Since March 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has granted petitioners and beneficiaries certain flexibilities with respect to various petitions filed with USCIS. Since that time, those flexibilities have continued to be extended on a routine basis.

On July 25, 2022, USCIS extended certain COVID-19 flexibilities through October 23, 2022. USCIS has granted an additional 60 days to respond to Notices of Intent to Deny/Revoke/Rescind and Requests for Evidence if issued between March 1, 2020, and October 23, 2022. As a means of finding ways to assist applicants, employers, petitioners, beneficiaries, and requestors, USCIS announced that it will continue to consider a response received within 60 calendar days after the due date set forth in the request or notice before taking any action, if the request or notice was issued between March 1, 2020, and October 23, 2022.

In addition, in an effort to take the lessons learned from the pandemic, USCIS has been evaluating which flexibilities can and should be extended indefinitely. As a result of this evaluation, USCIS announced that the “reproduced signature flexibility” announced in March 2020 became permanent policy on July 25, 2022. This flexibility allows attorneys to submit “a scanned, faxed, photocopied or similarly reproduced copy of a document to USCIS” as long as the copy is of an original document with an original handwritten signature. The original document should be maintained as USCIS retains the right to request the original document for inspection.