• Papers
Immigration
  • NIW
    • Evaluation
    • Case Builder
    • RFE Assistant
  • EB-1A
  • O-1A
  • Visa Bulletin
  • Tools
    RFE Assistant

    Respond to your USCIS notice

    A Request for Evidence is not a refusal. It is a written list of what the officer still needs. Upload it and Papers separates it into the issues it actually raises, checks each one against what you already filed, and tells you what to go and collect.

    Your notice

    The Request for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny, as USCIS sent it. Include the page that carries the response deadline.

    Up to 5 files, PDF, PNG, JPEG, or WEBP, 5 MB each

    Choose files or drag them here

    Up to 5 files, PDF, PNG, JPEG, or WEBP, 5 MB each

    or paste it
    Sign in to read your notice

    Creating an account is free and takes a moment.

    Before you start

    Four rules decide most of what happens next, and each one is a regulation you can check.

    • The date printed on your notice is the only deadline.

      USCIS sets it case by case. Regulation caps the response period at 12 weeks for a Request for Evidence and 30 days for a Notice of Intent to Deny, but the officer may have given you less than the cap, and nobody can extend it. Read the date off the notice and work backwards from it.

      8 CFR 103.2(b)(8)(iv)

    • Everything goes in one submission.

      Send all of it together, in a single package, with the original notice page on top. Sending only part of what was asked for is treated as asking USCIS to decide on the record as it already stands.

      8 CFR 103.2(b)(11)

    • New documents have to prove facts that were already true when you filed.

      A paper accepted last month, a promotion you started in June, a citation count from today: none of it can establish eligibility if it was not already true on your filing date. This is the rule that catches people out, because the instinct is to send your strongest and most recent work.

      8 CFR 103.2(b)(12), and Matter of Katigbak, 14 I&N Dec. 45

    • Missing the date is the one mistake with no cure.

      If nothing arrives in time, USCIS may deny the petition as abandoned, decide it on the record you already filed, or both. It has to receive your response by the date, not see it postmarked by then.

      8 CFR 103.2(b)(13)

    Also true

    • A Notice of Intent to Deny is not a Request for Evidence. USCIS has already decided it plans to refuse, the response period is shorter, and the whole record is in play.
    • Every document in another language needs a certified English translation. Without one, USCIS treats the document as not submitted.8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)
    • Send copies and keep your originals, unless the notice asks for an original.
    • Carry on your exhibit numbering from your original filing. Restarting at 1 gives you two Exhibit A, and a citation that points at both.

    Sources: 8 CFR 103.2, and the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 1, Part E, Chapter 6.

    Questions people ask

    Papers is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. AI can misread legal language, every case is different, and USCIS decides. Using Papers does not guarantee any outcome. Have a qualified immigration attorney review your response before you send it, through Papers or through the AILA directory.