The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) acknowledged the issue concerning the issuance of Requests for Evidence (RFEs) in the AILA National which was held in August 2022 presided by the CIS Ombudsman. the most common reason one might receive an RFE is that they didn’t provide the evidence that USCIS needed with their initial application based on this, RFEs tend to delay an application. The Adjudicating Officer requests additional information and supporting documentation to address the inconsistencies found while reviewing the visa application. As the RFE always sets a deadline for submitting a response, it is crucial that the applicant receives them in a timely manner. The prevailing issues concerning RFEs are such that they have either not been mailed out, or, have been mailed out late to the Beneficiary.
The procedure to be followed If the applicant has a pending case and does not have an online USCIS account:
- Create an account to check if an RFE has been issued.
- Working with an attorney also helps to ensure that RFEs are received or late-issued RFEs are dealt with successfully.
A significant highlight of the AILA Nationals was that the instances of getting RFEs from the USCIS Service Centres had become more frequent since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To address the said issues, AILA’s USCIS Case Assistance Committee elevated the first batch of received case examples to both USCIS and CIS Ombudsman. USCIS acknowledged the existence of this troubling pattern and asked for more time to raise an appraisal.
The practice warning will be updated as soon as AILA has additional details about the next course of action.