Anyone experience a missing biometrics appointment letter?

[MnMJourney 28]

Hello All,

Anyone here with experience missing a biometrics appointment letter? I ask as I had this happen to me and am trying to figure out what to do next. My details are below.

I never received my appointment notice in the mail. My PD is 3/13/2014. After over 30 days I contacted the USCIS. I filled an online service request on 4/14. Since the service request takes 15 days, I also called the hotline and spoke to a Tier 2 officer on 4/17. The officer informed me that I had missed my appointment (couldn't tell me when it was) he will send a request to reschedule to my local office - NYC. I should receive a response by 5/2. I never received that response.

In the mean time I received, on 4/25, a reply to my on-line service request. It essentially states that I failed to show for my appointment on 4/11. The next steps it tells me to do are to schedule an infopass at my local office. What I've found out is that scheduling an infopass in NYC seems to be tougher than scheduling an appointment with Obama! Most of the time when I try, I get a response on the website that says:

At this time, there are no information appointments available for the office in your area. Please try back again later.

I've tried at times throughout the day, and even at midnight thinking new slots would open up then, but it didn't work. On a random Monday morning - I did see a few slots available and was able to snag one for 5/12 at 10AM. However it looks like I will be travelling for work next week, so may have to miss and reschedule - which I'm not really looking forward to.

So here are some questions that I'd appreciate any input on:

- how strict are infopass appointments? The confirm says I will not be admitted more than 15 mins before my time. However biometrics appointments seem to be pretty loose with walk-ins. Do they allow walk-ins with Infopass?

- Can I do a walk-in biometrics appointment with a service request letter saying I missed my appointment on 4/11? I am told that I need the original letter to do a walk-in as they stamp that letter. And I do not have that original letter, so I have not tried.

- Are there any other ways to reschedule an appt? I was led to believe by the Tier 2 officer that I would receive a new appointment date from my local office. Still haven't received a reply to that. I don't really want to schedule an infopass a few weeks out to have them reschedule and appointment another few weeks out. Seems very inefficient and would easily add over a month to my processing time.

- Finally, can I simply request another copy of the original appointment letter? If I had that, seems like it would solve a lot of problems and allow a walk-in.

Anyway - a few questions here. Any input on them would be appreciated, especially from people who've had to go through the same process.

Thanks!!!

[Jonndel 0]

Don't panic

For all of you who missed Biometrics appointment, here is my recent experience:

I am an international student processing my OPT application. I forgot my appointment, which was for 06/29/2015 at 201 Varick St. West Houston Street Entrance. New York, and I realized about that almost a month after, on June 24th. I was panicking without control and researching 'lucky experiences' of people in my same situation, thankfully, many people shared their experience which was very much soothing to my stress.

Today I went there to attempt a walk-in and all was fine, they did took my appointment and looked at it, but didn't ask any questions. The security guard at the package checking point told me 'don't you worry about a thing, the USCIS keeps applications up to 90 days after they've received it by mail, and you didn't came so late, we had a case of someone coming here after 2 months of their appointment and they did just fine', so is not like they throw your case away immediately after you fail to show to the Biometrics appointment. The entrance guard was also very very kind and polite, and upstairs at the 10th floor, room 23, the personnel was also very kind, excellent customer service. There, I talked to another officer giving the numbers for the turns, and she told me also, that the missed appointment will not interfere with the approval of my OPT and that I shouldn't worry about it. The whole process took less than an hour and I was back at my work even earlier than usual.

I recommend getting there early morning, there's less people and no line to enter the building.

It is not good practice to miss these strict procedures, but I proved myself that even if you do, there's always another chance.

Cheers and good luck y'all!