VisaJourney would like to remind all petitioners that are required to file a USCIS G-325A Biographic Information Form to submit four copies of the Biographical Information page (page one on the newest form). In the past the G-325A form contained four pages that automatically printed out (with the same information on all pages). The new form only has one page. VisaJourney will be following up with USCIS to determine if using the new form (as released) and only submitting one copy of the Biographic Information page (as the new form prints) is the method the USCIS intended or if it was a mistake on the form. Until then it is recommend that petitioners submit four copies of the Biographic Information page with their petition. We will provide USCIS’s response to this question here once we get clarification from them.
WASHINGTON – U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued instructions on making inquiries with the agency’s four Service Centers. Customers, community-based organizations and liaison groups should follow this guidance when inquiring about case related issues. This new process standardizes customer service and streamlines processing of customer inquiries at USCIS Service Centers. The step-by-step instructions are as follows:
Step 1: Contact the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) at 1-800-375-5283. The NCSC can assist customers, community-based organizations and liaison groups with case related inquiries. Before calling the NCSC please have available your receipt number, alien registration number, type of application filed and date filed. During your call we recommend that you take note of the following information:
-The name and/or id number of the NCSC representative
-The date and time of the call
-Any service request referral number, if a service referral on a pending case is taken
Step 2: If more than 30 days have passed since you contacted the NCSC and the issue has not been resolved or explained you can email the proper USCIS Service Center to check the status of your case.
-California Service Center: csc-ncsc-followup@dhs.gov
-Vermont Service Center: vsc.ncscfollowup@dhs.gov
-Nebraska Service Center: ncscfollowup.nsc@dhs.gov
-Texas Service Center: tsc.ncscfollowup@dhs.gov
Please note: Emails should be sent to the Service Center that has jurisdiction over your case. The receipt notice will indicate EAC for the Vermont Service Center, SRC for the Texas Service Center, LIN for the Nebraska Service Center, and WAC for the California Service Center.
When contacting the Service Centers by email you will need to provide the information outlined in Step 1. If the NCSC did not issue a service request after your call, please indicate the reason the NCSC representative did not issue the request.
Step 3: In the event you do not receive a response within 21 days of contacting the appropriate Service Center, you may email the USCIS Headquarters Office of Service Center Operations by email at: SCOPSSCATA@dhs.gov. You will receive a response from this email address within ten days.
Still pending approval, a spending bill being sent to the House of Representatives contains an amendment to prevent the deportation of widows of US Citizens trapped by the so called “Widow Penalty”. Meanwhile, last month, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano granted a 24-month reprieve to those immigrant widows and widowers of U.S. citizens denied residency status because their spouses died before they were married two years.
Published online:
In July the Senate passed an amendment to prevent deportation of widows who were married to American citizens.
The measure, introduced by Florida Senator Bill Nelson and others, was attached to a homeland-security spending bill which has yet to be considered by the House.
The so-called “widow penalty’’ under current law says a foreigner must be married to an American for two years to qualify for legal residency in this country. Those widowed before two years can be deported.
Nelson cited the case of Natalia Goukassian of Daytona Beach, who faced deportation proceedings after her husband died in 2006. The widow had come to this country legally from Russia.
Nelson said she is one of hundreds of widows trying to fend off deportation.
Hatch’s amendment also remedies the unintended and unjustified administrative procedure of what has become known as the “widow penalty.” In recent years, several aliens whose spouses died while their applications were stuck in the government’s bureaucracy have filed lawsuits, arguing that their application for permanent residency should not be denied simply because DHS had not yet finished processing the application before the citizen spouse met an untimely death.
Hatch’s amendment would eliminate the requirement that alien widows and widowers of deceased U.S. Citizens must have been married to the U.S. Citizen for a minimum of two years or face automatic denial. Such aliens seeking to stay in the United States would still be required to meet the universal standard for proving to the satisfaction of DHS that their marriage was bona fide and not entered into for the purpose of obtaining an immigration benefit. While the numbers of aliens affected by this penalty are small, several of their cases are highly sympathetic: they include individuals widowed by tragic accidents, and surviving spouses who had young children with the U.S. Citizen before the citizen’s untimely death.
The amendment would also codify in law DHS’s current regulation allowing DHS to continue to consider an alien’s application for permanent residency that had already been in process when the alien’s sponsoring relative dies, subject to the Secretary’s exercise of discretion. Applications may only be considered if the paperwork was on file at the time of the sponsor’s death, and if such aliens have continued to reside in the United States.
![[Ask]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/ask.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Furl]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/furl.png)
![[Google]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.visajourney.com/news/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
