United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a new policy change that allows USCIS officers to deny any application, petition or request without issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID). This new policy change goes into effect on September 11, 2018. Before this policy change, USCIS officers were allowed to issue RFE’s or NOID’s when the evidence submitted at the time of filing did not establish eligibility for the benefit sought. Under the new policy, if you do not submit all the required evidence along with the initial filing as well as all evidence establishing you are eligible for the relief sought, USCIS will deny your application, petition or request. They will no longer be issuing RFE’s or NOID’s to give you a second chance to submit missing evidence/documents. What does this mean for you? You better be sure you submit all required evidence to USCIS when you initially file your application, petition or request, otherwise you will be getting a big fat denial letter from USCIS in the mail. So, unless you have money to spend on paying for filing fees again or time to waste, do yourself a favor and consult with an experienced immigration lawyer prior to filing any applications, petitions or requests with USCIS to avoid having it be denied for lack of evidence. Trust me, it’s worth it!