I 751 filed late by a year

[ambaig 9]

Hi everyone

 

We filed our I 751 very late and although I did find posts online pertaining to late filing, I didn't find many recent ones and not many instances where the OP updated how things turned out. I thought I'd add our experience and hopefully it might be of some help.

 

We were supposed to file our I 751 in March 2016, but we ended up filing it in February 2017, almost a year later (and right after they increased the fee :P).

 

Documents we sent in were

IRS letter addressed to both of us

2 sworn affidavits

Joint bank account statements

Tax documents showing we filed jointly

Family pictures

Daughter's birth certificate

Proof of  2nd pregnancy (sent in later, around November 2017)

Hospital documents to support our reasons for late filing

We attached a cover letter explaining our late filing, put our documents in a folder with each evidence separated by a colored, numbered tab,and put in a numbered index stating what the file contained.

 

We received our NOA Feb 24, 2017, had our biometrics on March 23, 2017, but based on our address our appointment was in New York, and we were in Virginia around that time. I called up USCIS customer care and the agent was really helpful, asked me to walk in at the office in Virginia any time before the appointment date. We went the next day as our appointment was only a week away. Although they refused to accept walk ins as they were extremely busy, the guy there asked us to try again another day. We went the next day 20 minutes before the office opened up, waited and were the second people in line and they accommodated us. We had to go back again a month later (April 21, 2017) as apparently my fingerprints weren't clearly recorded, and we did the same thing, walked in early in the morning.

 

We didn't receive anything after that, but in November we found out we were going to have another baby and sent in confirmation of the pregnancy as further proof of our relationship.

 

It was a torturous and stressful wait, and we were highly stressed out mostly because of the dozen lawyers and posts online that stated that a year late I 751 is grounds for immediate denial.

We consulted two lawyers before we filed and explained our situation to both. One of them was upfront and said your reasons are very routine reasons, nothing that is reasonable enough for a year delay, and in my opinion I don't think you have a good chance without a lawyer. The second one barely heard us out, just heard the basics, used the new presidency to intimidate us saying you will be removed from the country, separated from your children and kept asking how much we could pay. Started off quoting $8000 and his next quote was $4000. He actually made me want to do this on my own. I'm not giving out advice that people who file late don't need or shouldn't get a lawyer. It was a personal decision/risk that we decided to take.

 

We signed up for the USCIS account, the DHS one, as well as the Case Status account but we only had the update ‘We have received your case’ with February 24th 2017 as the date (On the NOA it said February 17th 2017). FYI we noticed the Case Status account updated much later than the other account.

 

March 6th, 2018 we received an email saying that they had taken action on our case, action being ‘We have corrected your name on your case.’ No idea what they meant by that, I checked the photocopies of the documents we sent in and we didn't make any mistakes with my name.

 

Next update was March 7th stating ‘We have sent your case to your local office.’ I read on a few posts that they did this before an interview, we were pretty much prepared to give one considering how late we filed, so we were basically just waiting for the interview notice.

We were extremely surprised and immensely relieved when on March 9th we received the update that they had approved our case.

We received the approval letter a couple days later in the mail and in that they put down approval date as February 28, 2018.

We didn't receive any further updates and on March 27, 2018, we received an email stating ‘We are still reviewing your case and there are no updates at this time.’

Although this worried us, we assumed they were just late in updating the status and it was probably an error.

March 28, 2018 status changed to ‘We are producing your card.’ (On the case status account it updated to ‘We have started working on your case’ with March 25th, 2018 as the date which is bizarre as the other account shows that our case was approved on March 9th)

 

April 3, 2018 Status changed to ‘We have mailed your card.’ with the date of action as April 2nd, 2018.

We are signed up for Informed Delivery on USPS and were able to get the tracking number from there. For those who aren't signed up for Informed Delivery, you can either call USCIS or chat with a live representative through Emma (the virtual assistant on the USCIS website) and ask them for the tracking number.

April 5, 2018 we received the green card

 

The DHS account is much more reliable and updates faster than the Case Status one. I would recommend following that.

Again, my post in no way offers any legal advice or recommendations. I simply want to share my experience as a late filer.

[NikLR 13,220]

What do you mean DHS vs case status account? Were you using both case numbers from your NOA1 and your biometrics letter? 

 

Otherwise thank you for letting us k ow your timeline! Congrats on approval?

[Sad.wasi 32]

2 hours ago, ambaig said:

Hi everyone

 

We filed our I 751 very late and although I did find posts online pertaining to late filing, I didn't find many recent ones and not many instances where the OP updated how things turned out. I thought I'd add our experience and hopefully it might be of some help.

 

We were supposed to file our I 751 in March 2016, but we ended up filing it in February 2017, almost a year later (and right after they increased the fee :P).

 

Documents we sent in were

IRS letter addressed to both of us

2 sworn affidavits

Joint bank account statements

Tax documents showing we filed jointly

Family pictures

Daughter's birth certificate

Proof of  2nd pregnancy (sent in later, around November 2017)

Hospital documents to support our reasons for late filing

We attached a cover letter explaining our late filing, put our documents in a folder with each evidence separated by a colored, numbered tab,and put in a numbered index stating what the file contained.

 

We received our NOA Feb 24, 2017, had our biometrics on March 23, 2017, but based on our address our appointment was in New York, and we were in Virginia around that time. I called up USCIS customer care and the agent was really helpful, asked me to walk in at the office in Virginia any time before the appointment date. We went the next day as our appointment was only a week away. Although they refused to accept walk ins as they were extremely busy, the guy there asked us to try again another day. We went the next day 20 minutes before the office opened up, waited and were the second people in line and they accommodated us. We had to go back again a month later (April 21, 2017) as apparently my fingerprints weren't clearly recorded, and we did the same thing, walked in early in the morning.

 

We didn't receive anything after that, but in November we found out we were going to have another baby and sent in confirmation of the pregnancy as further proof of our relationship.

 

It was a torturous and stressful wait, and we were highly stressed out mostly because of the dozen lawyers and posts online that stated that a year late I 751 is grounds for immediate denial.

We consulted two lawyers before we filed and explained our situation to both. One of them was upfront and said your reasons are very routine reasons, nothing that is reasonable enough for a year delay, and in my opinion I don't think you have a good chance without a lawyer. The second one barely heard us out, just heard the basics, used the new presidency to intimidate us saying you will be removed from the country, separated from your children and kept asking how much we could pay. Started off quoting $8000 and his next quote was $4000. He actually made me want to do this on my own. I'm not giving out advice that people who file late don't need or shouldn't get a lawyer. It was a personal decision/risk that we decided to take.

 

We signed up for the USCIS account, the DHS one, as well as the Case Status account but we only had the update ‘We have received your case’ with February 24th 2017 as the date (On the NOA it said February 17th 2017). FYI we noticed the Case Status account updated much later than the other account.

 

March 6th, 2018 we received an email saying that they had taken action on our case, action being ‘We have corrected your name on your case.’ No idea what they meant by that, I checked the photocopies of the documents we sent in and we didn't make any mistakes with my name.

 

Next update was March 7th stating ‘We have sent your case to your local office.’ I read on a few posts that they did this before an interview, we were pretty much prepared to give one considering how late we filed, so we were basically just waiting for the interview notice.

We were extremely surprised and immensely relieved when on March 9th we received the update that they had approved our case.

We received the approval letter a couple days later in the mail and in that they put down approval date as February 28, 2018.

We didn't receive any further updates and on March 27, 2018, we received an email stating ‘We are still reviewing your case and there are no updates at this time.’

Although this worried us, we assumed they were just late in updating the status and it was probably an error.

March 28, 2018 status changed to ‘We are producing your card.’ (On the case status account it updated to ‘We have started working on your case’ with March 25th, 2018 as the date which is bizarre as the other account shows that our case was approved on March 9th)

 

April 3, 2018 Status changed to ‘We have mailed your card.’ with the date of action as April 2nd, 2018.

We are signed up for Informed Delivery on USPS and were able to get the tracking number from there. For those who aren't signed up for Informed Delivery, you can either call USCIS or chat with a live representative through Emma (the virtual assistant on the USCIS website) and ask them for the tracking number.

April 5, 2018 we received the green card

 

The DHS account is much more reliable and updates faster than the Case Status one. I would recommend following that.

Again, my post in no way offers any legal advice or recommendations. I simply want to share my experience as a late filer.

Congrats... what service center did you initially filed ur i 751 through ? 

[ambaig 9]

Thank you for the congratulations! 

 

@NikLR

We signed up for an account at uscis.dhs.gov. It automatically shows all your cases, and both case numbers appeared as different cases.

But when we checked case status from this link https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus it gave us the option to sign up (top left corner on the mobile site). So we had two accounts. I added both the case numbers. NOA1 appeared as CRI-89.

Biometrics case number as I-751. To date the first number status is 'Case received'. 

The second number started showing status only after they started working on my case. 

@Sad.wasi

We filed at the Vermont Service Center. 

[jc2008 8]

I too couldn't find many people talking about filing late, especially as late as we were.... here is our story in case someone sees this thread and is in a similar situation:

 

K1 issued Dec 2003

Marriage Feb 2004 in states

Filed for 2 year greencard  + work permit directly afterwards and received those in the next year sometime.

 

Oct 2016 filed i751 for removal of conditions with apology letters from myself and my husband for late filing. We had a ####### ton of evidence of bonafide marriage because we had a kid, house, 2 cars, joint bank accounts, health insurance etc.. 12 years of marriage gives you a lot of evidence. During these 12 years we were never asked about my husband's status, at the bank for accounts, for car loans, for our mortgage, for his job and never at the DMV when he renewed his license every 4 years. We even lost the original greencard and JUST had a picture of the front (not front and back) to send in with our evidence.

 

Got a lawyer, who wrote us a cover letter and an explanation letter for only one side of greencard. Figured we might need the lawyer if we were rejected and my husband put into removal proceedings.

 

Spent 1.5 years sick to our stomachs that our failure to file the i751 on time was going to cause a big mess. Approved on April 5, 2018 - no RFE or interview

 

 

[ambaig 9]

2 minutes ago, jc2008 said:

I too couldn't find many people talking about filing late, especially as late as we were.... here is our story in case someone sees this thread and is in a similar situation:

 

K1 issued Dec 2003

Marriage Feb 2004 in states

Filed for 2 year greencard  + work permit directly afterwards and received those in the next year sometime.

 

Oct 2016 filed i751 for removal of conditions with apology letters from myself and my husband for late filing. We had a ####### ton of evidence of bonafide marriage because we had a kid, house, 2 cars, joint bank accounts, health insurance etc.. 12 years of marriage gives you a lot of evidence. During these 12 years we were never asked about my husband's status, at the bank for accounts, for car loans, for our mortgage, for his job and never at the DMV when he renewed his license every 4 years. We even lost the original greencard and JUST had a picture of the front (not front and back) to send in with our evidence.

 

Got a lawyer, who wrote us a cover letter and an explanation letter for only one side of greencard. Figured we might need the lawyer if we were rejected and my husband put into removal proceedings.

 

Spent 1.5 years sick to our stomachs that our failure to file the i751 on time was going to cause a big mess. Approved on April 5, 2018 - no RFE or interview

 

 

Congratulations! So glad to hear that it worked out well for you guys. The wait is definitely extremely stressful. 

[egyptianpotato 7]

Thank you for sharing, it's comforting reading about different experiences with this problem. 

[manny9666 3]

On 4/12/2018 at 12:09 AM, ambaig said:

Hi everyone

 

We filed our I 751 very late and although I did find posts online pertaining to late filing, I didn't find many recent ones and not many instances where the OP updated how things turned out. I thought I'd add our experience and hopefully it might be of some help.

 

We were supposed to file our I 751 in March 2016, but we ended up filing it in February 2017, almost a year later (and right after they increased the fee :P).

 

Documents we sent in were

IRS letter addressed to both of us

2 sworn affidavits

Joint bank account statements

Tax documents showing we filed jointly

Family pictures

Daughter's birth certificate

Proof of  2nd pregnancy (sent in later, around November 2017)

Hospital documents to support our reasons for late filing

We attached a cover letter explaining our late filing, put our documents in a folder with each evidence separated by a colored, numbered tab,and put in a numbered index stating what the file contained.

 

We received our NOA Feb 24, 2017, had our biometrics on March 23, 2017, but based on our address our appointment was in New York, and we were in Virginia around that time. I called up USCIS customer care and the agent was really helpful, asked me to walk in at the office in Virginia any time before the appointment date. We went the next day as our appointment was only a week away. Although they refused to accept walk ins as they were extremely busy, the guy there asked us to try again another day. We went the next day 20 minutes before the office opened up, waited and were the second people in line and they accommodated us. We had to go back again a month later (April 21, 2017) as apparently my fingerprints weren't clearly recorded, and we did the same thing, walked in early in the morning.

 

We didn't receive anything after that, but in November we found out we were going to have another baby and sent in confirmation of the pregnancy as further proof of our relationship.

 

It was a torturous and stressful wait, and we were highly stressed out mostly because of the dozen lawyers and posts online that stated that a year late I 751 is grounds for immediate denial.

We consulted two lawyers before we filed and explained our situation to both. One of them was upfront and said your reasons are very routine reasons, nothing that is reasonable enough for a year delay, and in my opinion I don't think you have a good chance without a lawyer. The second one barely heard us out, just heard the basics, used the new presidency to intimidate us saying you will be removed from the country, separated from your children and kept asking how much we could pay. Started off quoting $8000 and his next quote was $4000. He actually made me want to do this on my own. I'm not giving out advice that people who file late don't need or shouldn't get a lawyer. It was a personal decision/risk that we decided to take.

 

We signed up for the USCIS account, the DHS one, as well as the Case Status account but we only had the update ‘We have received your case’ with February 24th 2017 as the date (On the NOA it said February 17th 2017). FYI we noticed the Case Status account updated much later than the other account.

 

March 6th, 2018 we received an email saying that they had taken action on our case, action being ‘We have corrected your name on your case.’ No idea what they meant by that, I checked the photocopies of the documents we sent in and we didn't make any mistakes with my name.

 

Next update was March 7th stating ‘We have sent your case to your local office.’ I read on a few posts that they did this before an interview, we were pretty much prepared to give one considering how late we filed, so we were basically just waiting for the interview notice.

We were extremely surprised and immensely relieved when on March 9th we received the update that they had approved our case.

We received the approval letter a couple days later in the mail and in that they put down approval date as February 28, 2018.

We didn't receive any further updates and on March 27, 2018, we received an email stating ‘We are still reviewing your case and there are no updates at this time.’

Although this worried us, we assumed they were just late in updating the status and it was probably an error.

March 28, 2018 status changed to ‘We are producing your card.’ (On the case status account it updated to ‘We have started working on your case’ with March 25th, 2018 as the date which is bizarre as the other account shows that our case was approved on March 9th)

 

April 3, 2018 Status changed to ‘We have mailed your card.’ with the date of action as April 2nd, 2018.

We are signed up for Informed Delivery on USPS and were able to get the tracking number from there. For those who aren't signed up for Informed Delivery, you can either call USCIS or chat with a live representative through Emma (the virtual assistant on the USCIS website) and ask them for the tracking number.

April 5, 2018 we received the green card

 

The DHS account is much more reliable and updates faster than the Case Status one. I would recommend following that.

Again, my post in no way offers any legal advice or recommendations. I simply want to share my experience as a late filer.

 I failed to apply for i-757 - Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence when it was initially due. My Green card expired on 01/27/2021. I initially applied for i-90 - replacement of Green Card in Oct, 2020 thinking that was the application required to extend my status. I recently got the denied letter that stated that I should be applying for i-757. My question is - is it too late for me to apply for the removal of conditional status? Does this mean, I will be deported? I am still married to my husband and currently am a mother to a 1 year old baby girl. Please advice.  

[manny9666 3]

On 4/12/2018 at 9:48 AM, jc2008 said:

I too couldn't find many people talking about filing late, especially as late as we were.... here is our story in case someone sees this thread and is in a similar situation:

 

K1 issued Dec 2003

Marriage Feb 2004 in states

Filed for 2 year greencard  + work permit directly afterwards and received those in the next year sometime.

 

Oct 2016 filed i751 for removal of conditions with apology letters from myself and my husband for late filing. We had a ####### ton of evidence of bonafide marriage because we had a kid, house, 2 cars, joint bank accounts, health insurance etc.. 12 years of marriage gives you a lot of evidence. During these 12 years we were never asked about my husband's status, at the bank for accounts, for car loans, for our mortgage, for his job and never at the DMV when he renewed his license every 4 years. We even lost the original greencard and JUST had a picture of the front (not front and back) to send in with our evidence.

 

Got a lawyer, who wrote us a cover letter and an explanation letter for only one side of greencard. Figured we might need the lawyer if we were rejected and my husband put into removal proceedings.

 

Spent 1.5 years sick to our stomachs that our failure to file the i751 on time was going to cause a big mess. Approved on April 5, 2018 - no RFE or interview

 

 

Do you have a copy of that apology letter?  I am sitting here trying to draft one.  I made a silly mistake by applying for the wrong application.   Of course it had to happen that way.   Was wondering if there is any hope for me?.  Thank you,