British Expats - I485 in NYC

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I applied for a spouse-sponsored GC in 03/15/01 in NYC, along with EAD. I have my EAD card and A#. I have no receipt notice (I797) from INS. I have sent 3 requests for status, no response. I have since changed address (3 months ago), sent 2 letters informing of this, no response. It has been nearly 17 months since application and I have received no communication from INS besides receiving my EAD. Is this normal? Is there any other way I can get a status? I tried calling Nat INS Center, they told me to write a letter enquiring of status...guess what...no response! Help!

You apparently are living under a misconception. I-797's are not normally sent by local INS offices for receipt of AOS applications. The only time this normally occurs is if the application has to be sent to a service center, which is the case for filers in the Baltimore, Maryland area.

For NYC, you will not receive an I-797. You should have received, however, a small little cash register receipt which should be guarded with your life. It is your only proof, outside of the cancelled checks, that you have that you've filed.

NYC INS as do many other local INS NEVER acknowledge any filings whatsoever with receipts. Nor will they acknowledge change of address requests. It is up to the gods as to whether or not your file is ever noted with the correct address. It is almost a sure thing that it will never be updated until you go for your interview.

I would assume you have just renewed your EAD and/or are awaiting renewal since you filed in 3/01 and if you go it around the 90th day, it expired in late June. Did you tell them about the change of address when you went to pick it up?

Have you placed a forwarding request with the USPS? You are due to receive the fingerprint appointment letter and the scheduling of your interview. NYC was until a few months ago running at 14 to 18 months with an odd person out at 20 to 24 months. If you had the time and patience, I would head to 26 Fed Plaza and go to the third floor and double check the status in person. I would not leave this to chance.

Rete

More familiar with NYC INS than she ever wanted to be in this lifetime

>NYC INS as do many other local INS NEVER acknowledge any filings whatsoever with
>receipts. Nor will they acknowledge change of address requests.

Hi Rita, I agree with the above, but I have a little to add.

I recently filed an AOS case for one of my K-1'ers at the Chicago INS office. A day
or two after I put it in the mail to Chicago, the client calls me to say that they
just moved into a different apartment in their building (I wish they could have told
me that before I submitted the AOS as I could have easily changed their forms to
reflect the new address and thus eliminate the need to do change of address work;
however the apartment just became available and it was a "step up" for them so they
agreed to take it on a moment's notice).

So I do the change of address forms for them (two G-28's, two I-865's and an AR-11)
and send them to the clients for signatures. They sign them and send them right back
to me (I had them back within a week of sending it to the clients). At this point in
time, I still have not received the cash register receipt and filing acknowledgment
letter from Chicago INS.

I send off the G-28 and I-865 to the NSC, and a second set to Chicago (I send the
second set to the local INS office for good measure). Along with both of these
submissions, I also send cover letters giving all of the details each INS office
would need. In my letter to Chicgo, I tell them that I just mailed the AOS to their
office which was received at their office on X date and at X time
(U.S. priority mail will tell you that information), but that I have not yet received
their receipt for this filing.

A few days later I receive the INS cash register receipt from Chicago and a filing
acknowledgment letter (the acknowledgment letter reflects the client's old address as
was listed on the AOS forms). A few days after that, to my surprise (surprised
because most INS offices don't do this) I receive a nice letter from Chicago saying
they received the client's change of address information, they have put that
information into their file, and that they will send all future correspondence to
that address.

Just as a side note (and another example of a novel INS screw up... the first time
I've seen this one), a few days later (this arrived to my office on Monday) I receive
a "Welcome to the U.S." letter sent from the NSC, saying the U.S. citizen spouse is
now a permanent resident of the United States (This letter did not mention the
international spouse whose AOS was just filed in Chicago, and it listed an "A" number
by the U.S. Spouse's name [which by the way was not the "A" number of his wife]).

I suspect that this was some sort of snafu at data entry at the NSC when they were
inputting the data from the I-865 sponsor's change of address form. I immediately
wrote a letter to the NSC explaining what we received, pointing out that this was a
mistake made by them, and asking them to take care of this (I was worried that
perhaps some poor individual out there who might have really had that "A" number
might not ever receive his or her "welcome letter" due to this NSC snafu).

Another one of my AOS couples (non K-1'ers) recently moved from San Francisco to San
Jose. I prepared the same sort of change of address materials and sent them to the
S.F. District Office and the CSC. In my cover letter to S.F., I pointed out that the
couple no longer lived within the jurisdiction of the S.F. INS office, and I
requested that their file be transferred to San Jose for further processing. When I
sent the materials off, I put a note on my calendar for 1 month later, reminding
myself to check with S.F. to see if they transferred the file (if I had not heard
back form them by then).

A month goes by, and I'm just about ready to call S.F. to check up on this, however
in that days mail (this arrived to my office earlier this week) I receive a nice
letter from S.F. saying they received my client's change of address material, and
that they have transferred my client's file to San Jose.

It would be nice if "all" INS offices acknowledged the receipt of change of
address material.

Regards, Matthew Udall Attorney http://members.aol.com/MDUdall/fiancee.htm

Re: I485 in NYC (changing address)

    > >NYC INS as do many other local INS NEVER acknowledge any filings whatsoever with
    > >receipts. Nor will they acknowledge change of address requests.

[email protected] (MDUdall) wrote:
    > Hi Rita, I agree with the above, but I have a little to add.

To Matthew Udall and others reading this:

The time has come for everyone to share with INS your experiences and gripes about
the ineffectiveness of INS's Form AR-11, "Change of Address" and other similar
attempts in vain to get INS to update your address in their records.

INS recently published a proposed rule notice at 67 FR 48818 entitled, "Address
Notification To Be Filed With Designated Applications." You can read it for yourself
at: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-...ister&docid=f-
r26jy02-21

While this rule sounds simple enough, really what it means is that the INS wants to
make the denial of applications by abandonment and removal orders in absentia to be
administratively final and no longer subject to re-opening/re-consideration or appeal
due to a non-appearance, even if this was caused by INS's mailing of notices to an
old address.

Comments from the public will be accepted through August 26, 2002. You can send your
comments by email to INS at [email protected] with "2198-02" in the subject area. The
Federal Register notice also provides a postal address to mail written comments.

Tell INS what your experiences were trying to change an address, and why their rule
is a bad idea. The people in headquarters who make these rules just can't imagine how
ineffective the change of address processing is or about the lack of confirmations.
It also might be nice to suggest to them that at least a second appointment notice
should be sent after a missed appointment or hearing before any case becomes
administratively closed as abandoned, if only because the first notice (sent by
regular mail) might have been lost in the mail.

CP

PS: This rule may also have been proposed in response to the sharp criticism INS may
have received on another rule proposed earlier this year which would make aliens
with administratively final removal orders who did not surrender to the INS
within 30 days no longer eligible to apply for discretionary relief (such as when
they never knew about the hearing or the order in the first place due to the
notices being sent to an old address!)

[email protected] (MDUdall) wrote:
    > I recently filed an AOS case for one of my K-1'ers at the Chicago INS office. A day
    > or two after I put it in the mail to Chicago, the client calls me to say that they
    > just moved into a different apartment in their building (I wish they could have
    > told me that before I submitted the AOS as I could have easily changed their forms
    > to reflect the new address and thus eliminate the need to do change of address
    > work; however the apartment just became available and it was a "step up" for them
    > so they agreed to take it on a moment's notice).
    >
    > So I do the change of address forms for them (two G-28's, two I-865's and an AR-11)
    > and send them to the clients for signatures. They sign them and send them right
    > back to me (I had them back within a week of sending it to the clients). At this
    > point in time, I still have not received the cash register receipt and filing
    > acknowledgment letter from Chicago INS.
    >
    > I send off the G-28 and I-865 to the NSC, and a second set to Chicago (I send the
    > second set to the local INS office for good measure). Along with both of these
    > submissions, I also send cover letters giving all of the details each INS office
    > would need. In my letter to Chicgo, I tell them that I just mailed the AOS to their
    > office which was received at their office on X date and at X time
    > (U.S. priority mail will tell you that information), but that I have not yet
    > received their receipt for this filing.
    >
    > A few days later I receive the INS cash register receipt from Chicago and a filing
    > acknowledgment letter (the acknowledgment letter reflects the client's old address
    > as was listed on the AOS forms). A few days after that, to my surprise (surprised
    > because most INS offices don't do this) I receive a nice letter from Chicago saying
    > they received the client's change of address information, they have put that
    > information into their file, and that they will send all future correspondence to
    > that address.
    >
    > Just as a side note (and another example of a novel INS screw up... the first time
    > I've seen this one), a few days later (this arrived to my office on Monday) I
    > receive a "Welcome to the U.S." letter sent from the NSC, saying the U.S. citizen
    > spouse is now a permanent resident of the United States (This letter did not
    > mention the international spouse whose AOS was just filed in Chicago, and it listed
    > an "A" number by the U.S. Spouse's name [which by the way was not the "A" number of
    > his wife]).
    >
    > I suspect that this was some sort of snafu at data entry at the NSC when they were
    > inputting the data from the I-865 sponsor's change of address form. I immediately
    > wrote a letter to the NSC explaining what we received, pointing out that this was a
    > mistake made by them, and asking them to take care of this (I was worried that
    > perhaps some poor individual out there who might have really had that "A" number
    > might not ever receive his or her "welcome letter" due to this NSC snafu).
    >
    > Another one of my AOS couples (non K-1'ers) recently moved from San Francisco to
    > San Jose. I prepared the same sort of change of address materials and sent them to
    > the S.F. District Office and the CSC. In my cover letter to S.F., I pointed out
    > that the couple no longer lived within the jurisdiction of the S.F. INS office, and
    > I requested that their file be transferred to San Jose for further processing. When
    > I sent the materials off, I put a note on my calendar for 1 month later, reminding
    > myself to check with S.F. to see if they transferred the file (if I had not heard
    > back form them by then).
    >
    > A month goes by, and I'm just about ready to call S.F. to check up on this, however
    > in that days mail (this arrived to my office earlier this week) I receive a nice
    > letter from S.F. saying they received my client's change of address material, and
    > that they have transferred my client's file to San Jose.
    >
    > It would be nice if "all" INS offices acknowledged the receipt of change of address
    > material.
    >
    > Regards, Matthew Udall Attorney

That is not a new law. The regulation requiring you to notify INS within ten days of moving of your new address has been on the books for years. It appears, however, that they might start enforcing it. I've read, as well, that to do so, they will have to start inputting the change of addresses as they arrive. For now the article I read states, the change of addresses are dumped in one area waiting for someone to do just that.

Rete

Rete Quick question for you, why are you creating a new thread for this message when
you can keep it in the same thread as the user posted it?
S.M.

"Rete" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > That is not a new law. The regulation requiring you to notify INS within ten days
    > of moving of your new address has been on the books for years. It appears, however,
    > that they might start enforcing it. I've read, as well, that to do so, they will
    > have to start inputting the change of addresses as they arrive. For now the article
    > I read states, the change of addresses are dumped in one area waiting for someone
    > to do just that.
    >
    > Rete
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    >
    >
    >
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Quick answer

Chris Parker dilluted the thread with his information re "new" law regarding timely change of address. I've not created a new thread it is still under the original posters questions re I-485 NYC.

Rete

In article <[email protected]>, Rete
<[email protected]> writes
    >Quick answer
    >
    >Chris Parker dilluted the thread with his information re "new" law regarding timely
    >change of address. I've not created a new thread it is still under the original
    >posters questions re I-485 NYC.

Longer answer

Chris Parker changed the subject line by adding the words "(changing address)". S.M's
newsreader treated this as a new thread. It therefore would have looked odd to him
(and to anyone else using a similar newsreader) to see you respond to the original
thread by peterjr1 with content apparently responding to cparke.

Subject Poster MID (abbreviated)

I485 in NYC peterjr1 3d405d74$1 Re: I485 in NYC Rete 3d405d83$11 Re: I485 in NYC
mdudall 20020725175742.03209.00000726 Re: I485 in NYC (changing address)[1] cparke
cebf7f45.0207292029.2c7c651a

Re: I485 in NYC[2] Rete 3d4676a9$1 Re: I485 in NYC s.m ai6378$20g$1 Re: I485 in
NYC[3] Rete 3d46af30$5

[1] Poster has changed subject line therefore some newsreaders will treat this as a
new thread.
[2] Poster has responded to the original MID by peterjr1 yet the content is
(apparently) in response to cparke. No attributions or brief quoting of the post
responded to adds to the confusion.
[3] Poster has responded to the original MID by peterjr1 yet the content is clearly
in response to s.m. No attributions or brief quoting.

MID = Message Identification automatically created by the poster's server.

--
squire Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. (Groucho)

Thanks Squire. It doesn't show up that on Expats.

Rete

Rete <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> That is not a new law. The regulation requiring you to notify INS within ten days
> of moving of your new address has been on the books for years.

Actually, it is law and only Congress can change it (see below). That's make it a
much more difficult thing to change than a regulation, which provides the
interpretation and implementation of the law. The law has not really been enforced
over the years, since INS has recognized their own incompetance until recently.

The thing I posted which dilluted this thread was a newly proposed regulation, not a
new law. INS makes those, but the Federal Register Act of 1935 requires them to
follow a process which includes publishing them and soliciting public comments before
making the new rule effective, unless a compelling and significant reason exists that
the rule should be effective immediately (i.e. an interim rule). The rule I posted
about is only a proposed rule, and is not effective and they are collecting only
public comments at this time. After the comment period ends, they will review all the
comments and decide if the rule should be amended in any way, re-proposed, or made
effective.

CP
______

INA Sec. 265. [8 U.S.C. 1305]
(a) Each alien required to be registered under this title who is within the United
States shall notify the Attorney General in writing of each change of address and
new address within ten days from the date of such change and furnish with such
notice such additional information as the Attorney General may require by
regulation.

    > I've read, as well, that to do so, they will have to start inputting the change of
    > addresses as they arrive. For now the article I read states, the change of
    > addresses are dumped in one area waiting for someone to do just that.

It would be nice if it was that simple. It would actually work!

In reality, INS uses a paper-based system to maintain addresses on individual records
(and worse yet, this could vary from office to office and record type to record
type). This means that to change your address, the Alien A-file must be retrieved
from whoever and where-ever it is located (could be another office), and somebody has
to go through it and attach a sticker with your new address over your old one. Then,
for each computer database throughout the INS, they need to lookup your record and
update the address there to. Not all systems may be available to all offices either.
Then, the file must be returned to the office and adjudicator where it came from to
resume processing. This all has to happen without losing anything or re-arranging in
the master file also.

Then, if your new address is in a different district than the old one, the file also
need to be transferred to a new office and assigned to a new adjudicator.

Form AR-11 is supposed to cause this all to happen, and it also has no filing fee. If
you were a district director at INS and want to run the district office competently,
how much priority would you give to this "change of address" process? How likely is
it that a file that undergoes this process will result in records being lost or
misdirected, cases being ignored, and laws and regulations possibly being broken?

CP