The Department of Homeland Security is giving U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services new discretion to reject or deny immigration benefit requests that are later found to lack a valid signature, codifying a policy USCIS has followed since 2018. The interim final rule takes effect July 10, the same day public comments are due.
Under the rule, USCIS may deny an accepted filing if it later determines the signature is invalid, which means the agency can keep the filing fee and treat the case as fully adjudicated. The rule preserves USCIS’s current practice of rejecting filings that are caught at intake with missing or typewritten signatures, which are returned with the fee.
The rule revises 8 CFR 103.2(a)(7)(ii)(A) to state that every form, benefit request or other document requiring a signature must be submitted with a valid signature. If USCIS accepts a request and later finds the signature invalid, the agency may reject or deny it, except in a narrow category involving Form N-600 and Form N-600K cases seeking certificates of citizenship, which may only be rejected if the sole problem is the signature.
DHS said the change is meant to clarify and standardize how USCIS handles invalid signatures, especially in cases where the defect is not visible at intake. The agency said that in some instances the signature problem is discovered only after a case has already moved into adjudication, after USCIS has spent time and resources on the filing.
DHS said it has seen a rise in questionable or invalid signatures, including copy-and-pasted signatures, signatures made by someone other than the requestor, stamped signatures and signatures created by software. The agency cited 758 appeals involving signatures copied from another document and said one case involved at least 20 Form I-129 petitions with copied signatures, while another involved roughly 3,000 Form I-140 petitions with pasted signatures.
The department argued that proper signatures are essential because they show the requestor understands and certifies the contents of the filing under penalty of perjury. DHS also said that allowing officers to deny invalidly signed cases can deter misuse of the system and help recover adjudication costs already incurred.
For most applicants, the practical effect is financial and procedural: if USCIS denies a filing for an invalid signature, the applicant may lose the fee and may need to file again, though denials can generally be appealed. Rejections, by contrast, return the filing and fee, but cannot be appealed.
DHS said it does not believe the rule changes the underlying signature standard or creates a new signature requirement. Instead, the department said it codifies existing practice and gives officers flexibility to reject files when the defect is quickly identified, or deny them when the problem is found later after significant adjudicatory work.
USCIS said it processed more than 13 million benefit requests in fiscal 2025 and had more than 11.6 million pending cases, which is why the agency said it cannot manually screen every signature at intake. DHS also cited a sharp increase in signature-based denials, from 300 in fiscal 2021 to 2,953 in fiscal 2025, with a five-year annual average of 1,192.
The agency said it does not expect the rule to create major new costs and classified it as procedural, arguing that it is exempt from the APA’s notice-and-comment requirement even though DHS is still inviting public comments.
The rule could matter most for people filing time-sensitive immigration applications, because a denial discovered late in the process may carry more consequences than a rejection at intake. DHS acknowledged that backlogs can mean invalid signatures are not caught for months or even years, but said applicants remain responsible for properly signed filings.
Kishor Panthi
View More PostsKishor Panthi is the founder and editor-in-chief of Khasokhas and NepYork. He is the author of three books, “Kampan,” "UNTRANSLATABLE" and “Zero Mile.” He writes about social issues, immigration, and politics.
