Two Copies of Approval Notice

[marlea 84]

I received my approval notice for my K1 just over a week ago, and I didn't just receive one, I got two copies in two separate envelopes. When I gave them a cursory glance, they looked exactly the same, and I was just so excited I didn't look at them too carefully. Today I was looking at one of them (I was going to send a copy to my fiance) and it reads, "The above petition has been approved and forwarded to the listed consulate. It has been noted that is is your second approved I-129F petition and as such, your information has been entered in a multiple visa petition tracking database." The problem is, this is only my first petition ever. I am assuming that somehow my current petition got entered into the system twice, generating a second approval notice. Will this be a problem in the future? Or do you think that, if it shows up in the system somewhere, someone would investigate and they see that the two petitions are exactly the same: same petitioner, same beneficiary, same file dates, that they will realize the mistake? I don't want it to cause problems down the line if someone is trying to claim that I've filed more than one petition.

Edited July 14, 2010 by marlea

[Dodi 69]

You should probably contact the USCIS and find out what happened. If they don't help you, call the DOS. 202-663-1225, once your case has been entered into the system at the NVC.

Did you have 2 different case numbers on the NOA2's? Or were they the same? If not, someone needs to do some checking as to what went wrong.

[marlea 84]

No, I just have one case number for USCIS. I tried calling USCIS, and I just got the automated system which didn't even have a record of my approval. I also know that their customer service people are pretty useless, so I don't know if they would be able to help.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

You should probably contact the USCIS and find out what happened. If they don't help you, call the DOS. 202-663-1225, once your case has been entered into the system at the NVC.

Did you have 2 different case numbers on the NOA2's? Or were they the same? If not, someone needs to do some checking as to what went wrong.

Agreed!

A good rule of thumb is that whenever you discover the government has screwed up in anything involving you, assume that someday they're going to find out about it, blame you for it, and make you suffer any consequences. I wouldn't be surprised if NVC or the consulate kicks the petition back to USCIS claiming that it never should have been approved because the "other" petition wasn't declared on part A, question 11 of the I-129F.

[Dodi 69]

Call the USCIS, select option 6 that you DO NOT HAVE your receipt number. This will get you to a Human^TM. (Sorry, that cracks me up every time.) Once you get to that person, IMMEDIATELY ask for your call to be escalated. Explain to them that you need a second tier representative (because the first tier people don't know anything). If the second tier people can't help you, demand a supervisor.

This is the time you need to get your big boots on and stomp around till you make someone answer for thier mistake! Regardless of the fact that this is a 'gubment' entity, you've paid them quite a bit of money for a service. Apparently they didn't deliver properly. They owe it to you to fix it.

Good luck!!

Edited July 14, 2010 by Dodi

[marlea 84]

Well, I've spoken to three people now, and both have said that it shouldn't be an issue. I spoke to a regular human at USCIS, who escalated my question on his own (without me having to ask) and the next woman up said that it shouldn't be an issue, that if it comes up, that I should just show that I've only ever submitted the one petition, and all will be fine. I wasn't happy with that answer (how do you prove you DIDN'T do something) and so I called DOS. She said she had just one record, only showing one case, so it shouldn't be an issue in London. She said that USCIS likely realized their mistake and just merged the two into one. Since I have two official copies from USCIS, I will hold on to both (both with the same case number), to show that it must have been a mistake on their end.

Things have been going so smoothly so far, I'm worried that this is going to be the bump in the road that throws everything off track...

[deangelo 1]

Notice: If you received more than one appointment notice for the same application/petition, please disregard any duplicates. Our system sent extra notices in error.

Notice: If you received more than one appointment notice for the same application/petition, please disregard any duplicates. Our system sent extra notices in error.

This is on the front page of uscis website.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=49e1d98208489210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e7801c2c9be44210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

check out this link

Edited July 14, 2010 by deangelo

[marlea 84]

Thanks Deangelo! Yeah, I went home and got the other copy and it didn't say anything about the second petition, so that's pretty much proof that it was just a duplicate notice. But thanks for pointing that out for me!

And considering that notice on the USCIS website was posted the day after my approval notice was generated, I'm assuming I may not be the only one who got more than one notice.

Edited July 14, 2010 by marlea