The I-290B covers a motion to reopen, a motion to reconsider, and an AAO appeal — three instruments with different standards, audiences, and uses. Filing the wrong one satisfies the deadline and wastes it at the same time.
| Ask | Standard | Right when… |
|---|---|---|
| Reopen | New facts, previously unavailable, documented | The problem was an evidentiary hole you can now fill — the record was incomplete, not misread. |
| Reconsider | Legal or policy error on the existing record | The officer misapplied law to what was already there — no new documents, sharper argument. |
| AAO appeal | Full review by the appeals office | The error deserves fresh eyes above the deciding office, the category permits appeal, and the timeline can absorb months. |
Three recur: mislabeling — new-evidence filings styled as reconsideration get denied on the mismatch alone; kitchen-sinking — a combined motion that argues everything signals confidence in nothing; and clock arithmetic — the 30 days run from the decision date with a short mailing allowance, and late means gone. The choice deserves an hour of lawyer time before the form sees a checkbox.
| Road | What it is | The honest trade |
|---|---|---|
| Motion to reopen / reconsider (I-290B) | Asks the same office to look again — new facts (reopen) or legal error (reconsider). 30 days from the decision (a few more if it was mailed). | Fast to file; the audience is the office that just said no. |
| AAO appeal (I-290B) | Review by the Administrative Appeals Office — same 30-day clock, where the category allows appeal. | A fresh set of eyes inside the agency; measured in months, and affirmance rates are sobering. |
| Federal court (APA) | A lawsuit arguing the denial was arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law — decided by a judge on the agency's own record. | The only reviewer outside the agency; strongest where the officer misread law or ignored evidence in the record. |
| Refile | A new petition, curing what the denial identified. | Sometimes genuinely fastest — and sometimes a fee paid to receive the same paragraph again. The decision letter tells you which. |
These roads are not exclusive — strategy is sequencing. What decides the sequence is the decision letter itself: read against the record, it either shows an error a reviewer can fix or a gap only new evidence can fill.
The clock is the first fact. The motion and appeal windows are measured in days from the decision date, and federal-court claims have their own limits. Whatever road fits, the reading of the decision letter cannot wait a month.
The form allows combined filings in some configurations, and sometimes that's right — but a scattergun filing often reads as weakness. The denial letter's specific defects pick the instrument.
Filing does not confer status or stop clocks by itself — collateral consequences run on their own rules and need their own plan alongside the challenge.
The government filing fee plus the brief that gives it a chance. Fee schedules change — verify the current fee at filing; the letter sets engagement scope in writing before anything is signed.