On March 30, 2020, USCIS announced that due to the COVID-19 crisis, RFE, NOID, and other notice respondents will have a 60-day grace period to file a response following the due date. That means any response filed within 60 days of the deadline will be considered received by USCIS.
This grace period has been officially extended through January of 2021 and applies to all RFEs and NOIDs issued between March 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021. The extended grace period also applies to responses to continuations to request evidence, notices of intent to revoke, Form I-290B filing date requirements, notices of appeal or notice of motion, notices of intent to rescind, and notices of intent to terminate regional investment centers issued between March 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021.
At CCI TheDegreePeople.com, we track USCIS visa approval trends closely and over the past few years we have seen it take as many as three rounds of RFEs to get visa approval. Since 2017 in particular, this has caused H-1B employees to delay start dates, causing a whole host of problems for the beneficiary and the employer. For this reason, we do NOT advise making use of this 60-day grace period. The sooner your response the better.
At CCI TheDegreePeople.com we offer affordable rush delivery services on expert opinion letters and academic credential evaluations to address employer-employee relationship, wage level, specialty occupation, and education issues with a 96% success rate. To prevent a second or third round of RFEs, we advise anticipating any weaknesses in the case based on current USCIS approval trends and addressing these issues in the initial petition or first RFE response.
There are no guarantees with USCIS, processes are moving slow this year, and as always with visa approval, time is of the essence. Let us review your case for free. Visit www.ccifree.com and we will respond in 4 hours or less.
Sheila Danzig
Sheila Danzig is the director of CCI TheDegreePeople.com. Sheila specializes in overturning RFEs and Denials for work visas.