Sometimes an application or petitioner may want to expedite their cases before the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for various reasons. The reason has to comply with expedite request criteria described below.
Expedite requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and are granted at the discretion of the USCIS Director. In order to get the expedite request approved, an applicant or petitioner has the burden to show that one or more of the expedite criteria have been met. The criteria are as follows:
- Severe financial loss to company or individual;
- Extreme emergent situation;
- Humanitarian situation
- Nonprofit status of requesting organization in furtherance of the cultural and social interests of the United States;
- Department of Defense or National Interest Situation (Note: Request must come from official United States Government entity and state that delay will be detrimental to our Government);
- USCIS error
- Compelling interest of USCIS.
USCIS accepts expedite requests from applicants and/or their representatives of record through the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at the phone number of 1-800-375-5283. You should Indicate that an expedite is being requested and explain how your case qualifies for the expedite criteria accurately and concisely, and request an Inquiry Referral Number to track inquiry.
The NCSC will take a “service request” and forward your expedite request to the office with jurisdiction over the application or petition. You also have the options of a) visiting your local office by scheduling an InfoPass appointment or b) writing a letter to the local office or service center.
Note that discretionary expedite requests for petitions and applications that have Premium Processing Service available will not be considered for expedite processing. The only exception is when the petitioner is a not-for-profit organization designated by the Internal Revenue Service.
