OPERATIONS INSTRUCTIONS - Gani

Service Law Books
adjudicator as provided below.
In any case which is automatically terminated for either of the reasons described above, an 8" x 10 1/2"
sheet of bond paper shall be attached to the top of the record proceedings endorsed "Action of Form I-(No.)
automatically terminated pursuant to OI 102.2(o)." The endorsement shall be dated and the actual or
facsimile signature of the official who would sign a denial order shall be affixed. The case shall be counted
statistically as "1completed" and "denied". The application or petition shall be housed in the same manner as
a denied application (e.g., if it is an I-539 application, it shall be filed in the nonimmigrant alpha file; if it is an
I-130 petition, it shall be filed in an existing or newly created "A" file, since procedures call for creation of an
"A" file where none exists when a petition is denied.
Such termination shall be without prejudice to renewal of the application or petition upon written request of
the applicant or petitioner. If the case is subsequently renewed upon the written request of the applicant or
petitioner, it shall be counted statistically as "received".
(q) Chronological processing of applications and petitions.
To deal fairly and equitably with applicants and petitioners, it is Service policy that cases be processed in
chronological order by date of receipt. For purposes of this paragraph, any adjudications-related petition or
application for which a fee has been accepted and which is returned to the petitioner or qapplicant,
transferred to another office or referred to Investigations, shall, upon resubmission by the petitioner or
applicant, receipt by Examinations from another office or return to Examinations from Investigations, be
accorded the chronological position held when the fee was accepted.
An exception may be permitted only by a district director, service center director, deputy district director,
deputy service center director, officer in charge, an official acting in such capacity, an assistant service
center director for adjudications or an assistant district director for examinations upon showing of emergent
circumstances. When an exception is authorized, it shall be noted in the record and initialed by the
authorizing official. (TM 7/91)
To the extent practicable and feasible, local interested organizations should be kept informed periodically
of the normal processing time of various applications and petitions so that the public may be guided
accordingly. When a processing schedule is prepared for distribution, a copy shall be provided to the
Commissioner, Attention: Director, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs.
(r) Cases to be referred for investigation prior to adjudication.
Prior to forwarding any application/petition to Investigations, the applicant, petitioner, and/or beneficiary
will first be interviewed by an Examinations officer. A written record of the interview in the form of an
affidavit or a sworn question and answer statement will be made for the record. If after the interview, the
officer feels that a final decision cannot be made, the complete record will be referred to a supervisor with
the officer's recommendation specifying the grounds for referral for investigation and the reasons therefor.
The supervisor will review the record and determine whether or not the application/petition will be referred to
Investigations and will note and initial the record accordingly.
(s) Review of cases in which a decision is deferred.
Where an adjudicating officer defers the final decision in a case, the supervisor in charge of the
adjudicating unit will review the cases on a spot-check or percentage basis to insure that the decisions are
deferred for valid reasons. Cases found to have been deferred for other than valid reasons shall be
expeditiously processed to completion.
OI 103.3 Appeals to the Administrative Appeals Unit (AAU) in other than Legalization Appeals Unit (LAU)
cases.
(a) Notice of decision.
An official making an appealable decision must prepare a formal order. The official must sign the duplicate
order (on Form I-292 or other notification form, if applicable) and retain it in the record of proceeding (ROP)
(b) Service of decision.
Normally, the date of service is the date of the decision. When the date of service is not the date of the
decision, the deciding office must record the date of service in the ROP in the manner most convenient for
that office.