Update May 4, 2021
Since January of last year, we have seen an uptick in typos and errors on official notices. We’ve caught errors almost every month which suggests the trend will continue. Errors include name misspellings, wrong priority date, wrong DOB, missing A#, and wrong EB category (EB1 instead of EB2). We will create a new post to track these ongoing errors.
It is important to look at notices carefully and initiate service inquiries to fix any errors. Sometimes, they may not issue a corrected notice and instead ask you to ignore it, but future notices will be corrected (see example below).
The good thing is USCIS continues to respond quickly to service inquiries. The example below is for a name typo on the H-1B receipt notice.
Update April 28, 2021
Another example of an expedited response to a service inquiry. A request was made on April 13, 2021 regarding a missing H-1B approval notice that was not received by either our office or our client. USCIS emailed a response the very next day on April 14, 2021 stating that a duplicate has been requested and will be mailed to us. Sure enough, we got the official approval today 04/28/2021.
Original Post March 21, 2021
We have been posting about the on-going delays affecting numerous case types since October 2020.
- USCIS Receipt Delays and Its Impact on Employment Verification
- CIS Ombudsman Provides Case Assistance on Receipt Delays, Biometrics Appointment, EAD delays
- Update on the Receipt Notice Delays
- USCIS Receipt Notice Update: N-400
- USCIS Receipt Notice Update: Final Two I-485 Receipt Notices Received (4 months late)
However, it does seem from our end that things are improving. Notably, USCIS is responding expeditiously (if compared to what was the norm) to many of our service requests including for cases pending beyond the posted timeframe, missing notices and RFEs, and correcting typos and wrong information entered on notices. We note that the average response time during the month of March 2021 is under one week, with the fastest taking just 3 days. These quick responses from USCIS are not just simply a request to wait some more or that they needed more time to investigate. Almost all of our inquiries were resolved and fully answered.
It is therefore important to track case status online and review USCIS notices for discrepancies and typos. If an issue is discovered, take advantage of the faster response time and submit a service inquiry.
