News Update - July 16, 2011A Step in the Right Direction by U.S.C.I.S. in Changing to Standard Time Frames for RFE'sUnder an interim policy memorandum dated July 7, 2011, U.S.C.I.S. is changing the standard time frames for applicants or petitioners to respond to requests for evidence (RFEs) to allow 84 days in most cases. A large complaint against U.S.C.I.S. has been its April 17, 2007, rule eliminating the standard 12 weeks response time given to respond to RFEs and permitting U.S.C.I.S. officers to assign flexible response times for RFEs or notices of intent to deny (NOIDs). Many of the flexible response times given by officers under the 2007 rule were unrealistic, and the rule did not give them ability to extend the times for response once they had set them out. The interim policy memo is a recognition of the failure of the policy as "this designated flexibility has led to inconsistencies in the RFE process." A return to a standard 84 days (or 12 weeks) is a step in the right direction for U.S.C.I.S. Two caveats are that individual officers can reduce the response time from the standard time frame but only after receiving supervisory concurrence, and that no extensions are allowed past the 12 weeks. Three more days are allowed where the RFE was served by mail, and an as yet unspecified amount of days allowed for mailing where the applicant or petitioner is residing outside the United States. On one form, I-539 Application to Extend/ Change Non-Immigrant Status, U.S.C.I.S. is only allowing a standard 30 days plus time for mailing "due to the relatively short processing times required by the form."
† The author is a 30+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2011 Alan Lee, Esq.
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