USCIS will also put your derivatives on the waitlist and give them deferred action and a work permit if USCIS thinks it is likely to approve your derivatives’ applications. If they think that they are likely to approve your U visa application but they have run out of visas to give out in the current year, they will put you on a waitlist and give you a work permit and deferred action for four years, which you can renew until a U visa is available for you.
#U visa processing time full#
If after doing a basic review of your application, USCIS decides not to give you a work permit through the bona fide determination, they will do a full review of your application.
![u visa processing time u visa processing time](https://www.visaplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/man-entrepreneur-wearing-medical-mask-sitting-in-f-NX3EHET-768x512.jpg)
![u visa processing time u visa processing time](http://eb5affiliatenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Untitled-3-2048x760.jpg)
3 It’s important to understand, however, that either process will take years from the day you submit your U visa application.įor the bona fide determination, USCIS does a basic review of your application to see if the Form I-918 (U visa application form) and Form I-918 Supplement B (law enforcement certification) were complete and properly filed. There are two ways to get a work permit and deferred action: (1) through a bona fide determination 2 or (2) through the waitlist. Having deferred action also means that the government thinks you are a low priority for deportation, so it is less likely that you will be deported while you wait for your U visa.
![u visa processing time u visa processing time](https://ebookgraphy.com/images/u-visa-application-process-time.jpg)
Deferred action is not an immigration status, but it allows USCIS to give you a work permit so you can work legally while you wait for a decision on your U visa. One reason it takes so long is that Congress limited the number of U visas the government can give out to 10,000 per year, 1 but far more than 10,000 people apply for U visas each year, so the line of applications waiting to get reviewed gets longer and longer every year.īecause it is taking so long for the government to review U visa applications, USCIS may give you a work permit and deferred action while you wait for a final decision. However, any application filed now would likely take much longer than five years to be reviewed because thousands more applications have been filed since 2016 and are already ahead of you in line waiting to be reviewed. As of June 2021, the USCIS website reported that they were reviewing applications that were filed in 2016, five years before. It will likely take years to get your U visa from the day that you apply for it.