immish

On 1/13/2017 at 1:22 PM, POA said:

 

My case was denied too due to abandonment and we fought for it. We proved it that it was their fault and they re-opened our case for free and refund the second petition that we filed because of their wrongful denial. If you believe and can prove that they wrongfully denied you, you can contact the ombudsman for review. THEY ARE VERY HELPFUL. USCIS on the other hand will try their best to not help you. During our dealings with them, they even told the ombudsman the opposite of what they told us just to show that it was our fault when it was theirs. It would be a long and stressful fight but victory is worth it.

Just thought I'd give an update!!! Thanks to everyone that responded with possible solutions. I went ahead and filed with the ombudsman for review. Took them over a month to respond to me. During that time I grew impatient, and contacted my Congressman's office for help. They got in touch with USCIS but they got the usual AUTO message USCIS sends to millions of people. "This case was denied for abandonment, if the petitioner believes this denial is wrong, he can file a motion to reopen the case along with the FEE" bla bla bla!!!!! I thanked my congressman's office for trying.

Two weeks later, I finally get an email from Ombudsman that they have contacted the USCIS on my behalf, and would keep me updated. The next day I get another email from them asking me to send in my denial letter and the contents of the RFE which I sent to USCIS. I wasn't sure how to send them, so I responded to the email asking for direction and a HUMAN actually responded to my email! Unlike USCIS, someone responded telling me that I could just scan and attach the documents via email! I did that right away and didn't hear back for another week! However, I checked my case yesterday, and it said my case was reopened! I got an email from the ombudsman office today that a decision had been made on the 27th of February and because of that, my case with them is now closed. So, I went ahead and checked my case again and it was approved!!!

I can't imagine how many people have had to pay twice because of a USCIS mix up! As far as I am concerned, this should not be happening, when you make people pay for things then you should be available to give them the best service!!! I know some people see this as some form of benefit, I beg to differ, it is definitely not a benefit to the petitioner. When I pay for something, it is not a benefit, I see my self as a customer and should be treated right. 

Thanks again guys, looking forward to the next steps

9 hours ago, Damara said:

So heres the thing In general, USCIS does not refund a fee regardless of the decision on the application unless there is a finding of USCIS error. 

 

So you can file the motion along with your supporting evidence and payment and ask for a fee refund later (or in your packet, but you will probably have to call again and request the refund once its been approved and determined to be their error. I wouldnt count on them processing the refund on their own).

 

Others (for different situations) have had success going to infopass with their motions and having it accepted there with out the fee. These were usually for issues like missing the interview and then denied. In that case it was someone in the local office who actually did the denial so I believe thats why they are able to accept the motion in the office and process it with out the fee. You are at a service center so I do not think this is an option. You can try an infopass though...

 

Finally as stated some have had success with the Obuds. The Obud is just basically a 3rd agency that plays moderator or mediator between the public and USCIS if needed. They may be able to get your motion submitted with out you laying out the fee similiar to how one would go to infopass when its from the local offices actions. They may not.

 

So its up to you what you want to do. You can lay out the money and get it back, or you can attempt to have the Obud or through infopass it accepted with no payment upfront.

 

 Im just more concerned with why you were denied and if it was actually USCIS error. I couldnt really understand your first posting about what the issue was (?) They wanted YOUR birth certificate correct? And you sent them what? 2 affidavits? That may not be acceptable. It depends on where you were born and if records are considered "readily available" from there. If they are then they usually do not accept alt evidence. Can you please elaborate on the issue?

Sorry for the birth certificate misunderstanding. So when i sent the petition in, I sent a birth certificate with it, but according to them, the birth certificate was issued 3 years after I was born (I hadn't even noticed this about my birth certificate before). 

So they gave me a long list of things that I could submit to compensate for the birth cert. Things like early school records, OR church baptism records OR census records, OR AFFIDAVITS from 2 different people who knew about my birth. I went with the 2 affidavits, My denial notice clearly said I was denied for abandonment because I never responded to their RFE which I did. The evidence must not have made its way to the person in charge of my case, I just personally think they should have sent a mail before denial. Personally, I dont think people go through the process of filing a petition and have it abandoned.

30 minutes ago, David & Zoila said:

Sometimes you gotta put yourself in the CO's shoes.  The fact that you have a signed delivery receipt proves nothing.  The person signing might have gotten an empty envelope.  What I mean is having someone's signature on something doesn't prove anything other than an envelope was received.  The papers might have been lost in the shuffle.  There are many possibilities.  My advice...just surrender and continue with the process.  Get over the anger.  Get a second job like I did so I could afford the immigration process.  I'm sorry this happened to you but you should just move forward.  Good luck

wow you got a second job to throw money away?again, wow!! I refuse to do handouts!!! If they're going to deny my case, they better have a good reason, not just because they can and ask me to bring more money! This should never be allowed to happen! What stops them from denying every case and having everyone of us getting second jobs so we can file again just so they can get more money since they are "self" funded? Thanks for your suggestion but I refuse to just throw money away like you. I'll fight this till I get a full explanation of what happened. I have filed a case with  Ombudsman, waiting to see how things go.

1 hour ago, Pinkrlion said:

You can file a motion to reopen the file, and provide proof of documents received.

But filing that motion means paying $695! I refuse to pay a fee for doing nothing wrong

43 minutes ago, POA said:

 

My case was denied too due to abandonment and we fought for it. We proved it that it was their fault and they re-opened our case for free and refund the second petition that we filed because of their wrongful denial. If you believe and can prove that they wrongfully denied you, you can contact the ombudsman for review. THEY ARE VERY HELPFUL. USCIS on the other hand will try their best to not help you. During our dealings with them, they even told the ombudsman the opposite of what they told us just to show that it was our fault when it was theirs. It would be a long and stressful fight but victory is worth it.

Please can you point me in the right direction? How do I start? I have called the useless USCIS 800 number and they said they have put in a request and would contact me back in 5 days. I do not believe anything they say. They have proven to be useless in the past. You can message me privately if you do not wish to discuss this publicly

29 minutes ago, Ontarkie said:

If you have conformation that they received it then call them up and speak to a tier 2 or make an appointment and go in to show them your proof that they received it. I would try that before starting over. 

I checked on the infopass website, Have to wait 2 weeks out to make an appointment. Does anyone know if I can do a walk-in and hopefully get lucky to speak to someone?

4 minutes ago, Ash.1101 said:

There have been cases of cases being lost and people paying to file again. It's a known thing, it's rare, but it's known that if it happens you'll have to pay the fee again. Even if you have a tracking number and a signature showing that -someone- in the building received it, they figure since the person adjudicating didn't get it, then it never happened.

Also, while waiting is normally the strategy, it's the normal strategy when your case is going normal. Not having an RFE notice OR notice they received your response is abnormal and you def should have been calling on that.

But I also called and was told to wait 60 days! $650 is a lot of money to just ask people to pay

23 minutes ago, Transborderwife said:

Well firstly, uscis wallet isn't that large.  They're self funded by our fees.  Second, what was the denial for? 

Denial was for abandonment. I never abandoned my case. I sent the affidavits they requested and it delivered about 45 days ago

So, I have always been a guest here lurking around and learning a lot of things. I learned so much that I was able to gather all the documents(yay me!) and filed for my father. Well, about a month and half later I get an RFE that the birth certificate I submitted with my father's name on it was issued long after I was born, certificate was issued a year later, this birth certificate was easily verifiable but hey, it is the government, they always find a way to mess things up.

I had a long list of things that I could send to replace my "old" birth cert. I looked at all of them and went with the easiest of the things. Sworn affidavits from 2 people who knew about my birth. Although this was the easiest of the things but it was not that easy for me to get because I have no family here. Well long story short, I got everything(2 affidavits) together and mailed it off with the envelope they asked me to use and I also made sure I mailed it to the right address. I am good with addresses because I used to work at a ship and pack place.

My mail delivered on the 21st of November(yay me!). So, I waited and waited like y'all always advice on this forum. Nothing changed online with my case all these while, only said case was received. Didn't mention that an RFE was sent to me, also didn't mention that my evidence was received. I thought it was a glitch like I had read about a couple of times on this great forum. Well I became uneasy by December 29th. Lets just say i always feel funny when bad things are about to happen, So I placed a call to the 800 number. Although, I didn't think they would be useful but I made that call any. I explained to the lady on the phone that I wasn't feeling good about my case not updating and not knowing if they got my evidence or not. She said not to worry that they most likely got it that is has only been about 40 days and I needed to wait 60 days! I specifically told her that i could be denied before 60 days, she somewhat laughed about it and said that wont happen. That was that, until the 9th when i decided to check my case and behold, it was updated to denied. I knew 100% the cause of the denial. So I called the useless 800 number again, this time another lady, she assured me that it was prolly something else. I told her it wasn't, she said I didn't know for sure that I should wait for the mail.

Today, I got that mail and it said something about them giving me 87 days to respond bla bla bla and since I failed to respond, my case was denied and treated as abandoned! Say what? I have a tracking number that shows my mail delivered on the 21st of November. Well, the denial notice said something about filing to reopen my case, when I saw that I was like bingo!!! All it would cost is maybe $7 to ship a letter explaining that I never abandoned my case and then my case is then approved but to my surprise, I HAVE TO PAY ALMOST $650 TO FILE TO REOPEN MY CASE. Someone please tell me there is a way around this RIDICULOUS FEE! I did everything I was supposed to do, the post office even did their own part of the job by making sure my mail got delivered! Why do I have to lace the government's already large wallet with MY $650? I don't have $650 just laying around you know, I am struggling to understand this system! Someone please make my night and tell me I don't have to pay $650 since this was no fault of mine