Department of homeland security national benefits center

What happens when my adjustment of status case reaches the National Benefits Center?

Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer, practicing law throughout the United States out of our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. Today's question comes from Akash. Akash wants to know, "Hey Jim. My case just reached the National Benefits Center. What happens next?" That's a really good question.

So when you file for adjustment of status, if it's unemployment, or if it's based on marriage, eventually your case, when you file it, first it gets sent to the lockbox.

You're going to file that application on the address that the 45 tells you to. Depending on what state you live in, you're going to send it to a different lockbox. When you file it with the USCIS, it's assigned a case number, and then it takes a few weeks for the case to reach the National Benefits Center.

Once it reaches the National Benefits Center, it's going to be under analysis by an immigration employee. They have a big stack of cases and when they get to yours, they're going to open it up and they're going to review what's the basis of the I-485.

They're going to see if there's anything missing. If there's anything missing, one of the main jobs of the National Benefits Center is to send you a request for evidence. So anything that's missing, they're going to do a lot of the processing before the case has to get set for interviews.

So they're trying to narrow the issues to make sure that what happens at the interview is focused and limited to what they actually need to ask. And so they do a lot of the preliminary work at the National Benefits Center.

So they'll send you a request for evidence, hey, or they might send you a checklist, hey, you're going to need a medical. So make sure to bring it to the interview.

Or they might say, hey, you didn't submit enough marital evidence. You need to send in some more. Or they might just flat out dismiss it. Or hey, it looks like you're not legally eligible for this benefit. So they do a lot of the heavy lifting, a lot of the prescreening before it actually gets to the interview.

So right now cases can sit for many months at the National Benefits Center. Things are greatly backlogged. There's frankly not enough resources being put into it by USCIS to process these, and of course, right now that's on purpose.

They're trying to slow down immigration. That makes them happy. So it's a feature, not a bug. And that's just sort of the way it is.

If you have questions about what happens at that point, what I can tell you is you're going to be at the National Benefits Center for a while. Then once they're satisfied, once they have everything, once you've fully responded to the request for evidence, they will then move the case along to the field office for an interview.

At the National Benefits Center, they also will process your applications for advanced parole and for a work card.

So that's what the National Benefits Center does. And then they send it out. So if, let's say you live in Idaho, you're going to be sent to the local field office for your interview. But before then, it's going to spend all that time at the National Benefits Center.

So Akash, I hope that answered your question. If you have questions about how things work at USCIS, or if you need help, give us a call, 314-961-8200.

You can email us at [email protected] Be sure to join us in our Facebook group which is called Immigrant Home. And if you liked this video, we ask that you please subscribe to our YouTube channel and share it out on social. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.

Download Free Guide 2022 Immigrant’s Guide to Becoming a U.S. Citizen

This guide contains all you need to know to become  
a U.S. citizen.

Download Free Guide 2022 Immigrant’s Guide to Becoming a U.S. Citizen

This guide contains all you need to know
to become a U.S. citizen.

DOWNLOAD FREE PDF

What's going on at the National Benefit Center. Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States at our offices in St. Louis, San Diego and Washington DC. Yes, we are in St. Louis. We are right across the state of Missouri or the state of Missouri, as those in the know like to call it.

Across the state of Missouri from the National Benefit Center. That's a USCIS facility that began around 2001. And which is in charge of processing. The applications filed by people for Green Card benefits and for other benefits. They do the initial processing, the organizing.

When you file for a Green Card, you're usually filing it at a lockbox. Depending on where you live, you're filing it at various locations around the country. The National Benefit Center is a huge facility on the Western side of Missouri, where the USCIS employees do the actual processing of your case. Now, we all know that USCIS is desiring or claiming that they're headed towards a paperless office, but I can only imagine the National Benefit Center is this huge warehouse of paper, because I've seen the files in an individual immigration USCIS officer's office. And I've seen how messy and stacked up that is.

In my mind, I'm envisioning that sloth lady from the Zootopia, who's just moving very slowly. And I see these stacks and stacks of files, and I see their eyes glazed over. And maybe they're taking a little nap leaning back in their chair. And then going, "Oh, let's look at this person's Green Card application today. Now, some of it might be digital. Some of it might be online. And perhaps it's a little bit more efficient than that sloth.

But what's going on at the National Benefit Center is not a whole lot. They're not moving very fast. They're not moving cases very quickly. I know of no metrics that they're placed under, no supervision or tracking of how fast they are performing. Of course, speed is not in the USCIS playbook. And for the last four years under President Trump, they were baking in more and more delay by requiring all these ridiculous extra checks and supervisor checks, all in a design to slow down immigration to the United States.

They have achieved their mission. And ground zero for that mission is the National Benefit Center. Because it is there that the cases are first analyzed and then problems identified. And so, that's where you'll get your request for evidence from. That's where you'll get your notices of intent to deny. That's where the gatekeepers at the National Benefit Center can keep your case from actually going to a field office for interviews. There's a lot of back and forth between the field offices and the National Benefit Center.

You might hear an officer talk on the 1800 number or at the window about having to get the file back from the National Benefit Center. It's just the place where cases get processed originally shortly after you file it after the filing fee is accepted. The contractors have moved the file onto USCIS field officers for interviews.

That's everything I know about the National Benefit Center. If you have questions about the National Benefit Center, or if you are wondering how your processing is going, give us a call at (314) 961-8200. You can email us at [email protected] Be sure to join us on our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home.

If you like this video, we ask that you please share that on social, that you subscribe to our YouTube channel. And that you join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays, usually at noon Central Time, where I'll answer as many of your immigration law related questions as possible in just under one hour. Thanks a lot. And we'll see you next time.

Download Free Guide 2022 Immigrant’s Guide to Becoming a U.S. Citizen

This guide contains all you need to know to become  
a U.S. citizen.

Download Free Guide 2022 Immigrant’s Guide to Becoming a U.S. Citizen

This guide contains all you need to know
to become a U.S. citizen.

DOWNLOAD FREE PDF

How long does it take for National Benefit Center process I 485?

How do I contact USCIS National Benefits Center?

Which service center is National Benefits Center?