How to Reach a Live Agent with USCIS?

How the USCIS Customer Service Works

It’s important to note before you call that USCIS customer service works on a two-tier model.

1. Customer Service Representatives (Tier 1)
2. Immigration Service Officers (Tier 2)

When you make the call with the above number and after navigating your way through their interactive service bot, you’ll be placed in a call with a Customer Service Representative first. They can help you out with most basic queries or provide help with technical difficulties, so if you are having problems filling out a form or two online, they’ll be the ones most helpful to you. However, Customer Service Representatives cannot answer any specific queries about your case or provide legal help.

If the Customer Service Representative couldn’t help you with your problem, they’ll forward the case to an Immigration Service Officer. They can review USCIS cases and can answer much more specific questions about your case.

They are still not capable of issuing duplicate documents, reviewing an RFE, or providing legal advice. For these, both Customer Service Representatives and Immigration Service Officers will create a service request to forward to the relevant service centers. You can also consider calling your local service center. You can find them here: Find A USCIS Office | USCIS

The Automated Service System

Now that you are aware what kind of live person may be waiting at the end of the phone line, you should learn more about their automated service system. USCIS receives millions of calls every year and thus cannot personally take calls from every person. Therefore they have put in place an automated service system–basically a piece of software trying to provide as much help as possible without involving a live agent. Before, there used to be a long and complicated series of menus that you had to navigate through. Now, the automated system simply listens for your requests in either English or Spanish and tries to answer them as best as possible.

When you make the call, the bot will answer first, ask if you want the Spanish option, and then give you the latest immigration news. Afterwards, it will claim that it is capable of understanding complete sentences, and ask you for what you want. The bot will only answer questions once it has finished explaining this, so please be patient!

If you want to report a change of address, get the latest immigration news, find a doctor to conduct a medical examination or find the nearest service center, the bot will be more than sufficient to answer your queries regarding those. If you want to speak to a live agent, simply say that you wish to speak to a customer service representative or a live agent, and the bot will transfer your calls to them after asking for the reason why you’ve called.

Why would I call USCIS?

USCIS Customer support can help you with a wide variety of issues, but these are some common reasons why USCIS Customer Service is called. You can check if one applies to you.

• Questions about visas
• Questions about citizen application processes
• Requests regarding visa status updates
• Requests regarding citizenship applications
• Scheduling or managing in-person interview appointments
• Technical support with the USCIS website

Things to Check Before you Call

To make sure that you are fully prepared for the call, USCIS encourages all callers to check several things before you make the phone call

• Check your case status
• Check if any processing time has already been applied to your case
• Check if your priority date is current.

In addition, you’ll have quite a wait time before you are placed in a call with a customer service agent, so you should be fully prepared for your call. Here are some of our suggestions.

• Make sure you have pen and paper ready to take down important information, such as the name of the replying customer service agent, date and time of your call, and any reference numbers provided by the agent during the course of your call
• Gather at hand any important information you might need during the call, such as alien registration numbers and your receipt numbers
• Block out enough time in your schedule to have a conversation with the agent.

What can and can’t USCIS do for you over the phone?

Depending on your goals, USCIS may or may not be able to provide you the assistance you need. Here, we will list some things that USCIS can resolve over phone, and some things that USCIS will not be able to provide assistance for.

What can USCIS do?

1. Provide basic information
2. Provide assistance with filling out forms
3. Escalate issue to an immigration officer
4. Help with any technical issues

What can’t USCIS do?

Regardless of who you contact, be it customer service representative or an immigration officer, USCIS cannot:

1. Provide legal advice
2. Schedule appointment with local field offices
3. Redirect your calls to a field office

When should you call USCIS?

USCIS customer service center does not operate 24/7. Their business hours are from 8AM to 8PM, Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday. You will not be able to contact a live agent during the weekends, although their interactive bot will always be available for call. For basic queries, the bot will help you even during weekends.