USCIS (the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) processes all the immigration-related applications including the I-765; Application for Employment Authorization for OPT/ STEM OPT students. OPT or STEM OPT students might want to reach out to USCIS if they have questions or concerns about their applications. How can petitioners or applicants reach USCIS? What will be the best ways?
Related blog post: How to file Form I-765 online for OPT, STEM OPT
There are several times that I tried to call USCIS but I had an impression that it is almost impossible to get a hold of a real person representative of USCIS. Thankfully, I was given instructions to resolve issues for international students as a DSO and real cases can be found in the OPT Forum. Having said that, students do not have these resources to resolve their issues.
Therefore, this blog post will outline the 3 best ways to reach USCIS based on the official USCIS newsletter that was sent out on May 23, 2022, titled How To Best Communicate With USCIS Right Now. If you are looking for ways to reach USCIS for your petitions/applications, this blog post will be helpful for you.
Contents
Online Tools
USCIS starts off by saying to make sure to review what is already out there. You may think you already know that you can go to the official USCIS website but not many students take advantage of USCIS’s dedicated pages for each form including Form I-765. It has the most accurate information about the form as well as the frequently asked questions sections.
This is why I direct OPT and STEM OPT applicants to the USCIS website to confirm the filing fee and filing address regardless of where I work- at my office and here on the SEVIS SAVVY website. In the same perspective, I always include the original immigration regulations so students know what’s the basis of the information or statement I say on this website. Please remember that it’s always a good practice to look at the original source of the information.
USCIS provides not only general information about the forms but also online tools that petitioners/applicants can complete to request services online. For example, case inquiry forms include…
- Case outside normal processing time: Check out the related blog post below to learn what to do if you encounter delays in the EAD processing.
- Did not receive notice by mail
- Did not receive card by mail
- Did not receive document by mail
Related blog post: I haven’t received my EAD; OPT EAD processing time
Service Request forms are including…
- Appointment Accommodations
- Typographic Error: Check out the related blog post below to learn what to do if your EAD card has errors.
Related blog post: What to do when your EAD card says the wrong OPT start date
If you have inquiries other than the aforementioned issues, check out the USCIS Contact Center webpage which well outlined all the resources that USCIS provides. If you have case-specific inquiries that you cannot find answers to from the general information page, you can also reach out to Emma, USCIS’ online virtual assistant.
Ask Emma
Emma may give you general answers at first but a good thing about reaching out to USCIS through Emma is that Emma can connect you to a live representative if the case inquiry is complicated enough. It is worth noting that Emma will not connect you to a live representative only because you ask her to do so:
Please note Emma will not connect you to a live representative just because you state that you want to speak with someone. You must establish a need to speak with a representative; that is determined by the information you seek.
How to best communicate with USCIS right now
The best practice is to be specific about your needs to the point that Emma decides that it is out of her range to answer your questions and connect you to a live assistant. Personally, I believe chatting with Emma is the best way to seek answers to your inquiries unless you find information on the USCIS official web pages. I had students who were able to be connected to real humans through Emma regarding their online STEM OPT applications. To learn more about this real case, be a SAVVY member today and check out the OPT forum.
If you are desperately looking for answers to your specific case, you may wonder how many chats will be forwarded to real humans from Emma. According to the USCIS, “twelve million people asked Emma questions” and the USCIS Contact Center “conducted 852,000 live chats.”
USCIS Contact Center
Last but not least, USCIS petitioners or applicants can call the USCIS contact center to bring inquiries. From my personal experience though, it was very difficult to get answers via phone calls because USCIS has an interactive voice response (IVR) system that is designed to answer general questions.
Just like Emma, USCIS virtual assistant, the IVR system will connect you to real representatives if it seems necessary. That being said, to me, it was tougher to get through compared to Emma. Another downside of calling the USCIS Contact Center is that you cannot save the communication. When you are seeking answers, you would like to have evidence so you can ensure the matter you brought up is taken care of.
From that vantage point, you can screenshot the chat if you are communicating with Emma or real USCIS representatives. However, if you are calling them, you cannot obtain any written statement or screenshots.
USCIS stated that “in the fiscal year 2021, the USCIS Contact Center received 14.6 million calls” which is a large volume of the calls. Depending on the call volume, you may have to experience a longer waiting time or they might ask you to leave the phone number and they will call you back. If you were told to leave the phone number so USCIS can call you back, check out their call back policies:
If the IVR determines you need to speak with a live representative, it may connect you immediately or you may have to wait, depending on the time of day, the call volume, and the availability of USCIS representatives.
How to best communicate with USCIS right now
…If USCIS schedules a callback, it will text and/or email you one to two days before the call. Check your email and text messages for these notices as it will help you prepare for your callback. Once the text and/or email is received, we suggest adding this number to your cell phone so you recognize the incoming call is from USCIS. If you don’t pick up the first call, USCIS will call one more time. Please note that USCIS connects with 88%-90% of people during the first callback.
This blog post had a look at the 3 best ways to reach USCIS. If you are experiencing a hard time being connected to USCIS, check out the OPT forum. All other OPT and STEM OPT case studies can be found on the OPT and STEM OPT pages respectively. Don’t be ignorant and be savvy just like you are reading this post. It is your education, your right to know!
