Immigration Application Denial Rates Increase By 37%

In an article by David Bier at the Cato Institute, under the current administration, immigration application denial rates increased by 37% since the 2016 Fiscal Year. Notably, denials of advance parole, which allows foreign nationals to travel without jeopardizing pending applications increased from 7.2% to 18.1%, and the denial rate for I-129 petitions, which are typically filed by employers seeking to hire foreign nationals, increased from 16.8% to 22.6%.

Since we have already witnessed an increase in the issuance of Requests for Evidence ("RFE") in I-129 filings of over 40% of all applications filed, this would indicate that approximately 50% of those applications for which an RFE is issued are subsequently denied.