Immigrant Fee Paid but no Green Card received

[EmmOakwood 0]

Hi everyone. This is my first post on this website but my husband and I have been lurking here since we started the process but I haven't been able to find postings regarding our situation and we could use some advice.

Our issue is in receiving his Green card, which should have been received many months ago. I will include a condenced timeline after my explanation. We paid the new $165 Immigration Visa Processing Fee BEFORE the ELIS system went live. We were lucky (or unlucky) enough to have been approved in that short window between when the Fee was implemented in February 2013 and when the government's infrastructure (ELIS system) to pay the fee finally went live on May 19th, 2013. Because of this, our payment (apparently) somehow was not toggled as having been paid because we received 2 'Request for Payment Notice's AFTER we paid the fee. To clarify, we do have an immigration lawyer located 2-1/2 hours driving distance away from where we live who seemingly have bigger fish to fry than our case, so we unfortunately cannot count on their help, despite sill trying to get their attention to continue to push this case along.

November 2nd, 2012 - I130 Approved.

April 15th, 2013 - Interview with consulate in Amsterdam and final approval.

April 27th, 2013 - Receipt of Entry package - passport with visa and documents including notice of new Visa Processing

Fee which needed to be paid.

April 27th, 2013 5:34:26PM - $165 USCIS Immigration Visa Processing Fee paid (before ELIS website went live).

May 9th, 2013 - Entered country - Port of Entry: Chicago O'Hare

((May 19th, 2013 - ELIS website went live on this date for purposes of paying this new fee))

May 28th, 2013 - 1st 'Request For Payment Notice' for USCIS Immigrant Fee received via mail.

May 31st, 2013 - Applied for Social Security card.

Approx. June 4th, 2013 - Received Social Security card a few days after June 4th. Envelope was post-marked on the 4th.

June 3rd, 2013 - Contacted our Immigration lawyer regarding the 1st 'Request for Payment Notice'.

July 13th, 2013 - 2nd (and last) 'Request for Payment Notice' for USCIS Immigrant Fee received via mail.

July 18th, 2013 - Contacted our Immigration lawyer regarding the 2nd 'Request for Payment Notice'.

We contacted our lawyer again in September and now in January (every contact with our lawyer has resulted in their contacting of USCIS but yet we have not yet received his green card). As my husband and I both work retail, we were simply too caught up in finally being able to make a living (it's rough living on part-time minimum wage...) between october-early january and thus did not persue these issues between those months, but have begun again last month.

Did anyone else have a similar problem of paying the immigrant fee during this window of time and having a rough time receiving their green card?

Does anyone have any recommendations for what we should attempt? At this point, I am on the verge of contacting my congressman, but will that really do anything?

Thank you for any and all help. We really appreciate having this website as a resource.

[NickD 202]

I-130 is just the start, what about the I-485, I-864, G-325A's, I-694's that also have to be submitted? Been awhile since we been through this, but not aware of any changes in the process. Will stand corrected if there is a different way.

[aleful 1,905]

hi

have you made an infopass appointment at the local office to see what is happening with the card? maybe they already sent it and it got lost?

who knows, but you have to find out if the ever sent It to you

[NickD 202]

Whoops that is a form I-693, not a I-694.

[milimelo 4,413]

I-130 is just the start, what about the I-485, I-864, G-325A's, I-694's that also have to be submitted? Been awhile since we been through this, but not aware of any changes in the process. Will stand corrected if there is a different way.

Please read before posting - OP did the consular processing CR-1 and is talking about not receiving green card because USCIS says fee hasn't been received even though they paid it.

OP, get in touch with your congressman's immigration aide - provide all info you have including proof of payment (bank statement) and sign the release form so they can help you.

~Moving to CR-1 visa forum progress and reports as a better forum for info. ~

[EmmOakwood 0]

Thank you for the replies, guys.

hi

have you made an infopass appointment at the local office to see what is happening with the card? maybe they already sent it and it got lost?

who knows, but you have to find out if the ever sent It to you

My husband and I have done a lot of research on the process through visajourney (especially after we realized our attorney was not going to do this for us) but we have not heard of an infopass. I, myself, only read of it the first time last night when doing research before I posted. We will of course look into it but could you or anyone describe what an infopass is or more information regarding how to go about that process? Thank you.

Please read before posting - OP did the consular processing CR-1 and is talking about not receiving green card because USCIS says fee hasn't been received even though they paid it.

OP, get in touch with your congressman's immigration aide - provide all info you have including proof of payment (bank statement) and sign the release form so they can help you.

~Moving to CR-1 visa forum progress and reports as a better forum for info. ~

I started looking into that last night too and will fax a form to them first thing on monday. Unfortunately, I am skeptical about exactly how much my congressman can do for me (I wish I weren't, believe me.) but I am at least willing to try.

Has anyone had good luck with having to contact their congressman for immigration help?

[milimelo 4,413]

I started looking into that last night too and will fax a form to them first thing on monday. Unfortunately, I am skeptical about exactly how much my congressman can do for me (I wish I weren't, believe me.) but I am at least willing to try.

Has anyone had good luck with having to contact their congressman for immigration help?

We successfully used a congressman's aide for immigration after my GC didn't show up after 7 months from POE (this was 2007, so pre-ELIS fee).