Peter Parker

He needs to make the Infopass appointment to get an extension stamp on his passport. This is what I did, although I hadn't quite reached expiry at that point.
This shows how to defeat USCIS's frustrating call system and worked for me last year: https://www.stilt.com/blog/2020/07/how-do-i-speak-to-a-live-person-at-uscis/
 

Yeah sadly it's normal.
When I got my passport stamped with another extension recently (another 12 months), I asked the USCIS desk clerk about it. They said I should track the processing times at:
https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/
Set to "All Field Offices".
This currently shows 80% of cases being completed in 32 months, but that's obviously retrospective and probably hasn't caught up with the nature of the growing backlog yet.

Can't help you there, sorry. My license is running up until 2030 already.

They called me about 2 weeks after I got this email offering me an appointment.

Thanks. I didn't apply for citizenship as on the phone USCIS said I shouldn't, as it would just get stuck until the ROC happens. Which clearly is not true by all the comments here.
I had a good think about this after I made my post. I got the situation down "on paper" by messaging USCIS through their portal. That way they can't claim that I'm somehow reneging on my responsibilities/claim. Once I've given them a chance to reply, I can also contact the Ombudsman - probably useless, but may as well, and again I'm getting something down "on paper".
However the real thing is I'm going to put in for an emergency InfoPass once I get to the expiry date. By what I've read on other threads, they should follow through on that. And if that doesn't work, I'll press harder, book a refundable ticket back home for example then use that as evidence of emergency need.

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

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.

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.

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.
 

Wow.  Congratulations on surmounting the bureaucracy!

My wife got here green card yesterday . pretty much 16-17 days after infopass appointment . 
 
Thank God this debacle is over .

Yeah :).
 
I'll throw out an information dump about my experience, in case anything is helpful for anyone else:
Milwaukee (and presumably other USCIS bases) don't allow you to book an InfoPass appointment via the website anymore. They'll say they just don't do them, but you can as long as you are approved to have one. In my case they approved me on their own after I was stuck in the system long enough (I was going to have one before but they bumped me back to where I was, then it moved forward again), but it seems from other posts you could argue with them to get it. I explained the situation to the official at Milwaukee based on what has been discussed here. The official told me she is dealing with these very particular kinds of cases around once a month. So it's unusual but also known. Apologies were given to me. She printed it all out and is mailing it to Texas. (Unbelievable therefore that Texas Service Center has remained to be so ignorant/intransigent about it) At my appointment I was told it would be 2-4 months still to receive the greencard, as Texas Service Center is backlogged. They (at least at Milwaukee) won't stamp a visa extension against the temporary greencard unless you are within one month of it expiring. In my case, I am likely to have to go back for that, as it expires in around 3 months and I need to leave the country around then. The folks at Milwaukee were very pleasant. I've had dealings with US immigration people who are complete a-holes (at Detroit and London airports specifically), but absolutely none of that here. So don't be too nervous. I personally find when there are mixed-gender teams of people, the atmosphere is more friendly. At Milwaukee I had to go through a simple security scanning process. No drinks allowed. Probably a bad idea to take a laptop. You must put your phone on silent. Airport-style scanning. I had an appointment for 9:40am, although got there at 9:00am and was seen immediately. I had to wait around though for her to get an opportunity to speak to her boss. Bring a certified marriage certificate and birth certificate, even though you're not supposed to. I don't know if I strictly had to in my case, but she took photocopies and it made things easier. If you have a file of immigration paperwork and stuff you've needed before, just bring all of it. Better safe than sorry. Plenty of street parking around Milwaukee, although in my case I took a bus from the internodal station (about a 30 minute walk away). Annoyingly I left my appointment, then got a call when I was at internodal that she'd forgotten to ask-for/take my 2 passport photos. So make sure they take them! That's all that comes to mind.

I got too busy to do anything after moving house, but then a couple of things happened on their own. First I got a letter about a lost visa packet, exactly as before. Then a couple of weeks later I got a letter saying I'd need to make an InfoPass appointment to resolve it (which they'd denied granting me before, lol). Tomorrow I have my InfoPass appointment, I'm pretty happy about that! Especially armed with all the experiences of others here.

once you have the letter that says visa packet is lost no need to wait. 
just tell i received a letter saying visa packet is lost and i need to go to local field office and fill out lost visa packet form.
 

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 😃

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

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.

Thanks. I just filed a case with the Ombudsman.
 
I have both been calling and doing the online messaging. Right now I'm typing up an online message to beg them for an InfoPass appointment to do that - and if they'll decline I'll try calling in a couple of weeks or something. I've got some time still fortunately.
 

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.  

Thanks. I just filed a case with the Ombudsman.
 
I have both been calling and doing the online messaging. Right now I'm typing up an online message to beg them for an InfoPass appointment to do that - and if they'll decline I'll try calling in a couple of weeks or something. I've got some time still fortunately.
 

So sorry you find yourself in this predicament, Peter Parker. You should sue USCIS for screwing you up like this, really.

Damn, this sucks, sorry you have to go through this. Did you get an info pass appointment at your local office to get another I-151 stamp? That would serve as another 1 year GC (or if the 2yr GC expires before that, it would be good until that date) At this point you could also try to reach out to your local senator / congressman. 

You might want to check out this thread. I haven't had the chance to check it if it actually helps. But if you have the time you can check it out.