California Service Center

What the California Service Center handles

The California Service Center decides petitions and applications that need no interview. USCIS’s Service Center Operations Directorate runs it with four other centers (USCIS, SCOPS). Cases reach it by mail, online or through the Lockbox, and the USCIS glossary notes that service centers have no public counter, so you cannot go there in person.

For California, the reference is USCIS’s Service Center Forms Processing chart. Its last update was Oct 11, 2024, and USCIS cautions that the split between centers follows workload. California’s rows:

The chart does not list California for the I-140, I-601A, I-730, I-914, I-918, I-929, I-765V, I-817 or I-90.

The work-visa center

The chart has 17 rows for nonimmigrant worker petitions (I-129, I-129CW and I-129S). California is marked on 14 of them, more than any other center. The three it lacks are E-3, TN and H-1B1, which only Vermont handles. One more split: USCIS notes that only Vermont decides P-1A petitions for major league sports.

For H-1B petitions, California shares the work: with Texas and Vermont when the visa will be issued abroad, and with Nebraska, Texas and Vermont for a change of status or an extension. See our H-1B page and I-129 processing time for the steps.

Fiancé(e) petitions

California is the center listed for K-1/K-2 petitions; Vermont’s mark is limited to “AWA only”, which the chart does not define. K-3/K-4 petitions, for spouses already married, are listed at all five centers. Filing itself goes through a USCIS lockbox in Dallas, according to the I-129F page, not to the center.

Nationally, USCIS received 9,737 fiancé(e) petitions in April to June 2026, approved 6,966, denied 2,307 and had 35,871 pending, with a median of 9 months. Those figures count every I-129F, the form used for both K-1 and K-3 petitions. What happens after approval is on our K-1 visa processing time and NVC processing time pages.

DACA requests

USCIS’s I-765 data for the same quarter count 76,032 DACA renewal work permits approved (category C33), with 125,167 renewals pending. For initial DACA work permits it shows 209 received, none approved and 101,875 pending. The data do not say why; our DACA renewal status page covers the renewal steps.

How to know if your case is at California

A California case shows in its receipt number, which starts with WAC. USCIS receipt numbers run 13 characters, three letters then ten numbers (USCIS, checking your case status online), and the letters mark the office that took the case in first. USCIS’s Congressional Inquiries guide ties WAC to California’s earlier names, the Western Adjudication Center and the Western Service Center (USCIS guide, PDF).

A WAC case may now sit elsewhere. USCIS’s archived transfer page lists these 2020 moves (Workload Transfer Updates, archived):

• Out of California: fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap petitions to Texas; O and P petitions to Vermont; F2A I-130s for spouses and children of permanent residents to Potomac, Texas, Nebraska and Vermont.
• Into California: some immediate-relative I-130s from Nebraska.

Source: USCIS Congressional Inquiries guide. IOE means the case was filed online; it does not name a center.

California processing times: what the data shows

USCIS publishes no California-only median: its quarterly report gives one national figure per form. For the range USCIS currently posts for California, open the USCIS processing times page; it sits behind a security check, so we link to it rather than reproduce it. National medians for the forms California works on:

Source: USCIS, All Forms by Quarter, FY2026 Q3. Every median covers all offices that handle the form, not California alone.

If your California case is slow

1. Look up your case inquiry date. Select your form and California Service Center on the processing times page, then type the date USCIS received your case.
2. File an e-Request. When a WAC case has gone past normal processing time, send a case inquiry through e-Request.
3. Phone USCIS. Call 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833) to reach the USCIS Contact Center; live help runs Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. According to USCIS’s Contact Us page, a center has 30 days to answer a service request, or 15 days when it is an expedite.
4. Request an expedite if your situation fits a USCIS criterion. The criteria include an emergency, severe financial loss, an urgent humanitarian reason and a clear USCIS error, and USCIS decides at its discretion (expedite requests).
5. Ask Congress for help. With a signed privacy release, your representative or one of your senators can send USCIS an inquiry for you (USCIS Policy Manual).
6. Turn to the CIS Ombudsman, a DHS office independent of USCIS. For a delay alone, it steps in only once your case inquiry date has passed, you have made a case inquiry with USCIS within the past 90 days, and USCIS has had 60 days or more to answer it (CIS Ombudsman).

The YourCaseStatus app (coming soon) will alert you when your status changes. When a WAC case changes in case status online, our status index explains the new message.

Mailing addresses

This page carries no mailing addresses. They differ by form and category, and at times by the filer’s state, so take them from USCIS’s own page for each California form:

• I-129 addresses and I-360 addresses.
• I-821D addresses.
• I-129F and I-129CW: “Where to File” on the form page.

California and the other centers

• Vermont (EAC) shares O, P, Q, H-2B and H-3 petitions.
• Texas (SRC) shares L-1 petitions.
• Nebraska (LIN) shares DACA and handles the I-140, which California does not.
• Potomac (YSC) took some of California’s F2A I-130s in 2020.
• Receipts that start with NBC or MSC are processed by the National Benefits Center, which USCIS does not class as a service center.

Times for every form are on our processing times hub.