Haven't received case number for I-485, I-765 rejected for wrong fee

[adiabatic 1]

I am a US citizen; My wife entered on K1 at the end of March (at that time my fiancée). Since then we've gotten married, and at the end of April we filed I-485 and I-765 concurrently by mail for CR-1 and EAD respectively.

 

However, we have yet to receive a case number for the I-485, and no payment has been taken from my bank account.

 

Yesterday we got a confusing package in the mail. The I-765 was rejected for incorrect fee, even though we included $260. The attached notice was provided. The i-864 affidavit of support, which should be part of the I-485 packet was also returned to us.

 

Of course we will call the customer center as soon as we are able, but I was hoping that others had some insight into what has happened, and what our likely best next steps are.

 

It seems to me that they have processed the I-765 before the I-485, found that there was no pending case, and rejected the application. But it's troubling that they have also returned part of the I-485 packet, which seems to be an error on their part.

[S2N 112]

Did you send it with a tracking number?

 

If so reach out to your senator’s office and get them to help with the inquiry. Effectively losing an application is the type of government screw up that benefits from going directly to a senator or member of congress first rather than after an inquiry with the agency.

Edited Monday at 05:02 PM by S2N

[OldUser 9,180]

4 minutes ago, S2N said:

Did you send it with a tracking number?

 

If so reach out to your senator’s office and get them to help with the inquiry. Effectively losing an application is the type of government screw up that benefits from going directly to a senator or member of congress first rather than after an inquiry with the agency.

I think inquiries won't help much. Firstly, it would take a while. Secondly, it's not like USCIS will find lost packet.

 

I'd refile ASAP and ensure all forms are latest editions, payment is correct etc.

[adiabatic 1]

43 minutes ago, S2N said:

Did you send it with a tracking number?

 

If so reach out to your senator’s office and get them to help with the inquiry. Effectively losing an application is the type of government screw up that benefits from going directly to a senator or member of congress first rather than after an inquiry with the agency.

 

Yes, we sent it with a tracking number. The I-485 was in the same envelope as the I-765.

 

The thing is, we don't know that the I-485 has been lost, or what has happened; it could still be in a pile somewhere awaiting processing, in which case, refiling the I-485 would simply complicate things. We ensured that everything was correct and up to date the first time around...

 

I don't know whether:
1. I-485 was also rejected

2. I-485 simply hasn't been processed yet, at which point we will receive a case number (and a likely request for evidence for the I-864 they also mistakenly sent us back), and we could file the I-765 again online

Edited Monday at 05:44 PM by adiabatic

[S2N 112]

38 minutes ago, OldUser said:

I think inquiries won't help much. Firstly, it would take a while. Secondly, it's not like USCIS will find lost packet.

 

I'd refile ASAP and ensure all forms are latest editions, payment is correct etc.

My experience with other agencies is that congressional inquiries on lost or misplaced items tend to get attention vs. inquiries on why things are taking so long. Its one of the things Congress is remarkably good at, and if a paper packet was received and it had a tracking number, USCIS should be able to locate it and the senator or representative would most likely be able to provide the name of a specific person to talk to.

 

1 minute ago, adiabatic said:

 

Yes, we sent it with a tracking number.

 

The thing is, we don't know that the I-485 has been lost; it could still be in a pile somewhere awaiting processing, in which case, refiling would simply complicate things further.

This is why I’d go the senatorial or congressional inquiry route. Call their DC or local office tomorrow when it’s open and ask to talk to someone in constituent services. They’ll have you fill out a waiver to allow them to talk to USCIS. Might not help, but it means you’ll actually have someone looking for it vs. the black hole that Emma/general inquiries could be. I’d still do one of those as well, but that’s not a reason to avoid the congressional inquiry route.

[adiabatic 1]

Just now, S2N said:

My experience with other agencies is that congressional inquiries on lost or misplaced items tend to get attention vs. inquiries on why things are taking so long. Its one of the things Congress is remarkably good at, and if a paper packet was received and it had a tracking number, USCIS should be able to locate it and the senator or representative would most likely be able to provide the name of a specific person to talk to.

 

This is why I’d go the senatorial or congressional inquiry route. Call their DC or local office tomorrow when it’s open and ask to talk to someone in constituent services. They’ll have you fill out a waiver to allow them to talk to USCIS. Might not help, but it means you’ll actually have someone looking for it vs. the black hole that Emma/general inquiries could be. I’d still do one of those as well, but that’s not a reason to avoid the congressional inquiry route.

 

We'll write our congressman then. They also returned the passport photographs that we enclosed with the I-485 packet...

[pushbrk 13,447]

How did you pay?  If by check or money order, did you include two separate payments or combine them?  They must be two separate payments.  If no payment has been accepted, everything was rejected.  The proper result would have been to get everything back including the payment.  Your report lacks some details like mentioned above.  Please clarify.

 

Also, this is not a spouse visa case. Expect your topic to be moved to the correct forum.

[adiabatic 1]

3 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

How did you pay?  If by check or money order, did you include two separate payments or combine them?  They must be two separate payments.  If no payment has been accepted, everything was rejected.  The proper result would have been to get everything back including the payment.  Your report lacks some details like mentioned above.  Please clarify.

 

Also, this is not a spouse visa case. Expect your topic to be moved to the correct forum.

 

We included two separate payments, neither of which were taken.

We did not get the entire submission back, only the I-765 packet, along with I-864 and passport photos, which should be part of the I-485 evidence packet.

To my knowledge, everything has been filed correctly.

 

This is a spouse visa case, as this is I-485 for CR-1...

Edited Monday at 09:05 PM by adiabatic

[pushbrk 13,447]

Just now, adiabatic said:

 

We included two separate payments, neither of which were taken.

We did not get the entire packet back, only the I-765 portion, and parts of the I-485 portion.

To my knowledge, everything has been filed correctly.

 

This is a spouse visa case, as this is I-485 for CR-1...

NO, it is adjusting status from a K visa.  No visa results from such a filing.

[Crazy Cat 43,783]

**Topic moved to Adjustment of Status from K-1 forum***

[Edward and Jaycel 1,599]

21 hours ago, adiabatic said:

They also returned the passport photographs that we enclosed with the I-485 packet...

Did you not include passport photos with the I-765 application? They are required for that application also

[adiabatic 1]

2 hours ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

Did you not include passport photos with the I-765 application? They are required for that application also

We included them for both the I-485 and I-765. What I meant is they returned all 4 photos with the I-765, not just the 2 included with the I-765

Edited Tuesday at 05:20 PM by adiabatic

[adiabatic 1]

Anyhow, USCIS contact center was of no use at all, they put me on hold looking up the case and then never came back after 30 minutes.

 

I sent in a request with our representative's office. Likely we will simply have to refile but it would be nice to know what has happened, and why the I-485 was rejected in the first place.

[Edward and Jaycel 1,599]

1 minute ago, adiabatic said:

We included them for both the I-485 and I-765. What I meant is they returned all 4 photos with the I-765, not just the 2 included with the I-765

 

Ah ok thank you for clearing that up.... so it looks like they sent back the whole I-765 and pieces of the I-485. Very strange. If I were in your shoes I would assume they rejected the whole thing especially since they sent back the I-864 which is in support of the I-485. It sounds in my mind like they opened the package, lost the I-485 application before they started processing it then rejected the I-765 due to no concurrent I-485 being with it. I would cancel the payment for the I-485 if you used a method that you can cancel and re-file ASAP.

[OldUser 9,180]

2 minutes ago, adiabatic said:

Anyhow, USCIS contact center was of no use at all, they put me on hold looking up the case and then never came back after 30 minutes.

 

I sent in a request with our representative's office. Likely we will simply have to refile but it would be nice to know what has happened, and why the I-485 was rejected in the first place.

What all the fees you paid for I-485, I-765 etc?