Tricky Situation with I-751

[Thagermandude 0]

My mom is in a very difficult/tricky situation about her status in the US.

She (my mom) is married to a U.S. Citizen and moved to the United States in 94 or 95 I believe.

She has been here ever since and never left the country. She went trough the whole "Green Card" process

and was approved in 94 I believe. Here is where the whole dilemma started.

The USCIS made a mistake and accidently send her a card with the wrong Alien # on it.

We returned the card upon request from the USCIS office. They assured us that the error was fixed, she never received the valid green card.

Unfortunately we never bothered to find out what the Expiration date on the card was/is.

A big part of it is our fault for waiting so damn long but we want to get this done finally.

I don't know what to file for. Would we still be eligible to file for I-751? (It asks for copy of green card, which we don't have and I positive it has expired).

or should we file for I-90? I am not sure but want this situation to be taking care of.

What can we do? Are we out of luck?

[Dakine 26]

My mom is in a very difficult/tricky situation about her status in the US.

She (my mom) is married to a U.S. Citizen and moved to the United States in 94 or 95 I believe.

She has been here ever since and never left the country. She went trough the whole "Green Card" process

and was approved in 94 I believe. Here is where the whole dilemma started.

The USCIS made a mistake and accidently send her a card with the wrong Alien # on it.

We returned the card upon request from the USCIS office. They assured us that the error was fixed, she never received the valid green card.

Unfortunately we never bothered to find out what the Expiration date on the card was/is.

A big part of it is our fault for waiting so damn long but we want to get this done finally.

I don't know what to file for. Would we still be eligible to file for I-751? (It asks for copy of green card, which we don't have and I positive it has expired).

or should we file for I-90? I am not sure but want this situation to be taking care of.

What can we do? Are we out of luck?

Make an Infopass appointment and go talk to someone at your local USCIS office.

[eau_xplain 2]

Does your mom still have all the notices that she got from USCIS? I suggest that you put all those together and get a better picture of where your mom is in her immigration journey. It will also be worth your mom's time to schedule a consultation with a good immigration lawyer to help her go through her immigration documents and find out what is her current status. There have been a lot of changes in immigration laws since 1994 so we cannot say if our experiences here will be valid for her.

[wannabe_texan 0]

If your Mom and her husband were married for longer than 2 years before she received her Green Card, its not necessary to file for removing of conditions... but as a PR she's supposed to have been carrying her GC around with her all this time - so yes, do consult an attorney/InfoPass to find out more...

[Staashi 371]

If your Mom and her husband were married for longer than 2 years before she received her Green Card, its not necessary to file for removing of conditions... but as a PR she's supposed to have been carrying her GC around with her all this time - so yes, do consult an attorney/InfoPass to find out more...

And also, she should have refiled every ten years when her greencard expired. This can be a tricky one - let us know how it works out.

Good Luck!

[Manc 0]

I am not an expert by any means, but I think it would be critical to know exactly where in the immigration process your mother got up to. If she got a 'conditional' green card back then, and didn't file an I-751 before it expired, then it is too late to file one now, and in effect her status would have lapsed, meaning she wouldn't be legally present as of now. If on the other hand her last approval was for status as an unconditional permanent resident, then the fact she hasn't got a green card and that the original would have expired isn't a problem because even though full green cards last 10 years and then expire, their expiry doesn't mean the unconditional status expires.

(The above from discussions with my Senator's office regarding my own green card approval)

Dig out all the documents and paperwork and try and find out what the last approval was, and what the paperwork says. That would be the best place to start, because the alternative is to deal with the USCIS, and if she is not lawfully present right now, that would open a can of worms it would be best to be prepared for in advance.

[diadromous mermaid 36]

We returned the card upon request from the USCIS office. They assured us that the error was fixed, she never received the valid green card.

Do you have the initial request from USCIS instructing her to return the incorrect card? Do you have any evidence that the incorrect card was mailed to USCIS per their request?

[russian_armenian 4]

You need a good lawyer. First 30min-1hour consultation is usually free. So, check the situation with as many as you can (my bet-you will get quite different solutions). GC get lost in mail often (2 my girlfriends are citizens now but never had a physical GC in hand (conditional and 10y). Same with my brother-never got one, but he is a citizen already). If you got a NOA stating that they have fixed the error, they have probably sent a GC. If mother never sent I-751, she might be out of status. But I have heard about some relief (option to begin GC process again), if petition was sent prior to April 2001 (or 2000). I know for sure that I-30 falls under this waiver (means illigal immigrant can get status if I-30 was sent but for what ever reason abandoned). I am sure that lawyer would know if this applies to your situation.

My mom is in a very difficult/tricky situation about her status in the US.

She (my mom) is married to a U.S. Citizen and moved to the United States in 94 or 95 I believe.

She has been here ever since and never left the country. She went trough the whole "Green Card" process

and was approved in 94 I believe. Here is where the whole dilemma started.

The USCIS made a mistake and accidently send her a card with the wrong Alien # on it.

We returned the card upon request from the USCIS office. They assured us that the error was fixed, she never received the valid green card.

Unfortunately we never bothered to find out what the Expiration date on the card was/is.

A big part of it is our fault for waiting so damn long but we want to get this done finally.

I don't know what to file for. Would we still be eligible to file for I-751? (It asks for copy of green card, which we don't have and I positive it has expired).

or should we file for I-90? I am not sure but want this situation to be taking care of.

What can we do? Are we out of luck?

[milimelo 4,541]

I am not an expert by any means, but I think it would be critical to know exactly where in the immigration process your mother got up to. If she got a 'conditional' green card back then, and didn't file an I-751 before it expired, then it is too late to file one now, and in effect her status would have lapsed, meaning she wouldn't be legally present as of now. If on the other hand her last approval was for status as an unconditional permanent resident, then the fact she hasn't got a green card and that the original would have expired isn't a problem because even though full green cards last 10 years and then expire, their expiry doesn't mean the unconditional status expires.

(The above from discussions with my Senator's office regarding my own green card approval)

Dig out all the documents and paperwork and try and find out what the last approval was, and what the paperwork says. That would be the best place to start, because the alternative is to deal with the USCIS, and if she is not lawfully present right now, that would open a can of worms it would be best to be prepared for in advance.

If his mom had the green card back in '94 then she would've had an unlimited time one. I believe it was not until 1998-99? that they started with the conditional cards. Worth checking into. If she has her A# on any other paperwork she should be good to go.

Edited June 17, 2008 by milimelo

[Mohsin 0]

I would make an infopass appointment to find out what you need to file.....regardless though it would be more waiting than anything difficult.....since she's been a PR for more than 3 years she's already eligible for citizenship...

[russian_armenian 4]

Not so. I know people who became PR here long time ago and then got a new job in Canada and moved there. When decided to move back to US with a new job offer (and being a Canadian citizen already), find out that that have to start GC process from start. PR status was lost forever and physical GC was confiscated at the border (as far as I remember; maybe the mistake was in traveling through border with a new Canadian passport-here comes questions about where do you live...; I guess there are some tricks to keep GC current but from legal standpoint, the PR status is lost quite easily for many reasons-and not submitting I-751 is one of them).

I would make an infopass appointment to find out what you need to file.....regardless though it would be more waiting than anything difficult.....since she's been a PR for more than 3 years she's already eligible for citizenship...