Immigration

When U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) receives your application, it will send you a receipt notice. Soon after, it will send you a notice to have your fingerprints and photo (“biometrics”) taken at a specific location, so USCIS can complete a background check. Once USCIS has looked at your forms, evidence, and background check results, it may notify you as to whether you should receive a positive or negative bona fide determination. USCIS will then do a more complete review of your application to decide whether you qualify for T visa status. USCIS may send you a “Request for Evidence” (RFE) that tells you to submit additional documents within a certain amount of time. You must send USCIS these items, or items very similar to them, so that they will arrive before the deadline, or else your case can be denied. Once USCIS receives them and does a final review of your case, it will send a notice that your case is either approved or denied.¹ If you are granted T visa status, you will also get a work authorization card.²

¹ 8 C.F.R. § 214.204(o)
² 8 C.F.R. § 214.204(o)(3)