USCIS just made an announcement regarding the process for rescheduling biometrics appointments.

Read: Preparing for Your Biometric Services Appointment

A biometrics appointment is the appointment that you have to attend as part of your immigration application to take your biometric data such as fingerprints and photo. This typically happens most commonly in adjustment of status cases.

In adjustment of status cases, part of that process is that the petitioner or the immigrant has to go in for a biometrics appointment so immigration can take your biometrics information, specifically your fingerprints.

If you had a biometrics appointment and for any reason, you couldn’t attend that appointment, you needed to reschedule it. The process before was that you would get the notice in the mail, which still happens today, that you have a biometrics appointment.

At the bottom, it used to say Request for Rescheduling. When you want to rescheduling your appointment, you would check the box, follow the instructions and send it back in the mail.

USCIS announced that if for any reason, you need to reschedule your biometrics appointment you can call the USCIS contact number now. USCIS makes it very clear on their website and in their instructions that you have to have a good reason for needing to reschedule.

You might have a work obligation or you could be sick. If you have a valid reason that prevents you from attending the appointment, you should definitely call the USCIS contact number and ask to be rescheduled.

It’s great that they’re allowing people to call now because before with snail mail, if you wouldn’t be able to attend and you only gave them a few days notice, mailing it could get a little tricky. It’s nice that you can call now to hasten the process.

When you call, make sure they’ll give you a confirmation number. Remember to note down the confirmation number they’ll give you.

If you don’t attend your biometrics appointment, immigration can consider your application abandoned which means that they don’t think you’re pursuing your case anymore and they could close your file. You would have to start over.