Did not receive form I-797 for F4 Visa

[sl1991 0]

Hello everyone, 

 

I'm new here and was just wondering if it's possible to request a duplicate I-797 form as we never received one years ago and are confused about what our approval date is. Here's a bit of a timeline:

- Priority Date is May 16th, 2005

- Received a letter from US Department of State NVC which is dated September 22, 2009

• This letter says "The enclosed information pertains to your interest in immigrating to the United States of America. The information concerning your registration is noted at the end of the letter. Unfortunately, visa numbers are not presently available for your use. You will be notified when further consideration can be given to processing your application for immigration. The reason for this delay is that there are more applicants for visas than there are immigrant visa numbers available under the limitation prescribed by law..."

- This form says nothing about "approval" and we did not receive the I-797 form before or any time after receiving that letter

- To date, we never received any other type of letter or information following that and we kind of just forgot about this whole process (my dad had wanted to move there before retirement but has since retired)

- Last month, I decided to go online and check our case status which said it was at NVC for processing and we could pay the fees and gather all the documents

- I'm a derivative and am 28 now but my name still showed up to pay the fees and to complete DS-260

- Since I don't know our approval date, I'm not sure I can properly calculate my CSPA age

- We've now submitted all documents and are awaiting an interview date

 

Does anyone know if I can request a duplicate I-797 form or if I'm missing the approval date somewhere here? 

 

Thanks so much and appreciate any responses.

 

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

You do technically need the exact approval date to calculate CSPA, but as you can be sure that that letter would not have been sent before petition approval, the date on that letter would be the latest possible approval date. That in turns means the maximum CSPA benefit for this case is 4 years 4 months which unfortunately still puts your CSPA age well over 21. I would still suggest you contact nvc to get the exact approval date so you know for certain.

 

bu the way, the i797 would have been sent to the petitioner, who I assume is your father’s sibling - have you checked with him/her?

[sl1991 0]

Thanks for the response! Yes I've checked with my dads sister several times and she said she never received any other type of letter except for the one I explained above with that information. Both my dad and his sister got that same letter but nothing else was ever received. I'll give NVC a call to have them confirm the exact approval date.

[Ali malik 0]

i have the same issue. i also never got i 797 for F 4. PD is june 2008. i dont know what is my approval date or even my case got approved or not? please help