I751 status & i551 stamp query

[trablus 0]

Hello everyone:

My wife and I applied for the I-751 application to remove conditions in 2008, and have still not heard back from USCIS.

Here are my questions:

(1) I contacted USCIS customer service, and they stated they are still processing the application, which not puts the total wait time at 2 years and seven months.

We also updated our address numerous times, but they still continued to have the wrong address on file, until they again stated they updated it.

Is it possible that the 10 year permanent residency card was returned and possibly ready for pickup at the local USCIS office?

(2) In addition, since I am a U.S. citizen, my wife should be able to apply for U.S. citizenship after 2 years and six months of being a permanent resident, while we are married.

Since we are overseas now we have decided to wait until our return.

We had planned to apply but decided not to make the situation anymore difficult by just waiting for the 10 year permanent residency card.

In March 2009, we decided to go for a vacation to visit family overseas, and went to the local USCIS office to have them stamp her passport with the I-551 stamp, to ensure ease of travel. We asked them that since her passport was soon to expire in 6 months, what could we do if we were still overseas?

They stated that you could send the passport back, and have a relative get a renewal stamp.

Is this correct?

(3) We have been overseas now for 10 months because of a work opportunity that I had, and now have plans to return within the next two weeks. As I mentioned in the last question the temporary stamp in her passport was only valid until the expiration of the passport.

She has since gotten her passport expiration extended for four years, and is using the same passport, but could we travel with it as is back to the U.S.?

(4) Or is there a possibility that she may be denied entry at the airport?

I look forward to your assistance in this matter, and thank you very much in advance!

Trablus

[3600rs 24]

Hello everyone:

My wife and I applied for the I-751 application to remove conditions in 2008, and have still not heard back from USCIS.

Here are my questions:

(1) I contacted USCIS customer service, and they stated they are still processing the application, which not puts the total wait time at 2 years and seven months.

We also updated our address numerous times, but they still continued to have the wrong address on file, until they again stated they updated it.

Is it possible that the 10 year permanent residency card was returned and possibly ready for pickup at the local USCIS office?

Your application is pending, but going to your local office INFOPASS will help. You applied in 2008? what makes u say waiting for 2 years 7 months then??. In cases with a huge delay an interview maybe arranged soon.

(2) In addition, since I am a U.S. citizen, my wife should be able to apply for U.S. citizenship after 2 years and six months of being a permanent resident, while we are married.

Since we are overseas now we have decided to wait until our return.

We had planned to apply but decided not to make the situation anymore difficult by just waiting for the 10 year permanent residency card.

In March 2009, we decided to go for a vacation to visit family overseas, and went to the local USCIS office to have them stamp her passport with the I-551 stamp, to ensure ease of travel. We asked them that since her passport was soon to expire in 6 months, what could we do if we were still overseas?

They stated that you could send the passport back, and have a relative get a renewal stamp.

Is this correct?

Not sure, I don't know if you can courier passports like that across borders. Someone knowledgeable will comment.

(3) We have been overseas now for 10 months because of a work opportunity that I had, and now have plans to return within the next two weeks. As I mentioned in the last question the temporary stamp in her passport was only valid until the expiration of the passport.

She has since gotten her passport expiration extended for four years, and is using the same passport, but could we travel with it as is back to the U.S.?

Yes you can travel

(4) Or is there a possibility that she may be denied entry at the airport?

No

I look forward to your assistance in this matter, and thank you very much in advance!

Trablus

[v333k 59]

There is one comment, you can apply for citizenship after 2 years and 9 months, but I think you are way past this point.

How long have you been outside the US? Be careful not to spend too much time outside the US.

At this point, when you return, you should just apply for naturalization and forget about your 10-year GC. When you file for natz, your ROC application will get forced to be approved. However, if you really want to tackle it, you can schedule an infopass appointment and get some answers there. Calling the USCIS service line never gets you anywhere.

If your wife's passport is valid, and your I-551 stamp is valid, then there should not be any problems getting back into the US.

[NickD 203]

Sounds like to me, you are way overdue to a call to your senators office, that was the only thing we could do to get this USCIS mess straighten out, my calls to the USCIS was like talking to a wall with constant runarounds. That ombudsman office is worthless.

Good to have a current valid foreign passport with at least a year left on it, another pain in the butt since many countries only have 2 or 3 consulate offices in the entire USA. Then they ask you why are you applying for a foreign passport since you are living here, I responded without thinking, we are here to make lots of money and planning to returning to my wife's home country.

While I could take care of things for my wife, anything to do with a passport or stamps, she had to do in person, I can't even visualized a neighbor or a relative going into a USCIS office and having that stamp taken care of by them. Could be all wet on this, but she had to do that in person, including getting her US passport.

Also surprised that after two years and seven months, they are still giving her that I-551 stamp, what are they giving her, 30 days?

You can't apply for the N-400 until 90 days before her 3rd year LPR date, more like two years and nine months plus a couple of days, your N-400 can be rejected if you send it in a day early. So damn fussy about sending in an application a day early, but keep you waiting for months or even years in your case, to process it. The way our I-751 went, we should have been able to apply for it the day after our AOS.

[john_and_marlene 162]

You may have a couple of problems.

1. You have resided outside the US due to work. With the exception of US government jobs and certain commerce related jobs, permanent residency may be determined to have been abandoned.

2. Even if the permanent residency has not been abandoned, the continuous residence requirement for naturalization require that you have not been out of the US for more than 6 months at a time. If you have been gone for more than 6 months, the time criteria for applying for naturalization starts over again on your return.

Edited January 20, 2010 by john_and_marlene

[Krikit 1,164]

Did you ever receive a NOA from the Removal of Conditions application? I would take that, along with her passport and any other documentation showing your attempts to obtain the 10 year GC, to the closest Embassy or Consulate and explain the situation. If the stamp in her current passport expired and she has no extension letter or GC, it is highly unlikely they will allow her to enter the US.

I am moving this thread from General Immigration to the Removing Conditions forum.

Good luck.

[Krikit 1,164]

Merging several threads.

[ruby_7 45]

Hello everyone:

My wife and I applied for the I-751 application to remove conditions in 2008, and have still not heard back from USCIS.

Here are my questions:

(1) I contacted USCIS customer service, and they stated they are still processing the application, which not puts the total wait time at 2 years and seven months.

We also updated our address numerous times, but they still continued to have the wrong address on file, until they again stated they updated it.

Is it possible that the 10 year permanent residency card was returned and possibly ready for pickup at the local USCIS office?

(2) In addition, since I am a U.S. citizen, my wife should be able to apply for U.S. citizenship after 2 years and six months of being a permanent resident, while we are married.

Since we are overseas now we have decided to wait until our return.

We had planned to apply but decided not to make the situation anymore difficult by just waiting for the 10 year permanent residency card.

In March 2009, we decided to go for a vacation to visit family overseas, and went to the local USCIS office to have them stamp her passport with the I-551 stamp, to ensure ease of travel. We asked them that since her passport was soon to expire in 6 months, what could we do if we were still overseas?

They stated that you could send the passport back, and have a relative get a renewal stamp.

Is this correct?

(3) We have been overseas now for 10 months because of a work opportunity that I had, and now have plans to return within the next two weeks. As I mentioned in the last question the temporary stamp in her passport was only valid until the expiration of the passport.

She has since gotten her passport expiration extended for four years, and is using the same passport, but could we travel with it as is back to the U.S.?

(4) Or is there a possibility that she may be denied entry at the airport?

I look forward to your assistance in this matter, and thank you very much in advance!

Trablus

TRABLUS, how do you know that they (USCIS) always had the wrong address until they finally said it is corrected? HOW DID you know that they had the wrong address in your file even if you updated it NUMEROUS TIMES?

[trablus 0]

There is one comment, you can apply for citizenship after 2 years and 9 months, but I think you are way past this point.

How long have you been outside the US? Be careful not to spend too much time outside the US.

At this point, when you return, you should just apply for naturalization and forget about your 10-year GC. When you file for natz, your ROC application will get forced to be approved. However, if you really want to tackle it, you can schedule an infopass appointment and get some answers there. Calling the USCIS service line never gets you anywhere.

If your wife's passport is valid, and your I-551 stamp is valid, then there should not be any problems getting back into the US.

Dear v333K:

Thank you for your reply, I do appreciate it.

(1) We have been outside of the U.S. for 10 months, and the reason was that I was employed with the U.N.

(2) Once we do return, within the next few weeks, we will assuredly go to the local USCIS office, and also investigate the status of the I-751.

In addition, since we have been out of the country for 10 months, I believe someone did post that the continuous residence restarts again, and if so, we will have to wait awhile before applying for naturalization.

(3) The passport was simply extended and is the same passport, but the I-551 stamp was only stamped valid for the 5 months duration of when the passport was originally valid, before we renewed it.

Will she be able to enter without any problems?

Thanks again for your help!

[trablus 0]

Did you ever receive a NOA from the Removal of Conditions application? I would take that, along with her passport and any other documentation showing your attempts to obtain the 10 year GC, to the closest Embassy or Consulate and explain the situation. If the stamp in her current passport expired and she has no extension letter or GC, it is highly unlikely they will allow her to enter the US.

I am moving this thread from General Immigration to the Removing Conditions forum.

Good luck.

Dear Krikit:

Yes, we did receive a NOA for the I-751, and they even called her in for biometric processing in 2007, when we lived at another residence.

The I-551 stamp in her passport stamped valid only for 5 months, as the passport expired in August 2009. Shortly thereafter we renewed the passport, and they simply provided an update on a renewal page within the same passport, renewing it for four more years.

I did contact and also went in person, and unfortunately there is no assistance they can provide as this function is under DHS-USCIS governance.

I will contact the U.S. Consulate in Rome and see what they tell me.

Thanks again!

[v333k 59]

I will contact the U.S. Consulate in Rome and see what they tell me.

At the moment, I think this is the best idea to see where you stand and how to proceed.

[igomo 0]

There's a simple answer to your question though. If the I-551 stamp has expired and she has no other visa/residency papers, then they will obviously not allow US entry.

Dear Krikit:

Yes, we did receive a NOA for the I-751, and they even called her in for biometric processing in 2007, when we lived at another residence.

The I-551 stamp in her passport stamped valid only for 5 months, as the passport expired in August 2009. Shortly thereafter we renewed the passport, and they simply provided an update on a renewal page within the same passport, renewing it for four more years.

I did contact and also went in person, and unfortunately there is no assistance they can provide as this function is under DHS-USCIS governance.

I will contact the U.S. Consulate in Rome and see what they tell me.

Thanks again!

[Darnell 8,478]

I will contact the U.S. Consulate in Rome and see what they tell me.

Thanks again!

There will be a few issues, there in Roma, but you should try to address:

1. 'returning immigrant' status - is some special 'permission' that the LPR can get from the USEM.

2. 'another stamp in the passport' - I-551 maybe, maybe something else.

I think you will get some 'special consideration' at USEM Roma because you are UN Employee, but you prolly want to touch base with the travel office of the UN, they normally handle 'foreigner' questions, give guidance on what to do.

There is also a DHS/USCIS office in Roma, as well - keep in mind is SEPERATE FUNCTION from the USEM staffers. I fear that USCIS will view her ROC as 'abandoned' - so be 'ware, ah?

Good Luck !

Edited January 21, 2010 by Darnell