Responding to a Request for Evidence

After practicing in the field of Immigration law for more than 18 years, its easy to note the increasing trend of the USCIS in generating Requests for Evidence (RFE’s) in response to nearly every type of application or petition for Immigration benefits that is filed in the U.S. Back in the “old days”, some of us used to refer to RFE’s as the dreaded “Blue Form.” Because we were able to get most cases approved without ever seeing a blue form, it was an unusual and unwelcome experience to receive one, and then have to prepare a detailed response with supporting documentary evidence to overcome the deficiencies. Now, it seems more like the norm to get RFEs in some cases and its just something that we built into the processing of the case, both in the time line, as well as the fee structure.

Without a doubt, while RFE’s generally point out deficiencies, which, if not corrected, can lead to the denial of the subject application or petition, most of them are requests that are capable of being complied with during the allotted time, with a minimal amount of additional leg-work done by the clients and our law firm. On occasion, the RFE asks for evidence or documents that are literally located on the other side of the world and the clients must take immediate action in order to comply within the allotted time. When all is said and done, we have had very good results over the years in meeting and responding to every request issued by USCIS.

After having had the opportunity to respond to so many RFE’s, I put together a list of tips that should be considered when responding to an RFE. You can read them on my website here:Request for Additional Evidence (I-797E) .

If you need assistance in responding to a Request for Evidence, call South Florida Immigration Lawyer Sean D. Hummel at (954) 385-3111.