Is a refund-if-denied offer a red flag?
Not by itself. A fee refunded on denial is a billing term, and a legitimate one. What decides whether it is worth anything is narrower: which plan it applies to, what the firm counts as a denial, and whether all of it is in writing before any work begins. If it is not, treat it as marketing.
When it is a red flag
The offer itself is ordinary. These are the versions of it that are not, and they are worth checking for at any firm — including this one.
- Screening you cannot see
- Every competent firm declines cases it doubts — that is the job, not the problem. But a refund is worth only as much as a firm is selective, and selectiveness is what you cannot see. Ask when the assessment happens and what it costs.
- A refund that is really a credit
- Money applied to a future filing is not money returned. Ask whether the funds come back to you, and what happens if you do not want a second filing.
- Terms you only see at signing
- Every firm puts the binding version in its engagement letter — that is what an engagement letter is for. The question is whether you could read the substance before you got there. If the first time you see a condition is at signature, you were never able to compare.
- Any promise of approval
- A fee term says what you pay and what comes back. An outcome promise says what a government agency will decide, which no firm controls. The two get blurred deliberately, and the second one is the warning.
- A fee far below everyone else
- The work still has to be paid for. A price well under what the filing takes is usually recovered somewhere — in what the fee covers, in who actually drafts the petition, or in what a response to an RFE costs on top.
You will also see approval described as guaranteed. No lawyer or firm can guarantee what USCIS decides, and a firm that says otherwise has told you something about itself. What can be promised is a fee term — what you pay, and what returns to you if the petition is denied.
What to ask any firm that offers one
Six questions, in the order they matter. The answers should be specific, and a firm should be willing to put any of them in writing before you sign.
- Which of your plans include the refund, and is the one you are quoting me one of them?
- Where are these terms written, and may I read them before I sign?
- What counts as a denial? Ask specifically about an RFE, a NOID, a case closed administratively, and a petition you withdraw.
- Is it the full legal fee, returned to me — or a credit against other work?
- What sits outside it? Government filing fees are paid to USCIS and no firm can refund them.
- When is my eligibility for the refund decided, and what does it cost to find out?
How our terms work
Stated here so it can be held against the questions above. The figures, and what each plan covers, are on the pricing page.
- Not on every plan
- The denial refund is offered on selected plans. It is not part of every engagement, and this page is not an offer of it.
- Decided before the petition work starts
- Whether your case qualifies is assessed before any petition work begins — usually at the free eligibility check. Complex cases may need a paid consultation first; if so, we will tell you before it happens and state the fee.
- The signed agreement controls
- The retainer agreement you sign is the final and controlling statement of the terms. This page summarizes them and does not replace them.
- The full legal fee, not a credit
- Where it applies, we refund the full legal fee for the denied petition. Not a credit, and not part of it. Government filing fees are separate and are paid directly to USCIS.
- What counts as a denial
- A denial is a decision by USCIS refusing the petition. An RFE or a NOID is not a denial — it is a step in the case, and one response is included in the fee. The refund question arises only if the petition is denied after that response. A case closed without a decision, or a petition you choose to withdraw, is not a denial and does not trigger the refund. The retainer agreement defines this precisely and controls.
- On the O-1 + EB-1A plan, half to each petition
- The O-1 + EB-1A plan is one fee covering two filings, so half of it applies to each. If one petition is denied we refund half; if both are, we refund the full fee. Eligibility for this plan is assessed against a different standard, since the record has to support both petitions. It is never offered without the refund.