To submit a USCIS immigration inquiry, go to the e-Request portal at egov.uscis.gov/e-request, pick the option that matches your problem (a delayed case, a missing card or notice, a typo on an issued document, or an interview accommodation), and fill in the details from your Form I-797C receipt notice. Most submissions take about five minutes. One catch worth knowing before you start: if you’re asking about a processing delay, the system checks whether your case is actually past the published processing window and blocks the inquiry if it isn’t.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. e-Request
Pick the Right Inquiry Type First
The portal splits requests into two groups. Under Case Inquiry, you can check on a case that seems stuck (Check Case Processing), report that a receipt or approval notice never arrived (Did Not Receive Notice by Mail), report a missing green card or EAD (Did Not Receive Card by Mail), or flag any other USCIS-issued document lost in the mail (Did Not Receive Document by Mail). Under Service Request, you can report a USCIS-caused typo on a document (Typographic Error) or ask for a disability or other accommodation at a scheduled interview (Appointment Accommodations).
Each option opens its own form with slightly different required fields, so choose the one that fits your situation before you begin.1U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. e-Request
Confirm Your Case Is Actually Late
For a processing delay inquiry, USCIS won’t let you submit until your case is past its “case inquiry date.” Look yours up on the Case Processing Times page by entering the form number and the office listed on your receipt notice.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Case Processing Times That date is based on the time USCIS takes to complete 93 percent of cases of that type, adjusted for how long your case has been pending.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. More Information About Case Processing Times
Enter your receipt date. If today is past the case inquiry date, the tool gives you a direct link to submit an inquiry. If not, it shows the earliest date you can submit and blocks you until then. For form types with no published processing time, USCIS aims to decide within six months of filing, so wait until that window has passed before submitting.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Check Case Processing
What to Have in Front of You
Almost everything the portal asks for is printed on your Form I-797C, Notice of Action.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C, Notice of Action Pull it out before you start. Across most inquiry types you’ll need:
- Your 13-character receipt number, which begins with a three-letter prefix identifying where your case was filed (IOE, for example, marks an online filing).
- Your A-Number (Alien Registration Number), if you have one. Not every applicant does; the field is marked “if applicable.”
- The date you filed, in MM/DD/YYYY format.
- The form number you filed (I-485, N-400, I-765, and so on) and its sub-type.
- An email address for USCIS to send updates about the inquiry.
Missing-card inquiries add a field for which item didn’t arrive. Typographic error requests ask you to identify the document with the mistake.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Non-Delivery of Card Check every character of the receipt number and A-Number twice. One wrong digit can bounce the submission or attach it to the wrong file.
Filing the Inquiry
For a processing delay, start at the Case Processing Times page, enter your form type, office, and receipt date, and use the link the tool generates if you qualify. Type in your receipt number, A-Number, date filed, form number, and email.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Check Case Processing Read everything on the summary screen carefully. Once you hit submit, there’s no edit option. Save the confirmation the portal shows you; you’ll want it if you later contact the USCIS Contact Center or escalate to the Ombudsman.
Missing Card, Notice, or Document
If a green card or EAD was approved but never came, use “Did Not Receive Card by Mail.” One rule that catches people: wait at least 90 days after the approval notice before reporting the card missing. USCIS won’t process the inquiry before then.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Non-Delivery of Card
Missing notices and other missing documents each have their own option on the same portal, and the required fields are the same. If you never got a receipt notice at all and don’t know your receipt number, the e-Request portal can’t help. Call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Contact Center
Typographic Errors on an Issued Document
If USCIS put wrong information on your document, such as a misspelled name, a wrong birth date, or an incorrect country of birth, submit a Typographic Error service request. You’ll enter your receipt number, A-Number if applicable, filing date, email, and the document containing the error.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. e-Request – Typographic Error
Read USCIS’s guidance on correcting documents before you submit. You will generally need to return the incorrect document with either a statement explaining the error or evidence showing the correct information.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Immigration Documents and How to Correct, Update, or Replace Them If the mistake came from something you submitted (such as a legal name change after filing), that’s a different process and the typographic error inquiry does not apply.
After You Submit
USCIS does not publish a guaranteed response time for e-Request inquiries. Replies come to the email address you entered and might confirm the case is under review, ask for additional evidence, give you a projected decision date, or, for typo requests, tell you how to return the incorrect document.
If weeks go by with no reply, call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. A live agent can pull your case up by receipt number and sometimes push for a status update.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Contact Center You can also monitor general status changes through your myUSCIS account at my.uscis.gov.10U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Checking Your Case Status Online
When to Request Expedited Processing Instead
If normal processing would cause serious harm, an expedite request is a separate track from a standard inquiry. USCIS evaluates expedites against specific criteria:
- Severe financial loss to a company (risk of failure, losing a critical contract, layoffs) or to an individual (job loss because the pending application prevents work or work travel). Simply needing employment authorization is not enough.
- Emergency humanitarian situations, including serious illness, disability, death of a family member, or extreme conditions from a natural disaster or armed conflict.
- Urgent travel abroad for medical treatment or a family emergency. Planned travel for work or academics can also qualify if you filed on time but processing delays mean the document won’t be ready before you leave. Vacation does not qualify.
USCIS will generally deny an expedite if the urgency comes from your own failure to file on time or to respond to a request for evidence.11U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Expedite Requests
Escalating to the CIS Ombudsman
If the e-Request and the Contact Center haven’t fixed the problem, the CIS Ombudsman at the Department of Homeland Security can intervene, but only after two hurdles. You must have contacted USCIS within the last 90 days, and you must have waited at least 60 days after that contact for USCIS to try to resolve the issue.
For a processing delay, the Ombudsman will step in only if the case inquiry date from the processing times tool has already passed and you’ve submitted a case inquiry within the last 90 days. If no processing time is published for your form type, the Ombudsman won’t take up the case until at least six months have passed since filing and you’ve submitted a case inquiry. Requests go through the DHS case assistance page.12Homeland Security. How to Submit a Case Assistance Request
Written Inquiries by Mail
Most inquiries belong in the online portal, but USCIS accepts signed written inquiries by mail in limited situations, mainly humanitarian-related cases or issues the portal doesn’t cover. The correct address depends on the three-letter prefix of your receipt number.13U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Contact Us Send it by a trackable method, and put your receipt number, A-Number, and a clear explanation of the issue on every page.