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Original Date Announced
March 24, 2020The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman publishes an alert regarding Form I-914, Application for T Nonimmigrant Status, and Form I-914, Supplement A, Application for Family Member of T-1 Recipient, stating that USCIS' intake process will include review of the entire Form I-914, beyond the proper signature, fee, and supporting documents. Forms submitted without every field completed, as stated above, will be rejected. Incomplete forms will be rejected, unless an incomplete field is optional according to the form text or form instructions.
[ID #1005]
USCIS Ombudsman Alert: USCIS Publishes Alert for Form I-914Effective Date
March 16, 2020Biden Administration Action: Revoked/Replaced
April 1, 20212021.04.01 USCIS Confirms Elimination of “Blank Space” Criteria
This Biden administration policy rescinds the Trump-era policy identified in this entry.
On April 1, 2021, USCIS confirmed that for all forms it has reverted to the form rejection criteria it applied before October 2019 regarding blank responses.
View DocumentCurrent Status
Not in effectMost Recent Action
April 1, 2021 Action: Revoked/Replaced 2021.04.01 USCIS Confirms Elimination of “Blank Space” CriteriaApril 1, 2021Acted on by Biden Administration
Original Trump Policy Status
Status: Final/ActualTrump Administration Actions: Change in Practice Forms and Information CollectionSubject Matter: U/T/VAWAAgencies Affected: USCISAssociated or Derivative Policies
Pre Trump-Era Policies
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December 19, 2016
Under existing regulations, an application for a T-visa must be properly filed and "complete" - 8 C.F.R. 214.11(e)(1)(i).
USCIS' initial intake process at the Service Centers previously focused on reviewing whether there was a proper signature, fee, and supporting documents for these applications. USCIS would not necessarily count certain blank fields as “incomplete” and would understand blank fields to mean that the item does not apply. If subsequent review by the immigration officers found relevant fields incomplete, the agency would often first issue a request for evidence (RFE) or notice of intent to deny (NOID) before rejecting the application.
8 CFR 214.11