I-129F ABANDONED

[norwichjohn 2]

My fiancé sent off the I-129F forms in April 2016. She got a letter in October saying that her application had been abandoned because she never replied to a letter USCIS say they sent her in June. She did not reply because she never got it. Since then she has sent off three letters and also telephoned three times stating that she never received their June letter. Finally she got a letter from USCIS dated January 28, 2017 stating that "the I-129F petition was denied on October 11, 2016; notice was mailed to the address of record at that time and was not returned undeliverable." They suggested that she could send off for a copy of the denial notice -  but she already has this denial notice. Does she have to start all over again (bearing in mind that the fee has now gone up from $340 to $535) or is there something else she can do? Many thanks for any  help you may be able to give.

[geowrian 22,338]

While technically possible to file a challenge (appeal), that s even more expensive (just to file) than doing a new I-129F. You can keep trying to convince USCIS that the mistake was on their side and therefore get the fee waived. But without proof that USCIS did not send the documents to the correct address, I don't see how that's going to be successful. Proving that she didn't receive anything isn't enough...you need to prove USCIS made an error (i.e. never sent it or sent to the wrong address) to do this.

 

My suggestion is to just do a new I-129F, and be sure to track it by receipt number at least once a week. There are smartphone apps to track the status, which make this simple. Good luck.

[KurtBear 58]

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

While technically possible to file a challenge (appeal), that s even more expensive (just to file) than doing a new I-129F. You can keep trying to convince USCIS that the mistake was on their side and therefore get the fee waived. But without proof that USCIS did not send the documents to the correct address, I don't see how that's going to be successful. Proving that she didn't receive anything isn't enough...you need to prove USCIS made an error (i.e. never sent it or sent to the wrong address) to do this.

 

My suggestion is to just do a new I-129F, and be sure to track it by receipt number at least once a week. There are smartphone apps to track the status, which make this simple. Good luck.

Does one have to respond to them when you receive noa1?

 

[yuna628 9,758]

Well two avenues she could have taken at the time was making a local infopass appointment - which is often better. Face to face time with an individual who is able to look at the case and have you explain what went wrong is a lot better than clueless phone people (did she ever escalate on the phone to a tier 2 or 3 officer?).

 

Another and more important avenue may have been to contact and work with her local senators and congresspersons who are often able to get to the bottom of cases on a person's behalf. They make no promises, but often when you find a representative willing to actually help out, they have been able to obtain more information than the average person by themselves.

 

It's always important to act quickly when you feel the USCIS has made a clear error (and it happens), before the case is well and truly shut and shuttled off to somewhere else. It sounds to me as if she had an RFE that needed to be responded to. It's quite possible the postal service lost it or delivered it elsewhere and the person kept it (happens all the time), or someone at the office mistyped the address on file, or someone at the office forgot to send it at all. Who knows. Of course the procedure is, if you don't respond, then the case is denied... and it's not like they will make any further effort to contact. And her saying she doesn't have it with honesty is unlikely to change their mind... but this isn't the first time it's happened, and I've noticed a few cases of this happening recently. Perhaps there is a newbie at an office that needs training. You can appeal, but it is more expensive and is generally considered to be a waste of time, money, and effort.. and may give the same result.

 

If the above two avenues give you no result (I suspect it might as the case was denied for quite a while now and you've just received the notice now) you can certainly refile. This time absolutely double check all forms and send as much evidence as you can. Sorry this happened to you and good luck.

 

6 minutes ago, kurt&eva said:

Does one have to respond to them when you receive noa1?

 

No you do not. In this case the OP's fiancé most likely received an RFE or even perhaps an RFIE. You have a deadline to respond to such a notice, and if you do not there are consequences to that - unfortunately they don't really care about if it was the result of an error on their part or the postal service.

Edited February 19, 2017 by yuna628

[geowrian 22,338]

7 minutes ago, kurt&eva said:

Does one have to respond to them when you receive noa1?

 

No. However, USCIS requested more information (likely an RFE) and the timeline for responding to that passed.

[KurtBear 58]

7 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Well two avenues she could have taken at the time was making a local infopass appointment - which is often better. Face to face time with an individual who is able to look at the case and have you explain what went wrong is a lot better than clueless phone people (did she ever escalate on the phone to a tier 2 or 3 officer?).

 

Another and more important avenue may have been to contact and work with her local senators and congresspersons who are often able to get to the bottom of cases on a person's behalf. They make no promises, but often when you find a representative willing to actually help out, they have been able to obtain more information than the average person by themselves.

 

It's always important to act quickly when you feel the USCIS has made a clear error (and it happens), before the case is well and truly shut and shuttled off to somewhere else. It sounds to me as if she had an RFE that needed to be responded to. It's quite possible the postal service lost it or delivered it elsewhere and the person kept it (happens all the time), or someone at the office mistyped the address on file, or someone at the office forgot to send it at all. Who knows. Of course the procedure is, if you don't respond, then the case is denied... and it's not like they will make any further effort to contact. And her saying she doesn't have it with honesty is unlikely to change their mind... but this isn't the first time it's happened, and I've noticed a few cases of this happening recently. Perhaps there is a newbie at an office that needs training. You can appeal, but it is more expensive and is generally considered to be a waste of time, money, and effort.. and may give the same result.

 

If the above two avenues give you no result (I suspect it might as the case was denied for quite a while now and you've just received the notice now) you can certainly refile. This time absolutely double check all forms and send as much evidence as you can. Sorry this happened to you and good luck.

 

No you do not. In this case the OP's fiancé most likely received an RFE. You have a deadline to respond to such a notice, and if you do not there are consequences to that - unfortunately they don't really care about if it was the result of an error on their part or the postal service.

 

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

No. However, USCIS requested more information (likely an RFE) and the timeline for responding to that passed.

I see this whole process is overwhelming, especially the time frames and spending of unnecessary money starting the whole process again.

Being away from your SO

IS already hard and heart breaking,I feel the peoples pain that has to be denied.

 

[AllSmiles 3]

They give you about 30 days to respond to an RFE, that's it. It's really up to you to keep track of what stage your case is in. Best option is to reapply.

[norwichjohn 2]

Very many thanks to all who took the time and trouble to reply to my question. It looks like the original letter of June from USCIS was a request for more information BUT as my fiancé never received it she could not reply. As the old adage goes, hindsight is twenty twenty. She is now gathering all the information together and sending in another petition. Guess we now have to reschedule our wedding. Once again A BIG THANK YOU. John.

[geowrian 22,338]

Just now, norwichjohn said:

Very many thanks to all who took the time and trouble to reply to my question. It looks like the original letter of June from USCIS was a request for more information BUT as my fiancé never received it she could not reply. As the old adage goes, hindsight is twenty twenty. She is now gathering all the information together and sending in another petition. Guess we now have to reschedule our wedding. Once again A BIG THANK YOU. John.

Best wishes! You'll get there eventually.

[Hypnos 6,578]

5 hours ago, AllSmiles said:

They give you about 30 days to respond to an RFE

87 days, typically. 84 + 3 days for mailing = 87 total.

[yuna628 9,758]

1 hour ago, norwichjohn said:

Very many thanks to all who took the time and trouble to reply to my question. It looks like the original letter of June from USCIS was a request for more information BUT as my fiancé never received it she could not reply. As the old adage goes, hindsight is twenty twenty. She is now gathering all the information together and sending in another petition. Guess we now have to reschedule our wedding. Once again A BIG THANK YOU. John.

Make sure (if you didn't last time) to include a G-1145 on the very top of your application stack. It's the e-notification form, so that *hopefully* next time should any notice be sent out, she'll see it noted on the USCIS status check website and be emailed/texted... and if a reasonable amount of time has elapsed without receiving the snail mail notice, she could move faster to track it down in the event something goes missing. Hope attempt #2 works out much better for you.

[Scandi 4,195]

6 hours ago, norwichjohn said:

Very many thanks to all who took the time and trouble to reply to my question. It looks like the original letter of June from USCIS was a request for more information BUT as my fiancé never received it she could not reply. As the old adage goes, hindsight is twenty twenty. She is now gathering all the information together and sending in another petition. Guess we now have to reschedule our wedding. Once again A BIG THANK YOU. John.

Didn't they update her case status to show that an RFE had been sent to her or did her receipt number not work? 

[ShanghaiSurfer 135]

8 hours ago, norwichjohn said:

Very many thanks to all who took the time and trouble to reply to my question. It looks like the original letter of June from USCIS was a request for more information BUT as my fiancé never received it she could not reply. As the old adage goes, hindsight is twenty twenty. She is now gathering all the information together and sending in another petition. Guess we now have to reschedule our wedding. Once again A BIG THANK YOU. John.

Others on VJ may know the answer to this suggestion. I suggest looking into doing a expedite request on the new petition since its been so long.

[USC1961 251]

On 2/19/2017 at 11:45 PM, ShanghaiSurfer said:

Others on VJ may know the answer to this suggestion. I suggest looking into doing a expedite request on the new petition since its been so long.

Expedite on what basis?  Just because the first petition was denied and a long time has passed, it is not sufficient grounds for an expedite.  

 

On 2/19/2017 at 2:53 PM, norwichjohn said:

Very many thanks to all who took the time and trouble to reply to my question. It looks like the original letter of June from USCIS was a request for more information BUT as my fiancé never received it she could not reply. As the old adage goes, hindsight is twenty twenty. She is now gathering all the information together and sending in another petition. Guess we now have to reschedule our wedding. Once again A BIG THANK YOU. John.

First off sorry for your delay.  It is no fun to be in that situation.  However as advised many many times on this board, you should NEVER schedule a wedding until you have the visa in hand.  As you've experienced there are just too many things that can go wrong.  Your 2nd time around should be a more positive experience however.  Good luck!!     

[norwichjohn 2]

On ‎2‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 7:09 PM, yuna628 said:

Make sure (if you didn't last time) to include a G-1145 on the very top of your application stack. It's the e-notification form, so that *hopefully* next time should any notice be sent out, she'll see it noted on the USCIS status check website and be emailed/texted... and if a reasonable amount of time has elapsed without receiving the snail mail notice, she could move faster to track it down in the event something goes missing. Hope attempt #2 works out much better for you.

My fiancé did attach a G-1145 to her application but never got an e-mail at all. Just a letter in October to say her application had been abandoned.