What is the average wait time between filing for Permanent Residence (Green Card) and getting an interview in Massachusetts?

Question

There seems to be a lot of variability in the average time between filing for a Green Card and getting an interview. Checking sites like www.immigrationportal.com, there seems to say between 4 and 6 months, but there are a lot of posts talking about longer processes. Anybody knows a way to obtain this information?

Answer 1

My experience with the green card application process (sample of one, no lawyer, applied in 2011 as a spouse) is that:

• if you come from a country immigration officers are not too worried about (meaning countries they deem to seldom produce terrorists, and countries from which they receive few fraudulent applications),
• your application is complete,
• you are eligible,
• you have a valid affidavit of support
• you have a clean slate when it comes to the law and the immigration process,

those averages appear to be dead on. Of course this depends on how many applications they are currently processing, and who is processing yours. I was scheduled for an interview just about four months after I submitted my application (in California), and they had one additional request for information.

If your application does not fit those criteria mentioned above, it is not average, and those average wait times mean nothing.

I know how stressful the wait can be. They will let you know if something is wrong. Otherwise just sit back and don't think about it too much.

Answer 2

I think the question of processing the documents is probably best answered in: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard/ProcTimes.do The issue sometimes is to know the difference between the processing time of a form and the time it takes to go through the different stages.