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In recent months, more and more individuals have contacted my office because they have been receiving a document that is known as a Request For Evidence, RFE in short. These requests for evidence ask them for information and many times the requests are very unclear. In fact, it appears that in many of them, the government is simply cutting and pasting a bunch of different reasons and throwing them on a piece of paper and asking people to figure out what they want. It is very poor, and in my mind, I do not see some of those documents as being professional in the writing and actually in the presentation. But be that as it may, it is crucial for individuals to respond and to respond on time and to respond adequately. And in this presentation, I want to discuss what happens that causes these RFEs to be issued and how you should deal with them. There are basically three essential reasons individuals received a request for evidence. The first is that the person who has filed papers has failed to include certain important documents, which are proof, essential proof, that they have met the requirements for whatever benefits they are seeking. The second is that the evidence they have submitted, although they may have submitted quite a bit, is insufficient to show that they will meet the requirements to win. This is a category in which I think the government has not really been clear and maybe even abusive in a lot of the recent RFEs. And the third is that there is a legal issue and the government wants to know why this person who has applied meets the legal requirements. These issues normally will require the assistance of a lawyer to address. Let's go through these three, one by one. First, the failure to send important information. It could be something as simple as a birth certificate, but maybe the translation is off. And so they are looking for the translation to show that the birth certificate is the same person. Or it could be that the birth certificate that was filed does not have the same spelling as a person's name that they are using now or that they have reversed the names. Or that, and I have seen this, where people come back with a birth certificate with a date different than what they thought was their birth date. And that causes some problems. Or it could be simply that the government wants proper certification from the government that issued the birth certificate. The same is true, maybe they are questioning a marriage certificate. Maybe they are questioning a passport, whether it is new or expired. So those are the types of issues where sometimes the government is looking for certain information that seems to be lacking. And some of this information in the first category, which we just noted, falls into also the second category. I have seen more government questions about a person who says that they have entered lawfully many years ago, and they want to know where is the document? But sometimes it is that the entry, the lawful entry, occurred because of the category in which a person is in. They fall under a certain section of law. But the person has not adequately shown that. They have been told or they have been helped by, say, someone who is not a lawyer, or a lawyer, who may not have included the proper proof and so the government is questioning it. And in that sense, the evidence they submitted might be deemed insufficient. Another case may be where someone who has filed the affidavit of support, the financial information, has not shown that they meet the requirements, to show that they have the requirements, financial requirements, to sponsor an individual for a green card. In some cases, individuals who are who are immigrants who are seeking permanent residency may already have the 10 years of income. They can prove it, but the government's challenging them on it, and so that requires perhaps an analysis of that issue. I have also had cases where people have income in another country and there is an issue about the currency exchange rate. What is the value of the assets that they have in another country that can be used here or that they plan to transfer here? These are the types of issues where the evidence may be a little more complex, and that is where people start to need legal assistance if they do not already have it, to make sure that they clearly answer. In another situation, and this has been occurring more often in recent months, people are being challenged on when they submit evidence for a waiver, a 601 waiver, a waiver of inadmissibility. Because they are applying for a green card, they have to show the hardship to their U.S. citizen spouse. But they do not show enough hardship. In that case, definitely, legal assistance is going to be needed. In fact, I do not think any 601 hardship or 601a hardship application should ever be filed without immigration assistance. Those documents are simply too hard. And in terms of the affidavit of support, which I mentioned a moment ago, with the recent ruling that the public charge, the new public charge requirements, are back, officially back, in play for the Trump administration, this is going to require a lot of work in terms of preparing the information to show that someone is not going to fall under the public charge requirements, which will then disqualify them. The public charge document itself is 19 pages. It is a brand new law, more or less, and being six months old but it has been tied up in court most of the time - so that is a document that is going to require a lot of assistance and there are going to be RFEs issued. In fact, prior to the public charge requirement being forced back to court, the government had started to issue some of those. I assume they are going to restart issuing those. Since they have said that all cases that have been filed from February 20, 2020 forward will need to meet the public charge requirements, they are probably going to go back into cases that have not been granted permanent residency and they are probably going to be coming out with requests for evidence in those. Those documents are far too complex for individuals to handle on their own. Then there are legal issues. Take the Temporary Protected Status program. Lot of fights. In some states like California, the rule is that when someone received TPS, they received the equivalent of an admission at the border. Sort of like when someone comes to the checkpoint at the border and they have a passport, they review it, the government reviews it, the Border Patrol officer reviews it, and they allow them to go through. So in some states, that is what a TPS grant is the equivalent of. But in others, it is not. Yet, even in California, every case that I have seen involving TPS, the government has forced individuals who have TPS to show why they should be legally admitted. Why they meet one of those special categories of admission. Even though they know the law, they are not going to just assume that. They are going to ask for proof on that. And that is when you have to make the legal argument that under certain cases, there is a legal admission. Of course, given the fact that the government may start to terminate TPS early next year, we are going to have some issues where the government may say that grant is not valid anymore. That could be a major legal issue that comes up by way of an RFE early in a case. But those issues can be contested and I believe they will be contested. And I believe that the argument in certain states like California will be that, no, it is still tantamount to a legal admission. Of course, the periods before an individual got TPS - let's say they arrived in the country in 1999, but they did not receive TPS to 2001 - the government may argue those two years they were in an unlawful status. That could create a different dynamic. These are the types of issues that come up in requests for evidence. And because of that, because so many of them, although they are only requests for evidence, they are only asking for evidence right now, it is a mere step away from perhaps leading to a denial or rejection. Or the next possible document, a Notice Of Intent To Deny, which takes you closer to denial. So requests for evidence, in sum, should not be feared because the government is laying out issues that they want to know about and that they may be planning to contest. But they should not be taken lightly. And in most cases, you are going to need legal assistance to respond to the government. Sometimes it may be easy. They just want a birth certificate. You just forgot to put it in the package. But other than that, there is going to be a problem. And you also have to make sure that when you respond, if you respond on your own, that you respond properly. That you respond by the due date. And you should always keep copies. Always, always keep copies of everything you do, and you should always send it certified mail so you know the government has received it on time. Because if they do not receive it on time, then your application is likely going to be denied and then you have serious problems again. So a request for evidence do not fear, but also do not take it lightly. I strongly think individuals who receive requests for evidence should seek professional counsel, even if they think they can handle it on their own. Talk to an attorney, an attorney familiar with these cases and experienced with these cases, to make sure you do not overlook anything. Because as I noted a moment ago, you are one step away from a greater challenge. And under this administration, the quality of the RFE in terms of the writing, in terms of the clarity, has been absent in so many of the documents that I have read. And oftentimes I wonder, who is the government hiring? Sometimes the arguments are shaped and they quibble over things that to me seems a little childish, a little immature. But they represent the government and there is a reason that they are challenging it. So despite those types of reservations that I might have and despite those types of reservations that you might have, do not take it lightly. Because everything is on the line and with that, I just want to encourage you to be very, very careful if you happen to receive a request for evidence, an RFE. Take care and good luck