RFE on L1 extension: What are the options?

[CVG]

Hi All! Me and my wife are currently in the US. Both of us have our own L1 visa. My I-94 is valid till July 2013. However, my wife recently applied for an L1 extension as she had got her visa three years back. Now, we have come to know that USCIS has raised a RFE in her case. Recently, one of our colleagues was put in to the same situation and although our company's visa team responded to that RFE, his extension application got rejected. The problem is that the people in our company who work on visa related issued are not very good at responding to RFE's. Further, to be fair with them, sometimes, the questions asked in the RFE are very tough (in our colleague's case, they were asked to furnish documents obtained from the client, which is next to impossible). We would like to receive some help on the following:

1) Can we withdraw the extension application if we feel that the questions asked in the RFE are too tough to reply?
2) Can my wife then go back to India and file a fresh L1B Blanket petition?
3) Will the withdrawal of the extension application have any effect on the approval of the fresh L1B Blanket petition? Similarly, if we don't withdraw the extension application but it gets rejected after responding to the RFE, will this rejection have any effect on the approval of the fresh L1B Blanket petition?
4) If this fresh L1B petition also gets rejected, would the withdrawal and/or the rejection/s have an effect on her chances of getting a L2 visa and joining me here (we don't want to live apart anymore because we have already had enough of that )?

Please note that we don't know what questions have been asked in the RFE yet but we will come to know in a day or two.

Would really appreciate any kind of advice.
Thanks and regards,
CVG

[shervin143]

1) Can we withdraw the extension application if we feel that the questions asked in the RFE are too tough to reply?
>>> Yes.

2) Can my wife then go back to India and file a fresh L1B Blanket petition?
>>> Yes.

3) Will the withdrawal of the extension application have any effect on the approval of the fresh L1B Blanket petition?
>>> No. Make sure she doesn't overstay on beyond her I-94 validity. Any time spent after the I-94 expiry date will be considered illegal.

Similarly, if we don't withdraw the extension application but it gets rejected after responding to the RFE, will this rejection have any effect on the approval of the fresh L1B Blanket petition?
>>> No.

4) If this fresh L1B petition also gets rejected, would the withdrawal and/or the rejection/s have an effect on her chances of getting a L2 visa and joining me here (we don't want to live apart anymore because we have already had enough of that )?
>>> No.

[CVG]

Thanks for the information Shervin! In fact, my wife's I-94 expired on the 27th of Sep. She is still in the US as the decision on her extension application is pending. As far as I know, she can stay in the US till the decision comes in; if her application is rejected, she will have to leave the US immediately. I hope it's OK to stay till the decision comes? What's your opinion about this? Thanks once again.

[shervin143]

She is allowed to stay until the decision is made on her case. The only issue is, if her extension gets denied, then her stay past her I-94 expiry date will be considered illegal. If the extension goes through, she is all good.

It is very much advisable to avoid any illegal stay. So in case her extension gets dnied, she should leave the country immediately to minimize the illegal stay duration and avoid issues on her future visa stamping & POE issues.

Alternatively, she can request her company to upgrade to premium process which will get a result within 15 days.

Thanks for the information Shervin! In fact, my wife's I-94 expired on the 27th of Sep. She is still in the US as the decision on her extension application is pending. As far as I know, she can stay in the US till the decision comes in; if her application is rejected, she will have to leave the US immediately. I hope it's OK to stay till the decision comes? What's your opinion about this? Thanks once again.

[Sanyadav]

Hi CVG,

can you please share the update on the action taken? did your wife withdraw L1B individual RFE application and went for L1B Blanket approval at Consulate? If yes, did she get approval?


Regards,
Santosh Yadav