I-751 Change of Address Disaster

[koopas 1]

Hi all,

 

First time poster here, but have been lurking and thankful for all the good info that helped immensely in the K1 process for my wife (I'm the US citizen).

 

I've run into a snag. We filed my wife's I-751 in late January as her conditional 2-year GC expires in April. We knew something was amiss when we didn't receive her NOA1 I-797 for several weeks. It finally came after one month. The reason: our address was completely botched by USCIS - The street name was incomplete, no zip code or state, and it stated Hong Kong after the city (we live in the US). It was a miracle the letter even made it to us. I double checked the I-751 form we sent in and there were no errors in the address.

 

The next day after receipt, I call USCIS to initiate the change of address. It is escalated to a tier 1 agent and everything goes smoothly...so I thought. A few days letter, I receive a written letter confirming the address change stating "we have updated your address in our data systems for the case you contacted us about". However, the address (or address to which the letter is addressed) is still slightly wrong. Under "type of request", it is listed as "Change of Address".

 

Now, I file the AR-11 online, using the "slightly wrong" address as the old address and inputting my new one. Immediately, I get an address change confirmation email with an AR-11 confirmation number and a service request number. The next day,  I get another email stating "we have updated your address in our data systems for the case you contacted us about". 

 

Some days later, feeling a little suspicious, I call USCIS again to confirm they have the right address. The call is escalated to a tier 1 agent again, and this time, I'm told that the AR-11 online change of address didn't appear to work so she fixes the "slightly wrong" address. Of greater importance, she tells me that the system that handles the I-751 still shows the original completely botched address with the wrong country. She submits another service request using a "slightly different method" (a "trick") and tells me I should get a confirmation letter soon. She confirms that the biometrics letter hasn't been mailed out, the main concern in this whole affair - the inability to get updates such as notices, RFEs, etc.

 

A few days later, I indeed get a confirmation letter in the mail to the now fully correct address that says "Due to a technical issue beyond our control, we are unable to perform form I-751 mailing address changes at this time" which is followed by "To update your mailing address in our records, please visit the USCIS website at www.uscis.gov or enter the following link:  www.uscis/ar-11  (no .gov??). Type of request: "other"  (I guess that was the agent's "trick").  So now, I'm even more puzzled. The letter reached me at the right address but they say they couldn't update it. So which is it???

 

So today, round 3 of calls to USCIS, normal escalation to a tier 1 agent and after 3 hours, I get a call back. The agent seems to be knowledgeable and says that many systems are used at USCIS. While the correspondence mailing address for all these service request notifications is correct, the address in the other system that handles the I-751 still shows the originally botched address. He says they're in the process of migrating to a new system so that may be why the updates are not going through. He tells me he's going to send a note internally to a more senior agent and recommends that I write to the CSC escalation email. I do, and a few hours later, I get this email response:

 

Due to a technical difficulty beyond our control, we are unable to update the mailing address for I-751 petitions at this time. Until this issue is resolved, you can perform the address change independently by visiting our website at www.uscis.gov or entering the following link in your browser:

 

www.uscis/ar-11

 

*Please note: For correspondence purposes, your current mailing address was appropriately updated in our records on March  6, 2018.

 

Needless to say, I wrote back asking for clarifications - now waiting for reply. The email response seems to indicate that they couldn't update the I-751 address in their old system but that for the purposes of exchanging mail, the address is indeed correct? (The March 6 date refers to the AR-11 change of address request that was later confirmed). My interpretation from the language in the email is that I should be getting the letters ("correspondence") from USCIS to the right address even though they are unable to address of the petition. How do you interpret all this??  And what other next steps would you take??  The agent today discouraged me from making an Infopass appointment because they wouldn't have "jurisdictional authority" to change the address for the I-751. 

 

I have so little faith in USCIS at this point that I feel the best way for me to keep up with the case progression is through the "track my case" feature online. That way if I see that the biometrics letter has been sent out, I can call USCIS to have it faxed to me (they can do that apparently). Essentially, I have reason to believe I will never really get a piece of snail mail again in a timely fashion. Over-reacting?  Would I be able to track biometrics and RFEs being issued with the WAC receipt number on the I-797 NOA1?

 

Quite a few hoops to jump through to fix a data entry error from a contractor (the applications are transcribed from paper to the USCIS systems by contractors from what I was told today)

 

Thanks for reading this book. Your input is welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2018 by koopas

[nightingalejules 678]

Do you live near enough to a USCIS office to go to an infopass appointment? 

https://my.uscis.gov/appointment

That’s what I’d do. See if, when you’re actually sitting across the desk from a USCIS agent, you can get them to sort out this address garbage.

[koopas 1]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, there's a USCIS field office in my city. The site doesn't show any availability. I can only select today's date for some reason, and I can't click on next week's calendar. Is there a bug??

[Hypnos 6,576]

No. New Infopass slots open in the early hours of the morning, and are gone fast. Midnight through 3am tends to be good, for example. I got one at Dallas just a couple of days ago at 2:30am.

 

If you're still around, keep trying for the next hour or two. If that fails, try again the same time tomorrow.

[koopas 1]

Thanks Hypnos. Wow, you guys know all the tricks.

[koopas 1]

To update everyone, we were able to get an Infopass appointment this morning.

 

It's confirmed that the system that handles I-751s is being phased out and as the transition to a new system occurs, no one at this DHS field office could change the address. In fact, it appears as though changes of addresses for I-751s are getting into a queue to be processed AFTER the system migration (No ECD). I was told that USCIS is keeping a list of new addresses and that these will be applied eventually. I somewhat chuckled when I was further told to "not worry". Ha! 

 

On the bright side, they did take my wife's biometrics as a courtesy since I'm somewhat in address change limbo land. One more letter that won't have to get lost!