Li Law Group - business law, family law, immigration law and criminal defense. This blog site shares general information regarding areas of law including business, tax, immigration, family, and criminal law.
On July 13, 2018, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memorandum 602-0163. The memo overrules the previous 2013 guideline of USCIS adjudicators first sending out a Request For Evidence (RFE) before denying an application. Comparing the two policies, the 2013 policy provided that an adjudicator generally should first issue an RFE when there is doubt or misinformation in the application before the adjudicator sends out the Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID), whereas the 2018 policy gives USCIS adjudicator a broader discretion to send out a denial without issuing a Request for Evidence. What it means is that when immigration officials find that the application does not meet the requirements can now deny an application, petition, extension request without asking the applicants to submit more information. For instance, in Family-based visa petitions, when you filed the application but without the required supplement Affidavit of Support (Form I-864), based on the 2016 Policy, the adjudicator should send an RFE notifying you to supplement the Affidavit of Support. In contrast, according to the 2018 policy, the adjudicator can send out the NOID because you failed to submit all the required initial documents.