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1. The Request For
Evidence (RFE)
When
USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) needs more
information to proceed an immigration application, it will issue the
petitioner a Request for Evidence (RFE) notice. The petitioner should
respond to the RFE within the timeframe indicated in the RFE notice,
usually 30 to 90 days, so that the USCIS immigration official
adjudicating the immigration case will have enough evidence to make a
decision.
If you receive an RFE notice from USCIS, you should not panic. It does
not mean that the denial of your application is inevitable, it only
mean that USCIS needs more information from the petitioner, in order to
make a right decision. USCIS also has the power to deny an immigration
application without first issuing Request for Evidence, so the
petitioner should be thankful for the opportunity to correct
information, provide more documentation and evidence, and convince the
USCIS immigration official to approve your immigration petition.
The petitioner should return the RFE response before the deadline given
by USCIS. If you fail to respond the RFE notice, USCIS will either
determine that you abandoned your immigration application and issue a
denial, or it will make an ultimate decision on the case without the
information that it requested, most likely resulting in a denial.
Therefore, it is important that you change your address with USCIS if
you move, or make arrangements for your mail to be forwarded to you if
you travel extensively. If USCIS sends you a RFE, you don’t want
to miss it.
2.
USCIS Adjudicator's Evaluation for L1 Visa Application and Request For
Evidence (RFE)
Simply
presenting evidence which relates to the L-1 visa application
requirements does
not necessarily mean that the L-1 application should be approved,
since the USCIS adjudicator needs to evaluate the submitted
evidence.
If
the USCIS adjudicator determines that the evidence does not meet the
standard
for the L-1 visa application, the additional evidence may be requested
from the
petitioner, or it is called Request For Evidence (RFE).
An
USCIS adjudicator may issue a Request For Evidence
(RFE) on L-1 visa application cases that were clearly not approvable.
The issuance of RFEs in these cases resulted in delays in the
processing time. On the other hand, many cases could be approved if the
applicants had been given the opportunity to provide additional
information in response to the
RFEs.
A Request for Evidence (RFE)
from a USCIS Service Center is that the USCIS
adjudicator is requesting additional evidence to address and support
specific
parts of the pending L-1 visa application. The petitioner may have
certain days
indicated in the RFE notice to respond the requests in the RFE notice.
If the
petitioner does not respond within the indicated time, the petition may
be
denied by USCIS. After USCIS receives the response to an RFE notice,
further
action will generally occur within 30 - 60 days, but may take longer
for some cases.
3. Understand the Potential
Request For Evidence (RFE) for Your L-1A Visa or L-1B Visa Application
or Extension
After the USCIS Form I-129 -
Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker submission, it is not very rare that
the petitioner receives a Request For Evidence (RFE) notice from an
USCIS Service Center for your L-1A / L-1B visa application or
extension. In some occasional situations, a few petitioners may receive
a letter of Intent to Deny (ITD). The possibility that an L1 visa
application may get RFE changes from one USCIS Service Center to
another USCIS Service Center.
The RFEs contents also very
significantly. Usually, there are two kind of RFEs. The first kind of
RFE is called the broad brush
RFE by immigration community, which generally asks the petitioner to
prove the beneficiary's eligibility for the L-1A or L-1B category
according to the basic criteria setup in the regulation.
For this kind of broad RFEs, it
seems like that the USCIS Service Center believes that the petitioner
did not submit any noteworthy supporting materials at the initial
petition submission to prove their beneficiary's eligibility for L1
visa. USCIS had regulations and internal memos to require a
supervisor's approval for any adjudicator to issue such broad brush
RFE. But in the practical circumstances, even this kind of RFEs violate
the USCIS' regulations, the petitioner still needs to reply the RFE
requests one by one, with new evidence and related supporting materials.
Another
kind of RFE will ask the petitioner to submit specific supplement
materials, such as evidence to show the U.S.
company will grow to a size to support a managerial position, or submit
evidence for the duties of general managerial functions, or submit
probative evidence verifying that the beneficiary's specialized
knowledge is uncommon and noteworthy. For
this kind of RFEs asking for particular evidence or supporting
materials, sometimes it is difficult for a petitioner to provide the
exact required documents.
4. The
Request For Evidence (RFE) for L-1A Visa Application or Extension
For
an L-1A visa application or extension, the Request For Evidence (RFE)
notice from USCIS may ask some tough questions. For example, you may be
asked to provide the job description, education level and salary of
those employees under your management as an evidence. You may also be
asked to provide the education level and salary details of your
supervised employees, and probably the education level and salary of
some client employees not in your control.
The following is an example of
RFE questions for an L-1A visa extension:
Evidence
of Managerial Position in the United States. You must show that the
position in the United States involves qualifying managerial duties,
you may have to prepare a detailed response for the below queries:
1) How
the beneficiary will manage the organization, department, subdivision,
function, or component of the organization;
2)
How the beneficiary will supervise and control the work of other
supervisory, professional, or managerial employees, or manage an
essential function, department, or subdivision of the organization;
3)
Whether the beneficiary will have authority to hire and fire, or
recommend similar personnel actions, such as promotion and leave
authorization, if other employees will be directly supervised. Provide
information how employees will be directly supervised, how the
beneficiary will function at a senior level within the organizational
hierarchy or with respect to the managed function; and
4)
How the beneficiary will make decisions on daily operations of the
activity or function under his or her authority. If the beneficiary
will be a first-line supervisor, submit evidence showing the supervised
employees will be professionals.
5. The
Request For Evidence (RFE) for L-1B Visa Application or Extension
For an L-1B visa application or
extension, the Request For Evidence (RFE) notice from USCIS may ask
some tough questions also, such as "Specialized Knowledge". For L-1B
visa application, USCIS normally believe that "simply
making positions that are normally associated with specialized
knowledge staffs are not sufficient for classification. The actual
scope, function, and specialized knowledge of both the beneficiary and
the business must be reviewed."
The following is an example of
RFE questions for an L-1B visa extension:
Upon
review of the record as presently constituted casts doubt on the
eligibility for the classification requested. The record asserts that
the beneficiary is coming to the United States to fulfill the duties of
a temporary intra-company transferee in a capacity that involves
specialized knowledge.
Section
101(a)(15)(L) defines an "intra-company transferee" as: "an alien who,
within 3 years preceding the time of his application for admission into
the United States, has been employed continuously for one year by a
firm or corporation or other legal entity or an affiliate or subsidiary
thereof and who seeks to enter the United States temporarily in order
to continue to render his services to the same employer or a subsidiary
or affiliate thereof in a capacity that is managerial, executive, or
involves specialized knowledge, and the alien spouse and minor children
of any such alien if accompanying him or following to join him"
Submit
evidence to show the beneficiary, within 3 years preceding the time of
his application for admission into the United States, has been employed
continuously for one year by a firm or corporation, or an affiliate or
subsidiary, and who seeks to enter the United States temporarily in
order to continue to render his services to the same employer or a
subsidiary or affiliate thereof in a capacity that involves specialized
knowledge.
6. Get
Help for Your Request For Evidence
If
you get a Request For Evidence (RFE) notice for your L1 visa
application or extension from an USCIS Service Center, it is necessary
that you must work hard to provide requested evidence in a short time,
and persuade the USCIS adjudicators to approve your case. It is
critical to appropriately and proficiently reply the Request For
Evidence. Incorrect response of the RFE will directly result in your L1
visa application or extension rejection.
To help you replying the RFE, we provide the high quality and
case-proven
"Complete Do-It-Yourself Package of Request For Evidence for L-1A /
L-1B Visa Application or Extension".
In the RFE package, we present methods of analyzing RFE questions, RFE
replying strategies, means of strengthening your case, detailed RFE
cases analysis, sample cover letters, and more.
With the RFE package, you get
all the information you need and
step-by-step knowledge and strategies of how to prepare an efficient,
professional, and complete response to your RFE notice of L1 visa
application or extension, and eventually get your L1 visa approval.
For more
information, please see
How
to Prepare a Successful RFE Response for Your L-1A / L-1B Visa
Application or Extension
7. The
Notice of Intent to Deny
An
L-1 visa application case may be denied if it is clearly not
approvable. These are cases where basic regulatory requirements are
missing. This includes cases where an applicant is categorically
ineligible to receive
a L-1 visa. USCIS also recognized that sometimes the adjudicators
request full range of information when only a small amount is needed to
make a final decision, so it wastes examination resources through the
review of unnecessary, duplicative, or irrelevant
documents.
A Notice of Intent to Deny
(NOID) is that the USCIS adjudicator is giving notice
that USCIS will deny the pending case, unless you provide certain extra
documentation. The petitioner may have certain days indicated in the
NOID notice
to respond. If the petitioner does not respond within the prescribed
period, the
petition may be denied. Once the USCIS receives your response to an
NOID,
further action will generally occur within 30 - 60 days, but may take
longer.
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