DukeWin

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm weighing my options and will update when I decide.

@Villanelle  I appreciate your very detailed response.

Currently awaiting consultation with a lawyer on best steps to proceed, will update later if anyone is interested.

@HRQX - Would they really make us pay the biometrics fee again when our biometrics appointment is in 2 weeks? If so that's a bit ridiculous & thanks for the method to talk to a person, I'll try if I decide to talk to someone since Villanelle said it's useless, which most likely will be the case.

@Villanelle - My marriage certificate says that it is both a license and a certificate. If they misplaced it, that's pretty careless. The multiple RFE were general requests that kept saying the same things, to submit missing forms that I already submitted. Each time, I simply guessed which forms they needed, even the Tier 2 agent I spoke with had no idea what they wanted. Eventually it worked, but only the final RFE required the marriage certificate.

@Chancy - I submitted the i-94 stamp she got when she arrived, there were no other records.

@powerpuff - Yes I know, I'm shooting myself in the foot right now making a $1225 mistake. Before they cashed my check, they sent RFE's, but soon as they cashed it, they just denied... No one's fault but mine, unless they lost my paper, but who's to say.

Right now I'm weighing the pros and cons, but will they truly deny an appeal with a missing marriage certificate if it stares them in the face?

Hello, long time lurker here, and thanks to this forum my wife was able to get a visa and come to America. Bad news is, there's a little bump. Here's a breakdown.

Late 2019: Fiance, now Wife, filed I-129f, was approved. Came to American, got married within 90 days and filed form I-485. We received numerous RFE and sent in the requested documents.

Early 2021: The final RFE, they requested more tax information and another copy of our marriage certificate. I'm 100% sure I sent in my marriage certificate with the I-485, but not 100% sure I submitted a second copy of the marriage certificate.

June 24, 2021 - Received an appointment for biometrics.

June 30, 2021 - Notice of decision - Denied. Denial Reason: "After reviewing the evidence, USCIS has concluded that you are not eligible to adjust status because you failed to submit." - "A copy of the marriage certificate between the K-1 applicant and Form I-129F petitioner showing the date of marriage within 90 days of the K-1's admission to the United States."

I believe it's safe to assume that a second copy of my marriage certificate not being submitted is the reason and not because we didn't get married in time. I'm also scratching my head trying to figure out why they couldn't photo copy the marriage certificate I sent in with my I-485 (AOS form).

Now - I can't contact USCIS because the machine never sends me to a human.

Has anyone experience with this type of situation before?

From my point of view, my options are:

1. File form I-290B with the marriage certificate and pay the $675 filing fee.

2. File form I-485 from the beginning and pay the $1140 filing fee.

3. Do #1 first, then if that gets rejected go for #2 but this puts me out $1,815.

If there's a hidden option with a high success rate, please let me know.

I've tried contacting USCIS numerous times without any luck so if anyone knows the correct question to ask the machine to get a real human on the phone I'm all ears.

I've looked on the forums and there was another case where a birth certificate was missing and that specific couple were advised to just reapply.

Am I missing anything here or would simply submitting the form I-290B along with another copy of the marriage certificate be sufficient?

Thanks for reading.