Lost Visa Packet

[Ramsey 16]

Hello Visa Journey Family,

 

It has been a while since I've posted here (since my wife entered the country) but I am now having issues with my mother-in-law's permanent residence card (green card). She entered the United States on November 9, 2018 with her Immigrant Visa (I-130) stamp in her passport. The Point Of Entry (POE) was San Diego International Airport. She went through a lengthy interview and then was released with a stamp on her visa (which makes it good for a year). We started the waiting process for the physical permanent resident card (and social security). Over a month passed and she still didn't get her social security card, even though we had filled out the form DS-260 saying that we would like to request a SS card. We had to go to downtown to get that taken care of.

 

We then waited 120 days (4 months) for her physical green card which was never received in the mail. Throughout this wait, we called the USCIS office several times asking for an update for her status (as we'd had family members received their green cards within weeks) but they told us we had to wait the full 120 days before we could make an inquiry. We called on March 10, 2019 and told them of the issue, they told us that the Texas Service Center (TSC) had not received her file but they would make an inquiry to see what happened. We just received a letter today (March 30, 2019), stating:

 

"A search of USCIS records indicates the Immigrant Visa Fee has been received. However, it appears that the Texas Service Center has not received your Department of State issued Immigrant Visa Packet, which should have been submitted by the Port of Entry (POE) when you entered the United States. The Texas Service Center requires a completed Lost Visa Packet in order to process your Permanent Resident Card. Further research is needed in regards to your inquiry. You should receive correspondence within the next 90 days regarding this case. If you do not receive this correspondence, please contact customer service."

 

For the life of me, I have not been able to figure out what the heck a "Lost Visa Packet" is and how we can fill it out. I've been googling that exact phrase for the past 2 hours, with no luck. Has anyone else received such a letter? Does anyone know what this could entail? Is it something that needs to be done with an Infopass session? (There is currently no way to make an appointment in Texas since we recently relocated here from California) To make matters a bit worse, she now has to go back home to Lebanon temporarily while this gets resolved.

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance for your responses  

[C90 376]

52 minutes ago, Ramsey said:

Hello Visa Journey Family,

 

It has been a while since I've posted here (since my wife entered the country) but I am now having issues with my mother-in-law's permanent residence card (green card). She entered the United States on November 9, 2018 with her Immigrant Visa (I-130) stamp in her passport. The Point Of Entry (POE) was San Diego International Airport. She went through a lengthy interview and then was released with a stamp on her visa (which makes it good for a year). We started the waiting process for the physical permanent resident card (and social security). Over a month passed and she still didn't get her social security card, even though we had filled out the form DS-260 saying that we would like to request a SS card. We had to go to downtown to get that taken care of.

 

We then waited 120 days (4 months) for her physical green card which was never received in the mail. Throughout this wait, we called the USCIS office several times asking for an update for her status (as we'd had family members received their green cards within weeks) but they told us we had to wait the full 120 days before we could make an inquiry. We called on March 10, 2019 and told them of the issue, they told us that the Texas Service Center (TSC) had not received her file but they would make an inquiry to see what happened. We just received a letter today (March 30, 2019), stating:

 

"A search of USCIS records indicates the Immigrant Visa Fee has been received. However, it appears that the Texas Service Center has not received your Department of State issued Immigrant Visa Packet, which should have been submitted by the Port of Entry (POE) when you entered the United States. The Texas Service Center requires a completed Lost Visa Packet in order to process your Permanent Resident Card. Further research is needed in regards to your inquiry. You should receive correspondence within the next 90 days regarding this case. If you do not receive this correspondence, please contact customer service."

 

For the life of me, I have not been able to figure out what the heck a "Lost Visa Packet" is and how we can fill it out. I've been googling that exact phrase for the past 2 hours, with no luck. Has anyone else received such a letter? Does anyone know what this could entail? Is it something that needs to be done with an Infopass session? (There is currently no way to make an appointment in Texas since we recently relocated here from California) To make matters a bit worse, she now has to go back home to Lebanon temporarily while this gets resolved.

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance for your responses  

There was someone else on VJ, I think about 2-3 days ago maybe, with the exact same problem. They also got informed the visa packet was lost. It seems like USCIS opens a case, and once they figured out where it went wrong they can issue the green card. It seems they'll take care of the 'lost visa packet' completion, so all you can do is sit back and wait another 90 days. 

 

You can alway call USCIS on Monday just to double check. If they did not send you any forms or any other instructions on filling out any form, they'll probably take care of it, and this letter is just to inform you what's going on.

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

56 minutes ago, Ramsey said:

The Texas Service Center requires a completed Lost Visa Packet in order to process your Permanent Resident Card

Sounds like that’s paperwork they have to do, because they lost the packet somewhere between the POE and Texas Service Center. I am quite it’s not so much lost, but just “misplaced” and they have to try to locate it. I guess you just wait the 90 days out and contact them again.

 

You mother in law is free to travel and come back to the US. She is a Lawful Permanent Resident and the stamp in her passport will allow her to come back no problem. She doesn’t lose her status just because they screwed up and she has no physical green card. The green card is just a piece of plastic that prove her status, not the status itself.

[Ramsey 16]

C90,

 

You are correct, Peter posted about this in his thread:

 

 

 

And I also found the following very helpful thread:

 

I submitted a complaint with the ombudsman, will be contacting my local representative and seeing any other venues that would be useful. We will also definitely take your advice regarding contacting USCIS on Monday. Thanks for your response

[Ramsey 16]

3 minutes ago, USS_Voyager said:

Sounds like that’s paperwork they have to do, because they lost the packet somewhere between the POE and Texas Service Center. I am quite it’s not so much lost, but just “misplaced” and they have to try to locate it. I guess you just wait the 90 days out and contact them again.

 

You mother in law is free to travel and come back to the US. She is a Lawful Permanent Resident and the stamp in her passport will allow her to come back no problem. She doesn’t lose her status just because they screwed up and she has no physical green card. The green card is just a piece of plastic that prove her status, not the status itself.

USS_Voyager,

 

Thanks for your help and for reassuring us that she is able to travel until November 2019 (when it has been a year). At this point, you're right, all we can do is wait for the 90 days and in the meantime we will research other avenues in which we can somehow expedite this process, because it appears that many others are in the same boat (see my reply above).

[truelove29 218]

We received the exact same letter this week! My husband entered last August and never received his green card. They told us at POE that it could take up to a year to receive, but after 6 months we knew something was wrong. After inquiring we received this letter. I don't know what else to do either, besides wait the 90 days. It's very frustrating! I was planning on calling the POE to see if they have any info...and USCIS as well. But I feel like all I'm going to be told is to wait the 90 days. I just want to make sure there's nothing we can do to hurry up the process. We were hoping to visit my husband's family this August, but now we can't even travel until we receive it! His visa will expire August 31st...and we were planning on coming back that day. Not sure if we were to move it up by a week if they would be ok with him coming back with only a week left on his visa.

[Ramsey 16]

10 hours ago, truelove29 said:

We received the exact same letter this week! My husband entered last August and never received his green card. They told us at POE that it could take up to a year to receive, but after 6 months we knew something was wrong. After inquiring we received this letter. I don't know what else to do either, besides wait the 90 days. It's very frustrating! I was planning on calling the POE to see if they have any info...and USCIS as well. But I feel like all I'm going to be told is to wait the 90 days. I just want to make sure there's nothing we can do to hurry up the process. We were hoping to visit my husband's family this August, but now we can't even travel until we receive it! His visa will expire August 31st...and we were planning on coming back that day. Not sure if we were to move it up by a week if they would be ok with him coming back with only a week left on his visa.

truelove29, I suggest you call USCIS and schedule an infopass appointment as soon as possible. Tell them that you'd like to fill out an I-89 lost visa packet and that you were told to do it in person at an infopass appointment. Try to be persistent and they will give you the appointment (my wife was very pushy when she called them last time). At the infopass appointment, they would scan your documents (and maybe even download the packet from CCD) and then send everything to the TSC. Good luck!

[truelove29 218]

Thank you for the replies! I tried to call this morning before work but the wait time was 30 minutes & I couldn't stay on the line. However, my husband checked the status online & it now says that the card is being produced! It says that our form OS155A was approved & that they ordered the card to be produced & will be delivered to our address. I'm really surprised they moved this quickly...but it makes sense. We didn't have a packet to lose since my husband was part of the new digital upload process. Now we just have to hope it will be delivered soon!!

[GandhiA2013 0]

@truelove29 @Ramsey

 

Just received a similar email about a Lost Visa Packet. 

 

@truelove29 Is there something you did after receiving the message about waiting 90 days? I just received the email this morning, and really wanted to do something about it instead of just waiting.

Thanks in advance!

On 5/6/2019 at 8:40 AM, Ramsey said:

truelove29, I suggest you call USCIS and schedule an infopass appointment as soon as possible. Tell them that you'd like to fill out an I-89 lost visa packet and that you were told to do it in person at an infopass appointment. Try to be persistent and they will give you the appointment (my wife was very pushy when she called them last time). At the infopass appointment, they would scan your documents (and maybe even download the packet from CCD) and then send everything to the TSC. Good luck!

 

[GandhiA2013 0]

On 5/6/2019 at 8:40 AM, Ramsey said:

truelove29, I suggest you call USCIS and schedule an infopass appointment as soon as possible. Tell them that you'd like to fill out an I-89 lost visa packet and that you were told to do it in person at an infopass appointment. Try to be persistent and they will give you the appointment (my wife was very pushy when she called them last time). At the infopass appointment, they would scan your documents (and maybe even download the packet from CCD) and then send everything to the TSC. Good luck!

Did taking the infopass appointment help? 

[Ramsey 16]

18 hours ago, GandhiA2013 said:

Did taking the infopass appointment help? 

It definitely helped! As it turns out, the green card was produced on April 29, which is a few weeks after the infopass appointment  I have read that many members here on VJ have also had the infopass appointment help get the green card processed quickly. You just have to be pushy about the appointment and follow the advice I laid out above. Best of luck.

[truelove29 218]

On 5/8/2019 at 2:00 PM, GandhiA2013 said:

@truelove29 @Ramsey

 

Just received a similar email about a Lost Visa Packet. 

 

@truelove29 Is there something you did after receiving the message about waiting 90 days? I just received the email this morning, and really wanted to do something about it instead of just waiting.

Thanks in advance!

 

A few days after we received the letter our status changed to “request was approved”...a few days later it said that the card is being produced...we received the green card in the mail about a week later!

[Tedv 0]

Hello !

i had the same problem! Moved in the us with a DV visa with my wife on may 2018. 

My wife received her green card after 2 months but I didn’t!

After waiting i called the uscis on January 2019 , they said they needed more time . In April i received a letter from the texas service center , saying that the POE lost my visa package and they needed two passport photos and a birth certificate . So I scheduled an infopass appointment on may 28-2019 and went there to file a lost visa package. Since that day I haven’t received anything. My drivers license has expired and the dmw wont renew it unless i have a physical green card with me ! The uscis didn’t give me a new stamp in my passport because they say the case is closed and needs to be reopened . Any ideas what should i do ? I need my green card but i need my drivers license as soon as possible, because i have to drive every day 21 miles to work ! 

[Sharon & Thomas 24]

On 5/8/2019 at 1:00 PM, GandhiA2013 said:

@truelove29 @Ramsey

 

Just received a similar email about a Lost Visa Packet. 

 

@truelove29 Is there something you did after receiving the message about waiting 90 days? I just received the email this morning, and really wanted to do something about it instead of just waiting.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hey. Do you guys receive green card yet? I’m very frustrated because I have been here 131 days and no green card yet. I called USCIS, and they made an inquiry for me last week. I’m so afraid that I will receive same thing just like package lost.... me and my husband don’t have time to call USCIS just because their mistake. May I know your experience? Thank you very much. 

[GandhiA2013 0]

1 hour ago, Sharon & Thomas said:

Hey. Do you guys receive green card yet? I’m very frustrated because I have been here 131 days and no green card yet. I called USCIS, and they made an inquiry for me last week. I’m so afraid that I will receive same thing just like package lost.... me and my husband don’t have time to call USCIS just because their mistake. May I know your experience? Thank you very much. 

Hey!

 

I didn’t book an appointment with the infopass route.

 

I ended up contacting the state representatives, like the Congresswoman and state senators. They were able to reach out to the immigration office and get my wife’s greencard within a month.