USCIS recently announced that it is extending its COVID-19 related flexibilities through October 23, 2022. These flexibilities are designed to ease the burden on the U.S. immigration system and assist applicants, petitioners, and requestors, and USCIS immigration agents. These flexibilities allow USCIS to consider a response received within 60 calendar days after the due date set forth in the following requests or notices before acting. The only requirement is that the request or notice was issued between March 1st, 2020, and October 23rd, 2022. The following request/notice types are all included in these flexibilities:
Requests for Evidence (RFE)
Continuations to Request Evidence (N-14)
Notices of Intent to Deny
Notices of Intent to Revoke
Notices of Intent to Rescind
Notices of Intent to Terminate regional centers
Notices of Intent to Withdraw Temporary Protected Status
Motions to Reopen an N-400 Pursuant to 8 CFR 335.5 (Receipt of Derogatory Information After Grant)
USCIS will also consider Form I-290B (Notice of Appeal or Motion) or a Form N-336 (Request for a Hearing on a Decision in Naturalization Proceedings) if:
The form was filed up to 90 calendar days from the issuance of a decision USCIS made
USCIS made that decision between November 1st, 2021, and October 23rd, 2022, inclusive
Additionally, as of July 25, USCIS has made it permanent policy that all benefit forms and documents with reproduced original signatures, dated March 21st, 2020, and after, are valid. Essentially, USCIS will accept any documents with scanned, faxed, photocopied, etc., as long as it’s a copy of the original document containing an original hand-written signature.
Be sure to subscribe to Berardi Immigration Law’s social media channels to stay up to date on all of the latest immigration related news!
