All applicants for adjustment of status are required to have their fingerprints taking which USCIS refers to as biometrics. In many cases, adjustment of status applicants will file a petition for employment authorization at the same time. Under USCIS rules both petitions required the applicant to undergo biometrics processing. As a result, the USCIS would send the applicant 2 appointment notices for biometrics processing and the applicant would have to attend two separate appointments (some times in the same week.) Although it still occasionally happens, the USCIS claims to have stopped this practice for all family based adjustment of status petitions. This means that all petitions for adjustment of status that are filed with an application for an employment authorization document should only be sent 1 biometrics appointment notice. As a practical matter this does not always happen. If you receive 2 biometrics appointment notices and you filed a family-based adjustment of status petition you should attend both to avoid further problems.

The same issues was also true for employment-based adjustment of status petitions. The USCIS just announced today that it would also stop the practice of sending two biometric appointment notices in employment-based AOS cases where an I-765 (application for employment authorization) is filed concurrently.

The USCIS cited unnecessary processing delays as the impetus for this change.