U-Visa Bona Fide Determinations: Read the Principal and Derivative Notices Separately

A bona fide determination is an agency screening decision, not final U status. It can lead to deferred action and employment authorization, but the exact notice controls—and a principal petitioner’s result does not automatically decide a derivative’s file.

USCIS conducts bona fide review within the U-visa framework of 8 U.S.C. § 1184(p) and 8 C.F.R. § 214.14. Each principal and derivative applicant needs an individual notice audit.

Audit the filing foundation

Confirm a complete Form I-918, qualifying-crime certification, personal statement, admissibility filing if needed, and required biometrics. List requests for evidence and responses so the determination is tied to the correct record.

Read every notice for the named person

Match the name, A-number, receipt number, principal or Supplement A role, decision date, and validity period. For a derivative, look for the derivative’s own bona fide review and security-check completion.

Distinguish the resulting benefits

Record whether USCIS granted deferred action, issued employment authorization, placed the case on a waiting list, or did none of those things. Avoid describing a work permit as immigration status or a receipt as protection from removal.

Compare the notice to enforcement events

If detention follows, ask whether the grant remained active, whether any termination notice issued, and what information ICE relied upon. Put facts disclosed before the grant in a different column from later events.

Prepare a one-page proof chart

The best emergency exhibit often is a chart linking each claimed protection to the specific USCIS document that proves it. That chart prevents assumptions from substituting for the agency record.