Your public case status and your case record are two different things. The status page — the one everyone refreshes — shows a handful of milestone phrases. The record behind it, the one your own myUSCIS account reads, carries more: a "last updated" timestamp that moves when USCIS handles your file, and sometimes coded events alongside it. When that timestamp moves and the public status doesn't, that's a silent update. You may also see it called a silent API update — same thing, named for where people first spotted it: the case data myUSCIS serves to your browser. (Longtime forum readers knew the idea as LUDs, last-updated dates.)
USCIS keeps only your latest silent update
Two ways to see your own silent updates
By hand, in your myUSCIS account data
The timestamp is in the case data your myUSCIS account loads — this is the "silent API update" trick that circulates in groups and threads. It works, but it's technical, easy to misread, and shows only the latest touch. Nothing wrong with it; it's just a one-date snapshot you have to keep taking.
Or let the extension do it — and keep the history
We built a free Chrome extension that runs the same check through your own logged-in myUSCIS session — it never sees your password — and remembers every silent update it observes on your I-140. Open the popup, see what was touched and when.
Desktop Chrome only — on a phone, open this page on your computer.
What does a silent update mean?
Nobody outside USCIS knows. A silent update says your file was handled — it doesn't say why. Some arrive with USCIS codes attached (FTA0 is the common one); we show those codes exactly as they come and don't claim to know what any of them means for your outcome. Anyone who tells you a silent update predicts an approval, a denial, or an RFE is guessing.
That's also why the extension can sync, if you choose: owners who opt in add their silent updates — dates and event types only — to their case on NIWStats, next to the public milestones everyone already sees. One case can't say what silent updates mean. A few hundred, laid side by side, might — if there's a pattern at all. Same method as the rest of the site: the answer comes from the data or it doesn't come.
See the tracked cases in the app →
Silent-update data on NIWStats is new and small — 2 silent updates kept so far, across 1 connected case. We show counts, not conclusions, and every synced update is owner-authorized, de-identified, and day-granular. The rest of the site's figures come from 567 crowdsourced EB2-NIW cases. How we collect & count →
USCIS silent updates FAQ
What is a silent update from USCIS?
USCIS touching your case record without changing your public status. The record your own myUSCIS account reads gets a new "last updated" timestamp — sometimes a coded event too — while the status page shows the same phrase it's shown for months.
How do I check my case for silent updates?
Through your own myUSCIS account — by hand in the account data, or with the free extension above, which checks through your own session and keeps every update it sees. The record itself only ever holds the most recent touch.
Is a silent update the same as an LUD?
Same idea, new era. LUD — "last updated date" — is the old tracker-forum term. Public LUDs disappeared years ago; the timestamp lives on inside your own myUSCIS account data, and that's what gets called a silent update (or silent API update) today.
Does a silent update mean approval — or an RFE — is coming?
Nobody outside USCIS knows, and we don't pretend to. It means the file was handled. Whether the touches form patterns across many cases is exactly the question the synced data exists to answer — if there's an answer.
Does checking need my USCIS password?
No. Checking rides the myUSCIS session you open by signing in as usual; the extension never sees your password and stops when myUSCIS signs you out. What it sees stays in your browser unless you explicitly opt in to sync.
See what USCIS is doing behind your status page
Free, checks through your own myUSCIS session, keeps every silent update it sees. Desktop Chrome.
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