Priority Date, ON My 21st Birthday...

[anoldjourney 1]

So, I think I have to be the only person in the history of filing I-130’s as a child of a USC who ended up having their priority date ON their 21st birthday, essentially, making me an adult child of a USC in F1 category, and subject to at least a 7 year wait.

The gist of the story, if you haven’t seen my prior posts – is that we sent off mine and my mum’s I-130 applications on the 23rd of August. My mum received her NOA1 on 11th of September, and on the 21st of September in the mail – we received my rejection letter due to my step-dad having accidentally signed the wrong box. The 21st of September marked 6 days out from my 21st birthday. It was also a Friday afternoon, about 4pm we got it in the mail. Within the hour, we had signed it in the right place, written out a new cover letter, raced into town, and sent it off in the mail again by international express post. It arrived at USCIS on the 27th September, my 21st birthday. It was also priority dated for the 27th September, thus making me an “adult child”.

We are planning to appeal the case. Not so much an appeal for “be nice!” but an appeal on the grounds of technical/legal or procedural error. My mum has been doing endless searching online to find something similar, and this is what she's come up with: In the Vezquaz case this year, although he lost on other grounds, the judges mentioned an asylum case based on filing rejection due simply to technical or procedural, i.e. lacking signature. While the definition of filing is pretty clear, we are wondering whether we can appeal using the Vezquaz reference to technical or procedural and attempts made to file in “good faith”. For our application, everything was completed except the signature in the wrong place (F instead of E), though the cover letter was signed by my stepdad [Name] followed by “Petitioner”.

There is also the Ahmed case where he made exhaustive efforts to return a rejected filing, and although this was won because there was no clear filing date, mention was also made of extraordinary circumstances outside of his control. There were circumstances outside of our control e.g. 15 days for USCIS to reject the first application, no advice from USCIS except international mail and a further 10 days for that mail to arrive to us, with evidence that we have done everything possible in express mail services. We made all reasonable attempts to get it back as fast as possible, and we had it turned around in the hour but being a Friday afternoon, it was difficult with mail going over the weekend. Had it arrived one day earlier, we wouldn’t be having this problem. The other thing is the disadvantage to countries that no longer have a lodgement service internally who then face these sort of problems.

Would just really love to talk to someone who's been through the same thing, but I can't find anything anywhere of anyone else having their priority date on their 21st birthday as well...

[VanessaTony 3,567]

- I-130 applications sent on the 23rd of August.

- mum received her NOA1 on 11th of September

- rejection of step-sons on 21st of September in the mail

- Forms returned to USCIS arrived at USCIS on the 27th September, my 21st birthday.

- priority dated for the 27th September, thus making me an “adult child”.

In the Vezquaz case this year, although he lost on other grounds, the judges mentioned an asylum case based on filing rejection due simply to technical or procedural, i.e. lacking signature. While the definition of filing is pretty clear, we are wondering whether we can appeal using the Vezquaz reference to technical or procedural and attempts made to file in “good faith”. For our application, everything was completed except the signature in the wrong place (F instead of E), though the cover letter was signed by my stepdad [Name] followed by “Petitioner”.

Ahmed case where he made exhaustive efforts to return a rejected filing, and although this was won because there was no clear filing date, mention was also made of extraordinary circumstances outside of his control.

There were circumstances outside of our control e.g. 15 days for USCIS to reject the first application, no advice from USCIS except international mail and a further 10 days for that mail to arrive to us, with evidence that we have done everything possible in express mail services. We made all reasonable attempts to get it back as fast as possible, and we had it turned around in the hour but being a Friday afternoon, it was difficult with mail going over the weekend. Had it arrived one day earlier, we wouldn’t be having this problem. The other thing is the disadvantage to countries that no longer have a lodgement service internally who then face these sort of problems.

Mailing to the US takes about 7-10 working days. So your package send on 23rd August would have been received around 30 Aug - 2 Sept.

Your mums NOA1 you say was "received" 11 Sept, what's her priority date? The date received of 11 Sept makes sense for pretty immediate turn-around.

I would fight it based on it being extremely unusually that as you had sent the I-130's in the same envelope (yes?) that your rejection took over a week to be actually sent, compared to your mum's NOA1. They should have seen the signature missing before that.

Personally, given the amount of time you'd have to wait, i'd hire a lawyer to help you present your case most effectively.

[anoldjourney 1]

Mailing to the US takes about 7-10 working days. So your package send on 23rd August would have been received around 30 Aug - 2 Sept.

Your mums NOA1 you say was "received" 11 Sept, what's her priority date? The date received of 11 Sept makes sense for pretty immediate turn-around.

I would fight it based on it being extremely unusually that as you had sent the I-130's in the same envelope (yes?) that your rejection took over a week to be actually sent, compared to your mum's NOA1. They should have seen the signature missing before that.

Personally, given the amount of time you'd have to wait, i'd hire a lawyer to help you present your case most effectively.

The package sent on 23rd August arrived 28th August. My mum's priority date is 28th August. Her NOA1 date is 9th September, but her e-notification came 11th September.

Yes, both were sent in same envelope, also had an e-notification form on top of my application, yet it got used for my mums application and not mine hence we had no clue I had been rejected until 21st September. We assumed that perhaps they used the e-notification for the both of us and so on 11th Sept assumed we were both accepted/filed.

Yeah, we're hoping to find a good lawyer..

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Yeah, we're hoping to find a good lawyer..

Has anyone met with a lawyer yet to see where you stand?

[anoldjourney 1]

Has anyone met with a lawyer yet to see where you stand?

Not sure what's happening right now. I mean, I'm not sure what my parents are doing about it. I know they've been trying many options, but I'm fairly sure there's been no meeting with any lawyers unfortunately..

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

A lawyer can't do anything, they had 365 days to file before the 21st b-day. They choose the path to file 7 days before the 21st b-day.

The US govt isn't at fault for the delivery time or speed of mail to their office.

Edited October 20, 2012 by LIFE'SJOURNEY

[anoldjourney 1]

A lawyer can't do anything, they had 365 days to file before the 21st b-day. They choose the path to file 7 days before the 21st b-day.

The US govt isn't at fault for the delivery time or speed of mail to their office.

No - we originally applied over a month beforehand but had a simple accidental error in signature on line F instead of line E.

And I've been wanting them to apply for me for years. But we were told over and over again that they wouldn't be able to apply for me unless they were to actually move there, which at the time - they had no plans to. Then in August they decided to do it. And we sent the applications the next day....

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

No, you had 365 days to file the petition, it takes atleast 5 months for a petition to be approved, therefore all of those decisions that you'll wasn't ready to make had no bearings on filing the petition. The issue of an incomplete petition is not the fault of the US government.

The issue of aissusing a visa could have been put on hold for up to 3 years after a petition has been approved.

[anoldjourney 1]

No, you had 365 days to file the petition, it takes atleast 5 months for a petition to be approved, therefore all of those decisions that you'll wasn't ready to make had no bearings on filing the petition. The issue of an incomplete petition is not the fault of the US government.

The issue of aissusing a visa could have been put on hold for up to 3 years after a petition has been approved.

No I mean my parents weren't planning on going back to the US. It was a sudden decision in August. I had been begging for years but we rang USCIS several times to see if I could be petitioned for and to go just myself but were told it wouldn't happen unless my step-dad and mum moved too. Which they had NO plans to, ever. My mum had never had the intention of wanting to move there but now that she's doing her PhD she decided it would be a good idea career wise, and because I kept begging. They're not planning to move anyways until late next year early 2014 - providing I even get to go.

No one mentioned a visa could be 'put on hold for up to 3 years' either.

Obviously, had we known earlier that the parents would have decided to move, we would have applied there and then. But we applied ASAP once they thought on the idea. Again. There was no "we weren't ready", there was no spending months thinking about it. It honestly was an overnight thought, more of an idea, and we applied the following days. Even so, they've still been thinking about it for the past month or so, as me going with them was the deciding factor.

It wasn't an incomplete application, it was an error. The intent was there. Which has been won in cases.

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

Mixing words doesn't change the outlook.

1. The US government has no obligations to explain it's immigration process. Therefore it is in the petittioner best intrest to seek legal advise. if legal advise had been seeked, some of these issues would have been clarified for your family.

2. Signing in the wrong place caused an incompleted application.

3. Because a decision was made over-night doesn't make an agrument to have the correct process and procedure to be wavied.

[apple21 953]

Mixing words doesn't change the outlook.

1. The US government has no obligations to explain it's immigration process. Therefore it is in the petittioner best intrest to seek legal advise. if legal advise had been seeked, some of these issues would have been clarified for your family.

2. Signing in the wrong place caused an incompleted application.

3. Because a decision was made over-night doesn't make an agrument to have the correct process and procedure to be wavied.