Father (petitioner) passed away, the best way to make brother substitute petitioner?

[criss 0]

Here is an update to help those who may encounter the same situation in the future and are looking for info.

First off, the option of requesting for a substitute sponsor is ONLY available if the petition was approved by USCIS BEFORE the death of the petitioner. By APPROVAL, it means that you have received a "Notice of Action (NOA)" from USCIS telling you that the petition is approved (I believe it is usually called NOA2 on these forums). This NOA is usually received within 1-2 years if not earlier, so don't confuse this with other notices (that take many many years) that tell you that petition has been forwarded to NVC etc.

1. Where should the request for petition reinstatement be sent? In usual circumstances, they say send it to USCIS office, but in this case, we got delayed and the petition has already been forwarded by USCIS office to the NVC. Would it be better to send in the petition reinstatement request to NVC?

Since the petition had already been forwarded to NVC, the petition reinstatement request should be sent to NVC (otherwise if the petition was still at USCIS, then one should send this to USCIS). I wasted a month by sending it to USCIS instead of NVC in our case and they sent it back to me saying they had forwarded the case to NVC. Here is the address I had to use in Dec 2009:

National Visa Center

Attn: WC

31 Rochester Ave. Suite 200

Portsmouth, NH 03801-2915

This address was found here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3177.html

Here are the documents that needed to be sent to them: A letter from the beneficiary pleading for humanitarian reinstatement of petition using a substitute sponsor, copy of petitioner's death certificate, copy of Petition approval notice, the affidavit of support form from substitute sponsor (I-864) and any supporting documents (e.g. copies of tax returns etc.), the birth certificate of substitute sponsor (to show the relation to beneficiary). NVC also asked me to have a cover sheet with NVC case #, name of petitioner, DOB of petitioner, name of beneficiary, DOB of beneficiary (I also wrote USCIS ISL # on the cover sheet as well).

The I-864 is available here: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-864.pdf

Once the NVC receives the above, they will forward everything back to USCIS and send you a letter back saying that the petition has been withdrawn due to petitioner's death. Now the USCIS will be deciding whether or not to accept the substitute sponsor. I don't know how long they will take to make this decision.

2. Since the brother will be the substitute financial sponsor, will the petition now be consider L4 and delayed or will the petition be reinstated as the original L1?

Probably, the petition will remain an L1 as orignally filed, but I'm not 100% sure.

3. For the affidavit of support I-864, on line 9, it states "I am sponsoring the following family members immigrating at the same time or within six months of the principal immigrant named in Part 2 above." Am I required to list her husband and children here so they can get derivative visas with her? Is listing them here needed for the derivative visas to be processed?

Yes, need to list husband and children there.

4. The letter from NVC also asked for $70 for processing the affidavit of support that the father orignally filed. Now, when I file the substitute affidavit of support, do I need to wait for them to ask me for the processing fee? Or do I just pay the $70 and it will be applied to the petition?

No, do not pay any fees since the NVC sent this form and request for fee without knowledge of the petitioner's death. If one were to try to play tricks with them and not inform them about the death and pay fees, it will come out later and the penalties for such immigration fraud are very stiff including long term immigration bans. Follow the proper process to request substitute sponsor, any thing received from NVC without them knowing about the petitioner's death is invalid.

5. The letter also has a DS-3032. Should we fill it out and send it back? Or will they be sending us all these forms etc. again once they accept the substitue sponsor and petition reinstatement? Basically, just want to make sure time is not lost in waiting for them to ask for things again if something can be done now.

I did not send the DS-3032. They are using my address for correspondence since it was listed on the envelope and all other items including affidavit of support.

Other references:

Memo allowing substitute sponsor: http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/PL107_150Pub.pdf

Factors for humanitarian reinstatement (need to use when writing letter requesting reinstatement based on humanitarian reasons, basically it is your job to convince the USCIS to accept the substitute sponse and reinstate the petition): http://www.asianjournal.com/immigration/at...-petitions.html

LALOO

i need to talk to you. we have the same issue. my mother passed away after 18years of waiting for the petition approval. please do email me. crisragadio@yahoo.com

i need to ask how did u make the reinstatement leter. did u went to an immigration lawyer to consult abt the content of the letter? PLEASE reply! thanks

[laloo 4]

LALOO

i need to talk to you. we have the same issue. my mother passed away after 18years of waiting for the petition approval. please do email me. crisragadio@yahoo.com

i need to ask how did u make the reinstatement leter. did u went to an immigration lawyer to consult abt the content of the letter? PLEASE reply! thanks

Criss, just post your questions here and we can discuss here for everyone's benefit. So how are the petitioner and beneficiary related?

[criss 0]

Criss, just post your questions here and we can discuss here for everyone's benefit. So how are the petitioner and beneficiary related?

yea sorry

i have received a form from my dad's email the ds 3032 i think, it says that the case is forwarded to nvc and ready to process. the thing is, my grandmother (petitioner) died last year, we recevied the email feb. 12. so up to now, were not yet making any response from the nvc.

the problem is the humanitarian reinstatement, how will we write the nvc? i mean the content, im afraid if i write myself, uscis will not accept the reasons. did u ask the lawyer abt ur case?

and how long does it take for the uscis to approve the reinstatement? cause i am turning 21 this december and im very much afraid i will no longer be a derivative from my dad.

thanks

[laloo 4]

yea sorry

i have received a form from my dad's email the ds 3032 i think, it says that the case is forwarded to nvc and ready to process. the thing is, my grandmother (petitioner) died last year, we recevied the email feb. 12. so up to now, were not yet making any response from the nvc.

the problem is the humanitarian reinstatement, how will we write the nvc? i mean the content, im afraid if i write myself, uscis will not accept the reasons. did u ask the lawyer abt ur case?

and how long does it take for the uscis to approve the reinstatement? cause i am turning 21 this december and im very much afraid i will no longer be a derivative from my dad.

thanks

No, we did not use a lawyer. Check out this article for some guidance:

http://www.asianjournal.com/immigration/at...-petitions.html

Every case is different, and as the article above says, your letter should convince the immigration officer who reads it that your case should be reinstated for humanitarian basis (which are described in the article). For example, all your family is in US and one sister or brother is left overseas etc. My advice is to read the above article a few times, then sit down with your family and discuss one by one what humanitarian factors may apply in your case, write down some points and then write a letter based on those points. And ofcourse, you want to be completely honest as well, as anything false will end the case against you.

[laloo 4]

Also want to add:

As far as running out of time, you should work on the letter right away. Start now until you have a good letter ready for mailing and work on all the other needed documents in parallel. When you mail the packet to NVC, call them a few days after you know they received it to check if they have forwarded the packet to USCIS for processing. As soon as NVC forwards the packet to USCIS, you need to mail another letter to USCIS to let them know that you have applied for subsitute sponsor, and that NVC has mailed them the packet and you would like to request USCIS to process your application and expidite it. Basically, keep following up on the application to make sure it doesn't sit somewhere for months and months before getting processed. I just found out that our application has been sitting at USCIS for over a month and they haven't even looked at it, so I will be writing another letter to them.

[criss 0]

yay laloo thats crazy. your letter is pending for a month. please do notify me when your reinstatement have been approved.

well i just learned today that my auntie (substitute sponsor) is working on her letter to be sent at the NVC. she have a friend back in the US with the same case. what they did is the SUBSTITUTE SPONSOR is the one who appeal for the reinstatement. in that, they'll see how eager the substitute sponsor was for the relative to immigrate. i hope it will be approved sooner. BENEFICIARY (my dad) wont write anything to the NVC. thats what she told me.

after my aunt send it, prolly i might email over and over the uscis and nvc for verification as u said.

thanks and cheers for our success*

[laloo 4]

yay laloo thats crazy. your letter is pending for a month. please do notify me when your reinstatement have been approved.

well i just learned today that my auntie (substitute sponsor) is working on her letter to be sent at the NVC. she have a friend back in the US with the same case. what they did is the SUBSTITUTE SPONSOR is the one who appeal for the reinstatement. in that, they'll see how eager the substitute sponsor was for the relative to immigrate. i hope it will be approved sooner. BENEFICIARY (my dad) wont write anything to the NVC. thats what she told me.

after my aunt send it, prolly i might email over and over the uscis and nvc for verification as u said.

thanks and cheers for our success*

That is different from what we did and what I understood based on reading online and one phone call to NVC. The beneficiary was the one who wrote the letter and signed it and included all the other supporting documents. Then they gave this to the substitute sponsor who attached the affidavit of support form and documents and mailed it to NVC.

You should clarify with someone on whether the beneficiary writes the letter. That is what we understood and that made sense to us. You could call NVC and talk to an agent there. You don't need to give any case # or name or anything, just say you don't have it with you and just had a question for them.

[criss 0]

That is different from what we did and what I understood based on reading online and one phone call to NVC. The beneficiary was the one who wrote the letter and signed it and included all the other supporting documents. Then they gave this to the substitute sponsor who attached the affidavit of support form and documents and mailed it to NVC.

You should clarify with someone on whether the beneficiary writes the letter. That is what we understood and that made sense to us. You could call NVC and talk to an agent there. You don't need to give any case # or name or anything, just say you don't have it with you and just had a question for them.

yeah. thats what i actually read online. but the thing is, my aunt's friend have the same case like us. thats what her friend did, the friend is the one who wrote to nvc , and they succeed, friend's family is now in the US. my aunt thinks that it will work cause of her friend's advice.

did u write to the uscis again?

[laloo 4]

did u write to the uscis again?

I'm working on it, hopefully today.

[criss 0]

I'm working on it, hopefully today.

question:

did the nvc emailed you that they already forward ur documents to uscis and did the uscis notify you that they already got the letter?

been a month u havent gotten any reply. im afraid it will hapen to me and my family cause ill be turning 21 this year. aw

[laloo 4]

question:

did the nvc emailed you that they already forward ur documents to uscis and did the uscis notify you that they already got the letter?

been a month u havent gotten any reply. im afraid it will hapen to me and my family cause ill be turning 21 this year. aw

I did get a letter from NVC a month after I mailed them everything. The letter said NVC had forwarded the case file to USCIS. I still have received no letter from USCIS even though they have had the file NVC sent for at least 6 weeks.

- I mailed everything to USCIS in Nov, they returned everything saying they didn't have the case there.

- I mailed everything to NVC in Dec.

- I got a letter from NVC one month later in Jan that they had forwarded the case to USCIS.

- I have still not heard from USCIS, it has been at least 6 weeks since they've had the case materials.

- I called USCIS a few days back and they have done nothing about reviewing the case. In fact, the CSR I talked to told me to write another letter to USCIS directly to prompt them to review the case. That's absurd that they didn't review it themselves and I need to direct them to do what is supposed to be their job anyways.

[criss 0]

i just got a reply from NVC today, i emailed them 2 weeks ago with my grandmother's (petitioner) death certificate attached. they said email received ad wait or further instructions.

i just wish my auntie (sub sponsor) already sent the reinstatement so that we could go on in the process. and you too

[criss 0]

lalo

wats up hehe

[criss 0]

lalo

wats up hehe

lalloo.. any update?

[mistybrum 0]

lalloo, Have you heard from USCIS?