undeliverable notice

[aporia 0]

My Chinese-born wife and I, a US citizen, submitted a joint I-485/I-130 for her to get a green card. We received our NOA1 on Sept. 22, and an RFE in mid-October, which we replied to. On November 3rd we got the following notice in our email:

The last processing action taken on your case

Receipt Number: ************** (our MSC number)

Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Your Case Status: Initial Review

On November 3, 2011, the post office returned the notice we last sent you on this case I485 APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS as undeliverable. This may have serious effects on processing this case. Please call 1-800-375-5283 to update your mailing address for this notice to be re-sent.

During this step, USCIS initiates the background checks of the applicant/petitioner and identifies issues that may need to be addressed either during an interview or by asking the applicant/petitioner to submit additional information or documentation. USCIS reviews the applicant's/petitioner's criminal history, determines if there are national security concerns that need to be addressed, and reviews the application/petition for fraud indicators.

If you have filed an I-485, I-589, I-751, N-400, I-90, I-821, I-131 or I-765, you can expect to receive an appointment notice to appear at an Application Support Center to have your fingerprints and/or photographs taken. The timing of your appointment is determined by the number of applicants ahead of you that also need a biometric appointment. We try to schedule biometric appointments as quickly as possible and in most cases you will receive your appointment notice within 30 days of submitting your application. We will send your appointment notice approximately 14 days ahead of your scheduled appointment. It is important that you keep this appointment. If absolutely necessary, you can request that your appointment be rescheduled however, please be aware that rescheduling may delay the processing of your application. Please follow the instructions on your appointment notice if you need to reschedule. Occasionally, you may receive an appointment notice to appear at an Application Support Center to have your fingerprints taken when you have filed a form other than those listed above. In these situations, you may receive your appointment notice more than 30 days after submitting your application or petition.

This is ridiculous. We have not changed address, our mailing address is correctly listed on every single piece of mail we send to USCIS, our mailing address is clearly marked on our mailbox, and we have already received NOA1 and an RFE for the I-485 in the mail at our current address.

We did call USCIS to give them our "correct address" for re-mailing the notice, but I am concerned. I see from some other threads that the USCIS may have made some error on entering our address into their system, and this could cause them to deny my wife's application if somehow a crucial mail is not delivered to us, and we are not notified of this failure in a timely way. It has been recommended to make an InfoPass appointment. Is this still the correct course of action? Is there anything else we can do to get the incompetent USCIS bureaucrats to fix whatever mistake they have managed to bungle into our application?

Edited November 23, 2011 by aporia

[aporia 0]

Actually, I checked over our mails one more time and I noticed that on the I-485 and I-765 first pages, my wife listed our address without the "St" designation, e.g. 1240 Adams rather than 1240 Adams St. Everywhere else the full address is given exactly, and like I said, we have received an NOA1 from USCIS about the I-485 at the correct address, and the correct full address was written on the mail. Could this be the cause of the problem?

Another possible cause is that I was an immigrant sponsor before submitting the I-130/485 with my wife, and they had a previous address on file for me before I submitted the I-485. I did send the change of address form, and it was received Sept 30, 8 days after the NOA1 for the initial forms came in. So maybe there was some failure in their system to update my address properly, since the I-485 came before the change of address notice?

I guess I'll bring up both of these issues in the InfoPass appointment. Hopefully everything will get resolved.

EDIT: BTW, the USCIS customer service were totally useless -- unable to say why the mail was undeliverable, who it was delivered to, or anything. They told us to contact the post office, but of course when I called, the post office couldn't help, since exactly ZERO useful information was given to help locate the undeliverable mail or explain anything whatsoever.

Edited November 23, 2011 by aporia

[N M 96]

My Chinese-born wife and I, a US citizen, submitted a joint I-485/I-130 for her to get a green card. We received our NOA1 on Sept. 22, and an RFE in mid-October, which we replied to. On November 3rd we got the following notice in our email:

This is ridiculous. We have not changed address, our mailing address is correctly listed on every single piece of mail we send to USCIS, our mailing address is clearly marked on our mailbox, and we have already received NOA1 and an RFE for the I-485 in the mail at our current address.

We did call USCIS to give them our "correct address" for re-mailing the notice, but I am concerned. I see from some other threads that the USCIS may have made some error on entering our address into their system, and this could cause them to deny my wife's application if somehow a crucial mail is not delivered to us, and we are not notified of this failure in a timely way. It has been recommended to make an InfoPass appointment. Is this still the correct course of action? Is there anything else we can do to get the incompetent USCIS bureaucrats to fix whatever mistake they have managed to bungle into our application?

Hopefully you'll get the notice when it is re-mailed, and there won't be any further issues.

But why assume it is definitely an error on USCIS' part? Why is it USCIS who are "incompetent", and have "bungled" your application? Could it not simply be a mistake by the Postal Service? As you say, you have already received the NOA and an RFE from USCIS, so someone would have had to go into your record and change the address, for new items of mail to be completely misdirected.

If you do make an InfoPass appointment, ask to see the item that was returned. See what address it was sent to. Until then, I'd hold off on the accusations.

[aporia 0]

Hopefully you'll get the notice when it is re-mailed, and there won't be any further issues.

But why assume it is definitely an error on USCIS' part? Why is it USCIS who are "incompetent", and have "bungled" your application? Could it not simply be a mistake by the Postal Service? As you say, you have already received the NOA and an RFE from USCIS, so someone would have had to go into your record and change the address, for new items of mail to be completely misdirected.

If you do make an InfoPass appointment, ask to see the item that was returned. See what address it was sent to. Until then, I'd hold off on the accusations.

Of course it is not certain, but given the prevalance of these errors I feel it is overwhelmingly likely to be USCIS. I have no reason to believe the post office routinely fails to deliver correctly addressed mail. But given the evidence of the many "undeliverable" complaints on these forums with circumstances identical to mine, USCIS does routinely fail to correctly send mail. I do really think they are incompetent bunglers and should not be trusted to do their job right. I would never say that to them for fear of my application being targeted for further bungling, but I do think it's true.

Is there any way I can make sure that the InfoPass appointment will be able to access the returned item? Is there any way to call ahead or something?

Edited November 23, 2011 by aporia

[ceadsearc 516]

Is your name and wife's name on the mailbox?

Occasionally mail doesn't get delivered. We had a notice not get to us. No idea why, no change of address, got there fine when they resent. I know one person on here had trouble because the ink smudged when it printed so it wasn't legible. Hard to know what the problem is or with whom.

The issue is that it could be an RFE (which will get you denied if you don't respond in time) or a biometrics or interview notice. Your best bet is an Infopass appointment. Otherwise, call USCIS again and ask to speak to a tier 2 person/supervisor. The people you speak to when you call are not IOs. They basically work for a call center. You need to speak with a tier 2 person who is an actual IO and can hopefully assist you.

[Darnell 8,478]

I claim this is a post office error, specifically a postal carrier error, not a USCIS error.

How to fix:

1. call uscis back, ask them to redeliver/resend the piece that came back as undeliverable - get an ISO, a Tier 2 Human, on the phone then make that request.

2. print up 3 name cards with both of your names, glue it to a..inside lid of the postbox b..bottom floor of the postbox c..back wall of the postbox

3. bake up a batch of cookies or sweet muffins, meet up with your postal carrier three times over a week's period, introduce yourself and your wife to the postal carrier - noting there may be more than 1 postal carrier that handles your route.

Good Luck !

[no, I'm not kidding, none of this is funny, even though it seems so]

Edited November 23, 2011 by Darnell

[VanessaTony 3,567]

My Chinese-born wife and I, a US citizen, submitted a joint I-485/I-130 for her to get a green card. We received our NOA1 on Sept. 22, and an RFE in mid-October, which we replied to. On November 3rd we got the following notice in our email

What visa are you AOSing from?

[aporia 0]

What visa are you AOSing from?

My wife is adjusting from F1 student visa.

[aporia 0]

We just called USCIS again and eventually reached someone helpful, an immigration officer (3rd person we talked to!). The officer said he routinely gets these complaints and he thinks the post office is not delivering our mail for some reason. Why would that be, when we have always had our names on our mailbox, the mailbox is locked inside a secure apartment complex, and we have previously received mail from USCIS at this very mailbox (even without the "St" suffix as mentioned earlier)?

:) NO ONE KNOWS! :)

But the helpful officer suggested we talk to the postmaster about why our mail might not be getting delivered.

Oh, by the way, we were told the mail would be re-sent in 15 days after our initial call on Nov 4th. When we called again 17 days later, we were told, oops, it's actually 30 days. This is why I think USCIS is incompetent. Although clearly the blame can be spread far up and down the chain when any US government agency is involved. Murphy's Law and so forth.

Moral: keep asking for help until you get someone with a brain and access to information.

Well, we'll keep you posted on our exciting journey, and the InfoPass appointment on Friday...

Edited November 23, 2011 by aporia

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Topic has been moved from AOS from family visa forum to AOS from work, student & tourist visa forum as OP is adjusting from an F1 Student visa

[Darnell 8,478]

You might want to review the steps in post #6. This is what's worked for others.

[aporia 0]

You might want to review the steps in post #6. This is what's worked for others.

We already did (1) and (2), we're working on (3). I've seen the postal carrier around before, and now I have baked goods to bribe him with...

[Darnell 8,478]

Trust me, the postal carriers that service yer route WILL remember the names once the fudge brownies are handed over. Prepare to do it 3 times in a week.

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

Well we got the same thing too because the mailman was smart enough to return our notice of action because our family name were different... We called in after we received same notice as yours. They said they would send again and it has been 10 days already. My husband has an infopass for Alien No so he might talk to someone who can help. And yes, you have to talk to your area mailman, and very polite... Rude won't help, it might be worse...