US Immigration from New Zealand

Hi all!
PD is 02/14/2025 for my i485, husband is a USC. A few days ago we received an RFE for the i864, I believe this is because our lawyer did not update our household size after my baby was born when we filed initially. Our lawyer is asking $1000 to respond to the RFE which after paying $5000 for the initial filing isn't financially feasible for us.

She has strongly advised against us firing her and finishing the case out ourselves because the i864 RFE is apparently difficult?

Would ya'll agree with this? I don't want to mess anything up. Also a second question in case we do self file. We live with my MIL in her finished basement, however our finances are in no way co-mingled. Would we include her in the total household size? She is going to be a joint sponsor because my husband hasn't worked very long so I imagine USCIS would scrutinize if we left her put then they saw her address is the same. Thanks in advance

I sent my I-485 to the Chicago Lockbox mid Dec last year and my I-765 in mid Jan this year.

I recieved an I-797 for the I-485 and have been through biometrics appointment and the case is in progress. However I never recieved an I-797 for the I-765 and they have also not cashed the check for the I-765.

I sent an email query 19th Feb and got an automated response saying they would respond within 30 days but have not had a reply, still no I-797 and they still haven't cashed the check.

I rung the USCIS help number, got stuck in a loop where they need the receipt number from the I-797 and no amount of asking the AI if I can speak to a representative would put me through, it would just continue the loop or hang up on me.

I sent a follow up email on the 20th Mar, got the automated response again saying they would respond within 30 days.

So I am stuck, I cannot talk to anyone without a receipt number, but I have not been given a receipt number.

Anyone have any cool tricks up their sleeve that I could try to get this moving along?

Thanks in advance.

Hello, Hoping someone can answer my questions

We submitted my I-485 12/11/24 got my NOA 01/10/25 and scheduled for Biometrics 02/02/25 during this time I got a rejection notice for i-765 because of the fees. We submitted it again through mail 01/29/25 and got a notice for biometrics 02/08/25 that I have another biometrics for i-765 which is dated 02-25-25, by the way I didn t receive any NOA for my I-765 which seems weird since the first mail I got is schedule for biometrics which is 3 days after my first biometrics for i-485. (02-08 25)

Should I call or request for the NOA? Since I have been waitiing for my i-765. I saw some applicants got their approval after or day of their biometrics sometimes a week. I saw one applicant that submitted their application a day earlier that mine got their approval right after their biometrics scheduled, which is a day after my schedule as well.

Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone!

My lawyer submitted my 1485 and i130 package initially back in December but it was rejected because she had used outdated forms and given us the wrong money amount to write on the checks. She ammended this and re-filed it in Jan. About a week ago we recieved a physical rejection notice, issued on Jan 30th, the reason being for 'missing pages'. However our lawyer has not received the package, and yesterday USCIS cashed all checks (i485, i130, EAD, AP etc).

Is there any possibility the rejection notice could have been in error? To my knowledge they don't cash checks for rejections, if they do I'm honestly not sure what we will do.

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm still confused and a little sad about two rejections, it has set our case back so much.

Applied for I-485 and I-765 simultaneously in December 2024 and recieved an NOA for the I-485 in early January.
Had my biometrics appointment for the I-465 in late January, now I am waiting for a decision (estimated time according to the USCIS is end of 2025)
So as far as I can tell, the I-485 application is going OK - 2 thumbs up.

However while my I-485 was being processed in January, I recieved my entire I-765 back because I did not send the correct fee (I didn't realise there was a charge for I-765 after April 1st last year - my bad)
So I re-sent the I-765 with a cheque for the correct fee in mid January, however I have not recieved any NOA for the I-765 and it has been a month since I sent the cheque and the cheque has not been cashed.

My question is, should I recieve an NOA for the I-765 seperately from the I-485 NOA I have already recieved?
Also is a month considered a long time to be waiting for any progress on the I-765? It looks like everyone else is getting theirs processed and returned within 2-4 weeks.

Thanks in advance.