Anyone having trouble talking to a real person at USCIS?

[The Petitioner 1]

Background Story 
We filed a I-130 in the beginning of this year. My wife is from France. We received our NOA2 in May 2020. Unfortunatly there was a mistake on the approval notice. We filed for consolar processing in Paris, France, while he approval said that we indicated the my wife is in the United States and that the next step would be to file a I-485. How could this happen? 

After calling the USCIS many times over the span of the following months to correct the mistake  on Sept. 11. 2020 I receive a notice in the mail acknowledging the mistake, and they said that they will send our approval to the appropriate people for review in regards to forwarding the case to the NVC. It has been almost 3 months now. They are not fast to fix their mistakes it seems. So I have tried calling but no success. 

The Question
We are having the hardest time reaching a human at the USCIS toll free number. It seems they changed to now be all automation. No matter what combination of numbers I dial in the menu prompts, I can't get a real person. 
Has anyone else noticed this? 

Edited December 5, 2020 by uharston

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to USCIS Service Centers forum.

[HRQX 4,145]

35 minutes ago, uharston said:

and they said that they will send our approval to the appropriate people for review in regards to forwarding the case to the NVC.

Since it said it needs review it means a final decision hasn't been made regarding your calls. Others in your circumstances were still required to file Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition, with fee:

"We created a service ticket and called a bunch of times but the outcome was we need to file I-824 to transfer our case to the NVC despite we would not need to and this was not our fault!"

[The Petitioner 1]

So your saying that when it is not your fault you will still end up paying a fee?

 

[The Petitioner 1]

6 minutes ago, HRQX said:

Since it said it needs review it means a final decision hasn't been made regarding your calls. Others in your circumstances were still required to file Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition, with fee:

"We created a service ticket and called a bunch of times but the outcome was we need to file I-824 to transfer our case to the NVC despite we would not need to and this was not our fault!"

So you are saying that even when it is not your fault you will end up having to file an I-824? Our petition clearly says consular processing in Paris. 

[HRQX 4,145]

8 minutes ago, uharston said:

Our petition clearly says consular processing in Paris. 

Unfortunately, USCIS commonly makes this mistake. See the case I mentioned above: "Our application clearly and unmistakenly stated (on Part 4 #61a-b) that we apply at the US consulate in Montreal. Above all, I am not even in the US so Adjustment of Status can't work. USCIS clearly made a mistake. A painful one..."

[The Petitioner 1]

1 minute ago, HRQX said:

Unfortunately, USCIS commonly makes this mistake. See the case I mentioned above: "Our application clearly and unmistakenly stated (on Part 4 #61a-b) that we apply at the US consulate in Montreal. Above all, I am not even in the US so Adjustment of Status can't work. USCIS clearly made a mistake. A painful one..."

This is unbelievable. Do you know how long the I 824 takes? 

Have you heard of anyone in this situation successfully resolving it with that form? 

Reason I ask is because we are led to believe that they are working on it. Sounds like we will just be waiting indefinitely, maybe they hope we just forget about it. 

[HRQX 4,145]

2 minutes ago, uharston said:

Do you know how long the I 824 takes? 

Have you heard of anyone in this situation successfully resolving it with that form?

In the case mentioned above, it took 3 months. Then it was finally sent to NVC:

"On Oct 7, I finally received the message: NVC will work with the U.S. Embassy/Consulate General in MONTREAL, CAN to schedule an interview appointment for you. Once we have confirmed an interview date, we will send a notice to you, [...]. from NVC."

[Chancy 6,241]

8 hours ago, uharston said:

After calling the USCIS many times over the span of the following months to correct the mistake  on Sept. 11. 2020 I receive a notice in the mail acknowledging the mistake, and they said that they will send our approval to the appropriate people for review in regards to forwarding the case to the NVC.

 

If you have written acknowledgement from USCIS about their mistake in routing your petition, do NOT file I-824 like the other member did.  Just keep following up with USCIS.  If you are not able to get a human agent on the phone, try pressing the # key multiple times or say "technical issue".  That has worked for other members.

 

[HRQX 4,145]

8 minutes ago, Chancy said:

If you have written acknowledgement from USCIS about their mistake in routing your petition, do NOT file I-824 like the other member did.  Just keep following up with USCIS.

The other member received the same letter and eventually still had to file I-824:

"They also told us they would send it in for review. That cost us over one month, just to hear again we had to file I-824."

[Chancy 6,241]

10 minutes ago, HRQX said:

The other member received the same letter and eventually still had to file I-824:

 

Here's a recent case (though different visa, IR5) of a petitioner who resolved the routing issue with help from USCIS agents and NOT filing I-824.  I-130 was approved, routed to a US field office, petitioner was also told to file I-824.  Instead of filing I-824, petitioner called USCIS multiple times, logged service requests, and eventually, the petition was sent to NVC --

 

 

[The Petitioner 1]

On 12/5/2020 at 11:31 PM, Chancy said:

 

Here's a recent case (though different visa, IR5) of a petitioner who resolved the routing issue with help from USCIS agents and NOT filing I-824.  I-130 was approved, routed to a US field office, petitioner was also told to file I-824.  Instead of filing I-824, petitioner called USCIS multiple times, logged service requests, and eventually, the petition was sent to NVC --

 

 

This is all very interesting to be honest. I just got off the phone with the USCIS informational officer after calling a couple times and saying different things to the automated system. 

She asked for my information, and the end said she would file a service request with the service center to see what is going on. She said to call in a month if nothing has happened. I explained to her that this seems like a repeat pattern: I call and complain, they say someone is going to do something, a couple months go by. I reminded her that I already received a formal letter on Sept 11 2020 acknowledging our conversations and that someone would be forwarding the case for review regarding the consular processing. It has been 3 months since that letter. 

I also explain to her that someone I know (on this forum) was in the same situation as me, and they end up having to file an I 824. I said I didn't want to get to the end of all this waiting for them to tell me to just file one of those. 

After all that she told me again to just wait to hear back from the service center and the request she was putting in. She said the I 824 doesn't apply because it wasn't my fault or something like that. 
 

So now the decision is to take her word for it or just file a I 824....

[exp 17]

On 12/5/2020 at 4:08 PM, HRQX said:

Since it said it needs review it means a final decision hasn't been made regarding your calls. Others in your circumstances were still required to file Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition, with fee:

"We created a service ticket and called a bunch of times but the outcome was we need to file I-824 to transfer our case to the NVC despite we would not need to and this was not our fault!"

To clarify. I don't think we were required to do this. This is just the answer we received after many calls and ticket. We decided to just file it rather than wasting more time in uncertain outcomes.

It was just a USCIS mistake! I am sure eventually the OP will get it transfered without I-824, the question is only how much time he has to waste.

[The Petitioner 1]

On 12/9/2020 at 1:58 PM, exp said:

To clarify. I don't think we were required to do this. This is just the answer we received after many calls and ticket. We decided to just file it rather than wasting more time in uncertain outcomes.

It was just a USCIS mistake! I am sure eventually the OP will get it transfered without I-824, the question is only how much time he has to waste.

So we receive a response from the USCIS on their online platform and they said to file a I824, because our petition indicates that the beneficiary is residing in the US. 

1. I am confused because AT FIRST they said they we would review our request for NVC processing, and that our case was in Brooklyn field office. 

2. This response I received most recently was a reply to a message I sent on their online platform on Nov. 22 asking for an update on our first correspondence. 

3. I called last week and they said they would look into it. 

Do you kinda see what is happening here? I feel like each time I call, I am opening a service ticket that is starting as if it was the first time I called. It seems like a different person is reviewing it and sending their own response. 

So I don't know what to do. I filled out the I-824. I think I am going to send it in. I will probably call the NVC first to make sure they don't actually have our case.