Missed deadline because USPS and USCIS messed up, what to do???

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BACKGROUND...

My wife and I were married July 7th of this year. We sent in all the paperwork at the end of July and received confirmation receipts in the mail that all of our paperwork had been received. We also received the letter for her biometrics appointment, which we went to near the end of August. At the beginning of September she checked our case status online only to discover that on August 28th the post office had returned something as undeliverable.

we still live at the same address, and have received multiple letters from uscis here already!!!

So we immediately called the 800 number and the lady did a "request for service" for us. Only problem was that she put my name on the request with my wife's case number, so around mid September we received a notice in the mail (irony?) that said there was a mismatch between the name submitted and name attached to the case number... so we called again. The first representative we spoke with told us that she couldn't get a second request to go through and couldn't figure out why, so she forwarded me to her supervisor, who said that we would have to wait 30 days to send in another request.

Around October 10th the 30 days had expired, so I called again, spoke with a rep who said she put through the request... we kept checking online but no changes, so near the end of the month we called yet again, only to be told that no second request was ever sent through. The lady I spoke with then told me that she would send it through, but by this time we were nervous an appointment would be missed so we made an infopass appointment and my wife drove the 2 hours to talk with the agent about the case. He couldn't let her know what the original letter we missed was about, but said it should be sent soon.

The letter arrived yesterday. The problem is that it still has the original date on it, August 14, requesting additional tax transcripts from me within 87 days or case would be denied. The letter arrived on day 87. We immediately called and the representative said to mail it in but couldn't make any guarantees they would accept it, and we might have to start over. We went to the IRS office this morning and got the transcripts, which they will receive Thursday morning since they're closed tomorrow (day 90).

MY QUESTIONS-

The USPS either messed up, or somehow the USCIS typed our address wrong on this single letter. We're not concerned about the time it takes to re-apply, but it would take us awhile to save to pay all of the fees again. Are we able to get a refund somehow or the fees waived on the next submission as it was clearly their mistake???

I have the confirmation numbers from two of the calls where they told me they had the address problem corrected 2 months ago, as well as the paper showing the name/case number mismatch, so I don't feel as though I should basically be fined the extra fees because of their incompetence...

[Kathryn41 3,207]

Why not see if you can get one of your Senator's or your Representative to submit a letter of support on your behalf thatUSCIS accept the documents requested in an RFE that was not received in a timely way due to circumstances beyond your control? This is the type of political intervention that actually can help and they can do. As well, if you have the postmarked envelope that the RFE came in, include a photocopy of the envelope in with your request. You want them to accept your documents as if you had to refile you would have to pay all over again, which would not be fair. In your cover letter also document all of the attempts you made to correct this situation. Good luck.

Good luck.

Edited November 11, 2009 by Kathryn41

[Photographer 0]

Thanks for the advice, I found the envelope, didn't think about the postmark but that is an excellent suggestion. I've read on other forums that they don't issue refunds but sometimes people have been able to get fees waived when filing for a second time.