I want to give you an update about delayed receipt notices and biometrics notices. We know we’ve been getting a lot of questions about this and so, we wanted to provide you all with some clarity about what’s going on.

What’s going on with receipt notices and biometrics notices?

Like I said, we’ve had a lot of questions from individuals in our Facebook group and our YouTube channel and from our clients about why they haven’t gotten a receipt notice yet.

Unfortunately, immigration is very behind. They’ve been extra behind this year with Covid but there’s been an even longer delay with receipt notices. To give you a little background for those of you who might just be starting your journey or who have recently filed your application, when you file your application with immigration, you’ll receive a receipt notice and it’ll say “Notice of Action” on the top. It’s essentially a notice from immigration that they’ve received your application.

Depending on what type of application you’re filing, shortly after that, you’ll also receive a biometrics notice, an appointment where you’ll have your fingerprints taken. Typically, the receipt notices used to arrive within about a month. Sometimes we used to receive them in a few weeks but this year especially, it started becoming at least a month and now we’re seeing sometimes, it is taking more than six weeks for certain individuals to get receipt notices.

We’ve also seen the same thing with biometrics notices. They’ve been very delayed with biometrics notices. We used to see those coming within a few months after filing the application and now we’re seeing it’s taking many months for those to come in some instances. Also with the biometrics notices, some individuals might receive a waiver of their biometrics appointment and I don’t want to digress too much into that.

I just want to let you know that, in general, we’re seeing a delay in receipts and biometrics notices. We want to let you know this is becoming a normal phenomenon that there is a delay for people getting their receipt and biometrics notices. Don’t panic if it’s been more than a month and you haven’t received a receipt notice.

We definitely recommend that you send your application with tracking. We do that for all of our clients so that way we can see that immigration has definitely received the application and what you can do if it’s been more than 30 days is call USCIS and confirm that they’ve received the application. Sometimes depending on where they are in the process, they can confirm you’ll be receiving it soon. Sometimes, we’ve been even able to get a receipt number before the receipt notice is mailed.

But basically just know there is a delay right now with receipt notices and biometrics notices. So, don’t panic if you haven’t received yours yet. You can always call USCIS if you haven’t received your receipt notice to check.

I hope that was helpful and provide you with some clarity.

Have a wonderful day.