Hi all,

I am the husband of a US citizen, with conditional permanent residence obtained through Direct Consular Filing (Sydney, Australia). After I submitted the I-751 and an additional I-797 (request for evidence) to the CSC in August 2006, I heard nothing at all from USCIS. In March 2007, I called the USCIS expressing concern at the prolonged silence and they told me that I would hear from the CSC within 40 days.

Sure enough, I received a letter today from the CSC saying that my case was approved and an approval notice was sent on September 15, 2006. Whilst that is great news, I did not receive the approval. I can only assume it was sent, but I certainly did not receive it. Apparently I can request a duplicate by submitting an I-824 (Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition) but there is a $200 (!) filing fee. This seems exorbitant...

But do I need the approval notice at all? I assume the approval notice included the information I need to get a new green card. Is this approval letter the same for all applicants? Or is it "personal"? And would I need to include a copy of the approval notice, or a receipt number, on my green card application?

Or should I resign myself to forking out $200?

Thanks as always for any help.
Matt

Did you get a letter for your biometrics appointment? If you did and you were approved on Sept 2006, you should've gotten your green card before 2007.

No, I did not receive a letter for my biometrics appointment.

How come did they not send you the new card if they approved your case such a long time ago???
Did you try to check your case status online?
It seems strange that you have to be responsible for the lost mail...

AlienAussie,

I don't know how you got approved without a biometrics appointment, but it does help explain why you never got a new green card if you were in fact approved. At the biometrics appointment they take a photo and index fingerprint used to manufacture the card, and they also take a full set of 10 fingerprints for another FBI check.

Make an InfoPass appointment with your DO or SO to try to sort this out.

Yodrak

No, I could not check the case status online... the WAC number was not recognized. This is apparently common, as I have gathered from this forum and from the friendly USCIS person I spoke to back in March.

Yodrak,

Without having seen the approval letter I can only speculate, but I assume the approval was for the removal of condition thus freeing me to apply for the green card at which point the biometrics would kick in. I wonder if my experience is slightly different because of the consular filing, where I've dealt mainly with the State Department as a USCIS proxy rather than with the USCIS directly.

Anyway, unless someone has some better ideas, I will call the USCIS and see if they can shed some light on this.

Thanks,
Matt

as stated above, if i were you, i'd make an Infopass appointment and explain your case.

Matt,

The I-751 petition not only removes the conditions, it gets you a new green card. You do not have to make a separate application. Perhaps your application was submitted prior to the date where they began getting the photo and fingerprint for the green card at the biometrics appointment.

Visit, do not call. Calling will get you nothing but frustration, visiting at least gets you a fighting chance.

Yodrak

Matt, it's all a moot point now anyway--don't sweat the letter. Also, don't call. You are going to have to go sort this out in person. It sounds to me like you fell in the crack of a process change they've been undergoing WRT the biometrics.

What we did (and I think yours sounds more like this 'old way) was get the approval letter, which instructed us to go to our Local Office for the card production order. DAH gave his single digit print there and then, and handed over his old Green Card. We do have an ASC, which he did visit for his N-400 biometrics (a full set of prints).
If you go to your Local Office, take your passport and the NOA from your I-751 (the extension letter), the officer will be able to look up your case and get your card production underway (their Form I-89 IIRC). Ask for an I-551 stamp in your passport or you will have no evidence of your status as required by law.

If no card shows up in a month, go back and follow up. This also happened to us, but we waited 5 months before doing anything. I don't recommend that others wait that long--I thought we were being patient, but the card production was never sent in and the file was sent to deep storage. Once we followed up, the card appeared in about a week.

Don't linger to long.. you must be getting close to all your evidence (NOA) expiring.
PS: it has nothing to do with the DCF.