The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review have announced closures and restricted services effective March 18, 2020 to help slow the spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
USCIS: routine in-person services are suspended until at least June 3, 2020. This includes, but is not limited to, interviews and appointments related to processes such as family-based petitions (I-130), adjustment of status applications (I-485), naturalization (N-400), and asylum (I-589). USCIS plans to begin reopening offices on June 4, unless the public closures are extended further.
“USCIS domestic field offices will send notices to applicants and petitioners with scheduled appointments and naturalization ceremonies impacted by this closure. 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 for the interview. When USCIS again resumes normal operations, USCIS will automatically reschedule Application Support Center [biometrics] appointments due to the office closure. You will receive a new appointment letter in the mail,” as published on the USCIS website.
The agency will continue, however, to process new petitions, applications and correspondence while services that do not involve in-person contact with the public remain operational. Emergency services will be provided for limited situations.
In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, we have temporarily suspended in-person services at all of our offices. Our field offices, asylum offices & application support centers will remain temporarily closed until on or after June 4. https://t.co/f3nrbkGBal pic.twitter.com/aMJ4ActWr7
— USCIS (@USCIS) April 24, 2020
DOJ EOIR (Immigration Courts): On April 21, 2020, the EOIR announced postponement of hearings in the cases of non-detained individuals through May 15. The status of each local court may be checked online. The EOIR has also tweeted a notice that “The case info hotline [1-800-898-7180] and online application may not be updated for cases postponed due to operational changes during the pandemic. Information will be updated upon issuance of a new hearing notice. Court documents remain the official source of info.”
Hearings in non-detained cases are postponed through May 15, 2020.
— DOJ EOIR (@DOJ_EOIR) April 21, 2020
Last updated on April 24, 2020.