ChDaun331

Hi all,

To make a long story short, I had my ROC interview on July 13th, My spouse and I both attended and it went well. Our interview was a success and we got weld to except my green card in the mail within 3 to 4 weeks.

Instead of my card I recieved a DENIAL notice, reason for denial: I didnt attended the interview!

As a result I have been on the phone to the information centre to request a call back or to have my case expedited back to the field office. In the meantime for i260B was an option to file to reopen the case or begin a "motion" along with a 780 dollar filing fee. I didnt want to do this right away as it was an administration error on the USCIS behalf. I voiced my concerns about filing this on time to the information specialist and was actually told not too!!!

My expedited service request came back with the same Denial letter and a letter badically saying I didnt follow the proceedure and that I also didnt attend my interview! I did!!! I have paperwork with the agents number on it that interview me! Ive extensively told them all of this.

I spoke with an attorney briefly yesterday over the phone and they told me I would have to appear in Court infront of a Judge and begin removal proceedings and start the entire 5 year process from scratch!!!! Which is absolutely bonkers!

Im currently writing an email to the local congressman and trying to get intouch with the senate as per instructions by one of the information specialists from the USCIS contact centre.


I need some help and some advice on what to do in this situation because I am being penalised and paying the price for an admin error from inside the USCIS office in Santa Ana. 🤕🤕🤕🤕

Nutmegger

This is the way to go. Your USC spouse should immediately contact the immigration liaison at her Congressperson's office (perhaps a phone call, rather than an email, would be great under these circumstances). They can usually be very helpful in sorting out glitches.

newacct

There are a lot of things you are unnecessarily worried about here. First, the denial was incorrect. In addition to contacting your Congressman, you can also try contacting the CIS Ombudsman.

Yes, after a denied I-751 you will likely be placed in removal proceedings. But it's not as scary as it sounds, and does not mean you did anything wrong. In fact, in such a case of erroneous denial, you want to be placed in removal proceedings because it is basically the avenue for appeal if nothing else works. You can challenge the denial of the I-751 with the immigration judge, and the immigration judge can approve the I-751. And you can get an I-551 stamp as proof of permanent residency while you are in removal proceedings. When they approve your I-751, you will be a non-conditional permanent resident, and your permanent residency will have started when you first got your conditional green card. There is no case in which it would "start the entire 5 (or 3) year process from scratch".

Alternatively, you could file a new I-751 (which you shouldn't have to since you did everything correctly for the first one, but I'm just saying it's a possibility), either with USCIS or with the immigration judge if you are put in removal proceedings. Although a joint I-751 (i.e. filed on the basis of remaining married) has to be filed within the 90-day window before the 2-year card expires, a late filing for a joint I-751 is allowed when there is "good cause". And here, there is clearly good cause -- you filed a previous I-751 on time, and it was denied incorrectly. But even if you had made a mistake on the first I-751 (which you didn't, but even if you did), it would still be good cause for a late second filing of I-751 because at least you didn't forget to file -- it was filed on time but had a mistake.

S Folinsky

Im now quite retired from the practice of immigration law, but I had many dealings with Santa Ana. My reaction in reading your post is that your situation is eminently fixable and is actually not all that dire.

I’m no longer in the advice business, but I wii advise that you hire a local immigration attorney practicing in either O.C. or southern L.A. County who appears often in Santa Ana. Members of the bar have more ready access to the minions of the dark forces.

Good luck.

PetrifiedExPat

They lost my paperwork and forgot I attended an interview. After destroying an officer over the phone, they swore me in the next day.

ChDaun331

Hey all,

So since I posted this we did what Nutmegger advised us to do, this advice was given to us more than once, including this thread and also an ex US Marine who is working at the contact centre for USCIS.

So I filled in the form for privacy release for our congress persons office; Office of Michelle Steel Orange County CA. I submitted copies of the multiple contradicting letters and a lengthy essay detailing what has happened.

I have since recieved an email from the immigration liason from her office informing me she has sent a "Congressional Inquiry" through to the USCIS and any federal inquiry is given upto 30 days for them to respond, with it being thanskgiving holidays the week following the submission I expect this is going to take a little longer.

I see that people above are making a point that I may be over worrying about this, but I have been told by multiple Immigration Attorneys that I would have to pay 2000 USD to have them hand deliver a notice of motion to reopen our case to get it readjudicated! I am all for hiring an attorney and paying for legal representation, but due to the error being an administration error I hope that this congressional inquiry does its thing and helps me get my green card so I can live my life without worrying about technically not having and rights to work etc.

Also another thing that's really messed up is I haven't been home in almost 4 years and I had a flight booked for December 27th to visit my family over the holidays now as a result, if I leave the country in the midst of all of this mess I wont be allowed back in, or is this false information yet again?! This is on going now for almost 5 months and I am very much losing all hope, so fingers crossed Michelle Steel and her team knock it out the park! I feel like suing them for emotional distress! but thats not gunna get me anywhere now is it.

if anyone else can add anymore advice or knowledge as to whats going to happen once the congressional inquiry has been concluded im always grateful. This forum has been a saving grace at times. thank you all.

ChDaun331

PetrifiedExPat,

Ive tried blowing the phones up I have a call log of almost 100 phone calls, but unfortunately USCIS Santa Ana is harder to get into than fort knox! there is absolutely no way of getting in touch and phoning the 1800 number to the contact centre is a lost cause Ive lost count of how long ive spent on hold since August and only 1 person out of the amount of calls I made to the contact centre showed any interest and that was Officer Burnal the ExMarine who advised me about the senate and congressional inquiry. Since then Ive had service requests sent through and ive waited for 30 days multiple times to finally recieve a response to my service request in October which concluded that I didn submit for 290B in time and they never recieved any other document to state otherwise, they are not interested in acknowledging that it is a mistake there end, only in highlighting that I failed to follow their black and white protocol. so Ill just have to pray that MIchelle Steels inquiry comes back fruitful.

newacct

It is half true. Since your I-751 is denied, you can't use the I-751 receipt as proof of permanent residency anymore. So you don't have anything that you can use to travel to the US. But I believe you could still file a new I-751 (no matter if you are inside or outside the US), and use the receipt of that to travel to the US if your green card is expired for less than 2 years.

But at this point, it would be a very good idea for you to stay in the US, because there are much better avenues of appeal here. If you are in the US, they would have to put you in removal proceedings, and in removal proceedings, you are entitled to challenge the I-751 denial with the immigration judge, who will review the case and can overturn the denial if it is wrong, and approve the I-751. On the other hand, if you are outside the US, you can't be put in removal proceedings, so that avenue of appeal is not available.

S Folinsky

What you describe falls under the rubric of “spinning one’s wheels.”

Perhaps the congressional inquiry wii do something. Perhaps not.

There is another old, but powerful rubric: “sue the bastards!”

As you note, attorneys have a pesky desire to be paid. That said, USCIS has an interest in avoiding that THEY have to pay the lawyer.

Furthermore deponent sayeth not.

S Folinsky

Praytell, any particular reason for avoiding the ombudman ? Curious minds would like to know. I never found it useful, but some colleagues swore by it.

S Folinsky

Not a bad post. But then, he would have to pay a new filing fee. OP seems quite adverse to spending any money whatsoever to fix the CIS decision which is totally devoid of “substantial justification.” The quotation marks are there for a reason.

PetrifiedExPat

I got lucky, two officers called me. That did affect the power dynamic. They were apologetic and as soon as I sensed that, it was over for them.