USCIS Launches Online Appointment Request

On August 21^st, USCIS announced the launch of a new online form to request in-person appointments at local USCIS field offices without having to call the USCIS contact center.

If you have tried calling the official USCIS Contact Center before with the intention of scheduling an appointment at the local field office, you’ve experienced firsthand the dissonant labyrinth of automated responses and fake typing sound effects that block your way. Ask the computer to speak with a person too often and it would disconnect the call. But if you’ve been lucky enough to somehow fool the Turing machine into connecting you with a live human, your journey wouldn’t be over yet. Instead of scheduling you, you would’ve been set for a call back over potentially a 30-day period. Sometimes, the calls would simply never come and you’d have to start the process all over again.

With the new online appointment request form, individuals can now easily submit a request for an appointment for:

• An ADIT stamp (also known as an I-551 stamp or proof of lawful presence in the U.S.),
• Emergency Advance Parole
• Immigration Judge Grant
• Afghan Special Immigrant CPR Status
• American Indians Born in Canada (Section 289)
• Certified Copies of Naturalization Certificates
• Deferred Action
• T, U, and VAWA Inquiries
• I-94 Cuban Paroles and Re-Paroles
• Lost Immigration Visa Packets
• MyUSCIS Account Locked
• Parole-in-Place
• Request to Locally Receipt Forms
• Verification Referrals
• Service Administrative Errors Certified Copies
• A-Number Request
• Military Request for Appointment
• Special Immigrant Juvenile Age-Outs
• Central American Minors Parole Program

For more details on these appointment types, please see the overview here: https://my.uscis.gov/accounts/appointment_request/start/overview. Please also note, this is a request for an appointment, not an appointment itself. It must first be reviewed by the contact center before the appointment is scheduled.

Hopefully this system de-mystifies field office appointments and allows better access to the agency for those that need it. But for now, we’ll have to wait and see whether it all pans out. If you would like our assistance with scheduling one of these appointments, schedule a consultation with us today.