united-states immigration illegal-immigration
Remaining in the US Beyond I94 Date After Filing I-539
<p>My mom and sister got to the US in October and they were scheduled to leave the US on April 2nd. Their I94s expire on April 16th. I filed for an I-539 on April 9th. We never saw the Coronavirus situation becoming a problem and waited until the last moment to file the extension. I still didn't get a response from USCIS regarding the case. In that case, can my mom and sister legally remain in the US beyond April 16th until we get an official answer from the USCIS?</p>

<p>Further, as proof of having arrangements to leave the US, we weren't able to provide copies of return flight tickets because the airports in our home country are currently closed and don't know when they will open. Do you think not providing copies of return tickets will affect negatively for the request?</p>

<p>They can legally remain in the US while their Extension of Status application (I-539) is pending, as long as their application was timely-filed (filed before their status ended) and not frivolous. The date an application is filed is the date that USCIS officially receives it, which will be shown as the "received date" on the application receipt when they get it.</p>

<p>The problem is that they don't know what the "received date" is, since they yet haven't received the receipt, so it is kind of taking a gamble. However, the "received date" is generally not more than one or two days after the package was physically delivered there, so the chances are good that it was received on time.</p>
