Q: Unusually Long I-290B (for I-485) Processing Times? (~1 year 3 months now)
I'm a 23-year old male whose I-485 was denied on the grounds of "not taking action after turning 21" (unsure of specific wording), while the rest of my family was approved for theirs. My lawyer told me there's precedent for my case where others have had their I-485 denied as well, and most of them got their I-290B approved. I filed my I-290B around March, and USCIS received it on 3/29/17. It's been over a year now, and the only thing the USCIS status checker says is "Name was Updated." I put in a service request at the end of March 2018, and I got a generic copy-paste response saying I was under additional review, that my case was with an adjucating officer, and I'd hear back in 60 days. It's been 2 weeks past the 60 days, and I've yet to hear anything back. Is this normal? Is this a sign that there's something wrong with my case? Thank you.
A:
You can have an immigration lawyer file a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus in Federal Court to force the USCIS make a decision in your pending case.
The Federal Judge can not tell the USCIS whether they should approve or deny your case but the Judge can order the USCIS to make a decision on your pending application and to do it quickly.
In fact, it has been our experience over the past 30+ years that just filing a Mandamus action in Federal Court usually prompts the USCIS to grant our request way before the matter even comes before the Judge.
Of course, we only bring Mandamus actions when our client has a good case and in almost all of the actions that we have filed, our clients have received a positive response from the USCIS.
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