Did not get I-485 Interview Letter and received a Denial What do we do?

[kirreb 1]

Same thing happended to me the first time I immigrated. We had moved and updated our address with USCIS, I was informed that we missed our interview and I had to leave the country - I was freaking out as I was also working at the time. 

 

We contacted the local rep for the Congressman, he said it happened a lot. Per his instructions we wrote a check for $100 along with a Letter of Explanation. We later received a new interview date, and a letter stating that they had missed to update the address (although they still cashed that check...). 

[f f 725]

2 hours ago, kirreb said:

Same thing happended to me the first time I immigrated. We had moved and updated our address with USCIS, I was informed that we missed our interview and I had to leave the country - I was freaking out as I was also working at the time. 

 

We contacted the local rep for the Congressman, he said it happened a lot. Per his instructions we wrote a check for $100 along with a Letter of Explanation. We later received a new interview date, and a letter stating that they had missed to update the address (although they still cashed that check...). 

what was the check for?

[kirreb 1]

1 hour ago, f f said:

what was the check for?

Can't remember (was ~13 years ago) but we thought it was quite odd, I'll dig it up when I'm back in Sweden in a couple of weeks. 

[f f 725]

the reason I asked about the check was because you should never have to send any money to your representative or thier office for services and even asking for it could be seen as asking for a bribe for them to do anything for you.

[Scandi 3,997]

15 minutes ago, f f said:

the reason I asked about the check was because you should never have to send any money to your representative or thier office for services and even asking for it could be seen as asking for a bribe for them to do anything for you.

Could've been the filing fee that was asked for (if he had to file again it would make sense with a new filing fee), maybe he remembers it wrong.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Scandi

[Diesira59 3]

Hello everyone, OP here,

Thank  you all for your suggestions and options.  Seriously thank you all for responding.We're trying to feel a little better but its stressful as so many of you can imagine.

Yes now we recognize that we have to stay on top of the internet updates. We had trusted how things had been going since everything was going fine since he got here and we originally filed the I-485. But now we know better and this is our mistake for not doing our due diligence and checking.

 

As of right now, I have sent an email to my local rep, hopefully contacting a legal counsel (Lawyer for our company who has helped others on immigration before. Just found this out today) and attempting to get an infopass appointment. Regarding Infopass, how long does it take to schedule an appointment? The office in Chatsworth, CA states to "check back tomorrow" since Saturday. 

 

 

On 9/17/2017 at 7:30 AM, Going through said:

OP---did you move at all after your application was filed?  If so, did you submit an AR-11 to update your address with USCIS?

Regarding moving, we have not moved yet. However this comes at a really bad time because we are being forced to move mid October (due to our complex going low income and I make too much to stay) So to that question, and with all this going on, Ill be filling an AR-11 soon. But hopefully it doesn't cause more havoc and delays.

 

With that in mind, and with how unfortunate this all is, if waiting for an InfoPass appointment and waiting to hear back from a congressional rep takes longer than 30 days, we will have missed out appeal window. Granted it seems appeal is the second to last option other than just restarted an AOS all together, but should i be concerned about trying to get this done in that 30 day time frame at all?

[milimelo 4,299]

5 minutes ago, Diesira59 said:

Hello everyone, OP here,

Thank  you all for your suggestions and options.  Seriously thank you all for responding.We're trying to feel a little better but its stressful as so many of you can imagine.

Yes now we recognize that we have to stay on top of the internet updates. We had trusted how things had been going since everything was going fine since he got here and we originally filed the I-485. But now we know better and this is our mistake for not doing our due diligence and checking.

 

As of right now, I have sent an email to my local rep, hopefully contacting a legal counsel (Lawyer for our company who has helped others on immigration before. Just found this out today) and attempting to get an infopass appointment. Regarding Infopass, how long does it take to schedule an appointment? The office in Chatsworth, CA states to "check back tomorrow" since Saturday. 

 

 

Regarding moving, we have not moved yet. However this comes at a really bad time because we are being forced to move mid October (due to our complex going low income and I make too much to stay) So to that question, and with all this going on, Ill be filling an AR-11 soon. But hopefully it doesn't cause more havoc and delays.

 

With that in mind, and with how unfortunate this all is, if waiting for an InfoPass appointment and waiting to hear back from a congressional rep takes longer than 30 days, we will have missed out appeal window. Granted it seems appeal is the second to last option other than just restarted an AOS all together, but should i be concerned about trying to get this done in that 30 day time frame at all?

Congressional response will not take longer than a couple of days. Additionally, they have direct line of communication with USCIS - phone numbers and special email addresses just for congressional inquiries. 

 

When you move, spouse files online AR-11 and you as the petitioner have to do I-865 and mail it in. 

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Do you live close to the local field office?  If so, I'd make a visit there to see if you can make an infopass appointment and/or talk to someone on the best way to clear it up and possibly get an interview rescheduled. 

[kirreb 1]

12 hours ago, Scandi said:

Could've been the filing fee that was asked for (if he had to file again it would make sense with a new filing fee), maybe he remembers it wrong.

Yeah, no the check was not set out to the rep but to USCIS (or whatever deptartment was handling it).

[Diesira59 3]

15 minutes ago, LionessDeon said:

Do you live close to the local field office?  If so, I'd make a visit there to see if you can make an infopass appointment and/or talk to someone on the best way to clear it up and possibly get an interview rescheduled. 

We live about 3 hours away from Chatsworth (our local field office) which i just got off the phone with USCIS trying to see if they could find an appointment for us. But there are no openings for the next 14 days.....

 

[Diesira59 3]

Update

I managed to get an infopass appointment for next friday. (after constant refreshing like a stalker)

Heres to hoping!

[Going through 5,668]

1 hour ago, Diesira59 said:

Update

I managed to get an infopass appointment for next friday. (after constant refreshing like a stalker)

Heres to hoping!

Glad you got one!!

[Diesira59 3]

Update:

Hi everyone,

Our meeting with Infopass was yesterday and they did not provide us any help. Despite showing them proof of receiving mail, not changing our address, and the print directly from the Mystatus showing that the letter had been sent back to them by USPS; we were told to file a notice to appeal or motion. She would not even suggest whether to do a motion to re-open or appeal and just kept saying "its up to you"

She would not give us any help other than providing us with the forms, telling us to read the instructions for the forms when asked for questions how to fill them out,  and would not allow us to speak to anyone else at the end. 

 

By serendipity, the congressional rep for our area's office called us back and we were asked to come in to the office to fill out the paperwork. She sent it off on yesterday and hopefully will hear something back by Wednesday or Thursday.  

 

We are filling out the I-290B (well i am since im the petitioner) and going to have it ready to mail out if we get bad news. I also asked my post office (twice over the past 2 weeks)  to provide us with a letter of explanation so that we can add it to the 290.

 

On that, i suppose i should ask. Since we are asking to get a new interview date essentially, do we ask for a motion to re-open rather than appeal on the 290B? since uscis was unhelpful i figured id ask you guys.

Also if this fails, I suppose this is the point where we just process a brand new I-485 or do we Lawyer up (which i really dont have the money for)?

 

[Diesira59 3]

Last Update on this:
We received an email from our Congressional rep's office. They managed to get the case reopened the same day they inquired. We also got a letter in the mail explaining things and USCIS accepting the decision was made in error. We will be a getting a new interview date in the near future according to the letter.

 

[Going through 5,668]

10 minutes ago, Diesira59 said:

Last Update on this:
We received an email from our Congressional rep's office. They managed to get the case reopened the same day they inquired. We also got a letter in the mail explaining things and USCIS accepting the decision was made in error. We will be a getting a new interview date in the near future according to the letter.

 

I'm happy things are working out for you!!