H-1B Requests for Evidence, Explained

The immigration process involves many steps and forms. From electronic registration to a full H-1B cap petition, there are many aspects that companies need to stay on top of.

One such aspect of the immigration process centers around a request for evidence or RFE.

USCIS issues most H-1B requests for evidence for one of four reasons: the role doesn’t clearly qualify as a specialty occupation, the petition doesn’t establish a valid basis for employment at a third-party worksite, the sponsored employee’s qualifications aren’t fully documented, or the employee’s maintenance of nonimmigrant status is in question. The evidentiary bar for several of these categories shifted when USCIS finalized the H-1B modernization rule, effective Jan. 17, 2025.

We sat down with Frank J. Fogelbach, a managing attorney at Corporate Immigration Partners, PC, to walk through what RFEs are, the latest USCIS trend data, how each of the four RFE types works today and how employers can respond to each one.

What is a Request for Evidence?

A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) request for evidence (RFE) informs petitioners that there wasn’t enough information provided or that USCIS needs more clarification on Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker.

Employers must send the requested information to USCIS. Failure to do so will likely result in a denial.

USCIS can issue RFEs for all petition types.

USCIS will consider applicant responses received within 60 calendar days after the due date posted on an applicable notice or request before it acts.

RFEs and Recent Trends

USCIS regularly releases data and immigration statistics throughout the year, including RFE data. The general public can visit USCIS’ website and view historical RFE data that dates to Fiscal Year (FY) 2017.

At a high level, RFE trends tend to correlate with the executive branch. USCIS data indicates that the completions with RFE percentage in FY 2017 was 21.4%. For FY 2018, the RFE rate increased to 38% and then 40.2% in FY 2019. Rates dropped to 28.8% in FY 2020, and dropped again to 16.2% in FY 2021. In FY 2023, the number of completions with RFE rose slightly to 10.5%, up from 9.6% in FY 2022. The rate then fell sharply in FY 2024, to 8%, the lowest recorded since USCIS began publishing this data.

USCIS issued 33,393 RFEs in H-1B adjudications in FY 2024, comprising 8% of the 407,625 H-1B petitions completed that year. Petitions for initial employment carried a meaningfully higher RFE rate (13%) than petitions for continuing employment (6%), which is worth flagging to clients: a net-new filing and a transfer or extension don’t carry the same RFE risk.

That FY 2024 rate has held. USCIS’s full-year FY 2025 data show that 35,155 of the 415,275 H-1B petitions completed that year received an RFE, an 8.5% rate. The first three quarters of FY 2026 (October 2025 through June 2026) show the same 8.5% rate, so the FY 2024 low appears to be a durable stabilization rather than a one-year dip.

View USCIS’ RFE data here.

What are the Chances of H-1B Approval After RFE?

USCIS also provides data on the approval percentage after an RFE. Of the 35,155 H-1B petitions completed with an RFE in FY 2025, 30,224 were ultimately approved, an 86% approval-after-RFE rate, up from 79.8% in FY 2023 and back near FY 2022’s 85.5%. The first three quarters of FY 2026 show a pull-back to about 82%, worth watching as the fiscal year closes out.

Can USCIS Deny an H-1B Petition Without an RFE?

Yes, USCIS can deny an H-1B petition without an RFE.

USCIS received 456,724 H-1B petitions in FY 2025 and completed 415,275 of them. Of those completions, 8,926 were initially denied, with 124,638 still pending at fiscal year-end.

H-1B RFEs Types and How to Respond

The risk of USCIS issuing an RFE varies by category, and USCIS most often issues one of four types.

Specialty Occupation RFEs

USCIS issues this RFE when the initial petition doesn’t show that the offered role requires at least a bachelor’s degree in a specific specialty. Under the specialty occupation standard in the 2025 rule, every qualifying criterion must show a direct relationship between the required degree field and the position’s duties. USCIS also clarified that an employer “normally” requiring a degree doesn’t mean the employer must “always” require one, so a petition can list more than one acceptable degree field as long as each field is directly related to the job.

How to respond: Provide a detailed, duty-by-duty job description that ties each core responsibility to the specific degree field or fields required, rather than a generic occupational summary. If the role accepts more than one degree field, explain how each field relates to the position’s duties.

Third-Party Placement and Employer-Employee Relationship RFEs

This category has changed the most in recent years. The 2020 lawsuit settlement, which had limited USCIS’s ability to issue employer-employee relationship RFEs, is no longer the operative framework. The 2025 rule removed “employer-employee relationship” from the regulatory definition of “U.S. employer.” It replaced it with a requirement that the petitioner have a bona fide job offer for the beneficiary as of the requested start date.

For H-1B workers placed at a third-party worksite, the work performed for that third party must itself qualify as a specialty occupation, based on the third party’s own requirements. USCIS eliminated the itinerary requirement for H classifications but strengthened its site-visit authority, including at third-party worksites.

How to respond: Provide signed client contracts or statements of work, detailed work assignments and deliverables, plus evidence that the placement itself calls for specialty-occupation-level work. Because this area is constantly evolving, confirm the current requirements with your immigration team before finalizing a response strategy for a pending case.

Beneficiary Qualifications RFEs

USCIS issues this RFE when the petition doesn’t sufficiently show that the sponsored employee meets the position’s minimum education or experience requirements. This RFE often comes up when an employee’s degree isn’t a direct match for the occupation, or when the petition relies on a “combination” evaluation that credits work experience toward a degree equivalency. USCIS tends to scrutinize combination evaluations more closely than single-source degree evaluations.

How to respond: Submit a credential evaluation from a qualified evaluator that documents how the employee’s degree, or combination of degree and work experience, satisfies the position’s specific requirements. Where the degree field doesn’t obviously match the occupation, explain the connection directly rather than leaving USCIS to infer it.

Maintenance of Status RFEs

USCIS issues this RFE most often when a sponsored employee is transitioning from F-1 to H-1B status while working under Curricular Practical Training (CPT). USCIS has recently increased scrutiny of CPT authorizations, particularly arrangements tied to a new academic program, and petitioners should be ready to document that the employee’s coursework was legitimate, that the employee attended classes, and that the CPT is tied to the employee’s field of study.

How to respond: Provide the employee’s Form I-20, transcripts or enrollment verification, and a description of how the CPT placement relates to the academic program. If the employee’s school has signaled it may not reissue CPT for the upcoming semester, flag the case internally well before the current authorization expires.

Practice Pointers to Steer Clear of RFEs

Unclear or inaccurate information on an H-1B petition can prompt an RFE. As such, it’s important for HR teams to establish clear processes to prepare H-1B petitions.

This process should ensure all internal stakeholders, including employees and managers, are aware of their responsibilities and timelines. Managers should play a key role in providing detailed and accurate job descriptions to immigration counsel.

Document collection and storage is also a strategy teams can implement to better access important information. For example, leveraging immigration technology or HRIS platforms can allow HR teams to locate detailed records for foreign national employees, documents showing maintenance of lawful nonimmigrant status and relevant company documents.

Establishing a clear process for preparing H-1B petitions should also include the company’s immigration counsel. When in doubt, HR teams should lean on their immigration counsel for questions and additional information to help strengthen an H-1B petition.

Finally, HR teams should ultimately be prepared to respond to an RFE. USCIS can be unpredictable with issuing RFEs. By being ready to respond, HR teams will help ensure they can gather the information needed to provide a timely response to USCIS.

RFEs are part of the immigration process, and sometimes there is little that can be done to avoid them. That said, there are certain known RFE triggers in the H-1B context that are worth mentioning to HR professionals, including:

1. Whether the particular role is a role that USCIS considers to require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.
2. Whether the employee has a degree in a discipline related to the occupation.
3. Whether an employee is relying on a single-source degree or a degree equivalency based on a combination of education and experience.
4. Whether the employer can pay the required wage to the employee.
5. Whether the employee has particular circumstances in their past, such as arrests, convictions or prior denials of immigration benefits.

Finally, it is also worth mentioning that immigration is a political football. It often depends on the administration in charge to set the tone as to how easy or difficult it is for particular beneficiaries to obtain immigration benefits.

H-1B RFE Frequently Asked Questions

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