Hello, everybody. In this video, we'll talk about a couple of things. First of all,
what do you do if your case that you just filed with USCIS
got rejected? How do you handle a rejected case? What are the steps you have to follow?
I'm going to break it down to you step by step. And also, we'll talk about USCIS’ updated policy
to extend flexibility when you respond to Requests For Evidence, Notice of intent to deny,
any motion that you file that has also been extended, and we'll talk about the details,
what it means, and until when that was extended. So, let's get right into it.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to our Immigration channel. This is a place
where you get the most up-to-date immigration updates, immigration news, and everything else
that you need to make your immigration journey less stressful. My name is Jacob Sapochnik, and
I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California, and I help clients in all 50 states.
If you're here for the first time, make sure to subscribe to our channel,
click the notification bell so you don't miss any of our videos. And also, give us a big like
so YouTube will be able to share this video with more people just like you. In this video,
I want to talk about a recent update. USCIS continued flexibility to allow response time
to certain applications of petitions. And I'm going to go over what they are in a second.
If you remember, this started on March 30. They kept extending the flexibility
by 60 days at a time, the most recent one extends to applicants and petitioners. They're responding
to applications that were issued from March 1, 2020, all through June 1, 2021. And the
petitions are following. Requests For Evidence, continuation for Request For Evidence Form N-14,
Notices Of Intent To Deny, Notices Of Intent To Revoke, and Notices Of Intent To Rescind,
Notice of Intent To Terminate, and all the various motions to reopen, including those Form N-400
including the motion to reopen Form I-290b, which is really important to get that one on
time. What does it actually mean in practice? The USCIS will consider a response to these notices
within 60 days, 60 calendar days after the original due date of these notices. So, that
gives you an extra two months to respond to any of the above notices. As I mentioned before, and once
again, the reason they're doing that is because of the pandemic. It was more difficult for people to
gather evidence, to gather original documents from different courts or municipalities because they're
also closed. And sod USCIS recognizes that it's a problem and therefore extended by another 60 days
per notice. Now, let's talk about what happens if you actually miss a deadline
and your case gets rejected. If your case gets rejected for a different reason. So,
based on things that are happening in our office, and many other immigration attorneys reporting,
USCIS has been rejecting many, many cases in the past few months. And some of these rejections
are absolutely crazy. Let's talk about some recent cases they've rejected, as reported by
the American Immigration Lawyers Association. And also, I can tell you that we had a few of those in
our office and this example include the following cases filed without signatures on certain forms,
some forms that are incomplete, some forms that instead of putting in, are left blank.
We've seen cases returned just because of that, just because of one missed box, they will return
rejected. Another common reason is people send incorrect filing fees. Sometimes, they think that
they can bulk all the filing fees in one check. But they forget the fingerprints fee,
and the whole filing fee is being returned. Now, remember, the problem is that because it's
taking so long for immigration to receive cases, sometimes even two months, by the time they get
your case accepted and they realize that it was filing properly and they send it back to you,
it is too late because either the person is out of status or the person is no longer eligible to
refile. Typically, when a case is rejected, and the person is still eligible to get the benefit.
What we do simply is just refile the case immediately. Repackage it, make sure it's correct,
and FedEx it right to the USCIS, and there's no issue. But what happens when you can’t just
resubmit it because you’re out of status anymore, or because you lost eligibility.
Here are some things that we recommend for you to do. For example, if your case was rejected
by the USCIS lockbox, it's important to write back to them and explain to them why the case
was rejected by error, and they should accept it back because remember, you can't just refile it
because if you're not eligible anymore for the benefit. You have to resubmit the case
and request the USCIS lockbox to reconsider and pick your case back if possible, because it's
really important, otherwise, you're not going to be able to proceed further. In addition to that,
we recommend, to request assistance from the USCIS Ombudsman's office. And we can link the link in
the description of this video as to how to contact their office and they can help you to resolve
the case and figure out what the mistake was and hopefully, get this case back into processing. If
you can refile your case, remember, the first step will be to refile. If you can, that's the easiest
and the fastest thing to do. But if you can't, and you can show that it wasn't your mistake,
they took forever, two, three months to process a case. They should be accepting this case right now
so you won't hurt your future immigration status. Now, what do you do if it wasn't their mistake,
and it was your mistake or your attorney’s mistake? One thing you can do is what is
called file a Request For Nunc Pro Tunc, which is basically, take time back, in a way,
and have them still re-evaluate by explaining that it was your fault or your attorney’s fault. And
if it wasn't for the USCIS’ two, three months processing, if it wasn't for USCIS taking two,
three months to process the case, this case would have been already rejected two, three weeks ago,
a month ago, while the applicant was still in status, and they will just refile it,
and the case would have been processed correctly. But because USCIS has taken out three,
four months, sometimes, to receive the case. And still, it was the error of the applicant,
it is important to try this Nunc Pro Tunc thing, which basically tells the government,
please take the case back in time. If it wasn't for your three months’ processing, we could have
just simply refiled this case, please consider it, it's going to be devastating for the applicant
to fail to receive this benefit. And sometimes, they'll consider. Sometimes, if your argument
is strong enough, they'll be able to take your case, even if it's filed late, even if it was
your mistake. So, just a few suggestions. We've done this before, and it did work. So, once again,
hopefully, the information in this video was helpful to make sure that you understand that
there's more flexibility from USCIS. They are giving more time to file for Request For Evidence,
and for other applications. And also, remember that sometimes, even if you're late, even if the
case is rejected, even if it's your fault, there are ways to fix it. But specifically, right now,
we see a lot of issues that are coming from USCIS. Sometimes, they miss applications, sometimes they
reject cases in error. There are ways to fix it. And make sure you follow the advice in this video,
and hopefully, it will help you save your cases. Well, once again, share this video with somebody
that may need this information. If you need a consultation to discuss your specific case
problem, make sure you text me at, 619-483-4549 and I'll be happy to set up a consultation and
help you with your individual case. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.