USCIS Releases New Policy on Treatment of Extension Petitions in Certain NIV Categories

On October 23, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services released a new Policy Memorandum (PM-602-0151) titled “Rescission of Guidance Regarding Deference to Prior Determinations of Eligibility in the Adjudication of Petitions for Extension of Nonimmigrant Status” [PDF version]. The new Policy Memorandum instructs USCIS officers who are adjudicating extension petitions that they should apply the same level of scrutiny to extension petitions that they apply to initial petitions in certain nonimmigrant visa categories. PM-602-0151 reverses guidance from a 2004 Policy Memorandum that instructed USCIS officers to defer to prior determinations in most case where the petitioner and beneficiary and underlying facts remained the same.

To learn about the new guidance in detail, please visit our full article which explains the new policies and how they differ from the 2004 policies [see article].

We have also uploaded the USCIS news release on the subject in English [PDF version] and Spanish [PDF version].