How to File a Motion to Reopen a USCIS Immigration Case

To file a motion to reopen a USCIS immigration case, submit Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion, to the USCIS office that denied your benefit request within 30 days of the decision, along with new evidence that was not part of the original record, a supporting brief, and the correct filing fee.¹ The motion goes back to the same office that issued the denial, not to a higher authority, so the officer who decided your case gets the chance to reach a different result with a more complete factual picture.

Do You Actually Have Grounds to Reopen

Federal regulations require a motion to reopen to present new facts and back them up with documentary evidence such as affidavits, updated records, or expert reports.² “New” carries weight here. It does not cover information you simply forgot to include the first time; the evidence should not have been available or reasonably discoverable when USCIS made its original decision. A different cover letter restating the same arguments, or documents already sitting in the file, will not clear this bar.

The standard from Matter of Coelho goes further: the new evidence must be significant enough that it would likely change the outcome of the case.³ Argument by itself, without supporting documentation, does not qualify. If your denial was based on insufficient proof that your employer could pay the offered wage, a motion to reopen would need newly available financial statements or tax returns showing ability to pay, not a letter arguing the officer read the old financials wrong.

Reopen or Reconsider

These sound similar and get confused constantly. A motion to reopen is about new facts and new evidence. A motion to reconsider asks the officer to re-examine the same record and argues that the decision was legally or factually wrong based on what was already there.²

If the officer overlooked a document you already submitted or misapplied a regulation, you want reconsideration. If you have obtained new evidence since the denial, you want reopening. Form I-290B makes you pick one box in Part 2, and USCIS may reject a form with more than one box checked.⁴

Assembling the Filing Package

Form I-290B is available on the USCIS website.⁴ You’ll need the receipt number from the denied application and the petitioner’s or applicant’s identifying details. Check the box for “motion to reopen” in Part 2.

One rule catches many filers off guard. Unlike an appeal, where you can submit a supplemental brief within 30 days after filing, a motion to reopen requires all evidence and any supporting brief to be filed together with Form I-290B at the time of filing.⁵ There is no window to supplement later. If your documents are not ready, your motion is not ready.

Organize the package so each new fact maps to a specific document. A brief or cover letter explaining what each exhibit proves, and why it was previously unavailable, makes the officer’s job easier and strengthens your case. Signatures must be original, and every required field must be complete. Missing information or unsigned forms trigger administrative rejection before anyone reads the merits.

Filing Fee and Fee Waivers

Form I-290B carries a filing fee that changes periodically. Confirm the current amount on the USCIS Fee Schedule before you send payment. Sending the wrong amount results in rejection of the entire package without review.⁴

You can request a fee waiver using Form I-912, but eligibility is narrow. Form I-290B qualifies for a waiver only if the underlying application was itself fee-exempt, had its fee waived, or was eligible for a fee waiver.⁶ General financial hardship is not enough if the underlying form was not fee-waiver-eligible. A denied waiver or an incorrect fee means the package comes back unreviewed.

Where to Mail It

The correct mailing address depends on the type of application or petition that was denied. USCIS maintains a filing-address page for Form I-290B that lists the appropriate lockbox for each category, including separate addresses for adoption petitions, special immigrant juvenile cases, VAWA-related filings, and all other USCIS decisions.⁷ Wrong address, delayed processing or rejection. Use a trackable delivery method so you have proof of when the package was mailed and received.

The 30-Day Deadline

You generally have 30 days from the date of the unfavorable decision to file.² When USCIS mails the decision notice to you rather than delivering it electronically, 3 additional days are added under federal regulations, making the effective window 33 days.⁸

Miss the deadline and your motion is almost certainly dismissed without any review of the substance. USCIS has discretion to excuse a late filing if you demonstrate that the delay was both reasonable and beyond your control.² “I didn’t check my mail” or “my attorney was busy” will not carry the day. The exceptions tend to involve genuinely extraordinary circumstances such as hospitalization or a natural disaster that made filing physically impossible.

After You File

When your package reaches the lockbox, USCIS issues Form I-797C, Notice of Action, confirming receipt and providing a new receipt number for tracking.⁹ Keep it. It is your proof that you filed within the deadline.

The adjudicating officer reviews the new evidence alongside the original case file. Three outcomes are possible: the officer grants the motion and reopens the case for a new decision on the merits, denies the motion and leaves the original denial in place, or requests additional evidence before deciding. New facts do not guarantee a different result. The final notice arrives by mail with the reasoning.

Filing a motion to reopen does not pause or delay any consequences of the original denial. It does not extend a departure date, and it does not restore any immigration status that expired as a result of the denial.¹ If you are counting on a pending motion to keep you in status, look at other options at the same time.

If the Motion Is Denied

A denied motion is not always the end. You can appeal a motion denial to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO), but only if the original underlying decision was itself appealable to the AAO.¹⁰ Not every USCIS decision carries AAO appeal rights, so read the denial notice for information about further review.

If AAO review is not available or the AAO also denies, judicial review in federal court may be possible. Federal courts of appeals have jurisdiction to review final orders of removal, and that jurisdiction extends to decisions denying motions to reopen. This step ordinarily calls for an immigration attorney with federal litigation experience.

USCIS regulations do not impose a hard numerical cap on how many motions to reopen you can file for the same case. Each new motion still has to meet the same standard: genuinely new facts, supported by documentary evidence, filed within 30 days of the most recent decision.² Refiling without substantially different evidence tends to waste filing fees.

Reopening Based on Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

A common trigger for reopening is that a previous attorney made serious mistakes or failed to act. The Board of Immigration Appeals set the framework in Matter of Lozada, and USCIS generally follows the same approach. Three procedural requirements apply:¹¹

A detailed sworn affidavit describing the agreement you had with your former attorney, what the attorney was supposed to do, and what the attorney actually did or failed to do.
Notice to former counsel identifying the specific allegations and giving that attorney an opportunity to respond.
Evidence that you filed a complaint with the appropriate bar disciplinary authority, or an explanation of why you did not.

Skipping any one of these can sink the motion no matter how badly the former attorney performed. If those errors caused you to miss the 30-day filing deadline, the late filing may be excused under the “reasonable and beyond your control” standard, but you’ll need to document the timeline carefully.

If Your Case Was Decided by an Immigration Judge

The USCIS process above covers benefit requests decided by a USCIS office or the AAO: family-based petitions, employment-based petitions, adjustment of status applications, and similar filings under 8 CFR 103.5.² If your case was decided by an immigration judge in removal proceedings, a different set of rules applies under 8 CFR 1003.23, with its own deadlines, a general numerical limit of one motion to reopen per case, and specific exceptions for in absentia orders and changed country conditions. That filing goes to the immigration court, not to a USCIS lockbox. Form I-290B is not the right vehicle for those cases.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AAO Practice Manual – Chapter 4 Motions to Reopen and Reconsider
2
eCFR. 8 CFR 103.5 – Reopening or Reconsideration
3
United States Department of Justice. Matter of Coelho, 20 I&N Dec. 464 (BIA 1992)
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-290B Instructions for Notice of Appeal or Motion
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-912, Request for Fee Waiver
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion
8
eCFR. 8 CFR 103.8 – Service of Decisions and Other Notices
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C, Notice of Action
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Questions and Answers – Appeals and Motions
11
U.S. Department of Justice. Matter of Lozada, 19 I&N Dec. 637 (BIA 1988)