Once you submit a Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), you are generally allowed to continue residing in the U.S. while your application is being processed. However, you will still have significant restrictions on your rights compared to what a Green Card holder is allowed to do, and unfortunately, processing delays of months or even years are not uncommon with these petitions.
If you have been waiting an extremely long time for USCIS to finish processing your Legal Permanent Residence petition and have received no updates on your case recently, you should consider speaking with an immigration attorney about potential legal action. With help from our green card attorneys at the Law Office of Lloyd E. Bennett Esq., P.C., it may be possible to file a lawsuit in response to unreasonable delay for Green Cards in Union City.
It is important to understand that processing delays of one year or more are fairly standard for Legal Permanent Residence applications at USCIS offices nationwide. Processing times are available on the USCIS website. It is also worth mentioning that many processing delays for these petitions stem from issues with the petition itself, such as missing documentation or an incorrect or missing form. In those scenarios, a qualified legal professional can help you identify the problem and resolve it as quickly as possible, which hopefully will also resolve the delay.
Sometimes, however, USCIS loses track of applications or otherwise allows one to get stuck at a particular stage of processing, which can lead to delays stretching much longer than average. A delay of two years or more for a Green Card application in Union City, with no communication from USCIS, is likely unreasonable enough to justify further legal action.
While your Union City immigration attorney will likely do everything possible to resolve an unreasonable Green Card processing delay by working directly with USCIS first, you may need to formally file suit if that option does not work. Suing over an unreasonable USCIS delay entails filing what is known as a writ of mandamus, which is essentially a request for a court to make a government official fulfill the duties of their office properly.
Under federal law, USCIS is required to resolve immigration cases as quickly as is reasonably possible. A writ of mandamus can help compel them to fix whatever snag in their process has led to your petition taking too long to be processed. If filing the lawsuit on its own does not get USCIS to take action on your application, a court could order your case transferred to a different office or require USCIS to provide a detailed explanation for the delay.
As frustrating as it can be, you should be prepared to wait a fairly long time to hear back from USCIS about a Green Card petition, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is a point where USCIS processing delays drag on long enough to serve as valid grounds for legal action, and if your case has reached that point, we can help you enforce your rights under U.S. federal law.
The Law Office of Lloyd E. Bennett Esq., P.C. is ready to help address an unreasonable delay for Green Cards in Union City as proactively and effectively as possible. Contact us today to learn more.
(201) 330-8883