Earlier this week, completely out of the blue, my wife received a call to her home phone from someone claiming to be from the Dept of Homeland Security.

They asked if we were still married, where we still living in the same house, if either of us were employed... and that was basically it.

It was such an out-of-the-blue thing, plus the fact that if someone calls from the govt then it throws you off, that she can't remember if they gave an ID number or not... when we checked the call history on the phone there was no number there. Not private or blocked - NO NUMBER.

So my question is... is this a normal type of thing? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Do I have anything to be worried about?

Or is this a new and improved way for bill collectors to check on you before they make a move?

Any calls that I've received from AOs have displayed on my caller ID as US DOJ Immigration Service. However, if it was a field investigator, they do have cell phones, so I suppose it is possible that the number may not show. I doubt an ID number would have been offered, anyway. A name, perhaps.

All the same, of what consequence is it? It seems that whoever called was satisfied with the replies. As for bill collectors, well, from all I have heard they have no compunction being irrascible so I don't believe they'd have to develop a ruse to do so

I don't know, I think that's kind of a weird phone call. Maybe a prank but always be careful about the information you give out over the phone.

Sounds like your working yourself up over nothing ....... let it be

1. Someone might have reported you to the Immigration Enforcement
service, and they called to verify. But it is not very plausible,
because from what I know they are preoccupied more with organised
illegal immigration, and though they accept phone reports of illegal
aliens, they do not chase individuals over the country, they are too
busy for that.
2. Someone played a joke on you. That someone knows that you are
involved in the Immigration process, and tried to pull your leg.
3. Someone tried to get some information on you. That someone knows
that you are in the process, and used this to find out things about
you. You should not have given any answers, but to ask for the name,
credentials and number of the caller, promising to call them back.
Then you should have tried to verify the information through their
web-site, phone number and so on. I think it's the third, and someone
was phishing you for info. I hope you did not give our anything
serious, like SSN numbers, case numbers, and similar.

The phone number does not show then the caller uses calling cards. It
just shows "incoming call". It's impossible to track such a caller
beyond the service which provided the calling card at the first place.

I would call immigartions and ask them if they do such thing and usually how they identify theirselves on the phone.

Don`t stress out to much, it was probably from immigrations but also keep in mind who else knows about this petition.
I would be shoked too and it`s not very easy to tell an immigration officer I will call you later , first I need to check your ID. It safe but not the best way so just call now and ask them.

Well, if it is from immigration, and from Homeland security, than it
is not good either. Their division, Immigration and Custom Enforcement
is not an office that is usually got involved in the immigration
process. They investigate and stop illegal immigration.
If the call is real, it means that someone tipped these people off,
and that that tip was taken seriously, and that they might be called
for the interview to prove that they are real.
Anybody with a grudge?

That's the thing though... a grudge for what? Tipped them off about what?

We've followed every step of this process by the book, and here we sit with me green card in hand, happily working AND PAYING TAXES, and getting ready for the end of this year when we can file to remove conditions.

What exactly would they be investigating?

I did call the USCIS phoneline. The lady told me that she wasn't sure if USCIS or Homeland Security (ie, her own people) did make phone calls like this, but I was welcome to book an Infopass appointment to discuss it at my local office. Yeah, like I really want to drive 2 and half hours to Jacksonville just to hear someone tell me it was a normal call, then drive 2 and half back.

Crazy crazy stuff. Why don't they make the local offices publish their phone numbers for goodness sake?

Oh well...

yes the Department of state can and will call ya.
they called me. they had a number on the coller ID but, it amounted to a bum number.
but the person ID themself.
this is common stuff in the ISL < pakistan > threads..
we also get random visits from the embassy. in our case we had 2 random visits from
the embassy..

Sorry, I thought you were already removing conditions, since you
posted on "removing". Yes, it's possible after the first conditional
GC to receive calls and visits in ungainly hours (very early in the
morning, late in the evening), to see if you are really living
together. It may be random or on someone's tip.
People often tip just to make trouble, not because something is wrong.
Then afterwards when there is a removal, it will be like "I do not
know what, but something was wrong with these people, we checked them
even". Then they will be checking you, asking to attend interviews and
so on. So, that someone might have wanted to make trouble for you. Or
they were going through routine check, and you were the case number
xxx to check.
Why didn't you at least asked the person's name?

This probably has nothing to do with anything but I remember that I had seen this post and I just wanted to add this....

My father just received a call from the Department of Homeland Security (but it was a Toronto area code) -- it was a scam.

At first, the "agent" tried to scare my father....then, he wanted him to go to Wal-Mart and send him a MoneyGram for $2,500 -- once that was done, he would call back to get my fathers bank account number where the "agent" was going to deposit $2.5million into his account.

My dad knew it was a scam from the beginning and played "dumb" to see where this guy was gonna go. Maybe it was a scam and "he" knew you weren't going to play along....

I thought so myself first. I actually thought that they thrash-dipped,
and found an envelope or something with the INS address and their
family name, and then to find a phone, knowing the name and the
address was a child's game. Then they printed out the form, dialed and
talked: "Hi, we are fro Homeland security. Is this Mrs so and so? And your address is so and so, and
your phone and so and so? Good. We are just verifying the information.
When is your birthday? What was your maiden name? What is your SSN?
Yes, it all right, thank you Mrs so and so, bye."
So as to start if they have a filled form in front of them, and then go
through the questions as they asked in the form, giving out the
information they already know and phishing for what they did not -
maiden name, SSN. And then being busy, typing in the new application
for a loan or a credit card on these people name. But when they said
that they were only on the first card, then I hesitated, because,
indeed, they often check and call on person; and I remember that woman
complaining because not only they came home to her but asked her
private embarrassing questions, concerning sex positions and so on.

I think it was the guy hiding behind the grassy knoll...lol....