Removal of conditions filing, biometics, yes or no?

[darcness 3]

First off I just wanted to say a VERY belated and HUGE thank you to VJ. 3 years ago me and my wife used this forum almost exclusively to work through our immigration process. She is a Canadian citizen and we adjusted her status while she was in country (US) and waited, waited, and waited some more. She got her GC though and this forum was a huge help the way along. The support and information I got was invaluable.

Now the time has come to remove her conditions. Again I'm here for help and have things just about squared away. The only question I had was how you determine if you need a biometrics appointment done or not. Again, she did adjust status while inside of the US and did doa biometrics appointment then. On the I-751 it states to add the extra fee if biometrics is needed, but doesn't tell you how to determine if it's needed.

Is this something that's required of all filers or are there certain exceptions?

Thanks all!

[needsmorebutter 5]

Hello! Congrats on your first 3 years and on surviving the first round of the process!

We filed my Removal of Conditions paperwork earlier this year and are still waiting (urgh). I was under the impression that they'd rather everyone file their paperwork with the biometric fees. In any case, we filed with the full $590, and later found out that they were just going to use my old biometrics. It's frustrating, but I'd rather waste $85 than have the application be delayed or rejected.

In hindsight, I wonder if I could have cut 2 checks, one for the base fee and the other for the biometrics (and potentially have them cash only one of them)?

I'm not aware of any sure way to determine whether they'll actually do a new one or not - I'm also curious to see if I missed something that could have saved me $85!

[Pitaya 2,577]

First off I just wanted to say a VERY belated and HUGE thank you to VJ. 3 years ago me and my wife used this forum almost exclusively to work through our immigration process. She is a Canadian citizen and we adjusted her status while she was in country (US) and waited, waited, and waited some more. She got her GC though and this forum was a huge help the way along. The support and information I got was invaluable.

Now the time has come to remove her conditions. Again I'm here for help and have things just about squared away. The only question I had was how you determine if you need a biometrics appointment done or not. Again, she did adjust status while inside of the US and did doa biometrics appointment then. On the I-751 it states to add the extra fee if biometrics is needed, but doesn't tell you how to determine if it's needed.

Is this something that's required of all filers or are there certain exceptions? ALL conditional residents provide their biometrics when petitioning for ROC.

Thanks all!

Review the Special Instructions in this USCIS link, and page 2 of the Form I-751 instructions:

http://www.uscis.gov/i-751

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-751instr.pdf

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[darcness 3]

Ok so according to the information on the USCIS page, it appears that everyone is required to send money for the biometrics appointment. That's kind of frustrating because cases such as yours where it isn't needed, you're just out the funds. I will just include the biometrics fee. It is upsetting that it's a large chunk of money though that may not even be used for anything if the appointment isn't needed.

Oh and thank you so much for the kind words needsmorebutter. I couldn't have done it all without help from VJ!

[khwaidee1 196]

I don't know when a biometrics for ROC wouldn't be required, it's a 10 year GC. My wife had a second biometrics appoint in April for a replacement 2 yr GC (USCIS typo). She just had her ROC biometrics on 11/17 so, if they need it again just seven months after her last biometrics, I can't imagine when they wouldn't need it.

[khwaidee1 196]

Hello! Congrats on your first 3 years and on surviving the first round of the process!

We filed my Removal of Conditions paperwork earlier this year and are still waiting (urgh). I was under the impression that they'd rather everyone file their paperwork with the biometric fees. In any case, we filed with the full $590, and later found out that they were just going to use my old biometrics. It's frustrating, but I'd rather waste $85 than have the application be delayed or rejected.

In hindsight, I wonder if I could have cut 2 checks, one for the base fee and the other for the biometrics (and potentially have them cash only one of them)?

I'm not aware of any sure way to determine whether they'll actually do a new one or not - I'm also curious to see if I missed something that could have saved me $85!

Just curious, how did you find out they were going to use your old biometrics?

[needsmorebutter 5]

Just curious, how did you find out they were going to use your old biometrics?

Hi Khwaidee1,

The short answer is by pulling teeth

For the first couple months after getting the receipt in the mail, I was unable to track my case status using my receipt number on their website or over the phone. At this point, I was getting pretty worried, because we were in the midst of a cross country move, and I hadn't received a notice for a biometrics appointment yet (they usually come within a month of the receipt, I think). I was basically stuck in this catch-22 where I didn't have an active case number because I didn't have a biometrics appointment notice, but I wasn't able to find out if/when one had been issued because I didn't have the active case number!

Right after the 2-month point, I called again and was transferred to a tier-2 officer who told me that they were going to use my old biometrics (it was done in the US 2 years ago when we filed my AOS). He also gave me a new case number that I was able to use to track my case up until the website went kaput a few weeks ago.

So moral of the story here is: 1) they won't reach out to tell you whether or not you need a biometrics appointment. You'll just need to call and find out for yourself. 2) If you're getting nowhere over the phone, you need to ask for a tier-2 officer (thanks VJ'ers for this tidbit!).

[khwaidee1 196]

Hi Khwaidee1,

The short answer is by pulling teeth

For the first couple months after getting the receipt in the mail, I was unable to track my case status using my receipt number on their website or over the phone. At this point, I was getting pretty worried, because we were in the midst of a cross country move, and I hadn't received a notice for a biometrics appointment yet (they usually come within a month of the receipt, I think). I was basically stuck in this catch-22 where I didn't have an active case number because I didn't have a biometrics appointment notice, but I wasn't able to find out if/when one had been issued because I didn't have the active case number!

Right after the 2-month point, I called again and was transferred to a tier-2 officer who told me that they were going to use my old biometrics (it was done in the US 2 years ago when we filed my AOS). He also gave me a new case number that I was able to use to track my case up until the website went kaput a few weeks ago.

So moral of the story here is: 1) they won't reach out to tell you whether or not you need a biometrics appointment. You'll just need to call and find out for yourself. 2) If you're getting nowhere over the phone, you need to ask for a tier-2 officer (thanks VJ'ers for this tidbit!).

Thanks and good job! When we had the biometrics in April I asked the officer if we would need to do again when we filed for ROC in October and she said no, this will be recent enough. Well. filed ROC, got the appt and did it again anyway! Sometimes I think that they are not all using the same playbook!