USCIS Issues Policy Guidance on Deference to Previous Decisions

USCIS is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual instructing officers to give deference to prior determinations when adjudicating extension requests involving the same parties and facts unless there was a material error, material change, or new material facts.

With this update, USCIS is reverting in substance to prior long-standing guidance issued in 2004, which directed officers to generally defer to prior determinations of eligibility when adjudicating extension requests involving the same parties and facts as the initial petition or application. In 2017, USCIS rescinded the 2004 guidance.

Read more at: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-issues-policy-guidance-on-deference-to-previous-decisions

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information.