Wrong Alien Number !

[BCN_CAL 0]

Dear Friends,

Hi,

I have a complicated problem with USCIS. I entered in USA on 26 of August with IR-1 visa and I am waiting to receive my Green Card and SNN.

After one month on 25th of September I have received a letter from the USCIS Texas Office that mention: "Since you have not paid your Immigration Fee we can proceed with your case." While I paid my immigration fee two weeks after the Interview, it means on 8th of June 2014 through USCIS-ELIS account.

As I checked my ELIS account every thing is correct and it shows I have paid for Immigration Fee and the card is produced and it is supposed that I receive the card on 19th of September. I contacted the USCIS customer service two times. First time the operator told me that it is better I wait for one month (till 18th of October) to see that if they can send me the Card or no.

Now I came back to Spain for my thesis defense and packing to go back again to USA and I have to stay here at least till June for final process of my thesis.So I can not go to USCIS office directly in USA.

Last night (on 3th of November) I contacted USCIS customer service again the operator first time gave us a tracking number and we checked that and it was delivered to another address in Texas while my uncle address is in California. Then we contacted again and they transferred the call to a case officer. She was a woman and she asked us about Alien Number and IOE Number, I gave her the Alien number that the embassy provided us when they issued the Immigration Visa. She told me this Alien number and IOE number is for a woman not a man???!!! She said that maybe the embassy maid mistake and gave you incorrect Alien Number. While so far all the documents, names and address related to this number where correct. I mean when they send us the letter and all the documents were with correct name and correct address. She told us it is better we contact the embassy or go to USCIS office?! but now embassy has no document and I do not know if it can help us. On the other hand, I am at the moment in Europe and it would be too expensive to travel again to USA and I do not know how long I have to wait there till they solve this problem. Now my questions are:

• Can I enter USA again with my IV visa or they may make trouble for me?

• Can I solve this problem from distance by sending letter to USCIS ? or I have to go there?

• Can I go to USCIS international office? As I checked in their website US embassy in Italy is responsible about Spanish resident cases?

• If inside of USA they can only solve this problem, can I go to any office of USCIS for example in Boston, or I have to go again to California (where I have my uncle's address)? (Since ticket from here to Boston is cheaper than California)

I would appreciate any comment or suggestion about my problem.

Thanks again guys,

Bcn-Cal

P.S: I am totally disapponited with paper works and public organizations in USA. The did several mistakes in this process...

[Ian H. 207]

Hmm...that certainly does sound odd. If you didn't have an issue entering the US the first time with the visa, I don't see why you would have a problem entering again. This may be an issue with USCIS side. I would certainly assume that if your A number belonged to someone else, you would have had a myriad of problems at POE.

I'm not sure if this can be resolved over the phone though. You may have to do an infopass appointment and go in person. You can try contacting the embassy before you travel back to the US and go there in person if you have to. You can ask them to check if everything is in order on their end after you explain what is going on. I don't know if you can go to any office though, but you can try and find out.

Your endorsed visa is valid for one year from when you entered the US the first time, so you can use up to that point. Like I said, you shouldn't have issues reentering the states since you didn't have them when you did POE. How long do you plan to be abroad? Because you can just finish what you need to do there and then come back since this may not be resolved overnight.

Also, have your evidence that you paid the ELIS fee, and double check that all the info there matches what's on your visa. Hopefully someone can give you better advice, but that's pretty much what I would do. Good luck.

[Ian H. 207]

I just noticed that you said you were going to be there until June. I don't know if you can resolve this from outside the US, but if push comes to shove you may have to travel back because you shouldn't leave that unresolved for that long.

[BCN_CAL 0]

I just noticed that you said you were going to be there until June. I don't know if you can resolve this from outside the US, but if push comes to shove you may have to travel back because you shouldn't leave that unresolved for that long.

Dear Ian H.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Actually I called to another officer today. We found that the problem is Alien number (A-Number).

She asked me again to read the number and this time again she told me that this is a A number for a female.

I had this A-number from a letter from embassy about how to pay Immigration Fee and how to create ELIS-USCIS account.

Then she asked me to have a look on my IR-1 visa. I had a look on it and the A number was different.

Finally, we figure out that the correct number is on my visa and the Embassy gave me the wrong number.

She told me that she will report to Texas-USCIS center and they will inform me in two week what I have to do.

Hopefully this time they solve the problem.

The point is that you have to always double check every single things! I recommend to other friends to be double check their A-Number before they pay for immigration fee. It should be the same on your visa.

Thanks again for your reply and all the answers.

BCN-CAL

[Ian H. 207]

Yes, that's why I asked you to double check the info on your visa. I figured that the mistake had to be on the letter because otherwise you would have encountered problems at POE.

That said, the issue now is that you paid the immigrant fee with the wrong A number so now that has to be corrected. If she said she will report this error to the TSC that's good. Hopefully they will respond to you right away.

So now that you know for sure that the number on the visa is correct, you can be comfortable knowing that you won't have issues reentering the US as long as you do so before the endorsement expires. The endorsed visa is valid for one year from when you did POE.

[MFJC 5]

We also had a problem with the wrong A number on the paperwork we were given at the interview. The A number on that paperwork had ten digits. It is only supposed to have nine digits. The correct nine digit number was on the visa when we got the passport back. It is crazy that the system allows this kind of error to be made. It's 2015, shouldn't the numbers be filled in automatically by the computer? That would prevent these kind of mistakes.