Chris Musillo on Nurse and Allied Health Immigration

by Maria Schneider

USCIS had begun notifying applicants and petitioners when their attorney’s Form G-28 has not been accepted.

The G-28 form is filed by the attorney with the case to notify the USCIS that the applicant or petitioner has a lawyer and that the lawyer should be notified of any updates on the case.

Previously, when USCIS did not accept Form G-28, neither the attorney nor the client was notified of the rejection. The immigration application or petition was simply processed without an attorney on the case.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association raised this issue with USCIS on several occasions, but it was not until the past year that USCIS advised that it was planning to start notifying applicants or petitioners when the G-28 was rejected.

On March 7, 2017, USCIS announced that it has added the following language to receipt notices when a G-28 was not accepted with an application or petition:

A valid G-28 was NOT received with your case. If you wish to be represented, please contact your attorney or accredited representative to submit follow-up G-28 to the USCIS location where your case is pending. For more information on filing G-28, please visit http://www.uscis.gov/forms/filing-your-form-g-28.

The receipt notices that include the above language will only be issued for cases that were filed at a lockbox facility. Cases that are directly filed with a local office will not contain the G-28 notice.

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