What does it mean when USCIS says that your case
is ready to be scheduled for an interview?
And why haven't you gotten your interview yet if that is the case?
When you apply for a green card, the most important step is usually
the interview itself, which is where you'll have a chance
to show that you are eligible to receive a green card and that there are
no obstacles in your path to becoming a permanent resident of the United States.
So when you see that your case is ready
to be scheduled for an interview, exactly what does it mean?
And how long will it take for you to have your interview?
And does it mean that your case is going forward?
My name is Moumita Rahman and I am an immigration attorney.
I have been practicing for 13 years.
We are based in New York City, but we serve immigration clients
all over the United States.
He would like my help on your case.
You can give us a call at 212-248-7907.
So if you are religiously checking your status online
because there is literally almost no other way to get information about what
is happening on your case, you might be really, really happy to see
your case status say that your case is “ready
to be scheduled for an interview.” But exactly what does this mean?
And how long will it still take?
As you've heard me tell you so many times, how long your case takes
will largely depends on where in the United States you are located.
Normally, your case has to be routed to your local field office.
And local field offices are located throughout the country,
and you can actually find out which one your local field office
is by going to the same USCIS.GOV website,
put in your zip code, and it will pull up the field office
that you are assigned to, and I'll include a link to that below.
Let's go back to what it means when your status update
says “ready to be scheduled for an interview.” This is where
you need to understand how busy your local field office is.
The busier a field office is, the longer
the line of people that needs to be scheduled for an interview.
And field offices will basically schedule interviews on a first come, first
serve basis.
So the cases that have been ready to be scheduled for an interview
before you are the ones that will get the interview scheduled first.
It is not uncommon for people to see that their case
has been ready to be scheduled for an interview for months on end.
In fact, I just looked at a client's case and I realized that it said
that their case has been ready to be scheduled for an interview
for almost the past one year.
Yes, I know that it is so frustrating to hear that even
though it says that your case is ready to be scheduled for an interview,
you're not going to necessarily get your interview scheduled right away.
But here's another factor that might affect
how long you are going to wait for your interview to be scheduled.
And this has to do with the type of case that you are applying for.
Lately, here is the type of case that is receiving the number one priority
for interview scheduling.
And those are cases for citizenship.
That's right.
If you are applying for citizenship, you can expect to receive your interview
faster than somebody might receive it if they are waiting for a green card.
The second type of case
that I am seeing get prioritized for an interview are green card cases.
So if you are applying for a green card
based on being the spouse or the parent of a U.S.
citizen or you're the child of a green card
holder, you may see that your case is getting prioritized
for an interview a little bit more quickly than other people.
Keep in mind, though, that USCIS is waiving a lot of interviews
and I’ll go into that
after I discuss the third type of interview that they are prioritizing.
So here is where I am always seeing, for the past several years,
these clients get stuck in the line for an interview,
and it is for the clients who have filed for an i751.
It has not been uncommon for me to see my clients wait a year
and a half to two years for an interview in this category of case.
So if you have filed for your conditional green card to have its conditions removed
and you end up receiving this notification that your interview is ready
to be scheduled, I would brace yourself for a very long wait time.
Here's another piece of good news.
Just because your case says that it's ready to be scheduled for
an interview does not 100% rule out the fact
that you might still get waived for your interview.
So now that you see that your case is being ready
to be processed for an interview, one thing that really means is that it's
literally your file has been sent from the service center
to your local field office.
And I believe that as soon as the field office gets that application,
your status will automatically say
that it's ready to be scheduled for an interview.
But that does not necessarily always mean that the field office
itself will exercise its right to give you an interview.
If you've seen the news, immigration field offices have been deciding
to waive many, many interviews and to date at my office
the majority of our green card applications have been waived
for interviews and we've simply gotten a request to submit a medical exam.
That's how we know that that client's interview is not going to be scheduled
and instead they will receive a green card in the mail.
So even if you see that your status says
that it's ready to be scheduled for an interview, you don't lose hope.
There is still a chance that you might get waived,
but you still have to wait some time because literally immigration
is just working through its line of cases.
There might be at least a thousand cases in front of you at your field office
that is just waiting to be worked on by the immigration officer.
So patience is the name of the game.
So just remember, the scheduling of your interview will depend on a variety
of factors, including the workload of the field office
to which are assigned, whether they decide to waive your interview
or not, and last, what category of application your case is.
If you want my help navigating your immigration process,
make an appointment and call us at 212-248-7907
to see if we are able to give you a case evaluation.
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