New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

Just a heads up.

CIS has changed its policies for when an adjudicator must issue an RFE or Notice of Intent to Deny before denying an application.

In other policy change -- denied adjustments are to be referred to immigration court for removal if the non-citizen applicant is not in lawful status.

That is all.

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

How does beginning the process of adjusting status affect the validity of a non-immigrant visa? If someone's adjustment were to be denied, would they be able to remain for the original validity period of their L-1A visa for example?

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

If you have an underlying status that is lawful, no problem at all. Nothing's really changed in this regard -- anyone immigrating should maintain an underlying status at least until their I-485 is submitted. IF the underlying status expires during this process, they switch to 'pending' status automatically. If an I-485 is denied at this point, then it's a problem, but it was a problem before anyways. In either case, you have to leave ASAP. Going forward, it might be sensible for adjustees to make sure their status is extended to a point much further in the future so this scenario can never occur. (Getting Green card applications in sooner rather than leaving it to the final year of non-immigrant status for example).

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

Seems people would file to buy time and wait for the RFE.

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

Do we know how? Has this been publicly released?

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

It's on the USCIS website, select News - you can then read the statement they released

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

All over the media as well.

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

There is a big difference now. A denied I-485 will result in a NTA - meaning you go into removal proceedings. If you are put in removal proceedings you don't want to leave ASAP. You have to show up for your court date, otherwise you may be "removed in absentia" and barred from re-entry. It also means your 485 will now have to be decided by an immigration judge, and you can't file a MTR.

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

This announcement is a little disturbing because many times it's USCIS themselves that have lost pages or evidence from the file! One could get a hard denial because of USCIS' own incompetence!

Rene

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

That's fairly worrying reading that press release knowing I'll be filing ROC next year..

Re: New policy on RFE's, denials and referal to immigration court
 

im in exactly the same boat, just seen it pop up on my news feed and figured i would check here.

I managed to do everything else without a lawyer but we still got an ROE due to the evidence requirements for assets when we filed the original I-485.

I dont think removing conditions will be hard and i have some good evidence but will it all be enough is now a nagging worry at the back of mind. Gunna need more paper to annoy the CO with

Nick