Between March and June of last year, USCIS temporarily suspended in-person services at its Application Support Centers (ASCs) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in a backlog of about 280,000 biometrics appointments. USCIS partially reopened in July of last year, but new COVID safety protocols and weather-related closures prevented ASCs from resuming processing at their previous capacity.
Key Updates:
- As of mid-December, about 1.3 million applications were still awaiting rescheduling. As of late December, USCIS was rescheduling about 10,000 appointments a day but had not yet rescheduled all cancelled appointments.
- USCIS schedules biometrics appointments based on benefit type, considering adjudication capacity and processing times. The wait time for appointments will vary geographically, based on capacity and varying demand at individual ASC locations.
- To alleviate the backlog, USCIS Is reusing previously collected biometrics to conduct background and security checks where it is authorized by law to do so (limited circumstances only).
- Applicants that qualify for reuse of biometrics will receive a Form I-797 in the mail stating that USCIS will be reusing the applicant’s biometrics and that the applicant need not appear for biometrics.
- USCIS is not accepting walk-ins for biometrics without appointments, except for military applicants and their family members.
A copy of the USCIS memo can be found here.
