Missing I-751 RFE notice and probably passed 90 days deadline. What to do?

[WillHelpBack 3]

Hi Everyone,

Here is the main issue: There was a missing I-751 RFE notice that we never receive in mails, text message or email. I found out online status at a surprise yesterday that USCIS sent a RFE on Dec 6th 2023, which is 3 months ago. Now the RFE is probably pass due after 90 days, what should I do?

 

Details: on 1/21/2022, I filed I-751 removal of condition to USCIS for my marriage based green card. USCIS recieved it on 1/24/2022 and changed the status.

Since then, I have not received any letter notice or text message update for any RFE. My husband checked mails every 1-3 days. He did not see anything USCIS RFE notice. I double checked all the letters remained and cannot find it either.

Yesterday on 3/5/2024 I found online status that USCIS sent RFE on Dec 6th 2023, at a big surprise! Because I checked the online status in December 2023 and January 2024, which nothing appeared. I was only busy in February and did not check. This is so weird.
 

Actions we did: Yesterday we just created an online uscis account but found no where to download the RFE electronic copy. Called Emma and still cannot get the electronic copy by email. (Emma is really a pain at ### to connect to a real human, and we were never able to talk with a real agent yesterday)

 

We also submitted yesterday 3/5/2024 “request for missing notice” on USCIS website but it is said that new copy will be sent by April 4th which may be too late.

The RFE is likely just past due a couple days after 90 days since it’s said sent on Dec 06th 2023.

We do not even know what is the RFE requesting about, because we do not have any copy of it. Cannot even start preparing documents for it.

 

Next Steps: we are going to call Emma tomorrow morning say “info pass” to speak with an agent hopefully. I am going to explain the situation and request an email pdf copy of the RFE.
Also added that I was diagnosed with depression, I will request the agent to reopen my case if it is closed. Anything else I should request with the agent? 

Besides calling the agent, what else should I do now? For example, make the info pass appointment to meet a local field officer?
 

I would like to hear any of your advice!

 

Even a little piece of advice about how to deal with Emma will help.

 

I am also contacting a couple of attorneys. But honestly our previous two filing attorney/agents did not ever to check the status of my case and follow up in the past couple years. So I think it’s better to take control of it myself now.

Thank you!

[WillHelpBack 3]

Btw, my husband is USC.

 

He is very chill and laid back like “we are not the very first one and not the last one did not receive the notice and passed deadline, there got to be ways to deal with it”. But I am still very nervous and started to search about denial, NTA and what to do to reopen, reapply and refill etc.

 

The online status is still at the RFE Dec 6th 2023 now but I am worried that it can change anytime since passing deadline.

 

Thank you very much if anyone knew similar cases and share some info.

[Dashinka 23,252]

You should be able to straighten things out.  Your plan of trying to get to a Tier 2 person is good, but it might take some time to get a response.  You could also try your US representative, or senator, they might be able to expedite USCIS to send out the RFE copy.  Meanwhile, review your package with a fine toothed comb and see if you can detect anything obvious.  Other than that, maybe they are looing for more relationship evidence, but that is just a guess.

 

Good Luck!

[WillHelpBack 3]

28 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

You should be able to straighten things out.  Your plan of trying to get to a Tier 2 person is good, but it might take some time to get a response.  You could also try your US representative, or senator, they might be able to expedite USCIS to send out the RFE copy.  Meanwhile, review your package with a fine toothed comb and see if you can detect anything obvious.  Other than that, maybe they are looing for more relationship evidence, but that is just a guess.

 

Good Luck!

 

Thank you Dashinka.

I just called the USCIS at 8am est and was able to talk with a real agent immediately by telling Emma "make info pass appointment".

However, the agent is not really helpful. And I was not able to reach a Tier 2 person or make appointment with local field office.

The agent said that the only thing I can do and I already did yesterday is to submit the "request for missing notice". And then wait. USCIS will either send me a decision or respond with a new RFE letter by April 3rd.

He cannot see the electronic copy of the original RFE on his side so he cannot tell what information was requested from the original RFE. He also said that I will not be able to find the document myself with the uscis online account because I did not file electronically. He refused me to make an appointment with the local field office because the office cannot help me on this issue.

 

The only good thing is that he confirmed with me the case is still open at the moment not closed.

[WillHelpBack 3]

Also I just consulted with an attorney on the app "Lawfully", it is a useful app to quickly make appointment to talk with an attorney for a quick chat 15mins in the earliest possibility. Like I made 5 requests this morning 2am PST and one attorney picked up my request to video chat at 6am PST.

It's only 15mins for 60 bucks but makes me more comfortable and confident about what to do now.

The attorney suggested that beside the e-request of "request missing notice", I should also mail a letter to the service center explaining what happened about the missing notice. Keep a copy of the explanation letter and tracking number to save a paper trail in case needed later.

He said that a lot of time the USCIS agent cannot see much inside info on our cases, the agent may only see the when and where is the case moving around.

He made a couple of good suggestions to prepare the marriage evidence since most of i-751 RFE is for marriage evidence. One interesting suggestion is on our marriage photos. He pointed that my marriage photos should add captions on them like who in the picture, where the place and date etc. I never knew about this caption thing. He also suggested to avoid the online system since it is a mess with a lot of complaints and I cannot file any I-751 stuff online anyways.

And yes, i will prepare and review all the evidence with a fine toothed comb now.

[OldUser 4,833]

2 hours ago, WillHelpBack said:

Also I just consulted with an attorney on the app "Lawfully", it is a useful app to quickly make appointment to talk with an attorney for a quick chat 15mins in the earliest possibility. Like I made 5 requests this morning 2am PST and one attorney picked up my request to video chat at 6am PST.

It's only 15mins for 60 bucks but makes me more comfortable and confident about what to do now.

The attorney suggested that beside the e-request of "request missing notice", I should also mail a letter to the service center explaining what happened about the missing notice. Keep a copy of the explanation letter and tracking number to save a paper trail in case needed later.

He said that a lot of time the USCIS agent cannot see much inside info on our cases, the agent may only see the when and where is the case moving around.

He made a couple of good suggestions to prepare the marriage evidence since most of i-751 RFE is for marriage evidence. One interesting suggestion is on our marriage photos. He pointed that my marriage photos should add captions on them like who in the picture, where the place and date etc. I never knew about this caption thing. He also suggested to avoid the online system since it is a mess with a lot of complaints and I cannot file any I-751 stuff online anyways.

And yes, i will prepare and review all the evidence with a fine toothed comb now.

I wish you came across multiple posts I left in various threads about photos. Yes, caption photos with date, occasion, place and who's on photos. Useful photos are the ones with family and friends and not just two of you. Useful photos span months and years and not just set of photos from a particular vacation etc. Photos are great, but they're not the strongest evidence.

 

What other evidence of sharing life and comingling finances did you send?

[WillHelpBack 3]

On 3/6/2024 at 9:13 AM, OldUser said:

I wish you came across multiple posts I left in various threads about photos. Yes, caption photos with date, occasion, place and who's on photos. Useful photos are the ones with family and friends and not just two of you. Useful photos span months and years and not just set of photos from a particular vacation etc. Photos are great, but they're not the strongest evidence.

 

What other evidence of sharing life and comingling finances did you send?

We sent pretty much everything. The lawfully attorneys reviewed our case said we sent more evidence than their own application before lol

So besides we do not have children, everything else to the rfe response is updated information for the past 2.5 years waiting period.

[WillHelpBack 3]

Updates:

after calling uscis on March 6th requesting for a copy of rfe, they sent us a copy on March 7th. We received it by mail on March 11th.

On March 13th, we immediately signed a contract with an attorney from lawfully app who is super fast on taking the consultation and preparing the documents. We traveled to my husband’s hometown and get every family member affidavit letters and notarized, which took a little time.

From March 18th to 20th, we submitted all the financial documents available plus photos with captions to the attorney electronically. His team finished reviewing and piling them on March 21st for our review.  
March 21st evening the attorney sent the package to FedEx next day priority but it’s already passed the cutoff line so actually shipped on March 22nd Friday.

On March 25th Monday morning, the FedEx tracking shows it’s delivered. In the night, the lawfully app shows the uscis status changed from “rfe” to “rfe response received”.

 

Now it’s another the waiting game again. Finger crossed.

 

I shared all my journey in details, hoping to help others in the same situation. Don’t panic, you still have a chance to submit the missing RFE!

 

[Dashinka 23,252]

54 minutes ago, WillHelpBack said:

Updates:

after calling uscis on March 6th requesting for a copy of rfe, they sent us a copy on March 7th. We received it by mail on March 11th.

On March 13th, we immediately signed a contract with an attorney from lawfully app who is super fast on taking the consultation and preparing the documents. We traveled to my husband’s hometown and get every family member affidavit letters and notarized, which took a little time.

From March 18th to 20th, we submitted all the financial documents available plus photos with captions to the attorney electronically. His team finished reviewing and piling them on March 21st for our review.  
March 21st evening the attorney sent the package to FedEx next day priority but it’s already passed the cutoff line so actually shipped on March 22nd Friday.

On March 25th Monday morning, the FedEx tracking shows it’s delivered. In the night, the lawfully app shows the uscis status changed from “rfe” to “rfe response received”.

 

Now it’s another the waiting game again. Finger crossed.

 

I shared all my journey in details, hoping to help others in the same situation. Don’t panic, you still have a chance to submit the missing RFE!

 

Thanks for providing an update.  Hopefully this will clear up for you soon.

 

Good Luck!

[WillHelpBack 3]

After a month of RFE reply, our case got approved! Now we cross finger and wait for the green card to deliver smoothly.

Guess it was just a normal RFE to check the status of marriage after long time.

 

I wonder how they will provide the tracking number of green card.

[OldUser 4,833]

42 minutes ago, WillHelpBack said:

After a month of RFE reply, our case got approved! Now we cross finger and wait for the green card to deliver smoothly.

Guess it was just a normal RFE to check the status of marriage after long time.

 

I wonder how they will provide the tracking number of green card.

Congratulations!

 

You will get USPS tracking number in USCIS status once the GC is shipped.

 

However, if you use USPS Informed Delivery, you may see package from Lee's Summit Production Facility - that's GC. It may show up few days earlier than USCIS status.

Edited Thursday at 05:00 PM by OldUser

[WillHelpBack 3]

4 hours ago, OldUser said:

Congratulations!

 

You will get USPS tracking number in USCIS status once the GC is shipped.

 

However, if you use USPS Informed Delivery, you may see package from Lee's Summit Production Facility - that's GC. It may show up few days earlier than USCIS status.

Thank you! I will just wait then