I-751 NOA Receipt never received

[Bec_Dipu 103]

We filed the I-751 in July and received a biometrics appointment letter but we never received the NOA receipt that extends hubs' green card for another year. We have a non-refundable cruise in Oct that leaves after his green card expires (we were expecting to get the receipt and not have an issue).

We had our second Infopass appointment today and they refuse to give him a stamp in his passport or any other notice of extension unless they have a letter form his employer stating he will be terminated without the extension or evidence of our cruise. Hubs work refuses to write the letter because they will not terminate him if his green card expires and USCIS refuses to issue a temporary stamp until 72 hours before our trip.

Our issue is that they didn't clarify if the 72 hours is before we fly out for vacation or 72 hours before we depart on the cruise. We are going to Disney for 4 days before the cruise, so 72 hours before we fly to FL is more than 72 hours before we leave the country. Does anyone know what the 72 hours refers to?

Also, is there a way to just get the USCIS to print the freaking letter and mail it to us? We paid for the service, we deserve the receipt. We shouldn't even have to go through this garbage but when we tried to call them, they refused to help us and told us we could only resolve this through an Infopass appointment.

I'm feeling a lot of rage right now.

[Hypnos 6,576]

I would suggest that you contact one of your congressional representatives and the DHS Ombudsman immediately to get this straightened out.

Your husband should absolutely not depart the US under any circumstances until he has an original copy of the I-751 NOA / extension letter in his hands, or an I-551 stamp.

[S_R 148]

If he leaves without a stamp or letter he will not be allowed back in... I hope you have also done your research and concluded that he will be allowed to disembark from the ship with just the letter.

Edited September 26, 2014 by S_R

[Bec_Dipu 103]

He won't be going on the cruise unless we get the stamp or letter. All of my research shows that as long as he has one or the other, he is copacetic. The problem is getting one or the other.

I looked up the Ombudsman and it led me to a www.uscis.gov page where I can fill out an electronic request about not receiving the I-797 notice and wouldn't you know that when I hit submit, it says that the form number doesn't match the receipt number despite being the exact combination they reported on the biometric appt letter.

Here's the electronic request page in case anyone comes across this post in the future (for what it's worth since it doesn't seem to work for me):

https://egov.uscis.gov/e-Request/Intro.do

[Hypnos 6,576]

You can contact the DHS Ombudsman through their online form: https://cisomb.dhs.gov/oca/form7001.aspx