I-129f petition, never received RFE and now we got denied

[InesD 2]

so, here is a first little update. we followed the advice to use Infopass in order to make an appointment and my fiance got one on Feb.15th in Atlanta. Long way to Atlanta but it seems to be the only really helpful option. Also did he call Service Center this morning, spoke to a lady, made notes of her name, number, date, time, duration of conversation ( which wasn't helpful at all as a few in this forum already mentioned ;-) )

to get through to a Tier 2 officer he would have to wait 87 minutes ( what is it with this number in our case ? that was the amount of days given to us to respond to the never received RFE ) , so he asked to be called back. If they ever will .......... we also saw on USCIS website the option ( under contact us ) to contact an ombudsman. Maybe this will be another step. My fiance ( the USC ) as well wrote an email with all our details and dates of what happened when .....only we couldn't find where exactly to send it in our case.

So please fingers crossed that the meeting with an officer in Atlanta will be of help

thank you ! and thank you again all for the Infopass advice

more update : a tier 2 officer actually just called back and asked a lot of questions, then acknowledged we never got the RFE , gave us a reference number, said we would get the RFE resend on the 18th of Feb. but my fiance should still go to the appointment on the 15th and they already might have it there by then. so, my advice so far : definately Infopass appointment first thing but also phone call to the service center. and if anyone wants to avoid a redicilous amount of time waiting in line it seems to be worth it having them call you back.

I will now post my next update here probably after the 15th. Hoping that in the future it will be of help to others

[dwheels76 5,468]

more update : a tier 2 officer actually just called back and asked a lot of questions, then acknowledged we never got the RFE , gave us a reference number, said we would get the RFE resend on the 18th of Feb. but my fiance should still go to the appointment on the 15th and they already might have it there by then. so, my advice so far : definately Infopass appointment first thing but also phone call to the service center. and if anyone wants to avoid a redicilous amount of time waiting in line it seems to be worth it having them call you back.

I will now post my next update here probably after the 15th. Hoping that in the future it will be of help to others

Well that's awesome news really. You are a gem to keep us posted. You have no idea how this could help someone down the road. You suffer so others don't have to. Thank God for a Tier 2 who knows their job. Now this is what I suggest (I am sure you are already thinking it but just in case).

The RFE letter should reach your Fiance' hopefully before his appointment. You two get it all together what is needed in that RFE he will take to appointment and hopefully they can review and approve on the spot.

[Boggy1974 124]

more update : a tier 2 officer actually just called back and asked a lot of questions, then acknowledged we never got the RFE , gave us a reference number, said we would get the RFE resend on the 18th of Feb. but my fiance should still go to the appointment on the 15th and they already might have it there by then. so, my advice so far : definately Infopass appointment first thing but also phone call to the service center. and if anyone wants to avoid a redicilous amount of time waiting in line it seems to be worth it having them call you back.

I will now post my next update here probably after the 15th. Hoping that in the future it will be of help to others

Great to hear you guys are making positive headway!

Keep fighting on....and good luck!!!

[InesD 2]

Great to hear you guys are making positive headway!

Keep fighting on....and good luck!!!

thank you very much

[InesD 2]

Well that's awesome news really. You are a gem to keep us posted. You have no idea how this could help someone down the road. You suffer so others don't have to. Thank God for a Tier 2 who knows their job. Now this is what I suggest (I am sure you are already thinking it but just in case).

The RFE letter should reach your Fiance' hopefully before his appointment. You two get it all together what is needed in that RFE he will take to appointment and hopefully they can review and approve on the spot.

No, I don't think he will get the RFE letter before the appointment because that is on the 15th and Tier 2 officer said he would get it the 18th. But that's not our fault and to be honest : they make you pay a fee of $340 for a service and then something goes wrong, so they should provide all the help they can to sort this out. We already now have more than enough inconvenience such as losing a lot of time and more money.

but we will stay postive and just hope we wont lose too many months. Because fact is : we all (beneficiaries and petitioners ) also DO have a life and we have to make certain preparations in order to make such a big step as in moving to another country and leaving everything else behind.

I , for example have not scheduled a job for this year ( living on a tourist island and only work seasonal ) because I thought I would make my big move by the end of mai. Now I am in trouble because we are put behind for months and I will just have to sit here, no job and running out of money....not to mention that I think, it is normal to badly miss your partner and in our age ( we are 48 and 51 ) you just don't want to waste any extra time and just start your life together. I know I am not the only one, eveyone who wants to immigrate to the US has to go through this procedure. And I understand that everyones background and motive has to be checked. But it takes an aweful long time. I also believe that such important documents as RFE's should be send by registered mail only. Would probably safe a lot of time and effort on both sides.

Just had to get this of my chest

[hakobrena 11]

No, I don't think he will get the RFE letter before the appointment because that is on the 15th and Tier 2 officer said he would get it the 18th. But that's not our fault and to be honest : they make you pay a fee of $340 for a service and then something goes wrong, so they should provide all the help they can to sort this out. We already now have more than enough inconvenience such as losing a lot of time and more money.

but we will stay postive and just hope we wont lose too many months. Because fact is : we all (beneficiaries and petitioners ) also DO have a life and we have to make certain preparations in order to make such a big step as in moving to another country and leaving everything else behind.

I , for example have not scheduled a job for this year ( living on a tourist island and only work seasonal ) because I thought I would make my big move by the end of mai. Now I am in trouble because we are put behind for months and I will just have to sit here, no job and running out of money....not to mention that I think, it is normal to badly miss your partner and in our age ( we are 48 and 51 ) you just don't want to waste any extra time and just start your life together. I know I am not the only one, eveyone who wants to immigrate to the US has to go through this procedure. And I understand that everyones background and motive has to be checked. But it takes an aweful long time. I also believe that such important documents as RFE's should be send by registered mail only. Would probably safe a lot of time and effort on both sides.

Just had to get this of my chest

Hi I just accidently found your post thank God, I need to tell you that the same thing happened to our petition. We got an email that the petition is denied after waiting for 6 months. But no reason why. when I called uscis they said they mailed me an RFE in October, 2013 WHICH I NEVER RECEIVED. I have received all other letters from them by mail with no problems, and now they had a problem with RFE??? I called them every week and spoke to Tier2 officer and asked them if there is anything else they need, the reply was NOTHING ELSE IS NEEDED, YOUR CASE LOOKS GOOD! One of the Tier2 officers told me that there looks like an RFE in the computer but was never sent to me?? I asked him what is he talking about, he said Never mind just wait for the final decision. A week later I receive a denial. The notes did not come in the mail yet, Im just waiting still. Got Denied on February 4, 2014. Very Very SAD that they make mistakes like this! and nothing we can do about it, to prove that this is uscis fault! They suck!

[hakobrena 11]

Now seeing all your posts and advices I am getting an Infopass in New York asap.... I hope it helps me and other cases as well. I thank you so much for keeping people posted and on great advices.... It is really needed at a time like this!! Please keep posting after your Infopass appointment, I desperately need to know what to do next, it might help my case. I will certainly keep you all posted as well!!! Keeping my fingers crossed for all of us who's fighting with Denied petition and lost RFE!!!! Thank you all for very helpful updates!

[InesD 2]

Now seeing all your posts and advices I am getting an Infopass in New York asap.... I hope it helps me and other cases as well. I thank you so much for keeping people posted and on great advices.... It is really needed at a time like this!! Please keep posting after your Infopass appointment, I desperately need to know what to do next, it might help my case. I will certainly keep you all posted as well!!! Keeping my fingers crossed for all of us who's fighting with Denied petition and lost RFE!!!! Thank you all for very helpful updates!

"U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is committed to offering the best possible service to you, our customer. With our focus on customer service, we offer you a variety of services both before and after you file your case."

USCIS is a SERVICE Center, we all pay a fee for their services, their job is ( concerning the I-129f petitions in our cases here ) to check our submitted documents if we are eligible to marry one another in order to pass our petitions on to the National Visa Center and so on. So, if there is any document missing or not correct they request you to submit such document in a certain amount of time. And since I assume that the majority of people who pay $340 to start with + we all want is to be as soon as possible with the person we love it is in my own best interest to get through this whole long process as FAST as possible. In other words : if something additional is requested I will make sure to submit that as FAST as possible in order to have no extra delays. Mistakes are only human and that can happen easily, especially when there are probably hundreds of petitions daily for them to work through. Bad luck for me and a few other people if the mistakes happen with our cases. BUT !! My common sense tells me : I paid for a service here and they made a mistake....so why would I have to pay again for the same service ( refile ) AND more importantly lose very very precious time.

Now hacobrena : I hope you have written down all your conversations with USCIS, with dates, times and the name and number of each officer. Because it would be also normal that we are asked to document our problem.

After coming thursday I will know more hopefully concerning our case since that is the day of interview in Atlanta.

A fair and reasonable treatment( in my opinion and after some research ) would be : We get the opportunity to request to expedite our case ( http://www.uscis.gov/forms/expedite-criteria%C2'>

After all : my fiance and I both have no criminal record and are both legally free to marry. And the USCIS is supposed to HELP their USC's, not PUNISH them for their own mistakes.

Good luck to us and everyone facing similar issues

[InesD 2]

A fair and reasonable treatment( in my opinion and after some research ) would be : We get the opportunity to request to expedite our case ( processing time should be 5-10 business days) and if granted and once we know what the initial RFE was about and submit the additional evidence they should speed it up ( if everything is correct and complete ) and send us the NOA2. And no extra fee for refiling, reopening or reconsidering !

Now here I added a link but it got lost in my previous post http://www.uscis.gov/forms/expedite-criteria

[hakobrena 11]

But how can I ask to expedite review on a Denied case? Is it possible?

[InesD 2]

But how can I ask to expedite review on a Denied case? Is it possible?

I don't know in your case because it sounds like you got the Final decision. We are still in the "denied" status but not final decision.

I also believe the best for you to do is to get an Infopass appointment, bring along all and everything you have documented and just see what they say. Did you keep track of all the phone calls to USCIS ?

[hakobrena 11]

No I didn't keep track nor I put down dates or Names of people I spoke to... I had no idea I can face this problem. I only remember few names that I spoke with.

I don't know If I got final decision yet, I only have an email that my case is denied and my Initial Review status changed to Decision/ that the denial notes was sent to me by mail. It was on February 4th, 2014 I haven't got the actual notice yet. How do I know if it's a Final Decision or not??? Is there a way to tell?

Last time I spoke with a Tier 2 officer he said that I had an RFE in his computer but it was never sent to me, then he asked if he should sent it, I said of course, he puts me on hold. Then he comes back saying that Since I have put in a Service Request on January 23rd, He can't send me an RFE, he said just wait for a Final Decision. Here comes the Denial??????? Im absolutely sure IT WAS NEVER SENT TO ME!!! because just like you I got all other mail from them, like receipt letter, NOA1, name change notification, and no RFE??? I called and asked them if they had any returned mail from me, he said no. Don't they understand that people wait for their petition for months to be approved, and if they get any RFE they would reply to it ASAP, and we don't need 87 days to reply to it. All I need is probably 3 days to reply, because we all want to be with our loved ones asap, and start our lives together. It will be so hard to prove to them that its not our fault that we didn't get an RFE!!!!! I hope to get the Denial notice in mail soon, so I know how to proceed next. Im sure you understand that we don't want to waste any more time waiting. All this waiting was enough, just for them to screw this up. It's just very SAD

Edited February 9, 2014 by hakobrena

[InesD 2]

No I didn't keep track nor I put down dates or Names of people I spoke to... I had no idea I can face this problem. I only remember few names that I spoke with.

I don't know If I got final decision yet, I only have an email that my case is denied and my Initial Review status changed to Decision/ that the denial notes was sent to me by mail. It was on February 4th, 2014 I haven't got the actual notice yet. How do I know if it's a Final Decision or not??? Is there a way to tell?

Last time I spoke with a Tier 2 officer he said that I had an RFE in his computer but it was never sent to me, then he asked if he should sent it, I said of course, he puts me on hold. Then he comes back saying that Since I have put in a Service Request on January 23rd, He can't send me an RFE, he said just wait for a Final Decision. Here comes the Denial??????? Im absolutely sure IT WAS NEVER SENT TO ME!!! because just like you I got all other mail from them, like receipt letter, NOA1, name change notification, and no RFE??? I called and asked them if they had any returned mail from me, he said no. Don't they understand that people wait for their petition for months to be approved, and if they get any RFE they would reply to it ASAP, and we don't need 87 days to reply to it. All I need is probably 3 days to reply, because we all want to be with our loved ones asap, and start our lives together. It will be so hard to prove to them that its not our fault that we didn't get an RFE!!!!! I hope to get the Denial notice in mail soon, so I know how to proceed next. Im sure you understand that we don't want to waste any more time waiting. All this waiting was enough, just for them to screw this up. It's just very SAD

If you go on the USCIS website and check your case status, what does it say ? Ours says :DECISION and then underneath the following :

During this step the formal decision (approved/denied) is written and the decision notice is mailed and/or emailed to the applicant/petitioner. You can use our current processing time to gauge when you can expect to receive a final decision

[InesD 2]

If you go on the USCIS website and check your case status, what does it say ? Ours says :DECISION and then underneath the following :

During this step the formal decision (approved/denied) is written and the decision notice is mailed and/or emailed to the applicant/petitioner. You can use our current processing time to gauge when you can expect to receive a final decision

the actual letter with the decision notice gives us 30 days time ( from the date of issue ) to file for motion as they call it. In other words they gave us 30 days time to try and do something about it. so it is not final yet.

[Ning 619]

No I didn't keep track nor I put down dates or Names of people I spoke to... I had no idea I can face this problem. I only remember few names that I spoke with.

I don't know If I got final decision yet, I only have an email that my case is denied and my Initial Review status changed to Decision/ that the denial notes was sent to me by mail. It was on February 4th, 2014 I haven't got the actual notice yet. How do I know if it's a Final Decision or not??? Is there a way to tell?

Last time I spoke with a Tier 2 officer he said that I had an RFE in his computer but it was never sent to me, then he asked if he should sent it, I said of course, he puts me on hold. Then he comes back saying that Since I have put in a Service Request on January 23rd, He can't send me an RFE, he said just wait for a Final Decision. Here comes the Denial??????? Im absolutely sure IT WAS NEVER SENT TO ME!!! because just like you I got all other mail from them, like receipt letter, NOA1, name change notification, and no RFE??? I called and asked them if they had any returned mail from me, he said no. Don't they understand that people wait for their petition for months to be approved, and if they get any RFE they would reply to it ASAP, and we don't need 87 days to reply to it. All I need is probably 3 days to reply, because we all want to be with our loved ones asap, and start our lives together. It will be so hard to prove to them that its not our fault that we didn't get an RFE!!!!! I hope to get the Denial notice in mail soon, so I know how to proceed next. Im sure you understand that we don't want to waste any more time waiting. All this waiting was enough, just for them to screw this up. It's just very SAD

The only thing that matters here now is USCIS reaction to the RFE. It seems clear they didn't send it. If that's true this is easy to fix by submitting whatever they need while asking them to expedite based on mistake by USCIS. They do have a procedure for this.

The time limit will be forgiven as part of USCIS actions.