Friends, USCIS is giving us more time to respond to their requests.
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Friends, thanks for watching this video.
I'm Latoya McBean-Pompy, an immigration lawyer in New York, and I'm also the founder of Smart
Immigration Academy.
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Now, what's going on?
A few weeks ago, I did a video about the topic of new deadlines for responding to request
for evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny.
Since I've done that video, USCIS has issued a new press release telling us that they're
now giving us more time to respond.
Why?
Well, because it's so hard these days for people to go to a government agency and get
a certified document from a government agency because those agencies are shut down, or if
you have to go and get a certified English translation of a birth certificate or another
document, it's really, really difficult to do so.
People are having problems meeting these tight deadlines that the government set for responding
to their requests.
They're giving more flexibility now.
I'm going to put up the press release in this video so that you can follow along with me
and make sure that you take note of these new deadlines.
This press release applies to applicants and petitioners who are responding to the following
requests.
Number one, a Request for Evidence, Continuations to Request Evidence, Notice of Intent to Deny,
Notices of Intent to Revoke, Notices of Intent to Rescind, and Notices of Intent to Terminate
Regional Investment Centers, and then this also applies to those of you who are also
going to file the form I-290B, which is the Notice of Appeal or Motion.
This flexibility applies to request that you receive from them that are dated between March
1, 2020 and July 1, 2020.
Your letter must be dated between March 1st and July 1st.
Now, when is your response due?
Your response is due within 60 calendar days, friends, after the response date that is set
in that notice or that letter that they've sent you.
You have an additional 60 calendar days to respond.
How does this work?
For example, if you've received an RFE that's dated March 1, 2020 and that letter says you
have 120 days by which to respond to this request.
The government is now saying you're going to have an additional 60 days on top of the
120.
You're going to have a lot more time by which to respond because this says within 60 days
after, notice it says this, 60 days after the response due date set in the request or
notice.
The notice will have a date that is in there in which you must respond by.
It's saying you now have an additional 60 days on top of that.
Be very careful with this.
Now, if you're thinking about filing a motion to reopen your case or reconsider or appeal,
now this works a little differently for the I-290B.
The notice says USCIS will consider the form I-290B received up to 60 calendar days from
the date of the decision.
Notice it says the date of the decision.
If the decision letter is dated March 1, 2020, normally you would have 30 days to submit
that I-290B.
But what the government is saying, "You have a total of 60 days now."
You're talking about May 1st.
You must respond before May 1st.
That's the difference between how they're treating the I-290B versus all of the other
ones, right?
The RFEs, the continuing to request evidence, the Notice of Intent to Deny, Notice of Intent
to Revoke, those are given an additional 60 days on top of whatever deadline that letter
said versus I-290B which you're only given a max of 60 calendar days by which to respond.
Don't get this confused.
Keep this in mind that yes, you do have additional time, but understand that the I-290B motion
to reopen or reconsider your case or appeal, that works differently.
You only have a max of 60 calendar days by which to respond, and the clock starts ticking
from the date that's noted in that letter.
Be very careful.
You might be saying, "Well, sometimes those letters are actually...
They actually arrive late."
I've had people who've come to me and said, "This letter is dated March 1st, but I didn't
receive it until like March 20th or something like that."
I understand and that could add a little bit more stress and pressure to the process, but
just know that let's say you get a denial.
Let's say you get that denial of the I-485 and you're thinking about filing a motion
to reopen or reconsider your case.
Pay very close attention to the date of that letter and know that you only have a max of
60 calendar days by which to submit your response.
You don't want to mess this up.
Don't think you have 120 days or longer.
No, you really only have 60 days by which to file that motion to reopen or reconsider
the decision.
I hope this has been helpful to you guys.
Comment below.
Let me know what you think and don't miss out on those deadlines because if you don't
respond within the right time, friends, you could be denied.
You can be denied.
Pay very close attention.
My tip is this, although they're giving us more flexibility, if you are able to put together
your response right away and work with a lawyer to do that, give us a call if you've been
denied and you want us to work on your I-290B or refile for you, give us a call.
But the thing is this, you don't want to sit on these requests too long.
You want to move forward with them to the best of your ability.
Now, if you cannot get a document because the government agency that you need the document
from is closed, that's a different scenario.
You've got to wait until that agency reopens to the public so that you could go in and
you can get what you need.
Understandable.
But if this is something that you could actually respond to right away, go ahead and respond
right away because you don't want to play around with these deadlines.
Friends, I hope you found this helpful.
Thanks for watching.
Share it with other people, and I'll see you in the next one.
Bye, bye.