8/18/2006

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced changes to the filing procedure for employment-based applications for lawful permanent resident status. Starting on July 24, all applicants filing an Application to Adjust Status or Register Permanent Residence (Form I-485) based on a pending or an approved Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (Form I-140), also referred to as a “standalone filing”, should mail that form directly to the Nebraska Service Center. 

Applicants should file accompanying forms (e.g., Form I-131 Application for Travel Document, and/or Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization) at this same centralized location. This change marks the second phase of Bi-Specialization, the USCIS initiative to implement centralized filing and bi-specialized adjudications. Through this effort, USCIS is aligning similar workloads between two “sister” service centers. 

Starting on July 24, the Nebraska Service Center/Texas Service Center pairing will process all employment-based adjustment of status applications (and related applications). Although the Nebraska Service Center will serve as the centralized filing location, some petitioners/applicants will receive a filing receipt from the Texas Service Center, if the case is worked by that center. The center that generates the Form I-485 receipt notice will be the center that actually adjudicates the case. USCIS has previously instructed customers to file standalone, employment-based Form I-485 applications at one of its four service centers. 

USCIS will not reject any standalone Forms I-485 sent to an incorrect service center upon implementation of the amended filing instructions that go into effect on July 24th. Instead, USCIS will accept the filing, direct it to the correct location, and honor the initial receipt date. The July 24 change establishing a new filing location for standalone, employment-based Forms I-485 (and related applications) does not affect other aspects of the form instructions.