USCIS to Expedite Review for Certain Cases Affected by Specific Administrative Inaccuracies

[Obc333 24]

Date of Release April 4, 2012

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has established an expedited process for reviewing and correcting decisions resulting from certain administrative errors. This process enables customers to request an expedited review of their case and correction of the decision where data entry and/or an administrative error resulted in a denial or rejection of their petition or application.

A customer or his or her authorized representative may contact the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at 1-800-375-5283 to request that an expedited service request be created if he or she believes that an adverse adjudicative action fits within the criteria listed below:

Administrative Error Categories

IF AND

1.  USCIS issued an adverse decision based solely on a customer’s failure to respond to a Request for Evidence (RFE), Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID), or Notice of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) there is documentary evidence that the customer responded to the RFE, NOID, or NOIR, and USCIS received the response in a timely fashion. 

2.  USCIS issued an adverse decision based solely on a customer’s failure to respond to an RFE, NOID, or NOIR USCIS determines there is evidence in a USCIS system that the RFE, NOID, or NOIR was not sent to the petitioner/applicant or, if there is a valid Form G-28 on file, to the attorney or representative of record.

3.  USCIS issued an adverse decision based solely on a customer’s failure to appear at a biometrics appointment or failure to respond to an RFE, NOID, or NOIR USCIS determines there is evidence that the customer properly submitted a change of address prior to the issuance of the RFE, NOID, NOIR, or biometric appointment notice; howeverUSCIS sent the RFE, NOID, NOIR, or biometric appointment notice to a previous or improper address.

4.  USCIS issued an adverse decision based solely on a customer’s failure to appear at a biometrics appointment there is documentary evidence that the customer attended the appointment or made a valid, timely request that it be rescheduled.  

Once USCIS has received an expedited review request from an applicant or petitioner, the agency will make every effort to take action on the request within 5 business days.  This process, and any customer submissions relating to this expedited case review process, does not replace, change, circumvent, or affect any rights of USCIS customers or USCIS in the administrative appeals process. This process will also not impact time frames for appeals or motions, fix errors made by a petitioner or his or her authorized representative, create an independent right of action, or address errors not included in the specific administrative errors listed above.

For more information about how to inform USCIS about an administrative error on a decision, go to www.uscis.gov. For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.