Elliot Wilen

My wife had her AOS interview last April and received a green card the
following month. However, they had managed to mix up her name (even
though all previous forms and correspondence sent in both directions
had her name printed correctly), so we went back to the San Francisco
office and filed an I-90, surrendering the incorrect card.

After hearing nothing from the INS for six months, I called Rancho
Niguel today and was told that the card had been sent in August and had
never been returned. I was advised to return to the San Francisco
office and file another I-90, this time for a card that was "never
received". Does anyone know if I will have to pay the fee this time?
Would it help get the fee waived if I sent in a G-731 and waited for
the reply (so I could bring it with me)?

Thanks.

--Elliot Wilen
--
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Mrtravel

If you tell them you never got it, you should not have to pay the fee.
Unfortunately, you have to go to the office to avoid the fee.

My daughter had an incorrect card. My wife didn't receive the first one.
Fee waived in both cases.

Eiflow

We had a similar problem. Went through AOS and when the GC arrived after 9
months, her name was wrong! (We filled it out one way on all the forms and
they put another alias on the GC!)

Anyway, we went to the local office and straightened it out (Filed a I-90
with new pics) and they DID NOT charge us for the new card. You should not
have had to pay for any subsequent card.

Good luck.


"Elliot Wilen" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > My wife had her AOS interview last April and received a green card the
    > following month. However, they had managed to mix up her name (even
    > though all previous forms and correspondence sent in both directions
    > had her name printed correctly), so we went back to the San Francisco
    > office and filed an I-90, surrendering the incorrect card.
    > After hearing nothing from the INS for six months, I called Rancho
    > Niguel today and was told that the card had been sent in August and had
    > never been returned. I was advised to return to the San Francisco
    > office and file another I-90, this time for a card that was "never
    > received". Does anyone know if I will have to pay the fee this time?
    > Would it help get the fee waived if I sent in a G-731 and waited for
    > the reply (so I could bring it with me)?
    > Thanks.
    > --Elliot Wilen
    > --
    > Unless replying, please include the word "rabbit" in the subject line
    > when sending me email.
    > Want to ban junk email? Visit http://www.cauce.org/

Elliot Wilen

A followup to my original post...

To summarize, after a successful AOS interview in April of 2002, my
wife received a green card with her name written incorrectly. We
returned to the San Francisco office and surrendered the green card
along with an application for a corrected card, and we weren't
charged. The replacement card never arrived, however, and when I
called the INS in December, I was told that the card had been mailed
in August and had not been returned to the INS. In other words, it had
disappeared.

Finally, on January 7, we went to the SF office once again to request
a replacement. The clerk to whom we spoke was sympathetic to our case,
and she initially indicated that she would process the forms without
requiring payment. However, she came back to the window and told us
that her supervisor insisted that the missing card was technically not
the INS's responsibility. Naturally I wanted to speak to the
supervisor. He denied my claim (based on testimony in this newsgroup)
that others had not had to pay a fee for cards which had never been
received. He said that if I wished, I could refuse to pay the $130
fee, but if the INS judged that I owed the fee, they would mail a bill
to me--and if I didn't pay the bill within 30 days, the entire
application would be declared null and we would have to begin the
process again with a new AOS application. I felt that the supervisor
was implying that, since the green card had gotten lost in the mail, I
should seriously consider the possibility that the bill would be lost
as well. The only consolation he offered was that, if I would pay the
fee, he would re-stamp my wife's passport. With no good option
evident, I reluctantly paid the $130 fee but informed him that I would
be contacting my Representative and Senators.

Some additional points, which I intend to raise with my Congressional
delegation:

1. In looking over our records, the clerk said that there was an
address change in the system. But she couldn't say what it had been
changed from. We had never filed an address change.

2. I asked the supervisor why green cards weren't sent by certified
mail, to which he replied that that had been tried at one time, but
had been stopped because it cost too much.

3. It strikes me that a system which results in permanent residency
cards floating around unaccounted for--presumably lost or stolen
either at the INS or at the post office--could have a negative impact
on national security.

mrtravel wrote in message news:...
    > If you tell them you never got it, you should not have to pay the fee.
    > Unfortunately, you have to go to the office to avoid the fee.
    >
    > My daughter had an incorrect card. My wife didn't receive the first one.
    > Fee waived in both cases.

Mrtravel

Get the names of the people involved and contact the district INS
director.
INS doesn't charge you for cards that have never been received.
I am alarmed by the number of errors and cards "lost in the mail".
We have two green card recipients in the family.
For the first (CPR) green cards, one was lost and one had the middle
name instead of the first name.

It is annoying and INS should send them by registered mail since, as you
have stated, we don't want them going to the wrong people.

Elliot Wilen wrote:
    >
    > A followup to my original post...
    >
    > To summarize, after a successful AOS interview in April of 2002, my
    > wife received a green card with her name written incorrectly. We
    > returned to the San Francisco office and surrendered the green card
    > along with an application for a corrected card, and we weren't
    > charged. The replacement card never arrived, however, and when I
    > called the INS in December, I was told that the card had been mailed
    > in August and had not been returned to the INS. In other words, it had
    > disappeared.
    >
    > Finally, on January 7, we went to the SF office once again to request
    > a replacement. The clerk to whom we spoke was sympathetic to our case,
    > and she initially indicated that she would process the forms without
    > requiring payment. However, she came back to the window and told us
    > that her supervisor insisted that the missing card was technically not
    > the INS's responsibility. Naturally I wanted to speak to the
    > supervisor. He denied my claim (based on testimony in this newsgroup)
    > that others had not had to pay a fee for cards which had never been
    > received. He said that if I wished, I could refuse to pay the $130
    > fee, but if the INS judged that I owed the fee, they would mail a bill
    > to me--and if I didn't pay the bill within 30 days, the entire
    > application would be declared null and we would have to begin the
    > process again with a new AOS application. I felt that the supervisor
    > was implying that, since the green card had gotten lost in the mail, I
    > should seriously consider the possibility that the bill would be lost
    > as well. The only consolation he offered was that, if I would pay the
    > fee, he would re-stamp my wife's passport. With no good option
    > evident, I reluctantly paid the $130 fee but informed him that I would
    > be contacting my Representative and Senators.
    >
    > Some additional points, which I intend to raise with my Congressional
    > delegation:
    >
    > 1. In looking over our records, the clerk said that there was an
    > address change in the system. But she couldn't say what it had been
    > changed from. We had never filed an address change.
    >
    > 2. I asked the supervisor why green cards weren't sent by certified
    > mail, to which he replied that that had been tried at one time, but
    > had been stopped because it cost too much.
    >
    > 3. It strikes me that a system which results in permanent residency
    > cards floating around unaccounted for--presumably lost or stolen
    > either at the INS or at the post office--could have a negative impact
    > on national security.
    >
    > mrtravel wrote in message news:...
    > > If you tell them you never got it, you should not have to pay the fee.
    > > Unfortunately, you have to go to the office to avoid the fee.
    > >
    > > My daughter had an incorrect card. My wife didn't receive the first one.
    > > Fee waived in both cases.

Andy Platt

I was thinking a little of this overnight. Firstly you probably made the
correct decision. Fighting with the INS will stress you out a lot more even
when you are right. However, I would pursue this with your representatives -
at the very least make it clear that in today's climate you think it's
totally unacceptable that INS send these highly prized cards without any
real security.

I did have a couple of thoughts though. One is whether I would really like
them to send the cards out by a more secure route. If they could get their
arse in gear and actually manage to track change of addresses properly that
would be one thing. In my case I gave them my updated address three times -
once by mail and twice by visiting the office - and the GC was still sent to
the old address. If it had been a more secure delivery mechanism it wouldn't
have got to me!

The second is that the threat from the supervisor really is idle. As was
mentioned yesterday, once INS has granted permanent residency they have to
convince an immigration judge it should be rescinded. In this case they
wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

Oh well, best of luck actually getting the correct card this time!

Andy.

--
I'm not really here - it's just your warped imagination.
"Elliot Wilen" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > A followup to my original post...
    > To summarize, after a successful AOS interview in April of 2002, my
    > wife received a green card with her name written incorrectly. We
    > returned to the San Francisco office and surrendered the green card
    > along with an application for a corrected card, and we weren't
    > charged. The replacement card never arrived, however, and when I
    > called the INS in December, I was told that the card had been mailed
    > in August and had not been returned to the INS. In other words, it had
    > disappeared.
    > Finally, on January 7, we went to the SF office once again to request
    > a replacement. The clerk to whom we spoke was sympathetic to our case,
    > and she initially indicated that she would process the forms without
    > requiring payment. However, she came back to the window and told us
    > that her supervisor insisted that the missing card was technically not
    > the INS's responsibility. Naturally I wanted to speak to the
    > supervisor. He denied my claim (based on testimony in this newsgroup)
    > that others had not had to pay a fee for cards which had never been
    > received. He said that if I wished, I could refuse to pay the $130
    > fee, but if the INS judged that I owed the fee, they would mail a bill
    > to me--and if I didn't pay the bill within 30 days, the entire
    > application would be declared null and we would have to begin the
    > process again with a new AOS application. I felt that the supervisor
    > was implying that, since the green card had gotten lost in the mail, I
    > should seriously consider the possibility that the bill would be lost
    > as well. The only consolation he offered was that, if I would pay the
    > fee, he would re-stamp my wife's passport. With no good option
    > evident, I reluctantly paid the $130 fee but informed him that I would
    > be contacting my Representative and Senators.
    > Some additional points, which I intend to raise with my Congressional
    > delegation:
    > 1. In looking over our records, the clerk said that there was an
    > address change in the system. But she couldn't say what it had been
    > changed from. We had never filed an address change.
    > 2. I asked the supervisor why green cards weren't sent by certified
    > mail, to which he replied that that had been tried at one time, but
    > had been stopped because it cost too much.
    > 3. It strikes me that a system which results in permanent residency
    > cards floating around unaccounted for--presumably lost or stolen
    > either at the INS or at the post office--could have a negative impact
    > on national security.
    > mrtravel wrote in message
news:...
    > > If you tell them you never got it, you should not have to pay the fee.
    > > Unfortunately, you have to go to the office to avoid the fee.
    > >
    > > My daughter had an incorrect card. My wife didn't receive the first one.
    > > Fee waived in both cases.