Demise

My guess is that the agent that held your I-485 pending an I-360 ticked the wrong box.

Write in the letter that you switched to VAWA I-360. The RFE incorrectly identified you as a widow(er) of a US Citizen. But I-360 approval notice, I-864W, and a short statement is all you'll need. Worst case they'll interview you and you can correct the I-485 at the interview, or they'll RFE or NOID you for a new form I-485.

Yeah they will. Just include a copy of the RFE. USCIS is notorious for having no idea what to do with unsolicited submissions, with the RFE they will immediately know that this goes to this case, oh there's an already a response, attach this one too.

Yeah you can go around your lawyer. Generally I'd say that is not the best idea but given the situation (very easy form and lawyer that demands an outrageous payment for what's not even 5 minutes of work) I think it's justified.

You can say that as well, just explain the situation for why there's two responses to the RFE in your own words. The I-360 submitted with the previous response should be enough for that, if you are unsure, no harm in sending another copy.

Okay yeah, since you are switching from I-130 with an I-864 to an I-360 then you will need an I-864W, I-360 notice is proof of eligibility for exemption, but you still have to explicitly request an exemption via form I-864W. So basically: Print out the RFE Fill out, print, and sign form I-864 Print a short statement explaining the circumstances: "Lawyer responded to the attached RFE by providing medical and I-360 approval notice. Lawyer claims that USCIS called him regarding the I-864, so now I am submitting I-864W in addition to the previous submission by my lawyer". Then sign it. Then mail off of this to the USCIS office listed on the RFE.

"Submit all showing you are exempt from filing a form I-864". Hmm, now this is a good question, when did you file I-485, there was a period of time back when I-944 was a thing where seeking this exemption was just a checkbox on form I-485 itself, after they stopped requiring I-944 they just started asking for I-864W again. But if we were to take what the lawyer said at face value, where USCIS did explicitly request an I-864W, print out the RFE notice, fill out and sign form I-864W, attach a note that this is additional submission following submitting the medical alone, and send it out.

Yeah that's a good point. Immigration doesn't call you outside of some really unusual circumstances.

The RFE will say to submit an I-864. The correct thing to do in that case is to instead submit I-864W. The form is trivial: Fill out your personal information in Part 1. In part 2 tick box 1.d., sign and date under Requestor's Signature (Part 3, 6.a., 6.b.). Charging $1000 for this is just malpractice. Now, USCIS should've sent a copy of the RFE notice to your mailing address. If you didn't receive it, demand a copy from the lawyer and sent it in yourself. If you can't then figure out where your application is (ask a congressman or senator for help) and send it in as an unsolicited submission, attach a letter stating that your lawyer is giving you the runaround and failed to submit I-864 with the RFE so here you are submitting an I-864W of your own accord. You can also likely just give the I-864W to your congressman/senator and ask them to get it to USCIS on your behalf.

Hey, my mailbox must've gotten full. I cleared it out.

Question: Any chance you were admitted originally as a refugee or asylee? That'd be one of the few cases where the resident since date would pre-date an I-485 approval. Refugees are granted one of their arrival date in US, asylees are granted one that's the I-485 approval date minus 1 year. If so then it's possible that the original officer erred in denying you naturalization back in 2022. Otherwise, you should be fine, I don't believe there's any requirement for you to correct a defective green card to naturalize, only that you present one or an I-90 receipt notice at the interview.

Sadly I have no idea. You could probably ask your senator or congressman to inquire on your behalf and ask for expected timeline. They will probably give you an answer that the case is not eligible for an inquiry until a certain date, which would answer your question. Definitely weird but the way I see it: NBC basically pulled the case from Irving, TX to hand over to Vermont. Irving doesn't really do any real processing on their own usually, they just accept payments, issue receipt numbers, and approve/deny once they get a court order for it. NBC is pretty much the central processing and that's what they had to do in order to resolve the convoluted history of your I-485. If I were to guess it went something like this: Field office returned it back to where it came from originally (Irving) upon denial. You filed I-601 and I-290B. You inquired about what's going on with Vermont, then someone took a look at what's going on exactly, found the case sitting in Irving, and requested NBC to send it over to Vermont, then NBC did exactly that.

My guess is that because your I-601 is with Vermont, they just sent the I-485 back to Vermont to deal with since right now the field office can't do much if anything with it. Then once the I-601 is approved Vermont will send the I-485 back to NBC which will then just approve it or forward it to the field office to deal with properly.

So this is hilariously pointless. My I-765 and I-131 were approved. While I have an RFE for medicals (right now I'm waiting on the blood test results) and my old DACA EAD is still valid for 3 months or so. Like I'll take it just in case but it's definitely not the best use of resources to print a card that will be out of use in a few weeks.

Yeah it's at NBC.

Got an RFE for my medicals. Hopefully this will go like it did for most - means they waived my interview (something that I thought they didn't do for EWIs), approve me, and I'll be finally free.

If the father is a Filipino then CENOMAR is a document that outright states that the person listed was never married. That'd be a definite proof that your husband was never previously married (or only married to you). Otherwise a sworn statement from your husband explaining the circumstances (i.e. never married, had the kid out of wedlock, eventually married you) should be enough, especially if your husband already got his green card since in that case USCIS (and possibly DOS) already looked at the bona fides and agreed that you were legally able to marry each other. Steparent-stepchild is a second-order relationship. So basically you -> husband -> stepson. In this case it'd be your marriage certificate and stepson's birth certificate, since it's out of wedlock some proof of legitimization like a child support settlement, proof of payment for the care, or a sworn statement from husband acknowledging the kid and agreeing to financially support him, will likely be required too.

Well the way that this works is that if someone like this shows up at the Port of Entry CBP has to let them in, but they can either: 1. Admit them back as an LPR - Good. 2. Parole them in as an arriving alien for removal proceedings - Bad. 3. Try to pressure them to sign I-407 and go away, in case of which you can hold your ground until they do one of the above. If they admit you, you're good to go, wait out the 5 years and file N-400. If they parole you in then it depends on the circumstances, if you're able to re-adjust somehow (e.g. you're the spouse of a US Citizen, or a parent of a US Citizen over 21, who can re-sponsor you) you can do that before the court, otherwise you'd have to prove to the court that you haven't abandoned your permanent residency. I think someone here recommended going to one of the unstaffed CBP ports on the Alaska/Yukon border, since well, not like they can tell you to go away if there's nobody there. Then just get a domestic flight to the mainland and lay low until it's time to naturalize. If you are screwed (no way CBP would admit you, and no way a court would rule that you haven't abandoned your residency) might as well just try that since you don't have much to lose.

Well here's the thing - USCIS will upon a denial of I-751 place you into removal proceedings. Immigration judge can review the I-751 de novo and can approve it, alternatively you can in fact file I-360 if you're still within the filing window (within 2 years of termination of marriage), file I-485 with the court and re-adjust. Sometimes they don't and you basically have to request it from them...

I submitted mine back in June, did my biometrics just recently.

No. Only time when you'd want to submit evidence of their citizenship would be if they were an LPR, you got BX1/BX6/B21/B26 green card, and later they naturalized and you want to make use of the 3 year provision. If you have 5 years then just check the 5 year option. If you are adjusting under the 3 year provision, then check other, write something like "LPR for 3 years via VAWA, INA 319(a)", and your IB1/IB6/Z14 green card is proof in itself. If you got a VAWA removal of conditions then you'd want to include the copy of the I-751 approval notice, since that green card will just list the normal IR1/IR6.

I mean if you married within 90 days then your spouse should be able to adjust based solely on the I-129F. Might not be the worst idea to go around your lawyer and have your congressman or senator inquire on your behalf and see what USCIS tells them. It could be that the case literally fell between the cracks. That alone might unstuck it because someone will have to investigate. If that doesn't help then WoM is the only other way forward.

I will add one thing to help with your anxieties: The stamped IR2 immigrant visa she entered on serves as evidence of permanent resident status for 1 year. In the meantime she can use that for anything that would otherwise require a green card (international travel, getting a driver's license, getting a SSN, working, etc).

How'd you get it back? 212(c)? LPR cancellation of removal? Something else? I am like 95% sure you'd have to do 5 years again before you can naturalize, if there is some case law that would permit you to somehow be treated as being in US or the deportation not breaking the residency period while you were not in US pending the appeals I do not know of any. Ask your lawyer, I doubt you DIY'd this. Basically, the issue here is not when you became a resident, because they will restore you back to as if you were never deported and your resident since date will be in 1989, the thing that makes you wait is that absent some special case law you do not meet the physical presence requirement (spent at least past 30 months in US, no absences over 1 year, and some fuzzy math that I could never understand for absences 180-364 days).

How old is he and when was the I-130 filed (i.e. what's the priority date on it)? Also how did his parents get their paperwork sorted? Well there's 3 options here and what to do depends on what the actual case : 1. Got DACA before turning 18 and 180 days old. Basically in this case he would not have enough illegal presence in US to trigger a re-entry ban and would be able to leave US, attend a consular interview abroad, grab his F11 visa, and come back as a permanent resident. 2. 245(i) - To qualify under this he or a spouse/parent while unmarried and under 21, would have to been petitioned in any family or work immigrant classification, or had a PERM labor certification filed for them, on before April 30th 2001, the primary beneficiary of the petition must've been physically present in US on December 21st 2000 if the petition was filed on or after January 15, 1997, the petition/certification was approvable when filed. In case of this he could just straight up adjust in US, just have to include evidence of 245(i) eligibility, include I-485 supplement A, and pay the $1000 penalty fee. If this applies or you think it might apply, I can follow up on what he'd need to include. This does include cases where one aged out of parent's petition as long as the petition allowed derivatives (so no IR). 3. I-601A waiver. Well, he's definitely got a citizen parent so the question basic question of eligibility is already solved. Get a good lawyer who does hardship waivers and see what they can come up with. "Extreme hardship" is a hard standard to prove but far from being insurmountable. If that gets approved then he'll need to leave US, attend a consular interview, get his F11 visa, and come back as a permanent resident.