Which Office to Check for I-485 and Other Processing Times: Service Center vs. Local Field Office

A reader asks: Taking the Texas Service Center as an example, if a person lives in Dallas, when checking processing times, should they look at the Texas Service Center or the Dallas local office? Currently the two differ quite a bit. The reader previously thought that if the I-485 was submitted to the Texas Service Center, then the Texas Service Center processing time should be checked. But a few days ago, when contacting customer service via live chat, the representative said the local office processing time should be checked. The reader asks for Mr. Yang's view, noting that no specific answer was found on the USCIS website, and wonders if there is an authoritative explanation.

Los Angeles immigration attorney Anish Vashistha previously wrote an article on his law firm's website discussing this issue, titled "Waiting Game: Finding Out How Long USCIS Will Take to Adjudicate a Case." Below is a brief excerpted translation.

Abbreviations for Service Centers

In the lower left corner of your receipt notice, the name of the processing center is usually indicated, with the following abbreviations:

• "WAC" = California Service Center

• "LIN" = Nebraska Service Center

• "SRC" = Texas Service Center

• "EAC" = Vermont Service Center

• "YSC" = Potomac Service Center

• "MSC" = Missouri Service Center = National Benefits Center

Processing speeds vary among service centers. To balance workloads, USCIS sometimes transfers some applications from one service center to another. Whether an application is assigned to a particular center or transferred to another, these are internal USCIS processes, and applicants cannot choose. If your application is transferred from Service Center A to Service Center B, or from Service Center A to a local field office, you should check the processing time for Service Center B or your local field office.

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If the Application Requires an Interview, Select the Field Office

If your application requires an interview, including N-400 naturalization, and I-485 green card applications based on marriage or employment, then regardless of which service center initially processed it, you should check the local field office responsible for the interview. Open the relevant USCIS page, enter your ZIP code in the "Field Office Locator" at the bottom, and you can find the responsible local office.

My ZIP code is 22182, and this is my local field office

• If you are in the family-based immigration category and filed both I-130 and I-485 concurrently, select the processing time for the I-485 plus interview at the local field office.

• If you are in the employment-based immigration category, the I-485 is processed at the field office, while the I-131 and EAD work permit (I-765) are not processed at the field office; when checking processing times, you need to select the corresponding service center.