Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

Disaster. I went through everything, and did my interview in London, etc, got my Visa printed in my passport and everything. This was in February.

However sometime after this, I had my brown envelope and everything at home. I live with my mum. There was a huge arguement about me moving over with my fiance, and the brown envelope was torn open, and my visa was ripped out my passport. I gathered the documents from inside the brown envelope, and kept them somewhere safe. However, my mum managed to get a hold of some parts of it, and I think she did something with them

I contacted the embassy and they said I can repay the $350 and have the documents put back in the brown envelope, so everything could still go ahead

I forgot about the brown envelope, and started planning on other things. It's now really close to when I want to move over there (August 1st), and then suddenly horror struck when I remembered I have to have the Visa reprinted in my *new* (as the old one was torn by the arguement) passport, and I have to send off the documents from the brown envelope

But, I am certain that at least one document from the envelope is missing. Which would be the one with the passport photo of my fiance on it and all his information. Also all the photos of me and my fiance have been torn up/kept somewhere by my mum, who said "I thought they could be replaced". She definitely took the document with the passport photo of my fiance, however whenever questioned about it she says she gave it back to me, and she definitely did not.

The question is, really, what can I do? Will my visa be reinstated and will I make it through the POE? Has this ever happened before? Or will I have to wait another 12 months and go through the whole process again?

Am I going insane, IS there a document in the brown envelope with my fiance's photo on it? Does anyone have a list of the documents which I could go through and tick off? To make sure it's all there?

I am absolutely panicing and so upset. I've mailed the embassy but they haven't got back in touch with me yet...

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

You've taken the step you need to take, which is emailing or notifying the embassy that you need a NEW brown envelope, and a NEW visa in your passport. They will probably give you an appointment to come back with everything you have in your possession. But keep in mind it might take some time for them to go through your documents to see if everything is there. They will let you know if anything is missing from what should be in the brown envelope. It could also take some time to get the new visa affixed to your passport. You might have to pay another fee.

I don't think it's impossible, and I don't think you need to start over from scratch, but it could just take some time for things to get straightened out again.

Rene

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

They are the only ones who can fix anything, so you are going to have to take your lead from them. I've heard of envelopes being damaged (by parents!) before, but never the visa sticker torn out of the pp scenario.

You won't have to reapply from the petition stage, but there is no telling how long it will take to sort it out. There is also no public checklist I'm aware of that you can compare your case contents with. Again, for the Embassy.

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

I suggest your mum has separation issues, which means that once this gets sorted, you need to keep both your passport and the brown envelope somewhere outside the house and away from her. She doesn't want you to go (likley for no other reason than it affects her sense of stability) and will likely try again to sabotage your travel at the first opportunity.

Ian

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

Thanks, I feel incredibly relieved by your replies

Even a minor setback would be better than an outright having to restart from scratch. I just hope that they can somehow fix it

But the problem is if one of the documents is outright gone. I'm not sure what they'll do under the circumstance. I guess it's just a waiting game now until I get a reply

@ian-mstm
Yes you are right. I am trying very hard to keep everything out of her reach, and this time she will definitely not destroy any documents. But I will have to make extra efforts...

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

My guess is that if something important is missing from the brown envelope, they will ask you for that document again.

Rene

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

If it was my (American) fiance's information with his passport photo, how will I get that back? I have my version of it in there and it has a stamp and a signature on it, dated over a year ago when my application was first processed. I don't know how I can ever get that back unless I get my fiance to redo that one page, but I don't even know if it was any particular page or if it was the same as the one I did..

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

If it was a photocopy of your USC fiance's passport page, you can just have him send you another one. It doesn't need any kind of stamp or signature.

Rene

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

No, it had a full colour passport styled photo on it, stapled on. It was hand written and looked like, maybe, something from the I-192?

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

I'm not familiar with form I-192. Whatever it is, if it's missing and the embassy needs a new one, you will have to get it from him. He can fill another one out, staple another passport photo to it, and send it to you.

Rene

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

I know you are not going to like to heard from another mom but he and you should have made copies of everything that was submitted. If you did do this then have your USC fiancee pfd you a copy of his bio sheet or the I-129F which is what he would have submitted for the first step. Anything after originates from you other than the I-134 affidavit of support. Don't worry about the photos of you both together not being available. If you have others on hand, can be different, then send those.

As per the USCIS website, this is form I-192

I-192, Application for Advance Permission to Enter as Nonimmigrant

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

Just a "war story" from the mid-1990's and you can extrapolate what you want. This was back in the day before the 1996 Act, Section 245(i) adjustment, and unlawful presence bars and short backlogs in the relative of LPR category. [And we thought it was bad back then, <s>].

Also, we were able to use those marvels of modern technology of the fax machine and overseas telephone!

To make a very long story short, the wife goes in for her immigrant visa interview in Korea. The consular officer determined that the marriage was not valid as a matter of law.

Upon finding out what had happened, we prepared a memorandum of law on how the marriage was, in fact, valid -- and would be recognized as such in both Korea and California. I followed up with a phone call to discuss the matter. The IV Chief and I had a 20 minute discussion and stated he would get the lady back in and grant the visa. However, he informed me that they had already returned the visa petition to INS and it would take two days to reconstruct the visa petition from the copies the consulate had made.

IOW, despite the fact that return of the petition to INS was the functional equivalent of shooting it into outer space or dumping in the East Sea in a weighted bag -- it turned out to be no problem.

POINT -- Department of State owns photocopiers and scanners.

Good luck to OP.

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

Do you even need a copy of the petitioner's passport page(s)? I've gathered up my forms/affidavit, etc for the embassy interview and we haven't done anything like that. Unless the OP means from the original petition forms.

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

It is needed if that is to be used as their proof of US Citizenship.

Re: Brown Envelope opened - Documents missing. What now?
 

Huh. I can't even remember what my fiancée used when she started the petition. Back when we did the initial petition documents we didn't scan and make copies of everything like we've subsequently done (in fact I've gone the other way and make about three of everything, hah).

Like I said, my mistake - I thought the OP was talking about what they took to the interview, not from the petition stage.