massive overhaul of the immigration system, Dreamers — those who entered the U.S. as children on unauthorized status – and refugees currently in the U.S. will be allowed to apply for green cards immediately.
The other very significant way in which Biden’s changes can help with wait times is by exempting spouses and children of green card holders from the caps in place previously. Under the current system, an applicant’s spouse and children under 21, which are normally attached to the original application, also counted in the per-country caps and yearly numerical caps. Under the Biden plans, spouses and children are additional and outside the limits of annual green card quotas, thus allowing more families to migrate to the U.S. together as opposed to in batches.
If more people become eligible for green cards, won’t the system get even more backed up?
Not necessarily. The Trump administration focused heavily on enforcement and fraud prevention, which created bottlenecks in case processing by slowing down cases that would be routine approvals through Requests for Evidence and denials that ended up in court. The focus on enforcement also took personnel and resources from immigration processing, which left USCIS facing a backlog they were ill-equipped to handle. The Biden administration hopes to use more technology in immigration enforcement and border security, which would allow others in the Department of Homeland Security to move towards making the immigration system more efficient. Furthermore, if a path to residency is opened for the millions of undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would have less work in their hands as those individuals transition to a regularized status.
Thanks to winning a runoff Senate election in Georgia that gave the Democratic Party effective control of the Senate, it’s more plausible that the Biden administration doesn’t just enact executive action to improve the immigration system, but enacts laws that could result in more permanent change.
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Making sure you submit an error-free application is crucial to a straightforward process and avoiding delays. CitizenPath’s application assistance software guarantees your application will be accepted by USCIS – or you get your money back. We’ve developed our software with immigration lawyers to ensure we account for every possible error, so you can file your application worry-free. Do everything you can to reduce your visa wait times.
Many factors may affect how long it takes USCIS to complete an application, petition or request, such as the number of applications, petitions, or requests we receive, workload and staffing allocations, the time a benefit requestor takes responding to a request for more information, as well as policy and operational ...
It can take USCIS several months to process a green card petition. It can then take 1-2 months for an immigrant visa application to be transferred from USCIS to the NVC, with an additional 2-3 months for NVC to deal with its portion, although timelines can vary by case.
Applicants have to submit paperwork that sometimes spans several years of their lives and make their case in front of immigration officers multiple times. Over the years, the number of applications for immigrant visas has reached record levels.
An NVC backlog is the result of many new cases, and not enough being processed. Each time U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approves a case, such as Form I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative), this increases the backlog.
As cycle times improve, processing times will follow, and applicants and petitioners will receive decisions on their cases more quickly. USCIS will increase capacity, improve technology, and expand staffing to achieve these new goals by the end of FY 2023.
You can generally request expedited processing by calling the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833) or by asking Emma after you have obtained a receipt notice. (You can access Emma by clicking on the Ask Emma icon on the top right of this page).
But the immigration process is highly selective. There are also immigration and country limitations that make the waits longer for immigrants. Some countries wait lists are more than 22 years. "That category could be backlogged decades, because there are so many more people applying than visas available.
If you intend taking up permanent residence in the United States, you are required to wait until the immigrant or fiancé(e) visa is issued. You cannot reside in the U.S. on a tourist visa or visa free under the Visa Waiver Program while waiting the issuance of the visa.
This is when you will need to provide documents and possibly complete a short interview with a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official. There is always a risk that they will not allow you to enter the US due to your pending immigrant visa application.
Many of our embassies and consulates continue to face staffing challenges that began during the pandemic. This means that ongoing visa delays are a worldwide problem, not one specific to India. But very few US missions in the world share the same volume and complexity of visa workload as India.
Immigration to the U.S. isn't exactly quick and easy, but processing times may be improving in 2023! But before we can talk about what changes the agency will go through to speed things up, it's worth understanding how USCIS processing times grew so long over the last few years.
It might be worth contacting your local MP if you've been waiting a long time to hear back from the Home Office. They can find out more about the delay and might be able to help speed up your visa application. Prepare as much information as possible - it'll help your MP track down your application.
ASIDE FROM SHIFTING BORDER POLICY, there's another ongoing problem within the federal agencies that adjudicate immigration proceedings: a growing backlog of more than 11 million cases across the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The most efficient U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office is also stated to be in Cleveland. The USCIS office efficiency is reflected in the highest backlog completion of 71.3%, and the nation's shortest average processing time, which is only four months. Almost nobody waited longer than 12.3 months.
Among all field centers, the fastest one is usually the Nebraska Center, but the wait times change all the time, and it perhaps will not be the fastest one when you make your application.
As I have previously documented, the average of the median processing times across all forms for which DHS-USCIS reports data increased threefold—from less than 4 months in 2012 to over a year in 2022.
Immigration attorneys can help speed up your immigration case in a few different ways. The most obvious is by using their knowledge and experience to make the process go more smoothly and easily.
The national average processing time for naturalization (citizenship) applications is 14.5 months. But that's just the application processing wait time (see “Understanding USCIS Processing Times” below).
Even when there is no per country backlog, the average processing time for a labor certification/visa petition/adjustment of status process is approximately 1½ to 3 years.
Canada is largely considered the easiest country to immigrate to and acquire citizenship status. The country offers excellent education programs and employment opportunities. Indians can get a Permanent Residence Visa through Express Entry or other immigration programs.
It has the toughest immigration policies, and that's one of the reasons for its small population. You can become a citizen of Vatican City only if you are a cardinal living in Vatican City or Rome, Holy See, or if you are a worker in Vatican City for the Catholic Church.
Can I start working while I'm waiting for my green card? If you already have a valid work visa, such as an H-1B or L-1 visa, you can continue working in the United States even while your green card application is being processed.
If a consular officer finds you are not eligible to receive a visa under U.S. law, your visa application will be denied (refused), and you will be provided a reason for the denial. There are many reasons a visa applicant could be found ineligible for a visa.
An immigrant visa number must be immediately available to you, through the Department of State (DOS), even if you are in the United States. Once an immigrant visa number is available to you, you can apply for an Adjustment of Status if you are in the U.S., or you can apply for an Immigrant Visa at a consulate abroad.
Can I Marry A US Citizen on A Tourist Visa? The short answer is: yes, you can get married in the US while on a B-1/B-2 tourist visa or on a visa waiver program. There is nothing in the regulations that say individuals who are in the US as visitors cannot get married.
If you are a U.S. citizen, you may bring your fiancé(e) to the United States to marry and live here, with a nonimmigrant visa for a fiancé(e) (K-1). An I-129F fiancé(e) petition is required.
The US student visa (F-1 visa) is one of the fastest visas to process. In fact, the study permit is often processed directly before your embassy interview.
It's fair to say that the U.S. visa application process is complex and requires specific information. If the applicant does not meet all requirements for the visa they are applying for, or if they failed to provide the consular with all the required information, it can lead to a visa denial.
How Accurate Are USCIS Processing Times 2023? USCIS processing times are quite accurate but are subject to change without prior notice. For example, the USCIS processing times I-130 may be influenced by an error on the petitioner's side or even the USCIS themselves.
Adjudicate more than 32,500 requests for various immigration benefits. Process 3,700 applications to sponsor relatives and future spouses. Analyze nearly 550 tips, leads, cases and detections for potential fraud, public safety and national security concerns.
Premium Processing: The Market- Based Solution to Immigration Backlogs. For some forms, USCIS allows applicants to pay for “premium processing,” which legally requires USCIS to respond to applications quickly, between 15 and 45 days, depending on the type of application.
Once you have received your immigrant visa, you must enter the United States within the visa validity period to obtain an alien registration receipt or “green” card (Form I-151 or I-551) that will allow you to live and work in the United States.
Thankfully, fast visa expediting is available at most foreign consulates for U.S. citizens who plan to travel abroad within a couple of weeks or less. Visa processing times can be rushed in a few days to as rapidly as the same day.
At the end of your immigrant visa interview, the consular officer will inform you whether your visa application is approved or denied. Some visa applications require further administrative processing, which takes additional time after the visa applicant's interview by a consular officer.
Generally speaking, a fair timeframe is approximately 6-10 months from the filing of the immigrant petition to approval at the U.S. Consulate. Timeframes can vary depending on backlogs of cases at both the USCIS and the U.S. Consulate abroad.
Many factors impact processing times, including the number of applications, petitions, or requests we receive, workload allocations, and staffing levels, among other factors. Case-specific factors may also make an individual adjudication more complex, requiring additional adjudicative time.
As of July 2022, there were nearly 1.9 million immigration court cases pending—a tenfold increase from the level in 2008. The backlog has increased by over 1 million cases since 2018, with almost all of it coming from referrals from agencies charging immigrants as removable soon after they cross the border.
If you are a petitioner for an H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker and your Form I-129 has been pending longer than 15 days and you have not received a decision or a Request for Evidence, you may contact USCIS at (1-800) 375-5283 to inquire about your petition.
The national average processing time for naturalization (citizenship) applications is 14.5 months. But that's just the application processing wait time (see “Understanding USCIS Processing Times” below).
In 1917, the U.S. Congress enacted the first widely restrictive immigration law. The uncertainty generated over national security during World War I made it possible for Congress to pass this legislation, and it included several important provisions that paved the way for the 1924 Act.
Right to a prompt, fair trial by jury.Right to vote in elections for public officials.Right to apply for federal employment requiring U.S. citizenship.
The top 3 metro areas with the highest naturalization rate of eligible immigrants are Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The worst 3 metro areas with the lowest naturalization rate are Fresno, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Dallas, Texas.
A: If ICE does not assume custody after 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays), the local law enforcement agency (LEA) is required to release the individual. The LEA may not lawfully hold an individual beyond the 48-hour period.
Premium processing provides expedited processing for Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, and Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker. Premium processing guarantees processing within 15 calendar days, or the premium processing fee will be refunded.
Yes.If there have been unreasonable delays in your case, you may file a complaint against the Immigration Service in the Federal Court, and the Court can force the Immigration Service to make a decision in your case.
This is the fastest way to immigrate. Typically, the process lasts from six to nine months, after which a temporary Green Card is received. Within the next two years, you must contact the USCIS again with proof of the validity of the marriage.
Then, you will be given the civics exams (the history and government exams). Once all of this is finished (the process takes about 20 to 30 minutes), the officer will likely decide then whether to approve you for citizenship status.
Introduction: My name is Pres. Lawanda Wiegand, I am a inquisitive, helpful, glamorous, cheerful, open, clever, innocent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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