Over the past 18 months, there has been a general increase in the processing times by the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services. The most recent national average data comes from the previous US Government fiscal year, which ran from October 2017 through September 30th of 2018. This data, released as of September 2018, shows that the USCIS processing time for many forms has increased noticeable over the past 18 months.

These delays cannot be narrowed down based on the type of case, because the data only shows processing times of the different types of forms. Immigration forms can be processed for different types of cases. For example, the form I-129 could be used for a fiancé visa or an employment-based visa. The aggregate data collected by USCIS only shows the increase in processing times for each type of form. Right now, the processing times for immigrant visas – both parent-based petitions and spousal petitions – have increased by almost 18 months, and it is expected for that increase to continue.

Additionally, there has been increase in processing time at consulates. Depending on the consulates in many different countries, we are seeing an increase in petitions and a growing backlog, particularly for countries located in the Middle East. There is no data to show why the delays have occurred, but immigration practitioners have seen a general increase in consular processing time ranging from 12 to 18 months.

Delays are affecting all types of immigration cases. For example, the average processing time for immigrant petitions for an employer has increased by 6 months. If you’re applying for a green card for a relative, such as a parent, spouse, or a child under 21, we’ve seen the processing time increase by almost 8 months. So on average, we’re seeing about 9 months added to the overall processing time.

To put these delays in perspective, consider fiancé petitions. Fiancé petitions used to take about 4 months or so to be approved in the United States. Once approved, these applications were processed at the various consulates. This process took, on average, about 6 months from beginning to end, when you got the fiancé visa. Now we’re seeing it takes an average of 8 to 10 months for the fiancé petitions, and spousal petitions are taking about a year to a year and a half to complete.

Sometimes, clients ask questions about whether they should do a fiancé petition for someone filing abroad or should they file a spousal petition, given the delays in processing. Immigration practitioners are noticing processing delays at many of the consulates, particularly with cases involving people from Afghanistan or Pakistan or other Middle East countries. Despite the fact that no information or documentation is missing, the processing delays are making it take longer to get an answer or to get a visa after the interviews of the alien relatives. However, you can avoid the timing delays and unpredictability by filing a spousal petition and getting married in the home country, instead of filing a fiancé visa.

One other area where we have seen a significant increase in processing times is in citizenship naturalization applications. In the last 18 months, there were nearly 730,000 pending citizenship applications at the end of last year. That constitutes more than an 80 percent increase since 2015.

Currently, the backlog is almost 18 months by the time the citizenship application has been filed to get an interview. It used to take about 6 to 8 months from the time of filing to get an interview, whereas now we’re seeing an average of 12 to 14 months just to get an interview. So, there’s been a significant increase in the waiting period, due to the tremendous number of people applying for citizenship for fear of changes in the future.

The key component to keep in mind with all of these increases — whether it’s a consular processing, filing a petition of adjustment of status for a family member in the US, or applying for citizenship —the data shows that the increases have been significant and that they will only get worse with time. So it’s very, very important to work with an attorney to make sure that the documentations are prepared correctly and completely.

One other thing to keep in mind: on September 11 of this year, there was a memo passed out by USCIS that impacts documentation. The memo stated that, if there’s something missing or something done incorrectly when filing a petition, USCIS will no longer be issuing “Requests for Evidence” or “Requests for Information”. Instead, they will outright deny the petition. The consequences of such a denial are severe. When the case is denied, the money spent is completely lost and, in some cases, the applicant will have to have to explain why the first petition was denied.

So, when filing for a petition of any type in the United States or abroad, it is very crucial that you have an attorney prepare the documentation and possibility represent you. Experienced and licensed immigration attorneys practicing in the United States will help prevent making costly mistakes. When selecting an attorney, be sure to ask the attorney questions about their background and experience with the type of cases they’ve handled. This is especially important if you are doing cases abroad. Ask the attorney if they have experience with that particular consulate. Each consulate has its own nuances and information; if an attorney has not done worked there before, they might not be experienced enough to handle those cases.

Finally, if you are thinking about applying for citizenship, then right now is the best time. As it has been indicated, the processing times are expected to increase; so if you are interested, filing now could potentially avoid further delays and changes in the law.