Some people don' need Biometrics? But we pay anyway?

[Athena13 10]

I heard for some people, if they went overseas from within a year before filing the i751 (because when they come back, at airport custom, they need to leave their fingerprint), they won't need a Biometrics? And in this case, USCIS won't refund you the Biometrics fee?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

No, the fingerprint capture at POE is not used for biometrics.

[Lainie B 465]

I believe they were using the biometrics that were captured during the AOS process, if it was recent enough. There were no refunds if you paid for biometrics but did not actually have an appointment.

About half the people who applied for ROC in April and May didn't have a biometrics appointment - their biometrics from AOS were still "current". However June and onwards filers don't have any waived biometrics showing up, so perhaps USCIS changed their minds on this.

[Athena13 10]

I believe they were using the biometrics that were captured during the AOS process, if it was recent enough. There were no refunds if you paid for biometrics but did not actually have an appointment.

About half the people who applied for ROC in April and May didn't have a biometrics appointment - their biometrics from AOS were still "current". However June and onwards filers don't have any waived biometrics showing up, so perhaps USCIS changed their minds on this.

Thank you Lainie. Why the April and May filers biometrics from AOS is still valid? isn't everyone on the 2 year gc before they need to do ROC?

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

Thank you Lainie. Why the April and May filers biometrics from AOS is still valid? isn't everyone on the 2 year gc before they need to do ROC?

Sorry we can't tell you about internal policy...

[Lainie B 465]

Thank you Lainie. Why the April and May filers biometrics from AOS is still valid? isn't everyone on the 2 year gc before they need to do ROC?

Wish I knew! It was a very confusing period. The case number that appears on the NOA1 for ROC doesn't work on the USCIS website, you can only use the case number that appears on the biometrics appointment letter. So if the appointment was waived you had to call USCIS and get them to give you the correct case number on the phone if you wanted to check your status online, which was not always successful since so often the people answering the phones have no idea what they are talking about. Also there was no way to know if your appointment had been waived, or if your appointment letter had been lost in the mail, which was nerve-wracking. The only way to know was to call USCIS. But thankfully now it seems like they are just having everyone go to biometrics appointments for ROC again.