More than 10,000 RFEs to be Issued in Fiancée Cases
Posted Jun 16, 2006
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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it plans to issue Requests for Evidence (RFEs) in more than 10,000 I-129F (Fiancée) Petition cases filed on or after March 6, 2006. These cases were required to have additional information about the petitioner's criminal history, if any, according to the provisions of the International Marriage Brokers Regulation Act of 2005, commonly known as IMBRA. We reported on this law in our January 13, 2006 MurthyBulletin article, IMBRA Law Signed to Protect Victims of Domestic Abuse, available on MurthyDotCom.
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These RFEs are necessary because the USCIS has only recently obtained permission to change the I-129F form to request the new information required under IMBRA. To change a form, the USCIS must obtain permission from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The most recent form has a revision date of May 23, 2006, but was not available until mid-June 2006. As individuals filing fiancée petitions have followed the rules on the form available at the time of filing, and as this did not request the information required under IMBRA, those filing the Form I-129F for a fiancée would not have provided the required information or answered the question regarding any criminal history of the petitioner. Persons filing fiancée petitions should be prepared for delays until this matter is fully resolved.
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The USCIS, hopefully, will be able to issue clarification and guidance so that these cases can move promptly, as the overwhelming majority would not involve instances of petitioners with criminal histories.