Immigration trouble: Trump admin restores USCIS power to deny request outright
USCIS can now deny incomplete immigration applications without seeking additional evidence The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has tightened its adjudication policy, restoring officers'
USCIS can now deny incomplete immigration applications without seeking additional evidence The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has tightened its adjudication policy, restoring officers' discretion to deny ‘immigration-benefit’ requests without first issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) if applicants fail to establish eligibility or submit all the required initial evidence at the time of filing. In addition, the deadline to respond to a RFE, if any is issued, has also been shortened.Given the large Indian population in the US on H-1B and F-1 visas, along with thousands of H-4 dependents, the policy is likely to heighten anxiety among applicants. Routine immigration-benefit requests (filings) ranging from visa extensions and changes of status to another visa class, green card and citizenship applications will now require even greater attention to completeness at the time of filing.The revised policy, which took effect immediately on August 5, applies to pending as well as newly filed immigration requests, unless otherwise specified.Criticising the previous Biden era policy, USCIS in its statement points out that the earlier policy encouraged officers to request evidence before denying a benefit request, even if the benefit requestor (applicant) filed an incomplete application, failed to demonstrate eligibility for the immigrant request, or failed to provide the initial evidence that was clearly required at the time of filing.“This prior policy allowed frivolous or substantially incomplete filings to slow USCIS processing for others waiting in line,” stated USCIS.
It added that, “The Biden policy also enabled benefit requestors to exploit the system by filing ‘placeholder’ applications to gain associated immigration benefits, like employment authorization, while they waited for a decision on their case,” added the agency.Xiao Wang, CEO of immigration services platform Boundless, said the policy effectively turns a missing document into a denial. Under the previous framework, applicants generally received an opportunity to rectify documentary gaps through an RFE. "That second chance is now at the officer's discretion," he said. Wang added that those most likely to be affected are not fraudulent applicants but ordinary individuals and families who inadvertently omit a sponsoring spouse’s tax transcript, fail to submit a certified translation of a foreign birth certificate or miss another required document. He advised applicants to triple-check their submissions, warning that the option to "fix it later" may no longer exist.According to Mitch Wexler, senior counsel at Fragomen, a global immigration law firm, the new policy significantly raises the stakes for applicants at the time of filing.
The BriefWire