USCIS reopened the San Francisco Field Office today and provided the following updates during a Stakeholder Meeting this morning:
-USCIS is reopening InfoPass appointments for emergency services only
-USCIS will focus on getting through the N-400 Oath Ceremony backlog for naturalization oath ceremonies that were canceled due to the shelter in place ordinance. These will tentatively start June 16 or 17 and notices will start going out tomorrow. There will be 25-30 people at a time and will last 30 minutes beginning to end. The actual oath ceremony itself will be about 10 minutes long, and the additional time is for checking people in, etc.
-There is no timeline yet for family-based adjustment of status interviews.
-Employment-based adjustment of status interviews will not be scheduled anymore.
-25% of the officer corps will be coming in to conduct interviews and appointments will be scheduled in one-hour blocks to allow time in between. Offices will be rotated so that the same office will not be used all day for services.
-Interviews will be conducted with plexiglass between the interviewing officer and attorney and client. There is not yet a protocol for the attorney and client sitting together on the other side of the plexiglass.
-All people entering USCIS will be required to wear face masks. Children over two will be required to wear face masks. Face coverings are OK for small children, as long as the nose and mouth are covered.
-There will be limited elevator capacity, and there will be spacing arrows on the floor.
-USCIS is working on self-check in upon arrival to the waiting room.
-AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) attorneys are requesting to be able to conduct video interviews.
There will be more developments and updates from USCIS as reopening progresses.
By Grace Alano. Grace Alano is an immigration attorney at Alano Immigration in San Francisco, CA. Find Grace Alano on Facebook.