Are you wondering why provisional waivers are currently taking three to four years for immigration to make a decision?

Wait times have increased by 600% since the provisional waiver program or application was released which was in 2013. It used to take only six to eight months to get a decision and now, we’re looking at three to four years.

We’ve had a lot of people asking about this wanting to know why it’s taking so long. The provisional waiver is an option that’s available to individuals who’ve been in the United States without documents for more than six months or in some cases, more than 10 years.

Immigration has a whole list of problems that a person can have in their immigration history and you can overcome those problems in some situations by applying for a waiver. That’s what the provisional waiver is. It’s one of those waivers to ask for forgiveness.

The provisional waiver process is one part of a three-step process so for individuals who are waiting on that three to four years, that’s just one step. This is a process that’s taking more than five years in total.

Why is it so long?

Immigration wait times across the board are increasing and a lot of times, with programs that are new and usually less than 10 years old, it starts out with short wait times and then more and more applications are received.

It’s really going to take all of us working together to make a change in immigration and so there are two things you can consider. The first one, if you’re waiting and you’ve been waiting for a long time, we always encourage individuals to reach out to their congressional representative and let them know how these wait times are impacting you.

The second thing to consider is a mandamus action. It’s something that we’ve done for clients who’ve been waiting for a long time. Basically, it’s a lawsuit against the government to get them to do their job and to make a decision on your case.