welcomeUSA’s AI assistant
Need a hand with something?
Ask me a question below.
In English, Spanish, Portuguese, or Ukrainian
Sofia is AI, not a lawyer, and gives no legal advice.
We pay you back if an error in our software causes USCIS to deny your application. Here is what is covered and how to claim.
Last updated: November 2026
Summary
If USCIS denies your application because of an error in our software, we refund our fee and up to $3,000 of your USCIS filing fees.
Send your claim within 30 days of the date on the USCIS denial notice.
USCIS decides every case. This guarantee covers errors in our software, not the outcome.
This is a different promise from the 7-day refund. It applies after you file.
File the packet as we prepared it, within 90 days of downloading it. We check your claim against the packet you downloaded, and we decide it.
welcomeUSA is self-help software. It is not a law firm, gives no legal advice, and is not affiliated with USCIS. You choose your petition and file it yourself. This guarantee is not a promise that USCIS will approve your petition: USCIS decides every case, and no result is guaranteed, as the consumer terms say. That is also what you confirm at checkout. Both are true: we promise no result, only money back when our own software made the error. If an error in the forms our software prepared causes USCIS to deny your petition, we pay you back as set out below. Our completeness check is not a legal review.
If we approve your claim, we refund in full what you actually paid us for the package that included the denied petition, after any discount. We also pay back up to $3,000 of the USCIS filing fee you paid for the denied petition, as shown on its receipt notice and your proof of payment. Premium processing fees, fees for forms USCIS approved, and any amount USCIS waived or refunded are not included. The guarantee does not cover the fees of an independent attorney, mail or courier costs, or any other cost. It is separate from the 7-day refund in the refund policy: it applies after you download and file, when that policy no longer gives a refund.
The guarantee applies when USCIS denies your petition and we find, by comparing the denial notice with the packet you downloaded, that a reason USCIS gives was directly caused by an error in the forms our software prepared. For example: an answer saved in your account was left out of the packet or placed in the wrong field, or the packet used an edition of a form that USCIS did not accept on the day you downloaded it. Checking your answers on a review screen does not make a misplaced answer your fault. The error must be in what our software did: it is not covered if the denial comes from an answer you gave that was wrong, or from text you wrote or changed yourself. Choosing the petition is your decision, so a denial because the petition did not fit your case is not covered. A rejection, when USCIS returns a filing without deciding it, is not a denial and is not covered.
To be covered, you filed the packet as our software prepared it. Signing it, dating it, and adding the photos, documents, and payment the filing instructions ask for is expected and fine. You filed it within 90 days of downloading it. Keep a full copy of everything you mail to USCIS; we may ask for it if you make a claim. The guarantee does not cover a denial caused by an answer that was not true or complete, by not following the filing instructions, or by a change you made to the forms.
The guarantee does not cover a denial because of your eligibility, the facts of your case, or your criminal or immigration history. It does not cover evidence the filing instructions asked for that you did not include, a request for evidence or an interview notice you did not answer, or a deadline you missed. It does not cover a change in law, or a form edition, government fee, or USCIS rule that changed after you downloaded your packet. It does not cover USCIS processing errors or delays, or mail or courier problems. It does not cover fraud or misrepresentation by you or anyone acting for you, in the petition or in the claim; a claim with an altered or false document is denied, and we may recover any amount already paid. A request for evidence is not a denial and is not covered on its own.
Send your claim through the contact page within 30 days of the date on the USCIS denial notice. Include every page of the denial notice; the USCIS receipt notice (Form I-797C) for that filing, which shows your receipt number; proof of the amount you paid USCIS, such as a card or bank statement line, a copy of your check, or an online payment confirmation; a copy of what you filed, or a note that you did not keep one; and the email on your welcomeUSA account. Your claim is complete once we have everything except the copy of what you filed. We confirm in writing that we received it, with a claim number.
Each time you download your packet, we keep a copy of it and of your answers at that moment, so a claim can be checked against the version you filed. If you delete your account, or ask us to delete that copy, we can no longer check a claim and the guarantee ends. We compare the denial notice with that copy, and we may confirm the notice in USCIS's online case status tool using your receipt number. If we need something more from you, we ask before we decide. We decide whether an error in our software caused the denial, and we tell you our decision and the reasons in writing.
Once we approve a claim, we refund our fee promptly to the payment method you used; your bank or card issuer may take several business days to post the credit. Payments made through a payment-plan provider are refunded through that provider, which may apply the refund to your plan first. We pay the USCIS fee amount separately, to the person who bought the service. We do not pay a third party.
Each petition, meaning one USCIS filing with its own receipt number, can have one claim. The most we pay back in USCIS filing fees across all claims from one order is $3,000. Once a claim is decided, the guarantee for that petition ends, including for any appeal, motion, or refiling. If you dispute the same payment with your bank, or USCIS refunds the fee, we deduct that amount from what we pay, or you return it to us.
Nothing in this guarantee limits a right that consumer law gives you where you live. Other country notices are on the country pages. If this guarantee changes, the new version appears here with a new effective date and applies only to purchases made after that date.
This guarantee is part of your agreement with welcomeUSA, together with the consumer terms, the refund policy and the privacy policy.