COVID-19 Lockbox Filing Flexibilities from June 10 to Aug. 9

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will offer limited time filing flexibilities to provide relief to certain applicants and petitioners impacted by delays at a USCIS lockbox. These flexibilities only apply to benefit requests submitted to a USCIS lockbox and not to a USCIS service center or field office.

Background
As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, an increase in filings, current postal service volume, and other external factors, some applicants and petitioners experienced a delay in receiving receipt or rejection notices after filing a benefit request with a USCIS lockbox.

The following temporary flexibilities are effective for 60 days from June 10 until Aug. 9, 2021:

  • If you submitted a benefit request to a USCIS lockbox between Oct. 1, 2020, and April 1, 2021, and that request was rejected solely due to a filing fee payment that expired while the benefit request was awaiting processing, you may resubmit the request with a new fee payment. If we agree that we rejected the benefit request because of the delay, we will deem the benefit request to have been received on the date the initial benefit request was received and waive the $30 dishonored check fee.
  • USCIS will allow applicants and petitioners to submit documentation with a benefit request resubmission that demonstrates that, because of the time that elapsed between when a benefit request was originally submitted to a USCIS lockbox and when USCIS rejected it, an applicant, co-applicant, beneficiary, or derivative has reached an age that makes them no longer eligible to file for the benefit requested. If USCIS agree that the delayed rejection caused the person to be ineligible due to age, USCIS will accept the request and deem it to have been received on the date the initial benefit request was received. This flexibility does not apply to Form N-600K, Application for Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322.

Applicants and petitioners can contact USCIS if they think their benefit request was rejected in error. If USCIS agrees, CIS may allow them to resubmit an erroneously rejected benefit request and deem the benefit request to have been received on the date the initial benefit request was first received at a USCIS lockbox. 

USCIS link: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-announces-lockbox-filing-flexibilities