What is a NOIR and how does it differ from a NOID?

Key answer

A NOID is an intent to deny a petition that has not been approved yet. A NOIR is an intent to revoke one that already was. A NOIR usually appears after a consulate returns the petition to USCIS.

Breakdown from the data

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

The sequence: the petition is approved, the case moves to the consulate, questions arise there, and the petition is returned to the USCIS service center. USCIS then either reaffirms its decision or starts revocation and issues a NOIR. Community observation is that reaffirmation is more common than revocation.
The practical difference is that a NOIR has to be answered on an already-assembled record, often more than a year after filing, when some evidence has gone stale. Keep source files and recommender contacts until the visa is in hand, not until approval.

This breakdown is built on real USCIS notices and public sources, linked below. It is reference material, not legal advice: officers decide similar cases differently.

Four notices that are easy to confuse

RFE (Request for Evidence) - a request for proof on a case still under adjudication. No decision has been made; you are asked to send more material.

NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny) - an intention to refuse. The officer is already leaning towards denial and gives you a last chance to argue. A heavier stage than an RFE: the case against you is already articulated.

NOIR (Notice of Intent to Revoke) - an intention to revoke a petition that has ALREADY BEEN APPROVED. It arrives after approval, most often after the case has come back from a consulate.

NOIR is sometimes confused with the acronym NOIA. In the I-140 context it means revocation of an approval, nothing else.

How a case gets as far as a NOIR

The typical sequence: the petition is approved, the documents go to the National Visa Center and on to the consulate. At the interview or during screening, questions arise: discrepancies between documents, doubts about authenticity, new information about the employer or the applicant.

A consulate cannot overturn a USCIS decision. It returns the petition to the service center with its doubts set out. The decision is then back with USCIS: the agency either reaffirms the approval or opens revocation proceedings and issues a NOIR.

Community members report that reaffirmation is more common than revocation, but the return itself stretches the timeline out noticeably - the process runs for months.

How answering a NOIR differs from answering an RFE

The main difference is time. A NOIR arrives a year or more after filing, when part of the evidence has gone stale: referees' contact details have changed, links to publications are dead, the employer may be different. Rebuilding the material turns out to be harder than assembling it the first time.

The second difference is the subject of the argument. An RFE debates whether the evidence is sufficient under the criteria. A NOIR usually turns on a specific consular doubt: the authenticity of a document, the reality of a position, an inconsistency in dates or facts.

A practical conclusion worth accepting in advance: keep the source files of the whole packet and the referees' contact details until the visa is in the passport, not until the petition is approved. Cheap insurance that pays off in exactly this scenario.

Sources

USCIS: petitions returned by consular offices
The official description of the return procedure and what follows - reaffirmation or revocation.
8 CFR 204.5 - the I-140 regulation
USCIS: EB-1 employment-based first preference
The agency overview of EB-1A, EB-1B and EB-1C.

All questions on: Process and timelines All questions on: Consulate and interview All questions on: RFE and denials