USCIS Extends Temporary Office Closures Until May 3

Today, USCIS announced that routine face-to-face services will continue to be suspended at all USCIS Field Offices, Asylum Offices and Application Support Centers (ASC) until at least May 3, 2020 to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). On March 17, 2020, USCIS previously announced that such services would be suspended from March 18, 2020 - April 1, 2020.

The suspension of in-person services at USCIS offices includes interviews, naturalization ceremonies and biometric collection appointments. However, USCIS will continue to provide emergency services during this time. Individuals requiring emergency services can contact the USCIS Contact Center.

Although USCIS will not be performing face-to-face services at its offices, USCIS has confirmed that employees in these offices are continuing to perform mission-essential services that do not require face-to-face contact with the public, including application processing.

USCIS field office will send notices to applicants and petitioners with scheduled appointments impacted by the temporary public closure. USCIS will also send notices to naturalization applicants scheduled for naturalization ceremonies. Once normal operations, USCIS will contacts all applicants to reschedule their appointments.

USCIS asylum offices will send interview cancellation notices and automatically reschedule asylum interviews. When the interview is rescheduled, asylum applicants will receive a new interview notice with the new time, date and location of the interview. 

USCIS will also automatically reschedule application support center appointments, including biometrics appointments, due to the temporary office closure. Impacted applicants will receive a new appointment letter in the mail. Individuals who had InfoPass or other appointments at a USCIS field office must reschedule through the USCIS Contact Center once field offices are open to the public again. However, USCIS has announced that it will process Form I-765 Employment Authorization Document renewal applications using biometrics previously collected from applicants, so rescheduling should not be necessary for those applications.

USCIS Service Centers, where the majority of immigration benefit applications and petitions are adjudicated, are not impacted by this announcement.

Questions?

If you have any additional questions about how the USCIS office closures impact you, please contact your Ellis Porter attorney and we will be happy to provide further clarification and assistance.