britishinfusion

So yesterday we met with our local USCIS office with regards to the lost immigration packet.

We got to the meeting early, didn't have a long wait at security which was nice. We were seen pretty much right away at the window. The lady made copies of everything they needed (birth cert, ssn, passport, marriage cert, UK & Wisconsin drivers licenses). The only thing she needed that we didn’t have was 2 passport type photos. We had plenty of photos but they were UK size not USA. So we had to leave and find a Walgreens and then come back. She said when you come back all we needed to do was drop off the passport type photos and then she would take Steve’s fingerprints and then she could mail everything to the Texas Service Center for his green card to be processed. What a sigh of relief that sounded so good.

So we left and thanks to the security guards they gave us directions to the nearest Walgreens. So when we got back, we went through Security again headed up to the window gave the same lady the 2 photos she needed and she then says you’re going to have to come back. The supervisor wants to have an interview with Steve, have him take an oath and then he will be fingerprinted then. She said you will get a letter in 1-2 weeks and then you have to come back. WHAT A JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Were LIVID!

I mean come on! This was THEIR mistake in the first place so now we have to make another trip to their office which means more lost time from work and more gas $$ for the 2+ hour drive. I mean who do they think they are? They also act like it's OUR privilege to be in there presence. When this is all done I would really like to file a complaint but how does one even do that?

So now back to more waiting for the interview letter with the date/time.

So finally after all of this drama with the lost paperwork my husband's green card has been produced and mailed to us today (2/11). Thankfully we don't need to make a 2nd trip to Milwaukee.

Hi all

I paid my ELIS fee on Nov 22nd and it went into "Optimized" as of Dec 24th. It hasn't moved from there and the USCIS tracker says the lockbox has received our case and is working on it.

I notice there is a "profile" section on the ELIS website where I have to upload a picture of my passport, fill in my address etc. Does this need to be completed? I thought we only had to pay the fee and wait

Yes, I think you do need need to fill in the "profile" information. We did that for my husband's profile because there was no address listed.

WOW I'm really sorry to hear all that, what a total joke... I spent another 3 hours waiting at SS to correct the mistake that THEY made, and had to pay for a taxi as the office is so far away and it was snowing buckets. SO I know the feeling a little bit!

Thanks @katieflossom you know the feeling of frustration then as well. I hope they are able to get your SSN sorted out correct this time. I can't believe you had to wait 3 hours that is a joke too. The government should be held accountable for their mistakes. We are penalized 60+ days if we receive a checklist for something incorrect or incomplete on our paperwork.

Glad you make it back home safe.

Today the USCIS did confirm that my husband's immigration packet given at POE in Dublin is LOST. So we had to schedule an appointment for next week with our local USCIS office. I'm very concerned now about where are the papers as they contain highly confidential information. Identity theft is weighing on my mind now. We'll it could be worse, at least I have my husband here living with me. He passed his drivers test this week so that's another item ticked off the list. I just hope they don't make him do the medical over again, if so they can pay that bill for us!

Have a good weekend.

So yesterday we met with our local USCIS office with regards to the lost immigration packet.

We got to the meeting early, didn't have a long wait at security which was nice. We were seen pretty much right away at the window. The lady made copies of everything they needed (birth cert, ssn, passport, marriage cert, UK & Wisconsin drivers licenses). The only thing she needed that we didn’t have was 2 passport type photos. We had plenty of photos but they were UK size not USA. So we had to leave and find a Walgreens and then come back. She said when you come back all we needed to do was drop off the passport type photos and then she would take Steve’s fingerprints and then she could mail everything to the Texas Service Center for his green card to be processed. What a sigh of relief that sounded so good.

So we left and thanks to the security guards they gave us directions to the nearest Walgreens. So when we got back, we went through Security again headed up to the window gave the same lady the 2 photos she needed and she then says you’re going to have to come back. The supervisor wants to have an interview with Steve, have him take an oath and then he will be fingerprinted then. She said you will get a letter in 1-2 weeks and then you have to come back. WHAT A JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Were LIVID!

I mean come on! This was THEIR mistake in the first place so now we have to make another trip to their office which means more lost time from work and more gas $$ for the 2+ hour drive. I mean who do they think they are? They also act like it's OUR privilege to be in there presence. When this is all done I would really like to file a complaint but how does one even do that?

So now back to more waiting for the interview letter with the date/time.

Today the USCIS did confirm that my husband's immigration packet given at POE in Dublin is LOST. So we had to schedule an appointment for next week with our local USCIS office. I'm very concerned now about where are the papers as they contain highly confidential information. Identity theft is weighing on my mind now. We'll it could be worse, at least I have my husband here living with me. He passed his drivers test this week so that's another item ticked off the list. I just hope they don't make him do the medical over again, if so they can pay that bill for us!

Have a good weekend.

Wow - I tend to agree with Darnell. Very curious to hear the outcome!!

Waiting to get the latest

Contrats Spoogie on getting your card.

Unfortunately, no updates to report. No word from the USCIS Texas Service Center or from my Congressman's Office. I will post an update when we get one.

it's possible that it's still at the POE, or lost at the POE (but findable again at the POE), as

at the POE, is this back-room data-entry operation - lots of folk no one ever sees.

If you can ask yer congress critter to focus on CBP at the POE, it's quite possible the CBP goons will find it, and quickly, then get it moving along to TSC.

Go Get Em, and Good Luck !

[ps - the movement that USCIS described is the movement I've written about prior, so that's a plus]

Thanks Darnell! I also thought that it still could be in Dublin at POE.

Thanks for the extra tips and I will keep everyone updated.

Cheers!

So my husbands status is still "Accepted" in the USCIS ELIS portal. It has been 62 days we paid the Immigrant Visa Fee and 48 days since his POE. I emailed the USCIS via the contact form yesterday and here's the response we got. Has anyone else encountered this before? I think I may shoot my congressman's office an email as well.

Thank you for your inquiry, dated January 5, 2015 , regarding the status of your USCIS Immigrant Visa Fee.

It appears as though your Immigrant Visa Packet may be lost. We cant find the A-number that would be assigned to it in our system. We have submitted a service request to the Texas Service Center to investigate the matter.

After careful review of your inquiry, we determined that your issue will be best addressed by the USCIS office processing your case; therefore, we are forwarding your inquiry to the Texas Service Center. The referral ID for this inquiry is xxxxxxxxxxxx . The Texas Service Center will contact you within 15 days concerning your case once they have reviewed your inquiry.

A quick update. I sent an email back to the USCIS to verify that they have all of the correct numbers and information, etc. They responded back with the following:

We assure you that we have your correct information. All of the information that you provided previously was found in our database confirming your identity, payment and entry on November 19, 2014.

We stated that your Immigrant Visa Packet, which you gave to the Officer when you entered the United States, may be lost. The normal flow of work is that the packet is given to the receiving Officer at your Port of Entry then it is shipped to the Texas Service Center. It is then put in a file sleeve with your A-number and placed on a shelf in the file room to await processing in the order that they were received.

Normally this process of shipping the packet to the Texas Service Center may take 14 to 30 days depending on the Port of Entry. It has been 49 days since your arrival and there is no file with your A-number shown in a filing location at the Texas Service Center. This is a rare condition as the file would be shown at the Texas Service Center if it were in use for processing your Permanent Resident Card.

So after receiving this information, I did contact my Congressman's office and my husband signed the privacy release form and they are going to check into this for us. Fingers crossed they find the paperwork!

So my husbands status is still "Accepted" in the USCIS ELIS portal. It has been 62 days we paid the Immigrant Visa Fee and 48 days since his POE. I emailed the USCIS via the contact form yesterday and here's the response we got. Has anyone else encountered this before? I think I may shoot my congressman's office an email as well.

Thank you for your inquiry, dated January 5, 2015 , regarding the status of your USCIS Immigrant Visa Fee.

It appears as though your Immigrant Visa Packet may be lost. We cant find the A-number that would be assigned to it in our system. We have submitted a service request to the Texas Service Center to investigate the matter.

After careful review of your inquiry, we determined that your issue will be best addressed by the USCIS office processing your case; therefore, we are forwarding your inquiry to the Texas Service Center. The referral ID for this inquiry is xxxxxxxxxxxx . The Texas Service Center will contact you within 15 days concerning your case once they have reviewed your inquiry.

Hey, I am curious, where was your POE and which service centre has your OS155a?

My husband's POE took place in Dublin on November 19h. How do you find out the service center for the OS155a? Thanks!

Hi all, sorry if this is off-topic, but wondered if I should be worried for not receiving my SSN as of yet? (I POE-d on the 2nd December.) I presume the holidays might have slowed things up a little?

Just checked ELIS regarding my greencard and the status changed to 'In Process' on Christmas Eve, so seems that is moving along.

Thanks in advance for the help

Hi Kate,

My husband ended up going to the Social Security Office and then he received his SSN card within 10 days.

Were still waiting for his green card to arrive!

Here's a thought.

Still waiting? Upload scans of documents, as an experiment -

perhaps this will 'kick' things into the top of the next queue,

and flow quickly.

Yes, just a thought, and since uploading is allowed, it won't stop the previous queue of 'waiting for the casefile to arrive at TSC' at all. I'm hoping, really, that it will jump over that queue, what with an actual legal document in their hands.

Comments? Anyone up to try it ?

Hi Darnell,

Since our status is still in "Accepted", I was able to give your experiment a try. I uploaded a scanned copy of my husband's SSN and also his UK Driver's License. So we will see what happens. One thing I did notice though on his profile information, I didn't have a "Citizenship" selected. So I also updated that information to GRB. Thanks for the suggestion.

well I tried logging into portal to upload the documents and it won't upload the docs. Says "this portlet is temporary disabled" So that never worked for me. I will try again tomorrow. I called and waited for 45 mins for a ISO who said he sees nothing wrong with the file and these things takes time. He also said "verification" is a process of manually checking the data printed on the card.

I tried to me nice....I said - "if they are manually checking the data on my card that would signify the card is printed"

I smell something fishy in that explanation because no where on my case status does it say my card production was ordered or card was printed. My case lifecycle bubble is on "optimized" and the status is "in process" but I am not familiar with these things.

Then he states that they have a new system and they have some backlog. Also smells funny but I was pleasant and said thank you.

@spoogie - I also tried to upload documents to the portal and I received the same message "this portlet is temporary disabled". Just wanted to pass that on. I will also report if anything changes. Thanks.

Well, wish I could say the same. I entered October 22nd and still no sign of my card. Status stuck on Optimized (in process). When I call USCIS they say card is awaiting verification. Does anyone know what that is and how long it takes?

Spoogie, We entered on Nov. 5th for my husbands and it's been stuck on accepted since then. Were still waiting too.

do you understand the timeticks required with ELIS to get a greencard, holding a CR-1 or IR-1 visa? yes? no?

I ask, because you posit'd 'Does anyone have any idea on when we'll get his Green Card?'

If you are visiting this web portal on a cell phone, tablet, I ask (no, seriously) that you turn it off, remove the battery,

and visit this topic again on a personal computer (Windows or MAC) and read all of the posts here in this topic.

Can you? Will You? Should You? (my answer is yes)

Handphones suck, for real answers for real problems.

On a pc, knowledge acquisition on this 'topic' can be had within 2 hours. I ask you, invite you, to use a PC, now, nowish.

Excuse me? I am a Systems Administrator who works on Mac's and PC's on a daily and you are taking to me like I am an idiot! I thought this forum was for asking questions and friendly advice?

I wasn't asking you or anyone else to do my research, I was just trying to get an approximate as I have seen several different times on when the green card is actually received and when the CEAC ELIS status changes from Accepted to Optimized.

Greetings! My husband completed his POE via Dublin on November 19th. We paid the $165 ELIS fee on November 5th. The USCIS ELIS site is still says "Accepted" as a status. Does anyone have any idea on when we'll get his Green Card?

Also, on Monday he went to the Social Security Office and he applied for his card and that should be here in 10 days. We did tick the box on his DS-260 to get a ssn card with Green Card, but when he went to the office they showed no record, so the officer let him apply for a card as we filled out the DS-260 on September 12th.

It's not always super fast, I had a Monday interview, a Thursday email and collected the visa from the courier on Friday. Hopefully you will get the email today or tomorrow!

Sorry off the subject @hotter otter but I have to tell you that I checked out your blog and it's fantastic. I have saved the link for my husband to read and keep up with when he arrives. It's good that he can read about other Brit's living here in the USA. Thank you!

Woo hoo! And thanks for all your advice and comments, much appreciated!

You're very welcome! Glad you got your visa!!!

Congratulations! So happy it's all over for you now! You can relax and celebrate now!

Got the email! Due for delivery on Monday, yay!

Now you can celebrate and book your flight to the USA

Sending you well wishes too. My husband was more nervous about the armed guards outside and around the Embassy vs. the actual interview. His interview was this past Monday. He said at the first window the Asian lady who did his document check spoke very quietly, so don't be afraid to ask them to speak up if you cannot hear or ask them to speak slow and clear.

Good luck to you and I know you will do great! Like lots have said the interview is more of a formality. We got approved on Monday and he received the visa yesterday. Think positive and be excited as this nightmare of a process is almost over!

Cheers and best wishes!

My husband got his green card today. With the wrong POE date. Should we do anything about this or just FINALLY move on with our lives?

I hate to say this but I think I would want the date correct if it's off by a day or 2 I would then maybe just leave it as I'm sure it's another process to go through. Ugg! It's a shame they got it wrong!

We did the same thing you did. Left the following blank:

Her biographic and citizenship information is still incomplete. Some of the fields are blank (i.e. city of birth, gender, citizenship) but updating them requires uploading supporting evidence which I thought was a little overkill to pay a fee.

I agree with you I thought uploading supporting evidence was over kill. Our status is in "Accepted", and we updated our notifications so we get emailed and a text when ever they touch the case.

Hello everyone.

Wife received her passport back with CR-1 visa and sealed packet this morning!

We immediately created her ELIS account and paid the immigration fee.

I've heard we should update the mailing address in the profile section so we went about doing that. We had to log out and back in before the "update my profile" link would appear. We updated the physical and mailing addresses, phone numbers, and notification preferences.

Her biographic and citizenship information is still incomplete. Some of the fields are blank (i.e. city of birth, gender, citizenship) but updating them requires uploading supporting evidence which I thought was a little overkill to pay a fee.

I assume USCIS will enter the right information in these fields at POE or later? Then again, one would think they would also update the physical and mailing addresses...

I've seen on this thread and elsewhere people suggesting that only the addresses need to be updated. Is that right? Do we not need to worry about the incomplete biographical and citizenship sections?

Thanks.

Did you get your email yet with the tracking #? Please note that the link they provide you in the email doesn't work, so then click on "My Tracking" on the top left then enter your tracking # provided in the email, select that your document is being delivered to the UK, put in your post code and you will see the tracking info.

Hope this helps. You should have the visa in hand tomorrow. We got our tracking email yesterday at 9:45UK time and my hubby had the visa by 2PM UK time today.

FYI - My husband's interview was in London on Monday, November 3rd. We got the courier email yesterday, November 4th and today the visa was delivered to his house. We are a CR-1 (Spousal Visa) though.

You should be receiving an email shortly from "donotreply@usvisa-info.com" with the subject "U.S. DoS Visa system return travel document shipment notice".

I was shocked by how fast London moved! Not complaining one bit! lol