As the holidays approach, we have had many applicants concerned about travel, both outside and within the U.S. Applicants are concerned about what will happen if they are out of town when their biometrics, interview, or oath notices arrive.
The first thing we tell applicants is to make sure they have someone checking their mail! If you do not file a G-28 in all cases, then this is really the applicant’s best hope for not missing notices. We also offer keep a note with the applicant’s travel dates in their file, so that if we receive a notice for them, we can inform them of their appointment date or, if the appointment is scheduled to happen while they are gone, automatically request a new appointment.
Something new that we will be telling applicants is that, for biometrics appointments, they do not have to go to the office listed on their notice. The office listed on the biometrics notice is simply the one closest to the zip code on their application, but they are free to visit any other Application Support Center. As long as they have their biometrics notice with them, USCIS will take their fingerprints without issue.