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Asked over 2 years ago - Bothell, WA
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I know USCIS applications or petitions postmarked or filed on Nov 23rd and after must include the new fee, but at what point is the petition considered postmarked or filed?
- Date of when the documents are sent?
- Date of when the documents are received? or
- Date of when USCIS reviews the documents?
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The USCIS has announced "The adjusted fees will take effect on November 23, 2010. Applications or petitions postmarked or filed on or after that date will require the new fees." Then they add, "Any application or petition postmarked with a date of November 23, 2010, or later will require the adjusted fee, as established in the final fee rule. Applications and petitions postmarked with a date of November 23, 2010, or later, but that do not contain the adjusted fee, will be rejected as improperly filed."
http://pages.citebite.com/g2v4i3q0nxme
A postmark is affixed at the post office. That is the date that counts. Make sure that the date marked is November 22nd or earlier.
Thank you for asking.
Harvey Mechanic, Attorney at Law -
Harvey108@hotmail.com
For the purposes of the new fees only, what matters is "postmarked or filed" as you say - this means date sent IF the application or petition is with the post office before the last pick up for that day. If you go to a post office and it says "last pickup 6:00pm," then even if the lobby is open and you drop the filing in the slot before midnight on the 23rd it won't count unless it is in there before 6:00pm.
The reason I say that this is for purposes of the new fees only is that USCIS generally only considers something filed when the receive it - not when mailed and not when finally reviewed. Not what you are asking here, I know, but if you or someone else were submitting a response to USCIS on deadline it is important to know that it needs to GET there on the due date = mailing isn't enough.
