U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a government agency that legally issues applications for permanent residence and other immigration benefits to people all over the world who tend to migrate to the United States permanently or on a temporary basis. It administers the nation’s legal immigration system. USCIS is a section of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For more details on USCIS, visit our article “What is USCIS?”
USCIS issues several immigration forms in various categories mainly family and employment, of which each form has its own purpose and requirements. Proper filing of those applications will help you to live and work in the United States with authorization. Checkout “USCIS Forms” to know more about the U.S. immigration application forms.
There are a number of processes involved starting from applying for a visa to enter the United States, to your immigration petition being approved by the USCIS. If you have no idea about how to visit the U.S., our article “U.S. Visas” might help you.
The application process for all the USCIS forms is not the same. It depends on who you are, your age, your nationality, your current immigration status, your basic eligibility to petition for an immigration application, the nature of your application and much more.
You need to file for an immigration petition and only after the approval of your petition by the USCIS, you will be able to enjoy the rights granted to you through your petition. Starting from a week it might take months to years for an immigration application to be approved. The time required to process your application and to get it approved is called the “Processing Time” of an immigration application.
Processing times set expectations after you submit applications to USCIS. Accurate and transparent processing times are crucial for you to make personal plans and workforce planning.
The processing time varies for each USCIS application form. Exact processing time for each application is not available whereas an estimated time range for the processing of your application is made available by the USCIS. An automated methodology is being used by the USCIS nowadays to determine the processing time accurately, but still for a few applications, the time differs.
The applications are processed by the USCIS in the order they receive. At times, your petitions are processed sooner and sometimes they get delayed due to the USCIS workload. So the processing times can give you only an approximate estimation of the time required for your application to be approved.
All the immigration applications filed and submitted to the USCIS are processed in several Processing Service centers.
