Form I-797 Overseas Delay?

[Schroeca513 0]

Hello, I am new to this community and I am grateful to have found it.  I am an expat who lives in Taiwan. I am in the process of going back home with my family  I have filed the I-130 for my wife's visa. I had to send it to Chicago. I was an sent acceptance confirmation via email. The email stated that on April 18th in 7-10 days standard mail I would receive my Form I-797.  I have checked my status on the USCIS website and it said my case is being processed and if I did not receive my I-797 by May 12th to call. I have called the 1-800# numerous times and I have not been able to talk to a live person about it. It will use a computer voice to state my case is being reviewed which I know. My questions are as followed

 

1. Did the USCIS mail the I-797 to my address in Taiwan or to my American address?(on the I-130 form there is a part that  I filled out that to send to in care of?)

            Is it possible because of standard mail and Taiwan being so far from the states it will take longer than normal?

 

2. My case status said to contact USCIS 1800 number if I haven't received the I-797 by May 12th but I cant talk to a representative.  I can never get a button that says to talk to someone. It always say please call between 8am to 6 pm.  I am making sure I am calling at those times but I get the computer.  Is there anyway to talk to a live representative?

      All the info on this I have found on the internet is dated and it seems that USCIS has changed this.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to meet someone who has done this process recently from Taiwan but I would like to hear anyone's feedback.

[DeadFish 1]

USCIS  1800 375 5283, You will need to go through the voice system.. just got to be patient or you are selecting the wrong department for your issue. 

 

Here is my experience and I lost allot of time: USCIS will not send a letter to an address that you are not a registered resident of in the United States. I have also been told that by a rep at USCIS and I swear he actually said this to me: "The US Government doesn't really like to mail things to addresses outside the US."

so ofcourse I responded:"Let me get this straight, if a US citizen marries outside of the USA, and is living outside the USA and is requesting documents regarding that... you wont send them? This type of scenario must happen every single day around the world... US Citizens get married outside the USA all the time." then he replied back with "I cant offer legal advice."

 

I had to go to USPS.GOV and have my last known mailing address changed over to my parent's house... they charge you $1 on your credit card for doing this. But its their way of confirming that its you. So I had my mail address officially changed. All my other mail is essentially online, in case you are wondering. 

 

Ok so this takes about a week or so to get completed.

In the meantime, after all this mail changing fiasco... waiting.... guess what shows up in the mail to my apartment in Taiwan... the freaking I-797... written in penciled mandarin on the envelope was "please confirm the apartment number at this address." Luckily the guard at my apartment are very nice guys and handled it. 

 Because apparently some dumbass at USCIS forgot to put the apartment number so my I-797 was in limbo for oh about 3 months atleast... while I flipped out with changing and confirming if all my US mail was correct, etc.

 

BTW, the I-797 is essentially worthless... it's just a document saying I-797, Notice of Action: Issued when an application or petition is approved. Ofcourse it doesnt mean you are getting a visa. I am sure you know that. 

I highly suggest you get your email address on all of your future documents where you can. 

Edited May 22, 2017 by DeadFish

[Schroeca513 0]

Thanks for your input.  I finally got the Form I-797 which was mailed to my family's address. I was trying to figure where they intended to mail it hence the worrying. Once I knew they mailed to the States I was worried that they had the wrong address. I know that the I-797 is basically worthless but I was concerned that later documents would not reach the correct place.But that is all resolved now. Sorry to hear about the fiasco you had to go through. I am trying to make sure that this does not happen but as we know sometimes it is out of our hands. They do have my email and I have received  an email that I would receive it so I am ready to go so to speak