1. The first place to check is on any receipt notice you may have received from CIS. On that form there may be an estimated time of how long it will take to process the type of paperwork you filed. You should usually wait until that estimated time has passed before inquiring further. CIS officials and my office cannot check on any paperwork that is still within the normal processing time. If, however, you have a life or death emergency during this time that involves your CIS paperwork, please contact my office as soon as possible to see if I can help.
2. You may call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283 for assistance with immigration questions. However, the representatives cannot provide the status of your case over the phone, so they will mail specific case information to you within 30 days.
3. If the normal processing time has passed, you may want to visit the local CIS office located at 300 North Los Angeles Street, Room 1001. They do not have a public telephone number, but you can request an appointment, called an Infopass appointment, through their online appointment system at http://infopass.uscis.gov/ . Their office hours are: 7:30am to 2pm, Monday through Friday.
4. If you cannot visit the CIS office or if you need more help after you talk to officials there, feel free to contact my Los Angeles office. My aide that works with CIS matters may be able to lead you in the right direction. Also, if you have an emergency that is affected by your CIS paperwork, do not hesitate to call.
Because of federal privacy laws, I will need your written permission to help you with your INS paperwork. To speed up this process, you may want to print out my Authorization Form and fax it to my office.
Representative Henry A. Waxman 30th District of California
