Practice Update: USCIS Form Alert: Blank Spaces on Form I-918, Petition for U Nonimmigrant Status

On December 30, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) placed an alert on their website for Form I-918, Petition for U Nonimmigrant Status, stating:

• Alert: We may reject your Form I-918 or your Form I-918 Supplement A if you leave a field blank, unless the field is optional. Optional fields include the safe mailing address as well as fields you should only complete if you answered yes to a previous question. You must provide a response to all other questions, even if the response is “none,” “unknown” or “n/a.”  We will reject a Form I-918 or a Form I-918 Supplement A that has, for example, an empty field for middle name, for current immigration status, or for information pertaining to a spouse or child.

With this alert, USCIS continues its draconian agenda of limiting access to protections for the most vulnerable. USCIS has unjustly singled out U visas applicants as it has in the past with asylum seekers. ASISTA will vehemently push back against this change in procedure. and we will provide updates as they become available. In the interim, ASISTA has developed the following practice pointers to minimize the risk of rejection.