Immigration Case Denied: How USCIS is Taking Your Money While Making it Easier to Deny Your Case

In a massive shift in policy, USCIS recently announced that starting on September 11th, 2018, the Service could now deny immigration cases without first issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID). An RFE is a notice that is given to an applicant who is seeking an immigration benefit, asking for additional information or evidence that will aid approval of their application. A NOID is a written notice that explains to the applicant or petitioner why their application is being denied and allows them the chance to explain why denial is not merited.

This recent policy allows USCIS officers to use their full discretion on a case by case basis rather than giving an applicant more of an opportunity to fix their application if necessary. Small application errors that often occur will be overlooked rather than allowing an applicant to fix it, automatically denying them based on discretion. Before this policy, applicants were able to respond to the adjudicators decision and submit more information, fix errors, or explain why they should be approved.

Applicants who file immigration benefit applications, applications for naturalization, family-based immigrant petitions, temporary work visa petitions, immigrant petitions filed under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and permanent residency ("green card") applications anytime after September 11th, 2018 will be affected by this policy. This new policy removes the applicant's ability to make a innocent mistake on their application or misunderstand any of the often tedious and confusing directions.

Applicants will no longer be given the benefit of the doubt and all discretion for approval will be held on the hands of the adjudicator. If an application is denied, the applicant will have to reapply which is not only costly but time consuming. Having to reapply can put individuals out of jobs, travel opportunities, and into financial crisis’s that could have easily been prevented with RFE’s and NOID’s. This policy gives more responsibility and power to the Department of Homeland Security and ignores Congress and the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which leaves immigration enforcement to CBP and ICE. This policy is another attempt to stop legal immigration into the United States.

If you have any questions regarding your immigration benefit application please contact Attorney Nicholas J. Mireles, Esq. at Attorney@loonjm.com.