Handling an EB-1A denial for a strong case and why you sometimes need to refile

Here’s a post by immigration lawyer Amber Davis on a recent EB-1A denial due to a bad officer:

Got an EB-1A denial a few weeks ago.

Turns out, the USCIS officer did not even bother to read the letter we had submitted.

Here’s what USCIS said:

“we note that you provided a cover letter from your counsel. However the assertions of counsel do not constitute evidence.”

And combined with this statement, the officer proceeded to quote the law incorrectly under every criterion and question things that were thoroughly explained in our letter, as further proof that they never read it.

All they needed to do was read the letter that outlined in detail the evidence we had put together to support my client’s case.

I want to litigate this case, but doing so would take time, which is something my client doesn’t have (that’s why he applied for EB-1A). I’m now suggesting a refile because it’s faster and he should get a better adjudicator. This was purely a case of a bad officer (what we submitted was far from just “assertions,”) which is something I tell my clients about all the time.

That there is a chance we’ll get a bad officer who will deny your case on baseless grounds. No matter how strong.

We’ll be looking into refiling - more updates on this case soon!

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Interested in EB-1A, EB-2 NIW or O-1? Feel free to reach out at amber.davis@waypointimmigration.org or via LinkedIn messages and I’ll get back to you shortly!