> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.lexfill.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Government tracking

> USCIS receipt status, immigration-court hearing changes, and FOIA requests

Every government-side source for a client lives on one place: the **Government** tab on their page.

## USCIS case status

Track a matter's receipt numbers and follow them without logging into anything.

Add the receipt number from the Form I-797C notice — 13 characters, a 3-letter office code followed by 10 digits, like `IOE0912345678`. Lexfill checks it against USCIS and then keeps checking daily, so a status change reaches you without anyone remembering to look.

A receipt USCIS can't find, or rejects as invalid, tells you so immediately rather than failing quietly. Transient problems — a rate limit, an outage, a network failure — are retried by the daily check automatically.

## Court Watch

An immigration court that quietly moves a hearing **earlier** is the most dangerous change in the practice: miss it and your client can be ordered removed in absentia. Court Watch checks the court's own hearing schedule for every client you choose to watch.

**Starting a watch.** On the client's **Government** tab, confirm the A-number and nationality — filled in from the profile when intake already captured them — and press **Watch**.

**What happens then.** Any change raises an alert, puts the new hearing on your [calendar](/guides/calendar), and — because an earlier hearing means a compressed timeline — files a task to review the client's payment plan.

**Subscribe once.** Tracked hearings feed a calendar subscription, so they land in the calendar you already live in — Google, Outlook, or Apple.

<Note>
  **One-time setup.** Court Watch checks hearing dates in a real browser tab on
  your computer, so it needs the **Lexfill Assistant** browser extension —
  a small file you unzip once and keep in a folder. Walk through it on
  **Settings → Court Watch**; the status box there turns green when it's
  running. Checks happen while Lexfill is open.
</Note>

The **Court Watch** page in the sidebar lists every tracked case and its current hearing across the firm.

## FOIA requests

You can't advise safely on what you can't see. Lex builds a USCIS FOIA/Privacy Act request from the record you already hold — the A-File, or specific records such as an I-130, I-485, I-94 or entry records.

Ask Lex on a linked matter, or start one from the client's Government tab. It:

* **Fills Form G-639** from the client's own record and files it in their documents — including the parents' names USCIS demands but the client's current form never asked, read from an earlier filing.
* **Opens a submission worksheet** with every value in the order the portal asks for it.
* **Flags what actually closes requests** before you submit — the office address entered as the client's, a blank parent row, a birthdate that reads day-first.
* **Tells you what to leave out** — no Form G-28, no cover letter, no unrequested ID copies.
* **Keeps the record** — the control number, the 20-business-day clock, and a nudge when USCIS runs late.

<Warning>
  Lexfill does not submit the request. Since **22 January 2026** USCIS accepts
  FOIA requests online only, at [first.uscis.gov](https://first.uscis.gov),
  under the requesting attorney's own USCIS account — and the released records
  are delivered into that account, not into Lexfill. The client must also
  **hand-sign** the G-639 consent page; a typed name is rejected.
</Warning>

<Tip>
  Name **specific records** rather than the whole A-File when you know what you
  need — USCIS processes specific-document requests materially faster. A client
  with a scheduled immigration court hearing goes on the accelerated track, but
  only if you upload the hearing notice with the request.
</Tip>