A Big Win Regarding Immigration Appointments

As the expat community knows, our Immigration Department was closed from March until October of 2020. When they reopened, they did so with a few new policies, the main one being that they now work by appointment only. During the pre-COVID days, if you wanted to file anything at Immigration you simply had to get up early, head to Immigration, sit on the line for the many hours that was necessary, and file your application/document/etc. That practice is no longer plausible. You now need an appointment for every process.

This initially sounded like a very good idea, a bit of order and no more long lines at the crack of dawn. However, as it was to be expected after closing for almost 7 months, our Immigration Department’s availability is quite poor. Appointments are granted for months if not years after they are requested, which extending processes significantly.

While some very limited processes can be done online, most of the categories and steps need to be completed in person. Appointments for the public in San Jose have now been granted for the second trimester of 2022! That is a year away from now. Attorneys luckily have the privilege of an exclusive attorney window at the Immigration Department in San Jose and appointments there are granted about 4 months after we request them (currently, late September, early October 2021).  However, this is still complicated.

Therefore, we now need to find new solutions to the new problems. We had a family who recently engaged us to fix their immigration process as it had been a few years since the files were presented at Immigration and the case had stalled. After completing a case review, we identified what needed to be done, procured the documents, prepared the letters, and went ahead to request the appointment which was granted for April 2022. That means that what could have been filed in 10 minutes will take almost a year. That is not right. Hence, we filed a complaint in court, citing the disproportionate and exaggerated estimated processing times our Immigration Department is handling.

We understand that COVID is a huge challenge but granting appointments for 2022 is excessive. Recently, we received a response from the Constitutional Authority in our favor. They also believe that delaying an appointment for 2022 is unreasonable. The Constitutional Authority gave Immigration Department 1 month to grant us a new appointment. This is very exciting as it opens the possibility to push appointments forward once all documents are ready to file.

We will need to wait and see what Immigration’s next step will be, when the appointments will be granted, where and at what time, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. We are looking at the files we have at hand, appointments already requested, etc. to ensure, based on what Immigration does next, that we can take advantage of this new approach.

For now, we are content with the possibility to shorten waiting times. We will continue working along with the system but in a way that is positive for the expat community.

Contact us if you need help getting an appointment sooner.