Amber&Séba

Received I-797 today in the mail, dated 2-11-19 ----> approved for removal of conditions! 🤩

Received 18 month extension letter today, dated 8/18

The letter finally came today, and they are reusing the old biometrics  Curiously, it is not updated online though, still showing only that it has been received.... 

30 minutes ago, Seebec said:

IT WAS MY BIOMETRICS !!

So exciting! That was my hope that that is what it would be! Unfortunately mine didn't actually come in the mail today. The other 5 pieces of mail that were scanned and pictured in today's informed delivery did get delivered, but of course, not the letter from USCIS  Hopefully tomorrow......

9 minutes ago, mjiang said:

How did you guys know they are sending you a mail?

On the USPS website, you can sign up for this thing called 'Informed Delivery' where you can get an email every morning showing you scans of what items *should* be coming later that day in your mail... however, it's not always accurate. Sometimes things can be delayed a day or so.

2 minutes ago, starsky said:

 

There are no clues in either of the online portals, I assume? USCIS old and USCIS new. Standing by!

 

The old USCIS can't find our case yet, and the new USCIS shows that our case was received back in February but nothing other than that! I'm so nervous! Our mail should be here within the next two hours......

1 hour ago, Seebec said:

Informed Delivery tells me that there is a letter from USCIS in the mail today. I'm sure its just a reminder letter (Today is the official last day of my green card) However I want it to be a biometrics appointment hahaha. 

Informed delivery tells me I have something coming in the mail today too! But my husband's green card expired three months ago and we already got that reminder letter several months ago.... So I really wonder what it is....  I'm glued to the mailbox today

3 hours ago, starsky said:

First of all, I would not panic. You are in receipt of your NOA, so you are good for right now. Try entering the numbers again today, it could have been an intermittent issue. If you are still having the same problem, I would call the helpline number listed on the NOA and ask them why it isn't working. Looking at others experiences here, you can see it is a fairly common issue, some say it is "normal and because your case hasn't updated online", others say it is because your case is moving around internal departments. Do look at the one link to a post where someone said USCIS had made a manual error with entering their receipt number online, as that could apply to you, and you would want that fixed now before it delays your case. Good luck, let us know what's happened?!

I know, I panic way too easily! I'm just on high alert since it arrived ON the deadline! I just don't want my case to stand out or be special in any way... This is one time when I just want to be labelled as a boring married couple, get approved, and he can be on his way to citizenship! I probably shouldn't check these things late at night when I tend to be the most paranoid.... I'll try chilling out a bit and just giving them a call 

3 hours ago, Tux_1987 said:

For all of you that can't track after the NOA letter - in the letter it states that you will be able to track online after ACS appointment letter.

Thank you for pointing this out! I just kind of skipped over it when I was reading the letter... I just assumed that the # would work immediately, but maybe it is being transferred around internally or something, so they won't have anything for a little while... 

15 hours ago, starsky said:

 

 

You guys want to make sure you've created a USCIS online account. While you're at it, download the case tracker app for your phone.  Once you receive your NOA1 you'll want to log that case number in the online account and/or on the case tracker app. From there you can set-up email/text notifications or (if you're like me) periodically check it to see if any progress has been made or the case has been touched at all. Links are below:

 

USCIS online account:  https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/landing.do

Case tracker app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/case-tracker-for-uscis/id921827126?mt=8

 

 

We received our NOA1 last week, and I downloaded two apps today (case tracker and i-tracker lite), but when I typed in our new WAC#/Receipt #, it said it was invalid on both of them!  Do you think I should be concerned? I triple-checked that I entered the # correctly.....

Ok, I just went on the official USCIS case status website to check, and our case # is invalid there too! What does this mean!?!?  I'm really worried now... How can it be invalid if it was just accepted/issued? Should I call their 1-800 # to ask about it?

On 2/9/2018 at 9:36 AM, starsky said:

Yes, most likely to be Monday. When does your GC expire? Added you to the tracking list below. Good luck!

Finally an update! I was too nervous to reply until we got our NOA1..... Our expiration date was February 13! I was fool for waiting so long to file and we were almost late - but in the end we weren't! I just completely forgot about the application during the holidays and then we were working on taxes all during January. I also thought that our I-751 just had to be postmarked by the deadline, and a week before the deadline, I was on here reading around a bit and realized that it actually had to be received by the deadline. I feel like such an idiot  It really could have cost us a lot.... We were really lucky in the end  So far anyways....

Anyways, we mailed our I-751 on February 9 via USPS Priority Express (it cost about $60 to mail, since the packet was about 2" thick and therefore had to be mailed in a BOX), USPS shows it arrived @ USCIS in Laguna Niguel, CA, on February 12, it was signed for on February 13, our check was cashed on February 16, and we received our NOA1 on February 19 (it was dated as I-751 received on February 13!!!!!).

Sending out my husband's I-751 today (2/9) to CA! Still finishing up a bit before heading to the post office later (it's the middle of the night right now)..... We're cutting it a bit close, so I'm going to use USPS Priority Express and get it there by Saturday, although I don't think anyone will pick it up from the box until Monday? So nervous  I've done the best I can, but I'm just so anxious about the whole thing! It's been so long since the last time we filed anything that I completely forgot about this whole world and the fact that we're still in the middle of the process!

Does this mean that outside of that my petition is OK? or do they send separate RFE's for separate information? just curious that whatever the RFE is about is all the issue they have with your case.

Outside of the RFE, the rest of your petition should be OK. I believe they check everything and submit all of their requests on one RFE and only issue another RFE if you didn't properly respond to the first RFE (which it seems like you did!)

I feel that I fulfilled the RFE. really 2 weeks!! how exciting, I am hoping to be so lucky:)

From the sound of it, it seems like you submitted plenty to fulfill the RFE and shouldn't have any problems Hopefully you will get your NOA2 soon!

Do you mean track it by DHL from NVC to the Embassy? If so, someone just taught me how to do this today! Go to the DHL tracking page: http://www.dhl.com/en/express/tracking/shippers_reference.html

Then use 'EXP 15 MAY 2015A' for the shipper's reference (you can change the '15' to whatever day you believe it was shipped), adjust the date range to narrow it down, and select your Embassy's location

I received this EXACT SAME RFE about two months ago and this is a copy-and-paste of exactly how I responded (We got the NOA2 less than two weeks later, so I think my reply was sufficient!):

To Whom It May Concern:

**** met ***** on ***** on the website Interpals [http://www.interpals.net]. As stated on the website, “InterPals has been the Internet's premier free site for online correspondence, cultural exchange, and learning foreign languages.

Created in April 1998, the site began as the "International Penpal Page." A friendly forum for people to find email and postal penpals from around the world, the page quickly became so popular that it was rebuilt from the ground up in 1999 and renamed InterPals.

Since then, the site has become by far the largest and most popular free penpal site on the web. Not only that, but it has become the go-to site for language practice and finding friends at travel locations. Still, our original mission remains unchanged: to help people meet friends from all over the world for free.” [http://www.interpals.net/about.php]

The website Interpals is NOT a dating or international marriage broker website, and ***** and ***** met on the website as penpals with the initial intention of forming a friendship. They did not establish a dating relationship until they met in person on ***** in Ghent, Belgium.

From the time I mailed in our RFE paperwork (April 9) to the time we got electronic notification of our NOA2 (April 21) was only 12 days. This was at CSC, but I assume that TSC would be very similar, as it seems that at this point the case has already been assigned to a particular caseworker and is just waiting on their desk for your reply. I also received an electronic notification when they received my RFE back in the mail (April 13) and my case status online showed that they received it and that my case was active again.

Thanks everyone! I'll have the first paragraph describe my last trip to see her in March 2015. I'll then have a short second paragraph saying we met online in 2012, met in person later that year and that I been back to see her for a total of 7 times.

If you are saying that you met online, be sure to say specifically which website it was and maybe even give a small description of what the website is about/a small excerpt from the website itself of what it claims to be (to show the intention of the website and that it is not an international marriage broker). My recent RFE was for this exact reason - I originally stated that we met online but did not say which website specifically. I thought that the only thing that mattered was that we had met in person in the last two years and had plenty of proof about that. So don't just quickly skip thru the "we met online" part - give more details!

from what ive seen on timelines it looks like anyone with a rfe can add about a month to the entire process, but thats just my observations, maybe you can go to uscis and request another copy of the RFE via erequest, we had to do it for another copy of our NOA2

good luck!

I submitted an e-request yesterday, thank you for letting me know about that! When I called again today, they said that the e-request was assigned to an officer, so that sounds promising. I just hope that they can send out another hardcopy soon, because I'm thinking that this first one is lost… Two weeks tomorrow

Thank you to all the replies, although they seem to confirm that this could be some bad news for me!

We found out we got an RFE on March 26 via text and email but haven't received anything by snail mail yet. It's ridiculous - I can't solve the problem until I know what it is and they won't tell me! I've been looking at past times that it took people to receive a hard copy (~1 week) but wanted to know if anyone has received one recently (maybe it takes longer now)?

No, you won't go back to the bottom of the pile. Wait for the letter, follow the instructions carefully and submit what you need to as quickly as you can. Your RFE came in a matter of weeks. It could have been worse. Texas filers with RFE's got theirs recently after 7-8 months. Hopefully it's something minor and easy to fix. All the best for the rest of your journey

I know, we are very lucky to be able to go thru CSC, and I felt like a brat for asking this question when all of the TSC people have had to wait for months and months already. I'm just so worried I made some horrible mistake at a critical point and cost us so much time or that they are super suspicious of us I hope it was just a small stupid mistake on my part...

So unfortunately I just found out today 3/26 that I got an RFE for my I-129F Of course I'm super upset about this as I know that it adds another 3-4 weeks to the process now (& because I was soooo meticulous & it looks like hardly anyone gets an RFE from CSC). However, to compound this, I also just found out that petitions are being transferred from other service centers to CSC effective tomorrow 3/27 (http://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/workload-transfer-within-service-center-operations). When I mail my RFE back to CSC, will I go back to the bottom of the stack behind all of these transferred petitions? :'(