Skip to content
Fola Docs

Forms & PDFs

Form-filling issues fall into two camps: data on your side (a field is wrong on the Identity tab) or our renderer being out of sync with the official form. Most fixes take five minutes; rendering bugs we ship the same day.

”A field is blank that I filled in”

Section titled “”A field is blank that I filled in””

What you saw: you set a value on the Identity tab but it didn’t appear on the rendered PDF, or appeared in the wrong place.

What it means: the form’s field mapping is missing the route from that profile field to that PDF widget — a YAML bug, not a data problem.

What to do: email forms@folaform.com with:

  1. The form ID (e.g. i-130)
  2. The exact label of the blank field
  3. A screenshot of the filled value on the Identity tab and the blank field on the rendered PDF

We re-author the mapping and ship the fix the same day, sometimes within an hour.

”PDF still has the COPY watermark after I finalized”

Section titled “”PDF still has the COPY watermark after I finalized””

What you saw: you clicked Finalize but the downloaded PDF still has the diagonal “COPY — DO NOT PROCESS” stamp.

What it means: either the form isn’t unlocked on your tier (demo orgs can finalize anything; paid tiers have per-form gating on some surfaces), or the finalize step didn’t actually fire.

What to do:

  1. Confirm the form shows as unlocked at My Forms → [that form].
  2. Hard-refresh the page and re-export — sometimes the browser served you a cached preview.
  3. If the watermark persists, email forms@folaform.com.

”USCIS rejected my filing”

Section titled “”USCIS rejected my filing””

What you saw: USCIS sent back a rejection notice for the form you filed.

What it means: something in the filing didn’t match USCIS requirements — common causes: wrong fee amount, missing signature, wrong filing location, expired form edition, missing G-28.

What to do:

  1. Read the rejection notice carefully for the specific reason.
  2. Open Ask Fola and paste the rejection text — Fola tells you exactly what needs to change.
  3. Fix and refile. If the rejection is for an expired form edition, email forms@folaform.com so we update our bundled template.

”The form I need isn’t in the catalog”

Section titled “”The form I need isn’t in the catalog””

What you saw: searched the Form catalog for a form and nothing came back.

What it means: we ship ~176 forms today and add ~10/month. Common forms tend to be there; obscure forms may not be yet.

What to do:

  1. Search by both form ID (e.g. “I-356”) and human title (“Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status”).
  2. If neither lands, email forms@folaform.com with the form you need. We prioritize by request volume; most-requested forms ship within 30 days.

”A checkbox group is all-checked or none-checked”

Section titled “”A checkbox group is all-checked or none-checked””

What you saw: a form question that should pick one option (e.g. sex M/F, marital status S/M/D/W) is showing every option checked or no option checked.

What it means: the form definition’s logic for mapping the profile field to the right checkbox is broken.

What to do: email forms@forfaform.com with the form ID and which question. We typically ship a fix within 24 hours.

”The translation overlay is showing English”

Section titled “”The translation overlay is showing English””

What you saw: you set the form’s language to Spanish but the rendered PDF is still in English.

What it means: the translation overlay for that language hasn’t been authored for that specific form yet. Fola ships overlays in 16 languages but not every form has every language.

What to do:

  1. Use the form’s PDF in English — it’s still legally valid.
  2. Email forms@folaform.com with the form ID and the language you need; we prioritize popular pairings.

When to email forms@ vs support@

Section titled “When to email forms@ vs support@”

Was this page helpful?