What Is in Your A-File and Why It Matters Before You File

The A-file is the government’s memory of your immigration life, and it remembers things you may have forgotten or never knew. Every application you or anyone else filed on your behalf, every decision, every statement you signed at a border or in an interview, and every order an immigration judge entered against you lives in that file. Before you file for naturalization, a waiver, asylum or a green card, the question is not whether USCIS will read your A-file. It will. The question is whether you have read it first. Capitol Law Partners obtains and reviews A-files through its FOIA requests practice as the first step in most complex cases.

What an A-file is

The Alien File is the consolidated record USCIS maintains for each noncitizen, identified by an A-number, the seven to nine digit number that appears on green cards, work permits and Notices to Appear. The file is opened the first time a person has a recorded contact with immigration authorities that generates a case: a petition filed for them, an application they file, an apprehension, or an immigration court proceeding. It then follows the person for life, absorbing records created by USCIS, its predecessor agency, CBP, ICE and, in part, consulates. Once a person naturalizes, the file is closed but not destroyed.

What is in an A-file

The contents vary with the person’s history, but a full file commonly includes:

• Every petition and application: I-130, I-140, I-485, I-589, I-751, N-400 and the rest, with supporting documents and the agency’s decisions.
• Receipt and approval notices, requests for evidence and your responses.
• Interview notes and the officer’s worksheets, often partially redacted.
• Sworn statements taken at ports of entry or during enforcement encounters, and the forms that record them.
• Records of deportable or inadmissible alien on Form I-213, Notices to Appear, charging documents and copies of immigration judge orders.
• Biometrics and fingerprint results, background check records, and copies of passports and visas.
• Prior counsel’s Form G-28 appearances, which tell you who represented you and when.
• Correspondence, address changes and notices returned as undeliverable.

What is not there is as important. The immigration court’s own record of proceedings is held by EOIR and must be requested separately. CBP’s full inspection and travel history sits in CBP systems. Consular officers’ notes on a visa refusal are confidential and are not released at all. For those, see how to get your immigration court record from EOIR and how to get your CBP entry and exit records.

Why it matters before naturalization

The N-400 asks about every trip, every arrest, every prior application and every claim to citizenship. The officer compares your answers to the A-file. A discrepancy between the dates you list now and the dates on an old I-485, or a prior statement under oath that contradicts your current account, raises a question of good moral character or misrepresentation that can end the application and sometimes the green card. Reading the file first lets you explain a discrepancy before the interview rather than be confronted with it. Our citizenship and naturalization page covers the process from eligibility to the oath.

Why it matters for waivers, asylum and removal defense

A waiver application has to name the exact ground of inadmissibility, and the A-file shows what USCIS or CBP actually found: a fraud finding, a prior removal order, a false claim to citizenship recorded in a sworn statement. An asylum declaration that conflicts with a credible fear interview record in the file invites an adverse credibility finding, so the record is read before the declaration is written. In removal defense, the file shows how and where a hearing notice was mailed, which decides whether an in absentia order can be rescinded, and it reveals any prior order a motion to reopen must address.

How to read the file

The release arrives as a large electronic document, roughly reverse chronological, with no index. Build a timeline first: entries, filings, decisions, encounters. Flag anything you do not recognize. Note the redactions and what exemption each one claims. Compare every date of birth, name spelling and entry date across documents, because a single inconsistency repeated across years looks like a pattern to an officer. If the file is heavily redacted or seems incomplete, an administrative appeal is available within the deadline stated in the response letter.

Getting it

The request goes to USCIS, online or on Form G-639, with your identifying information and a signed verification of identity; how to file a USCIS FOIA request walks through the steps. Complete A-file requests take time, so file early, before a deadline makes the wait expensive. If a hearing is already scheduled, say so in the request, since USCIS moves those files faster.

If you are about to file an application and are not certain what your A-file contains, a consultation with Capitol Law Partners can start the request and review the results with you. Schedule a consultation.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by this communication.

Attorney Sena Sahin. Clear advice for individuals, families, and business owners.

Need help with this topic? See our FOIA requests for immigration records page or schedule a consultation.