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An I-290B appeal after a denial: is it worth it?

Key answer

First the same officer reviews the case and may admit an error or disagree; if not, the case goes to the independent appeals office, whose job is to find three criteria, and then returns to a service center to another officer, no longer under premium, where it can sit indefinitely and later be denied on final merits. One member's experience: the AAO answer came in just under a year, the appeal was won, the case was sent back for a final-merits review - and has been stuck for a year and a half. The practical takeaway: while an appeal is pending you can safely file new EB-1 petitions - one person got approved that way. Writing the appeal yourself is realistic if you study the USCIS manual and appeal decisions.

Community answers

The answers below are translated from the original Russian - the language of the community chats.

  • Not quite. First, your officer reviews it, and they can accept their mistake or say they did everything correctly and disagree with the appeal. Then, if the officer does not acknowledge the mistake, the case is handed over to an independent body. If you have not met three criteria, their main task is to find three criteria; they do not search for more than three. They find and send the case to a service center, but to a different officer. Your case is no longer on premium processing; it goes into a queue, and it's unclear when it will be opened. When it is opened, they may deny it based on final merits.

  • I filed directly with the AAO. The response came in just under a year. I won the appeal, after which they were required to send the case back to USCIS for evaluation of final merits. After that, everything got stuck, and there has been no movement for a year and a half, and probably it will never budge. I found this to be a useless waste of time.

  • The example I mentioned earlier: a person filed an appeal and, while it was under consideration, applied for EB-1 two more times. And received approval. So, while your appeal is being reviewed, you can safely submit new EB-1 applications; one does not interfere with the other.

  • Basically yes: study the USCIS manual and appeal decisions thoroughly with an outline, arm yourself with plenty of time and patience, and it is absolutely possible to write a quality appeal yourself. But this is work for weeks.

The answers are anonymized community experience from the public chats, not legal advice. Officers may decide similar cases differently.

Sources

All questions on: Process and timelinesAll questions on: EB-1AAll questions on: Green card

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A reference page built from community experience, not legal advice. Requirements and practice change - verify on uscis.gov.

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