Potomac Service Center

What the Potomac Service Center handles

Potomac is one of the five service centers in the USCIS Service Center Operations Directorate. USCIS says these centers serve petitioners and applicants who do not need an interview (USCIS, SCOPS). Its glossary adds that service centers decide filings sent by mail, online or through the Lockbox, and offer no in-person services (USCIS glossary).

USCIS keeps a chart of which center processes which form. It was last updated on Oct 11, 2024, and USCIS says the split can change with each center’s workload (Service Center Forms Processing). For Potomac it shows:

One caveat on the I-601A: USCIS’s HART Service Center FAQ, accurate as of Aug 1, 2024, says only the HART Service Center decides that waiver (HART FAQ, PDF). So the Potomac listing on the chart does not mean Potomac decides your I-601A.

If you read somewhere that Potomac is an employment-based center, check the date of what you read. The current chart does not list Potomac for the I-129 work petition or the I-140 immigrant worker petition.

Potomac has handled work permits before. In March 2016, USCIS announced that its Lockbox would send certain F-1 and M-1 student practical training I-765s to Potomac. That alert is now archived and marked out of date (USCIS archived alert, 2016).

The 2023 move, and where mail for Potomac goes

USCIS said that on Aug 21, 2023, the center began moving to a new facility in Camp Springs, Maryland. From then on it could not receive paper responses to Requests for Evidence (RFE), Notices of Intent to Deny or Revoke, or supporting documents for pending cases. From Nov 13, 2023, it stopped accepting mailed correspondence altogether.

USCIS’s instruction is to mail correspondence for Potomac cases to the Texas Service Center, unless your notice says otherwise. If your receipt number starts with IOE, upload the response to your USCIS online account instead. The address is in the USCIS alert. Follow the instructions printed on your own notice if they differ. For what the status shows while USCIS waits for your answer, see Request for Additional Evidence Was Sent.

How to know if your case is at Potomac

Your receipt number is printed on the notices USCIS sends about the case, starting with the receipt notice. It has 13 characters: three letters and ten numbers. Enter it without dashes (USCIS, checking your case status online).

The three letters show where USCIS first received the case. USCIS’s Congressional Inquiries guide says YSC is the Potomac Service Center (USCIS guide, PDF). The archived 2016 alert says the same.

A prefix tells you where a case started, not always where it is now. USCIS moves cases between centers to balance work. It sends a transfer notice, and the receipt number does not change (Workload Transfer Updates, archived). The 2020 transfers on that page included cases moved into Potomac:

• I-130s for immediate relatives, from Nebraska (LIN receipts).
• I-130s for spouses and children of green card holders (F2A), from California (WAC).
• I-751s, from Vermont (EAC).

So a LIN, WAC or EAC case can sit at Potomac. Keep every transfer notice with your receipt notice. A case filed online starts with IOE, which tells you how it was filed, not which center has it.

Source: USCIS Congressional Inquiries guide. The National Benefits Center is not one of the five service centers, USCIS says, but it processes NBC and MSC receipts (USCIS, Contact Us).

Processing times: what you can and cannot get

USCIS’s quarterly data reports medians for the whole country, not by center. We have no Potomac-only figure, and we do not make one up. USCIS shows a time for each form and office on its processing times page. That page sits behind a security check, so we link it and do not copy it.

Here are the national medians for the forms Potomac handles most:

Source: USCIS, All Forms by Quarter, FY2026 Q3. A median covers cases USCIS finished in April to June 2026, at every center that handles the form. Cases still waiting are not in it.

If your Potomac case is slow

1. Find your case inquiry date. On the processing times page, pick your form and the Potomac Service Center, then enter your receipt date. The CIS Ombudsman points to this tool to see when you can ask about a case.
2. Send a case inquiry. Once you are past that date, use e-Request to report a case outside normal processing time.
3. Call the Contact Center. Potomac has no public counter. The USCIS Contact Center is at 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833), with live help Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. USCIS says a service center should answer a service request within 30 days, or 15 days for an expedite request (Contact Us).
4. Ask for an expedite. USCIS decides case by case, at its discretion, for reasons such as severe financial loss, an emergency or urgent humanitarian situation, or a clear USCIS error. It generally asks for documents (expedite requests).
5. Ask your member of Congress. Your representative or senators can ask USCIS about your case. For USCIS to share your information with them, you must first give the member of Congress a privacy release (USCIS Policy Manual).
6. Go to the CIS Ombudsman. It is an independent office in DHS, not part of USCIS. For a delay alone, you must have sent USCIS a case inquiry in the last 90 days, given it at least 60 days, and be past your case inquiry date (CIS Ombudsman).

The YourCaseStatus app (coming soon) will alert you when your status changes. Meanwhile, our status index explains each message you can see in case status online.

Mailing addresses

We do not list addresses. They change by form, by category and sometimes by where you live, and USCIS updates them. Use the “Where to File” part of each form’s page:

• I-90 and I-751: “Where to File” on the form page.
• I-130 addresses and I-765 addresses.
• I-539 addresses and I-131 addresses.
• I-601A: “Where to File” on the form page.

The other centers

• Nebraska (LIN) shares the I-601A with Potomac and handles I-140s with Texas.
• Texas (SRC) now receives mail for Potomac cases.
• California (WAC) and Vermont (EAC) are listed for most kinds of I-129 work petitions.
• The National Benefits Center (NBC, MSC) is not a service center, but it processes NBC and MSC receipts.

For every form, see the processing times hub.