MMA2002

so folks, we applied for aos/ead/ap on june 7, 2004 walking it in and dropping it off in boston...a month went by and we had heard nothing in the form of receipts...we went to the post office last week and had the checks investigated to find that they were cashed on june 18th....then mahir called the 800 number last friday and was told that he needed to wait until it was 30 days after the checks were cashed before they could do anything....so he called yesterday (7/19) just to have them say "you need to go into boston and find out what's going on"....luckily i work in the building so he came in and we went downstairs to find a long line at 10 AM....he stood in it and finally got his ticket at 10:55 stating he had a 3 hour and 45 minute wait until he would be seen....so at noon we went to lunch and then he continued to wait while i went back to work....just after 3 PM our number was finally called and she at first said that nothing could be done....then i spoke to her and stated that i had talked to another officer earlier in the day who said they could look into where the receipts were....so she looked at our application (we had a copy) and our post office money order receipts and within a couple of minutes she was writing 3 MSC numbers down on a sheet of paper....she then stated that our receipts had been "returned to sender" by the post office....THEREFORE IT WAS THE DARN POST OFFICE THAT WAS AT FAULT.....anyway, so then i said well how do we know the receipt date so that he can come in and get his ead? and she said that the receipt date is the date we dropped the apps off in boston (june 7)....so now mahir will only be without an ead for less than 2 weeks before he can get his interim! yay! after that we called the post office and mahir wanted to yell at them however i was civil.....it turned out that because we purchased the house and it is in my maiden name they are only delivering mail for (along with people who don't even live here), so the receipts were returned to sender.....so then after fixing that so that hopefully mahir will now be getting his mail at our house we had to call the 800 number again just to be told that she didn't know if they would resend the receipts (even though the officer stated they would and the website status said they would) and went through this whole 20 minutes of asking for information they already had! all in all it was a ridiculously long and stressful day and i'm surprised mahir didn't go more crazy than he did, but it's all fixed.....

some advice for boston:
1. GO EARLY! BRING A BOOK OR WALKMAN!
2. file aos/ead/ap there in person - it's worth waiting in line because you are physically handing it to them instead of counting on the USPS
3. if you buy a new house or move make sure that the immigrants name is clearly written on the mailbox so they don't return important documents to sender!

any questions, let me know.....also, in boston, across the street is an irish pub called the Kinsale....great food (we went there during his 3 hour and 45 minute wait!)

Allison

ian-mstm

This sounds pretty fishy if you ask me. Why would the post offic even care who owns the house let alone who lives there? Isn't it a felony for the post office to deliberately not deliver mail? I think the postmaster general at your local station should be told about this.

Other than that, congratulations on getting it sorted out!

Ian

rainbow

Hi there,
We're filing for my husband's AOS in Boston too and was wondering what the cost of filing it is? We did the EAD separately a while ago. Is it $315 to file the I-485 and then $70 for the Biometrics fee? I was going to get a money orer for $385 and send it in but just wanted to see what you paid.
Thanks,
rainbow

meauxna

Sorry Ian. USPS's standing rule has been to deliver mail only to the names associated with an address. How often this rule is enforced is another story. If I took my husband's last name, I would need to inform the PO (via the mail carrier?), as potentially only mail in my maiden name would be delivered.

NOLA_Dave

You should probably find out exactly why the mail did not get delivered to you. If it didn't get to you once, it probably won't get to you again unless you fix something. Don't want that EAD notice or green card getting lost.

Maybe there was a typo on your form (less likely, since I'm sure you went over it with a fine-toothed comb 20 times like we did ) or some data-entry lackey mistyped it into the system (more likely, and no offense to any data-entry specialists out there ). Try calling the 1-800 number and double-checking what address they have on file.

If it was just the post office not delivering it because of the name, then yes, putting his name on the box should help, but a visit to your local post office and talking to someone will be a sure bet.

As a note, I get letters for old residents all the time at my address. As far as I know, at least here, the post office will deliver the letter to a specified address no matter what name is on it, unless that name is registered for forwarding.

You should follow up on the "why", if you haven't already.

ian-mstm

Wow, y'learn new things every day.

Ian

Overthere

When we moved into our new home we had a card from USPS asking who will be getting mail at our address - I put my previous name and new name and my husband's obviously.

MMA2002

now things have finally been straightened out after a phone call to the "sorting" center for USPS where they only deliver mail of those that live there supposedly (although i do get mail of people who have never lived there so i think they're full of sh**)....we also spoke with our mail carrier who was very nice and would inform the sorting center AGAIN of his name and my married and maiden name....it was the problem of USPS and not an error with our typing (we did go over it 100s of times! lol!).....also some time on the 800 number also going over and over the address again and again with the woman who obviously wasn't all there in the head! hopefully this is it! (but with our luck, probably not!).....thanks everyone.....just wanted to post my experience in case we could help someone else out!

allison

p.s. yeah it is 315 + 70 so 385 total for AOS (and fingerprinting)...