Articles Posted in Processing Delays

Under the Biden Administration, the USCIS has announced that it intends to fight the backlog of immigration applications through three new action steps: reducing processing backlogs, expanding premium processing, and improving access to Employment Authorization Documents. Our Chicago Immigration Law Office intends to inform all clients on what to expect with their own applications given the recent updates by the USCIS. Read below to learn more about the USCIS’ efforts to reduce backlog and wait times.

Reducing Backlogs in Processing

The USCIS has redesigned their internal cycle times to reduce the wait-time of immigration application decisions. The new cycle times reflect the average amount of time it takes the USCIS to process and decide on a case. These cycle times offer clear and consistent guidance to USCIS workers on the average time a specific application takes to process from beginning to end. For example, an application for an I-129 application takes on average 2 months to process without the premium processing service. Other applications like the N-400, I-140, or I-130 take an average of 6 months to process from start to finish.  To support the internal cycle times for reducing backlog, USCIS has implemented another feature in their plan by expanding premium processing services to more application types.