Local USCIS Office in San Fernando Valley, California
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides various tools and resources to immigrants, along with taking their interviews. The federal agency has established its offices across the country and overseas. Besides offices, the official website is where you can find information on everything from citizenship and green card to form filing fees and the status of your case.
If you need to go to a USCIS field office, you can find one from the site by using your zip code. One thing to remember about office visits is that walk-ins are not allowed, so you’ll have to make an appointment.
The San Fernando Valley Field Office
The Chicago Field Office is administered by Director Martha Medina-Maltes, and it is located at:
19809 Prairie Street 1st Floor Suite 100 Chatsworth, CA 91311
Case Processing Times
The location of your case plays a role in its processing time. The USCIS website provides processing times for many different types of applications. Here are the processing times for three common applications at the San Fernando Valley field office:
- Naturalization (N-400): 13 months to 16.5 months
- Certificate of Citizenship (N-600): 7.5 months to 16 months
- Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322 (N-600K): 8 months to 23.5 months
From these processing times it’s clear that, for some cases, there can be a big difference between the months it takes to process your case. The USCIS provides a time range for many types of applications. The first number you see in the time range tells you how much time it takes to process 50% of the cases. The second number is the months it takes to process 93% of the cases.
Filing an Application
The USCIS website has a form section where you can search by form type: citizenship-based forms, green card-based forms, adoption-based forms, etc. There are also many different forms that you can file online first. On the same page, you can filter out the forms by the ones available online.
With each form, there’s a brief description of the purpose of that form and a button that takes you to a page with more details, including the form itself.
Filing Forms Online
To file a form online you have to first create an account. Besides filing, this account allows you to check your online status, among other things. The USCIS website has a dedicated page for online forms, where you can learn about creating an account and tips for filing online.
The forms available for online filing include the AR-11, G-639, I-90, I-130, I-539, I-765, N-336, N-400, N-565, N-600, and N-600K. If you are immigrating to the U.S., there’s also a USCIS immigrant Fee, unless you are exempted.