U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has opened a dedicated asylum office in Charlotte, North Carolina, and since October 13 it has taken over affirmative asylum cases for people who live in North Carolina or South Carolina — including applications already on file, according to the USCIS alert reported by Immigration Analytics.

Source: Immigration Analytics / USCIS alert

The office is at 128 South Tryon Street, Suite 600, in Charlotte. Interviews and other services are by appointment only, and the office does not accept walk-ins. Applicants should go where their interview notice tells them to go, the alert says.

Before the Charlotte office opened, Carolinas residents were required to travel to Atlanta or Arlington for mandatory affirmative asylum interviews, LokalUpdate reported in its coverage of the office's launch. Legal aid organisations in the Charlotte area welcomed a local office, saying on-site interview officers reduce travel hardship for families in the system.

Source: LokalUpdate

The catch: interviews can now be skipped

The Charlotte opening comes less than three months after USCIS adopted a rule that lets its officers send many asylum cases to immigration court without any interview at all, Immigration Analytics reported. That means a closer office does not guarantee every applicant will be interviewed there — some cases may go straight to a judge.

The scale of the backlog explains the pressure. By the end of fiscal 2025, more than 1.4 million affirmative asylum applications were pending at USCIS — 1,434,145 cases, according to the agency's own figures in its July rule — and the agency said applicants could wait more than 7.3 years for a decision.