How to fight a USCIS decision

[kfddakota 1]

My immigrant wife came to America from Belarus in August 13, 2015 and we were married on September 19, 2015. We applied for change of status in October 2015 and received our Green card the first week of February 2016. Upon inspection of the card the "resident since" date showed January 25, 2015 and "expires" date showed January 25, 2017. The dates should have been 2016 to 2018, respectively. I filed an I-90 to replace the green card in March 2015 and finally heard a decision on January 17, 2017 that stated I am ineligible for a replacement card because her name was not incorrect. I never filed it due to her name, but the dates being incorrect. I called a supervisor at USCIS and he noticed the error in the dates and he stated that he would send that in an email to administration to get this sorted out. This week I received a follow up letter from USCIS stating it was about my call last week concerning the incorrect information on my wife's card. It also stated that it was denied again due to her name not being spelled incorrectly. My only option they tell me is to file an I-290B, but I do not feel like I should have to pay the I-290B fee of $650 to contest their ruling when the mistake is theirs and they have made it 3 times now. What are my options? This almost feels like extortion.

[Villanelle 4,121]

Oddly enough there have been a few other posts about things like this. Not sure when the most recent one was- or how they solved it (if they even solved it yet)- but there have been postings about people getting the wrong dates on the GC and then sending the I90 and being told there is no error. They also called USCIS (tier 2 supervisor) who could clearly see the error and had no idea why the I90 was rejected...

 

So your best bet right now is to contact your local congressperson. They have a staff member that is the immigration liaison. They can help you with USCIS matters. Look at your congressmans website- it should have info. I would suggest going to them for assistance. Discuss with them what path of action you should take. You can either submit a new I90 with their help (ask for an expedite on it) OR file the appeal (not sure if you can appeal the I90 decision off hand- but you say you can, so Im going to assume you know this as a fact)- If you appeal you will have to pay the money upfront. Once the decision is made you can request your fee back since you had to file the motion due to their error. It can take a long time to get your money back regardless of what the websites/reps say... If you have the assistance from the congressmans office they may be able to get your appeal submitted with out having to pay the fee upfront. They may not. Bring everything you have when you go to their office.

 

For right now you should obtain a 551 stamp from your local infopass. Check with them about the dates they have in their system. As long as its correct in the system- the GC is just a piece of plastic. I know its important but it doesnt dictate anything- its just proof of status. Its horrible that is wrong and they are not providing you with an accurate one- but it doesnt impact her status. You are looking at filing for ROC next Jan (up to 3 months before end of Jan). So maybe you will have a new card by then... maybe not. But you should get it fixed because whatever the error is, it may spill over into ROC and her 10yr card may have an error as well if you dont fix this now. 

[NikLR 13,220]

~~moved to USCIS service centers from NVC discussion~~