USCIS Sent an RFE After We Sued. Now What?
You filed a mandamus lawsuit to force a decision, and the first thing the agency sent was not a decision. It was a Request for Evidence. Clients find this deflating. It is, in fact, the lawsuit working — and what you do with the request in the next few weeks decides how the case ends.
Why an RFE is movement
Before the lawsuit, your file was not being read. That is what a delay is: a file nobody has opened. The complaint changes that. Once the government is served, a lawyer at the United States Attorney's office calls the agency and asks what is happening with the case. The agency assigns an officer. The officer opens the file.
An RFE is the officer's first written reaction to what they found. It means the file has been read by someone with the authority to decide it, and that person has told you, in writing, what they think stands between the file and an approval. Compare that with the months of template inquiry replies that came before. A request you can answer is a better position than a silence you cannot.
It is also, frankly, the point of the lawsuit. Mandamus asks a court to compel a decision; it does not ask for an approval. An officer who needs one more document before deciding is an officer who is deciding.
What happens to the lawsuit while you answer
The lawsuit does not go away because an RFE arrived. It stays on the court's docket, the government's deadline to respond keeps running, and the judge still expects an answer to the complaint. The agency does not get to reset the clock by asking you a question.
What usually happens is a conversation. We tell the government's lawyer that the request has been received and is being answered. They tell the agency. The sensible course, and the one we propose, is for the officer to decide once the response arrives, and the lawsuit waits — formally alive, practically paused — until that decision issues. If the decision is the one you wanted, the lawsuit is dismissed as resolved. If it is not, the lawsuit is still there.
Occasionally the government asks the court for more time, citing the pending request. Whether to agree is a judgment call we make with you: a short extension that produces a decision is usually worth it; an open-ended one is not.
Answering under a court clock
An RFE answered during a lawsuit is answered under two deadlines. The agency's deadline is printed on the request. The court's deadline is on the docket. They are not the same, and both matter.
The practical consequence is that the response has to be right the first time. Outside of litigation, a thin RFE response leads to a denial you can appeal or a motion to reopen. Inside litigation, a thin response leads to a denial that the government will then present to the judge as the decision the lawsuit asked for — case over, request compelled, application denied. You do not want that.
This is where the petition side of the practice matters. The people answering the request should be the people who draft these petitions for a living: who know what the officer is actually asking for behind the template language, which documents satisfy it, and what an officer will look at next once this item is cleared. A complete response is not a stack of everything you have; it is exactly what was asked for, organised so the officer can find it, with a cover explanation that answers the question they had.
When the RFE points at something fixable
Sometimes the request reveals the thing that was wrong all along. An expired medical examination. A translation that was never certified. A joint sponsor whose income fell short. A document that was in the file but not in the form the officer needed.
This is the fix first scenario arriving late. Had the file been reviewed before filing, the defect would have been cured then, and the lawsuit would have had nothing to trip on. Arriving after filing, the fix is the same — a new medical, a certified translation, an updated affidavit — but it is done under the court's clock and with the government watching.
What we do is straightforward. We identify the defect, cure it, and submit the cure with the RFE response, so that the officer's next action is a decision on a file with nothing left to fix. Because we file the underlying petitions ourselves, this is work we do, not a referral. The FAQ's short answer is the same: an RFE after filing is a good sign, and the response is where the work of the case is done.
What "resolved" will mean afterwards
One more thing to understand before the decision comes. A mandamus case is resolved when the agency decides. Resolved does not mean approved.
A clean file, once an officer finally reads it, gets the decision a clean file deserves — which is why the review before filing spends so much effort on making sure the file is clean. But the lawsuit asked for a decision, and a denial is a decision. If the agency denies after the RFE, the mandamus case is over — the court's job is done — and the denial is handled on its own terms: a motion to reopen, an appeal, or in some cases a new filing. That is why the response to the RFE is where the effort goes, and why the file is reviewed for defects before the complaint is ever drafted.
If the government fights the lawsuit itself rather than deciding — arguing that the delay is reasonable, or that the court lacks the power to compel — that is a different path, and the FAQ explains what it looks like. A clean file well past the benchmarks gives the government little to argue with, which is exactly why the review before filing matters.
For the full picture of what a mandamus lawsuit asks for and what it does not, the writ of mandamus page covers the process from review to decision. And when the decision comes, whatever it is, here is what "resolved" means in plain terms.
RFE response checklist
- Calendar the exact response deadline and the delivery method stated in the notice.
- Answer every numbered or described issue; do not substitute volume for relevance.
- Explain unavailable evidence and use permitted secondary evidence where appropriate.
- Resolve contradictions across forms, declarations, and exhibits instead of leaving the officer to infer an answer.
- Keep a complete copy and proof that USCIS received the response.
USCIS policy says an RFE should identify the missing or insufficient evidence and give the requester enough information to respond. A response should be complete when submitted; an incomplete response can lead USCIS to decide on the existing record. The RFE deadline and every federal-court deadline must be managed separately by counsel.
Official sources
Last reviewed September 27, 2026. General information only; the facts, court, and requested relief can change the analysis.
