Ramsey

On 7/17/2019 at 9:01 AM, Peter Parker said:

Oh man, I'm sorry you are having to deal with this too. I'd be more than a bit frustrated, May 11 is a long time ago.

 

When USCIS sent it to me, it was priority delivery requiring a signature. So if it was the same for you, those new residents shouldn't have had it, it should have gone straight back.

 

Actually it was pretty quick for them to reprocess it, AFTER they realized they had it returned to them. Like a week or two. But them realizing they had it was like a month. Checking your case status may help you know the situation better.

 

"Lee's Summit, Missouri" sounds right - that's basically Kansas City, which I remember was where mine was coming from.

 

GREAT NEWS, WE JUST RECEIVED THE GREEN CARD TODAY!!! WOOHOOO, THANK GOD, FINALLY!!  🕺

23 hours ago, Peter Parker said:

Oh man, I'm sorry you are having to deal with this too. I'd be more than a bit frustrated, May 11 is a long time ago.

 

When USCIS sent it to me, it was priority delivery requiring a signature. So if it was the same for you, those new residents shouldn't have had it, it should have gone straight back.

 

Actually it was pretty quick for them to reprocess it, AFTER they realized they had it returned to them. Like a week or two. But them realizing they had it was like a month. Checking your case status may help you know the situation better.

 

"Lee's Summit, Missouri" sounds right - that's basically Kansas City, which I remember was where mine was coming from.

 

Thanks for the kind words and for your response.

It really does suck that it's taken them so long to resend it. They did tell my wife that they would send it with priority delivery and require a signature. They apologized that they didn't do that the first time (maybe it's not standard protocol?)

Hopefully we receive the card within the next week or so, we will keep you all posted. I appreciate your help, Peter, and congratulate you once again!! It's been such a long journey.

19 hours ago, Peter Parker said:

Since my last post, there were more government screw ups I had to deal with, but I'm now past it: I finally got my green card today 🕺.

 

I'm going to detail my experience here:

• USCIS sent out my green card about 6 weeks ago, but never communicated this to me in any way. Surprisingly quickly after I was in Milwaukee actually,.
• They sent it to my old address, even though I was very careful to make sure they had my new address in their systems, and it was communicated in the manually printed visa packet
• It was therefore returned to them, and it took them about a month to process it as having been returned to them.
• I only found out about any of this when on a whim I went to look up my case status. I was distracted and it didn't cross my mind that green card mailing would be presented on there, but it was. My bad I guess, but no harm done.
• Fortunately I checked just after they'd processed the return.
• I found out it was sent to the wrong address by calling my local post office (USPS) and asking them if a particular tracking number (USCIS give you this on the case status page) was sent to a particular address (my old one).
• I called them up, and they put in a 3 service requests - 1 to fix my address (probably was not needed), 2 to tell the green card mailing folks the correct address, 3 to get me in the Milwaukee infoPass queue so I could get a temporary extension on my passport tamp.
• This was processed surprisingly quickly. I got a call confirming and cancelling me from InfoPass as I'd no longer need it.
• But they left my old apartment number in my new address. This confused USPS, who sent it out on the wrong truck (as there are no apartments here, I guess they tried to be 'clever' and corrected the address in a different way). I waited in all day, only to get a tracking notification it was undeliverable.
• This drove me into an absolute fury, due to all the problems at this point. So my wife and I drove down to USPS and we tried to pick it up by hand. The letter was not back, but we did get a USPS supervisor to deal with it and she even phoned me this morning to confirm she'd found the letter and put it on the correct truck. The USPS guys were great, even if they did screw me with their incorrect truck.
• And finally, I got it today, and it was correct!

In between all this, Wisconsin law says you can only drive on an out-of-state/foreign license for a year, so I had to get a state license. I went to the DMV and was turned away due to my temporary green card expiring within 6 months. I contacted DMV to ask for an exemption based on special circumstances (ability to drive is hardly optional if you live in the suburbs), and they told the 6 month rule applies only to temporary residents, not permanent ones. I went back to the DMV and this time the guy at the front desk didn't even want to let me through, insisting I needed a letter from USCIS confirming my status, or my actual final green card - and refusing to look at my passport, or the email I had from the DMV. I had to argue the hell out of this, and eventually the idiot let me through when I showed him my passport had the word 'permanent' on the visa - no apologies or admissions, just an incompetent guy who hates his life. After that, all was good, everyone else was very nice, I passed my computer test, and I have my road test today.

Summary: I got my green card at about 49 weeks, and a hell of a lot of messing about.

Peter,

Congratulations on finally receiving your green card!! 😀 Very happy to hear this news. My mother in law had a similar situation to yours. We moved to Texas recently (from California) and the USCIS had sent it to our old address. The new residents sent it back to USPS and after going back and forth between Pasadena and San Diego about 3 times, they ended up sending it to Lee's Summit, Missouri. This was back on May 11. We called USCIS and sent in multiple service requests to update the address and resend the card. My wife just spoke with an agent yesterday, actually, and she was told she should be getting the card soon. It's now July 17 and we are a bit frustrated 😣

Just wondering, how long did it take from the time you submitted the service request to change address and resend your card until you actually got it in the mail?

Thanks.

18 hours ago, GandhiA2013 said:

Did taking the infopass appointment help? 

It definitely helped! As it turns out, the green card was produced on April 29, which is a few weeks after the infopass appointment  I have read that many members here on VJ have also had the infopass appointment help get the green card processed quickly. You just have to be pushy about the appointment and follow the advice I laid out above. Best of luck.

10 hours ago, truelove29 said:

We received the exact same letter this week! My husband entered last August and never received his green card. They told us at POE that it could take up to a year to receive, but after 6 months we knew something was wrong. After inquiring we received this letter. I don't know what else to do either, besides wait the 90 days. It's very frustrating! I was planning on calling the POE to see if they have any info...and USCIS as well. But I feel like all I'm going to be told is to wait the 90 days. I just want to make sure there's nothing we can do to hurry up the process. We were hoping to visit my husband's family this August, but now we can't even travel until we receive it! His visa will expire August 31st...and we were planning on coming back that day. Not sure if we were to move it up by a week if they would be ok with him coming back with only a week left on his visa.

truelove29, I suggest you call USCIS and schedule an infopass appointment as soon as possible. Tell them that you'd like to fill out an I-89 lost visa packet and that you were told to do it in person at an infopass appointment. Try to be persistent and they will give you the appointment (my wife was very pushy when she called them last time). At the infopass appointment, they would scan your documents (and maybe even download the packet from CCD) and then send everything to the TSC. Good luck!

23 hours ago, ahm12 said:

when you went there, was everything done at the window ? or they took you in a room ?

 

 

 

Everything was done at the window. The gentlemen filled out the form right in front of us.

16 hours ago, ahm12 said:

well we went for our infopass appointment.  at check in we said we are here to fill out lost visa packet form( i used the language that was mentioned in the letter we received from texas service center)

 

got called at the window, they kept 2 photos ,birth certificate copy and original passport that has visa on it, and told us to go sit again. 

2nd time they called us at the window and asked for state ID, gave it to them and they told us again sit down. i tried mentioning that visa packet is digital and should be in the ccd system . she looked at me what am i talking about, i didnt press it and went back and sat down again.

they called us 3rd time . gave us back the passport and told us you are all set. i did not even bother asking her how long will it take. she had some paperwork on her desk, i am assuming that was the lost packet form or i89 they call it internally. 

 

i hope this fixes the issue .

Wow that doesn't sound like a great experience. Well hopefully this resolves the issue, like you said. Best of luck to you, ahm12 !!

12 hours ago, mrmvkjts said:

We‘re at 184 day since payment and 153 days since POE.

We filled out the online form of „Permanent resident card not received in mail“

I called multiple times but they always tell me to wait out the 90 days ( even though I already know that nothing will happen in those 90 days) 

so I made another infopass appointment for May 2nd and I just hope it will be figured out soon!

 

mrmvkjts, from my experience, the best way to go about reporting a lost packet is by filling out the I-89 at the infopass appointment. I would also tell the officer to check their CCD for the visa packet in order to forward it to the TSC. Best of luck, I hope your infopass appointment goes well. We are about 3 weeks past our infopass appointment and still haven't heard anything.

7 minutes ago, ahm12 said:

can anyone tell what information they fill out on i89 form ?

From what I could tell from the Infopass appointment, they need a few things:

- Passport/visa information

- 2 passport-style photos

- Current address

The officer we got was super nice and he submitted the I-89 form promptly, and was even able to download the files from CCD to include them in the form to the TSC.

2 hours ago, CWiggin said:

Thanks guys, feels good now that the card has arrived.  309 days from POE for reference...pretty much 10 months.  I wonder if the USCIS finds this acceptable of their new CCD stored Visa Packets.

I sure hope not, because 309 days since entering the country should be completely unacceptable and considered a failure on their part. We are sitting at about 160 days right now and feel that we should've had the green card by now so it's understandable that you would be frustrated about it. Hopefully one day the TSC will wake up and figure out how to use the "Docs in CCD".  Best of luck to you and fingers crossed for everyone here who hasn't received their green card yet

Congratulations, CWiggin!! It's finally on it's way I know you've been waiting a really long time so it must be such a relief. All the best. 

10 hours ago, Sherry_c said:

my useless case update, need some suggestion pls~

I sent my sencond e-request on 3/20 and got a reply today saying: Further research is needed regarding your inquiry.  You should receive correspondence within the next 90 days regarding this case.  If you do not receive this correspondence, please contact the USCIS Contact Center at 1-800-375-5283.

Can I still call the USCIS for an infopass appointment? or do I wait for another 90 days?  I called on 1st April, basically got told that my situation is not serious enough to get an appointment.. I'm not sure what to do right now

Are you with the Texas Service Center (TSC) as well? Did they mention that they can't find your visa packet? If that is the case then you can (and should) definitely call USCIS for an infopass appointment. Let them know that you would like to schedule the appointment to fill out a form I-89 since the TSC cannot find your visa packet. Does the visa in your passport say: "IV Docs in CCD" ? If yes, then I was told verbally by the USCIS field officer at the infopass appointment that the TSC are not capable (or refuse?) of downloading the documents from the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) for some reason.

23 hours ago, ahm12 said:

by the way did they directly gave you a infopass appointment ? or you had to wait for a phone call from field office ?

They directly gave my wife an infopass appointment (while she was on the phone with the USCIS). She definitely had to be pushy about it though.

Peter and ahm12,

I did not wait for the 30 days to schedule my infopass appointment. My wife got on the phone with USCIS the next day after we'd received the letter and gave them an earful about how inconvenient this was and why they simply couldn't look up the electronic visa packet in their system. She told them that her mom was leaving the country soon (which she is) and that we need to schedule an infopass appointment to submit our I-89 as was requested by the letter.

When we went to the infopass appointment and gave the gentleman there (who was very nice) our information, he quickly helped us fill out the I-89. When we told him that her visa clearly states that "IV Docs in CCD", he raised his eyebrows and had some sort of "aha" moment because right away he knew that the TSC were not smart enough to know what to do with such a visa packet. He then went on to explain to us that the TSC generally relies on the infopass people (at the Dallas field office in my case) to download the packet from the CCD and spoon feed it to them. He said this all while shaking his head like he really disapproved of the way the TSC does it (so do we all !!) He ended up submitting the I-89, downloading the visa packet from CCD and then sending them all that information so that there is no way the TSC can kick it back to us. We are now waiting and hoping that we finally receive the green card as someone from the other topic mentioned. It's been a week and a half.

My advice: Schedule the infopass appointment ASAP and when you get on the phone with USCIS, tell them you need to submit the I-89 in person at your local field office. Don't take no for an answer. You do not need to wait the 30 days. Good luck 😃

3 minutes ago, NickSan89 said:

The LA FIELD OFFICE has the same set back.I had to call really early and make my case to the call center representative. You have to skip all options until you talk with a human being. I had to wait 30 minutes. Once I spoke with someone i said that i needed to file my I-89 because my documents were submitted electronically and now they are lost somehow. After they accept your request they will transfer you to a phone queue in the field center You belong to. They will call you within 48hs. They called me within 24hs, so be aware and don't miss the call. I had to explain my case again to the field Officer and then they gave me the infopass appointment within a week. They will print out the form in the field office. But you need to bring 2 passport photos, copy of your translated birth certificate and your passport with the stamp.

 

Glad to help, this forum helped me to keep pushing.

Nick,

Thank you so much, this is very helpful. I will be sure to call the USCIS call center on Monday then and really push for the I-89. Fingers crossed that they forward me to the field office here in Dallas so I can schedule an infopass appointment   Best of luck to you in your future here in the USA!!

2 minutes ago, NickSan89 said:

Thanks! You have to submit the I-89 in your infopass appointment. The form is sent from the USCIS Field Office to the Texas service center. It is an internal process ( not well specified)

Gotcha, so I guess the only way is through an InfoPass appointment. I am not sure if your local USCIS field office allowed you to do this, but the field office by my house here in Dallas is saying: 
 

This office is not accepting walk-in requests or scheduling InfoPass appointments. 
 

You can get basic information about immigration services and ask questions about your case on our Tools page without visiting an office or calling us. 

If you need help with document services (such as passport stamps and advance parole) or have an emergency, call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283. 

Did you have to call the USCIS contact center to get an appointment? Or will they be sending me that information via regular mail? Thanks for your help and sorry for all the questions  

1 minute ago, NickSan89 said:

Hi,

 

After almost 2 months of having my Appointment via Infopass and submitting again my birth cerficate translated, 2 passport photos and the I-89 form(lost visa packet), I received my Green card. I was not requested to retake my finger prints nor anything else. The ombudsman didn't help me because today I received an email stating to be patient that my case will be reviewed shortly lol...

 

I got say there is still hope, apparently the infopass appointment and the I-89 form helped.

 

No way, CONGRATULATIONS!! Happy to hear that you've finally received your green card after all this wait  Did you have to submit the I-89 form during your infopass appointment? Or can you submit it separately by downloading a form online and filling it out?

On 3/28/2019 at 9:01 AM, CWiggin said:

Small update:

 

I booked a second InfoPass appointment which I had to book via phone as my local office is no longer accepting online bookings.  

 

The Officer this time was much more helpful and upon my visit was not aware of the "CCD" Consular Consodiated Database containing my Visa Packet.  He inquired with the other Officers and manager and they also were not aware however they looked into it on another set of computers located on a different floor and upon his return he had found all my documents.  Upon leaving he was attempting to contact the Texas Service Center to let them know about the issue with my case and was preparing a package of documents to send to them so they could find my applicable information in the CCD since they are not aware of the new process for the Electronic CCD Visa Packets.  

 

This was a couple weeks ago and I have no information since.  If it's not resolved through this method then I'm expecting my case to come up in the Ombudsman queue soon.  

Hey Y'all,

After reading through this whole thread, it became apparent that this is a widespread issue that is mainly with the Texas Service Center (TSC). My sister's husband recently got his green card in the mail within weeks of entering the United States but that's probably because he was working with the California Service Center (CSC). Unfortunately, my mother-in-law is with the TSC so she is now over the 120 days with no end in sight. We tried submitting an e-Request and just submitted a request with the ombudsman (which apparently could take 4 months).

I was happy to read CWiggin's post (above) that at least the InfoPass office was able to access the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) which contains all the new visa packets. Apparently, the Texas Service Center is not very technologically sophisticated as some of the other offices (or maybe they're just incompetent?) so that's why they are not able to access the CCD. I am hoping that as they get more of our complaints, they'll finally wake up and realize that several countries around the world are using the electronic visa system and not the physical visa packets anymore.

Our 120 day point was March 9, 2019 so we contacted USCIS on March 12, 2019 and they inquired with the TSC. We just received the "Lost Visa Packet" letter today: 

"A search of USCIS records indicates the Immigrant Visa Fee has been received. However, it appears that the Texas Service Center has not received your Department of State issued Immigrant Visa Packet, which should have been submitted by the Port of Entry (POE) when you entered the United States. The Texas Service Center requires a completed Lost Visa Packet in order to process your Permanent Resident Card. Further research is needed in regards to your inquiry. You should receive correspondence within the next 90 days regarding this case. If you do not receive this correspondence, please contact customer service."

I'm praying that all our cases get resolved soon because it's such an inconvenience. For what it's worth, I am now living in Texas (just relocated from California) so if I do get an Infopass appointment at the local Dallas office, I will be sure to educate them about the CCD and advise them to have all the officers install the program or database on their computers.

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback and support.

3 minutes ago, USS_Voyager said:

Sounds like that’s paperwork they have to do, because they lost the packet somewhere between the POE and Texas Service Center. I am quite it’s not so much lost, but just “misplaced” and they have to try to locate it. I guess you just wait the 90 days out and contact them again.

 

You mother in law is free to travel and come back to the US. She is a Lawful Permanent Resident and the stamp in her passport will allow her to come back no problem. She doesn’t lose her status just because they screwed up and she has no physical green card. The green card is just a piece of plastic that prove her status, not the status itself.

USS_Voyager,

Thanks for your help and for reassuring us that she is able to travel until November 2019 (when it has been a year). At this point, you're right, all we can do is wait for the 90 days and in the meantime we will research other avenues in which we can somehow expedite this process, because it appears that many others are in the same boat (see my reply above).

C90,

You are correct, Peter posted about this in his thread:

And I also found the following very helpful thread:

I submitted a complaint with the ombudsman, will be contacting my local representative and seeing any other venues that would be useful. We will also definitely take your advice regarding contacting USCIS on Monday. Thanks for your response

On 3/28/2019 at 9:35 AM, Peter Parker said:

Oooh. You're right. I misunderstood.

I have the IV Expires On, which is six months - but that's for it's status as an immigrant visa only. When you come through the  temporary I-551 is endorsed and this is therefore superseding the immigrant visa function.

Thanks :).

 

However doesn't help me, lol. I have to leave the country just after the 1 year date. I've been shot down twice now regarding getting an InfoPass appointment, but I'll do it again (by phone) after waiting past the 30 days Texas Service Center is being given to respond. I have just over 4 months runway - which should be more than enough time, but just knowing what USCIS are like, may not be.

 

Thanks everyone.

Good Afternoon Peter,

I just wanted to let you know that my mother-in-law is in the same boat. We just received a letter today from the USCIS stating:

"A search of USCIS records indicates the Immigrant Visa Fee has been received. However, it appears that the Texas Service Center has not received your Department of State issued Immigrant Visa Packet, which should have been submitted by the Port of Entry (POE) when you entered the United States. The Texas Service Center requires a completed Lost Visa Packet in order to process your Permanent Resident Card. Further research is needed in regards to your inquiry. You should receive correspondence within the next 90 days regarding this case. If you do not receive this correspondence, please contact customer service."

Her POE was San Diego International Airport (SAN) and she entered on November 9, 2018. I'm sorry to hear about this issue as it's been happening with quite a few people that have the new "IV docs in CCD" on the Immigrant Visa. I also submitted a complaint to the Ombudsman so thanks for that advice.

Please keep us posted on your situation and I will do the same. I suspect the issue is with the Texas Service Center (TSC) and the fact that they are unaware of this new electronic process. I hope that after getting a lot of complaints from multiple people in different areas, they figure things out from their end. Hopefully sooner rather than later

Hello Visa Journey Family,

It has been a while since I've posted here (since my wife entered the country) but I am now having issues with my mother-in-law's permanent residence card (green card). She entered the United States on November 9, 2018 with her Immigrant Visa (I-130) stamp in her passport. The Point Of Entry (POE) was San Diego International Airport. She went through a lengthy interview and then was released with a stamp on her visa (which makes it good for a year). We started the waiting process for the physical permanent resident card (and social security). Over a month passed and she still didn't get her social security card, even though we had filled out the form DS-260 saying that we would like to request a SS card. We had to go to downtown to get that taken care of.

We then waited 120 days (4 months) for her physical green card which was never received in the mail. Throughout this wait, we called the USCIS office several times asking for an update for her status (as we'd had family members received their green cards within weeks) but they told us we had to wait the full 120 days before we could make an inquiry. We called on March 10, 2019 and told them of the issue, they told us that the Texas Service Center (TSC) had not received her file but they would make an inquiry to see what happened. We just received a letter today (March 30, 2019), stating:

"A search of USCIS records indicates the Immigrant Visa Fee has been received. However, it appears that the Texas Service Center has not received your Department of State issued Immigrant Visa Packet, which should have been submitted by the Port of Entry (POE) when you entered the United States. The Texas Service Center requires a completed Lost Visa Packet in order to process your Permanent Resident Card. Further research is needed in regards to your inquiry. You should receive correspondence within the next 90 days regarding this case. If you do not receive this correspondence, please contact customer service."

For the life of me, I have not been able to figure out what the heck a "Lost Visa Packet" is and how we can fill it out. I've been googling that exact phrase for the past 2 hours, with no luck. Has anyone else received such a letter? Does anyone know what this could entail? Is it something that needs to be done with an Infopass session? (There is currently no way to make an appointment in Texas since we recently relocated here from California) To make matters a bit worse, she now has to go back home to Lebanon temporarily while this gets resolved.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance for your responses  

Thanks Kumi & Drake, hopefully you hear news about your green card soon as well !! & more importantly a job offer

Hey everyone, one last update on my wife's AOS ... We finally received the Green Card today and couldn't be happier (btw it looks almost exactly like the EAD but Green) Thank God for a very smooth AOS process (unlike our extremely bumpy K-1 process) ... I guess the USCIS made up for their poor performance before The other great news is that my wife got a job offer today and just finished signing the paperwork a couple hours ago! (it's our lucky day indeed)

Good luck to everyone still waiting on their Green Card/EAD/AP, I wish you all the happiness in the world and the best of luck in your new lives & new careers here in the USA and thanks for all the help and positive energy along the way!

Thanks, Kumi & Drake!!

valigetta, thank you as well Good luck on your interview! Don't worry, it was honestly a breeze for my wife and I, our interviewer (Roy) was so friendly and the questions he asked where so easy...Regarding the job hunting, it has been slow with my wife as well but I'm sure you will both find jobs very soon, just stay positive