Form I-290B: Notice of Appeal or Motion Paths and Deadlines

Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion, is the USCIS form you use to challenge an unfavorable decision on a petition or application, either by appealing to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) or by asking the office that denied your case to reopen or reconsider it. The filing fee is $800, and in most cases you have 30 calendar days from the date of the decision to file. Miss that window and you almost always lose the right to challenge the denial at all.

Which Denials This Form Covers

Form I-290B is the vehicle for decisions made by USCIS field offices and service centers that fall under the AAO’s appellate jurisdiction. That covers roughly 50 case types, including most employment-based immigrant and nonimmigrant visa petitions (Forms I-140 and I-129), waivers of inadmissibility (Form I-601), U visa petitions (Form I-918), and related adjustment of status applications (Form I-485).¹ It is also used for certain appeals of denied school certification petitions (Form I-17) filed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.²

One important boundary: family-based immigrant petitions (Form I-130) are reviewed by the Board of Immigration Appeals, not the AAO.¹ Filing I-290B for a BIA case gets rejected without a look at the merits. Your denial notice should identify which body handles the appeal; if it doesn’t, the AAO’s jurisdiction list on the USCIS website confirms it by form number.

The Three Paths on the Form

Part 2 of Form I-290B asks you to pick one of three options. They are not interchangeable, and choosing the wrong one can mean your case gets measured against a standard you can’t meet.

Appeal to the AAO

An appeal sends the full case to the AAO for de novo review. The AAO looks at the record from scratch and can raise issues the original officer never touched.³ It is the most thorough form of review the process offers. The governing regulations are at 8 CFR 103.3.⁴

Motion to Reopen

A motion to reopen is the right tool when you have new facts or evidence that weren’t available when the decision was made. The motion must state the new facts and be supported by affidavits or documentary evidence.⁵ A typical case: your petition was denied for lack of a specific document and you have now obtained it. The motion goes back to the office that issued the denial, not to the AAO.

Motion to Reconsider

A motion to reconsider argues that the officer applied the wrong law to the evidence already in the file. You are not offering new facts. You are saying the existing record should have produced a different outcome under the correct legal standard, and you must identify the specific legal or policy error and cite any relevant precedent decisions.⁵ Without a clear legal argument, these motions rarely succeed.

Filing Deadlines

Most filers have 30 calendar days from the date of service of the decision to submit Form I-290B. If USCIS mailed the decision, you get 33 calendar days.²

There is a shorter deadline for one category: appeals of decisions revoking an already-approved immigrant petition under 8 CFR 205.2. There, you have 15 calendar days from the date of service, or 18 days if the decision was mailed.⁶

The detail that catches people out: “date of service” means the date USCIS mailed the decision, not the date it landed in your mailbox. Decisions are typically mailed the same day they are issued.⁶ A week of mail time still counts against you. An untimely appeal must be rejected as improperly filed, though if your late filing meets the requirements of a motion to reopen or reconsider, the field office may treat it as a motion instead.³ That is a narrow safety net, not a plan.

Completing and Filing the Form

Pull together the denial notice and the receipt number for the underlying petition. Receipt numbers start with three letters (EAC, LIN, MSC, or IOE) followed by a string of digits and appear on every USCIS notice.⁶ Download the current edition of Form I-290B from the USCIS website. An outdated edition gets your package rejected before anyone reads it.

In Part 2 you select your path: appeal, motion to reopen, or motion to reconsider. If you are filing an appeal and plan to send a supporting brief or additional evidence later, you must indicate that on the form, and you then have 30 calendar days after filing the appeal to send the brief and evidence directly to the AAO. Filing everything together is usually stronger, because the original office reviews the appeal first and can reverse its own decision if you give it a reason to. An appeal filed with no supporting evidence gets forwarded straight to the AAO without any reconsideration by the original office.⁶

Every filing needs a written brief or statement laying out the specific factual or legal arguments for why the original decision was wrong. For a motion to reopen, that means identifying the new evidence and explaining its relevance. For a motion to reconsider, it means pointing to the legal error. For an appeal, it means building the case for a different result on full review. Simply disagreeing with the outcome is not enough on any of the three paths.

If an attorney or accredited representative is filing for you, a signed Form G-28 must be included.⁷

Fee and Payment

The filing fee is $800.⁸ USCIS no longer accepts personal checks, business checks, money orders, or cashier’s checks for paper filings unless you qualify for a specific exemption. For paper filings, pay by credit, debit, or prepaid card using Form G-1450, or from a U.S. bank account using Form G-1650.² The wrong amount or an unacceptable payment method causes the whole package to be rejected, and your deadline keeps running while that happens.

Where to Send It

The package goes to a designated USCIS Lockbox facility, not the office that issued the denial. The correct address depends on the type of underlying petition and your location, and USCIS changes these addresses periodically, so check the direct filing addresses page for Form I-290B before mailing. Attaching Form G-1145 gets you a text or email when USCIS accepts the filing.⁹

Fee Waivers

The $800 fee can be waived in limited situations. You request a waiver using Form I-912 if the underlying application or petition was itself fee-exempt or had its fee waived.¹⁰ USCIS looks at whether you currently receive a means-tested public benefit such as Medicaid, SNAP, or SSI; whether your household income is at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines; or whether you face financial hardship such as recent job loss or large unexpected expenses.¹¹ The waiver request must be submitted with Form I-290B, not after.

What Happens After You File

Once USCIS accepts the filing, it sends Form I-797C (Notice of Action) as the formal receipt.¹² That confirms USCIS received the package. Nothing has been decided.

For appeals, the process starts back at the office that issued the denial. Within 45 days of receiving the appeal, the reviewing official can treat it as a motion and reverse the decision if favorable action is warranted.⁴ This is why front-loading your evidence matters: a strong initial filing can end the case there without waiting for the AAO. If the office decides reversal is not warranted, it forwards the appeal and the full case file to the AAO in Washington, D.C.¹³

The AAO aims to complete appellate reviews within 180 days of receiving a complete case record. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, 98% of completions met that target.¹⁴ Complex cases take longer. Adding the initial field review, realistic total time from filing to final decision is several months.

What Filing Does Not Do

A pending Form I-290B does not protect your immigration status. Filing an appeal or motion does not restore the protection against unlawful presence that a pending application for change of status, extension of stay, or adjustment of status previously provided. Protection returns only if the motion or appeal is granted and the underlying application is later approved. Until then, unlawful presence can keep accruing.

The filing also does not extend or restore work authorization. If your employment authorization was tied to the denied petition, the denial stands while the appeal is pending. You cannot work on the strength of a pending I-290B.

And filing does not delay execution of the denial or push back any departure date already set. If you were given a deadline to leave the country, that deadline is still in effect after you file.⁶ Knowing this before you file is essential to deciding whether to file at all and how to manage your status while you wait.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AAO Practice Manual – Chapter 1: The Administrative Appeals Office
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AAO Practice Manual Chapter 3: Appeals
4
eCFR. 8 CFR 103.3 – Denials, Appeals, and Precedent Decisions
5
eCFR. 8 CFR 103.5 – Reopening or Reconsideration
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form G-28 Instructions – Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative
8
eCFR. 8 CFR 106.2 – Fees
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1145, E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-912, Instructions for Request for Fee Waiver
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Poverty Guidelines
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C, Notice of Action
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Initial Field Review of Appeals to the Administrative Appeals Office
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AAO Processing Times