Why it exists
USCIS AcroForm PDFs contain more than visible pages. They also include a field layer with names, rectangles, values, flags, default appearances, font resources, widget annotations, and button appearances. When a new edition is released, rebuilding that layer by hand is slow and error-prone.
This tool extracts the field layer from an older USCIS PDF and transplants it into a newer PDF at the same page numbers and coordinates. It exists to make that migration inspectable, repeatable, and easier to verify.
It does not work directly with the PDFs USCIS provides, because those files are typically XFA forms. In our workflow, we manually convert the USCIS PDF into an AcroForm PDF first, then use this tool on the converted version.
Who built it
This project was built by the founder of Fillvisa, an immigration form workflow product. It is part of the internal workflow behind Fillvisa and supports the ongoing work of keeping form automation reliable as USCIS releases new PDF editions.
The broader Fillvisa open-source work is available on GitHub at athos2113/fillvisa-os.