D-Day

For the Affidavit of support info, that is last in this "rant"

It would sure be nice to know the "secret" some people know(or maybe it's
just luck), That secret is,
"How can you actually get an I-751 through the TSC(Texas) without it getting
interminably delayed or
screwed up?"

Here is how it has been for us:

I-751 Filed with Texas on Jan 23, 2003. At least that's what the post
Office told us. Weeks
passed, then months with no notice from Texas that the paperwork was
ever received.
There were only rumors of some unspecified "problem" or screw-up.
After 2 calls from
our US Senator's office they finally stated tge paperwork had in
fact been recieved, but still
it was 6 months before we got a letter stating my wife's green card
had been extended 12
months(after it had already expired).

So, we knew there was more time to wait, based on the processing time at the
Service Centers.

October of 2003, we move to Florida, were in jurisdiction of Charlotte, NC
INS office, now
in West Palm Beach office jurisdiction. We sent AR-11(as required
by Law) to London,
Kentucky. We also sent one to Texas Service Center, who sent us a
Notice with our new
Florida Address on it.

2004 comes, month-by-month. Processing time in Texas is now way past Jan 23
2003 for I-751.
We call 1-800 Service number, and request an inquiry be sent to
Texas INS for my wife's
I-751. Within 30 days we get a response: "status is: Waiting for
you to call Charlotte office
to schedule an interview".

Sounds great, right!? Of course Charlotte cannot do an interview for
us....we are in Florida. So
we send registered letter to Charlotte INS asking what should be done to
transfer any needed
paperwork to West Palm Beach INS(we included copies of our correspondence
with INS).

Weeks pass, no response from Charlotte.

Call 1-800 national service center again, explain the situation. They tell
us to make appointment
with West Palm Beach INS, have Officer there make the request to Charlotte.

We make the appointment, talk to an Officer there. The Officer states that
no paperwork was
ever sent to Charlotte, the I-751 was still in Texas and had not been
processed.

Call 1-800 national service center a third time, explain the situation
again. This time they passed me
through to an INS Officer. That Officer confirms what we were told in West
Palm Beach, that the
paperwork was still sitting in Texas INS. The Officer stated we should send
a registered letter
to the I-751 processing unit in TSC, explaining what was going on(with
copies of correspondence)
and ask them directly what the status was.

We have this letter ready, called 1-800 National number 4th time, just to
make sure we put the
correct P.O. Box in Texas, so it doesn't get "lost".
*****************************************
Here is where the Affidavit of Support comes in, and I am SURE I am not the
only spouse in the whole
USA who has neglected to do this: Person I was talking to(1-800#) stated
"Did YOU send your "I-865"
address update in to INS?"(The subject had never come up before, so I was
surprised). For those
of you "in the know", read no further. I had only made sure that my wife
sent in the new address
via the AR-11 as required by law. Hell, I 'm a US citizen and we have
been married almost 5 years
(and going thru the Green card process that whole time) and I have always
fully supported my wife,
so it never occurred to me there was something I was supposed to do(like
read more).
Well, sure enough at some time I signed an affidavit of support
that my wife would not
become a burden on the US taxpayers for at least, say, 10 years(or dies, or
left the US). What I
missed out on was the part where the person signing that form is also
legally obliged to, yes, send
in a change of address to "big brother" via I-865 within 30 days of moving,
even if it's across the
street. Yes, there can be some unspecifed "penalties" involved if you do
not do this form.

I asked the 1-800 person: "So, would this have anything at all to do with
why the freaking I-751
isn't processed yet? Response was: "No". At any rate I had to get the
proper address for sending
the I-865 before I could get the lousy post office box number----yeah,
that's what I get for
not spending more time looking it up on the internet. At any rate, I
suppose the letter to Texas will
get screwed up, lost, whatever, and I will have to get aquainted with the
local congress-people to
find out what is going on.

On a brighter note, we already filed an N-400 Naturalization, and got the
receipt notice a week
later, stating we would hear from them within 365 days. Wonder if the
I-751 will be processed
by then? ;- )

utopiacowboy

Read this whole rant about the I-751. Good rant. Now can someone explain to me again why waiting for the I-130 to be processed and getting a green card WITHOUT conditions is a bad thing?

Hypertweeky

In my case you know what the answer is.
As for others.. I don't know!

Rete

Yes, it has been talked about before and glad you brought it up again.

The financial sponsor on the I-864 has to notify the USCIS whenever they move as long as the I-864 is valid and in effect. Nothing new.

Hope your I-751 issues will be straightened out quickly.

Rete

jeffreyhy

cowboy,

Depends on what a person's objectives are. Two reasons why waiting could be a bad thing are:
- For someone who is looking towards citizenship, the sooner one gets PR status the sooner one can apply for citizenship.
- S**t happens, and for someone who would like to stay in the US should it happen to their US spouse every day waiting for PR status is another day of risk.

Regards, JEff

Hypertweeky

I agree! My objectives are all screwed up because my I-130 is accumulating dust at Nebraski though

utopiacowboy

You make some good points, Jeff. In my case, my wife would have no interest in staying in the United States should I die so no real risk there. She has no interest in citizenship either since her entire familiy still lives in Colombia.