fiance visa appeal

[Crazy Cat 41,323]

1 hour ago, Tatiana S said:

We got RFE on November 2020 and had deadline to February 14. 
We sent an explanation that this is a typographical error and documents that confirm that a court was appointed to correct this error. 
We sent the correct documents on August 9th.

The denied was received on September 16. In the letter from uscis, they listed all our calls to uscis (also we had a conversation with Tier 1), but did not indicate anything about the fact that they received our correct documents.

We have already sent the documents for the appeal and paid the tax.
Therefore, I have such questions now:

How  can we know the procedure for considering appeals, the time frame, and should they send us some kind of track number?
 

Could we have problems that at the time of submitting a visa (March 20, 2020) we provided evidence about our meeting, two years of which will expire in December 2021? (in 2021 we met 4 times, but these documents were not sent as we were waiting for an answer on the visa)

You cannot win an appeal if USCIS didn't make an error.  It sounds like you responded to an RFP 6 months late.  I would refile with the correct documents.  This attorney is costing you a lot of money. 

[belinda63 3,022]

Your attorney is using your ignorance to make money. 

It would have been faster and cheaper to re-file the K-1 rather than appeal it. 

[Tatiana S 20]

15 minutes ago, belinda63 said:

Your attorney is using your ignorance to make money. 

It would have been faster and cheaper to re-file the K-1 rather than appeal it. 

we spent almost two years waiting for a response from uscis and do not want to waste time on a new petition, so we decided to file an appeal

[Tatiana S 20]

1 hour ago, Crazy Cat said:

You cannot win an appeal if USCIS didn't make an error.  It sounds like you responded to an RFP 6 months late.  I would refile with the correct documents.  This attorney is costing you a lot of money. 

We think USCIS made an error because we sent a correct document for 5 weeks before they denied. They didn't say anything about our correct document in they denied letter just listed our calls to uscis. 
Of course we payed lawyer it was expensive
But my questions were about appeal no about other things

[arken 4,197]

49 minutes ago, Tatiana S said:

We think USCIS made an error because we sent a correct document for 5 weeks before they denied. They didn't say anything about our correct document in they denied letter just listed our calls to uscis. 
Of course we payed lawyer it was expensive
But my questions were about appeal no about other things

Now that the appeal is already filed just hope for the best. If it gets handled by a compassionate judge it could still be approved considering you tried getting the right document while responding to the RFE. However it could very likely be denied considering your correct document was not sent within the deadline. By the time uscis looked at your rfe response submitted by the due date, your correct document could have been sitting on a pile and yet to be sorted and it's not uscis fault. Uscis is not required to look at anything sent after the due date. Even if uscis had looked at your correct document, they could still deny saying it was not sent by the due date.

 

Anyway in case your appeal gets approved, you don't have to worry about 2 yr meeting requirement. 2 yr meeting requirement is before the petition is filed which will still be your i129f receipt date regardless of when appeal is filed or when this i129f sill be approved, if approved.

 

However having said that, appeal dismissal is likely but there is some slim chance.

 

Filing a new i129f would have been cheaper and faster. Appeal itself may take 6 months or more.

Edited October 20, 2021 by arken

[Tatiana S 20]

24 minutes ago, arken said:

Now that the appeal is already filed just hope for the best. If it gets handled by a compassionate judge it could still be approved considering you tried getting the right document while responding to the RFE. However it could very likely be denied considering your correct document was not sent within the deadline. By the time uscis looked at your rfe response submitted by the due date, your correct document could have been sitting on a pile and yet to be sorted and it's not uscis fault. Uscis is not required to look at anything sent after the due date. Even if uscis had looked at your correct document, they could still deny saying it was not sent by the due date.

 

Anyway in case your appeal gets approved, you don't have to worry about 2 yr meeting requirement. 2 yr meeting requirement is before the petition is filed which will still be your i129f receipt date regardless of when appeal is filed or when this i129f sill be approved, if approved.

 

However having said that, appeal dismissal is likely but there is some slim chance.

 

Filing a new i129f would have been cheaper and faster. Appeal itself may take 6 months or more.

unfortunately it makes sense (( 

 

as for period I saw before covid : 

Initial field review: The office that issued the unfavorable decision has 45 days to evaluate the appeal and determine whether to take favorable action on the appeal. If that office does not take favorable action, it will forward the appeal to the AAO and send the appellant a Notice of Transfer to the AAO.

https://www.uscis.gov/administrative-appeals/aao-processing-times

 

Seems now it is 90 days 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Tatiana S

[African Zealot 1,454]

You’re chasing the wind and it appears you’re intent on continuing to pursue an option with undefined deadlines contrary to the advice you’re being given to abandon and file a new petition.

 

Good luck and let’s know how it goes in the end.

[JeanneAdil 6,401]

1 hour ago, Tatiana S said:

We think USCIS made an error because we sent a correct document for 5 weeks before they denied. They didn't say anything about our correct document in they denied letter just listed our calls to uscis. 
Of course we payed lawyer it was expensive
But my questions were about appeal no about other things

your timeline says they denied 5 weeks after u sent in correct document but that was still due February 14th and not August

 

and for appeal  

i did one for a CR1 denial back in 2012 (during normal precovid era) and it took more than a year 

 

sorry you are going thru this and had a 2 year wait already but i agree with above 

you are chasing the wind

 

have u been together at all in all this time to even have the meeting within last 2 years to refile?

appeal is still not valid as u made the mistake and WE are responsible for signing the original petition attesting to the validity of all information

 

yes, this is hard

and again so  very sorry 

[TBoneTX 44,792]

5 hours ago, Tatiana S said:

You're right, but they sent the documents to uscis and us (to gmail) at the same time in the late evening.  And we found the mistake the next morning.

That was highly irresponsible of them (unless you gave them permission), and one could make a stink about legal malpractice.  Too many lawyers don't check the work of their paralegals or secretaries.

 

If you take the very sound advice of everyone else here to withdraw the appeal and refile (either another I-129F or, after marriage, an I-130), do things yourself with the benefit of these forums and the Guides.  If you lack the time or the confidence to do it yourself, hire an assistance firm instead of a lawyer.  One excellent one is Platinum, recommended on this site:  https://www.visajourney.com/partners/

Edited October 20, 2021 by TBoneTX

[millefleur 5,043]

52 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

That was highly irresponsible of them (unless you gave them permission), and one could make a stink about legal malpractice.  Too many lawyers don't check the work of their paralegals or secretaries.

Lawyers don't check things, trust me. I had some recent experience with (non-immigration) lawyers and I constantly double checked everything they did. Multiple times, I found small errors that actually ended up being hugely significant to the case. Thankfully it was resolved and corrected when I brought it up. And these were competent, good lawyers....people make mistakes, especially when lawyers are working on multiple cases at once, things fall through the cracks. That's why double checking is so important. That said, the malpractice point is interesting. It might be worth looking into your local state bar and seeing if you can file a formal complaint against them.

 

Remember: nobody cares about your case as much as you do. Even if you go with one of the assistance firms in the future that @TBoneTX mentioned, don't forget to double check things before sending them out.

[Wouter 141]

3 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Lawyers don't check things, trust me. I had some recent experience with (non-immigration) lawyers and I constantly double checked everything they did. Multiple times, I found small errors that actually ended up being hugely significant to the case. Thankfully it was resolved and corrected when I brought it up. And these were competent, good lawyers....people make mistakes, especially when lawyers are working on multiple cases at once, things fall through the cracks. That's why double checking is so important. That said, the malpractice point is interesting. It might be worth looking into your local state bar and seeing if you can file a formal complaint against them.

 

Remember: nobody cares about your case as much as you do. Even if you go with one of the assistance firms in the future that @TBoneTX mentioned, don't forget to double check things before sending them out.

At the risk of going off-topic a bit, I completely agree with this statement: our immigration lawyer (or his assistant to be precise) constantly made mistakes on the forms that I had to catch. It got so bad on the DS-260 form that I ended up re-doing the form from scratch myself. I also had little confidence that the lawyer himself would have caught these small but significant mistakes. (In the end we had no RFEs during the entire process 😎) Indeed, nobody cares about your case as much as you do. Double check everything and make it explicitly clear that nothing gets sent or submitted without you reviewing it.

 

[SalishSea 17,516]

7 hours ago, Tatiana S said:

Hi everybody.
 

I hope for your understanding and advice who has come across an appeal for a fiance visa.

I apologize in advance for the mistakes. I know a little bit English. My fiance and I speak my native language.
 

We filed an appeal on October 16 as our visa was denied due to a typographical error on my fiance's divorce document.

We sent the first documents on March 20, 2020, received the RFE on November 20, 2020, responded on February 12, 2021 (at that time we did not have the correct documents and we sent an explanation), on August 9, 2021 we sent the correct documents, on September 16 we received a denied (in the letter they indicated all our calls but did not write anything about the correct documents. I think they missed it)
 

How  can we know the procedure for considering appeals, the time frame, and should they send us some kind of track number?

Could we have problems that at the time of submitting a visa (March 20, 2020) we provided evidence about our meeting, two years of which will expire in December 2021? (in 2021 we met 4 times, but these documents were not sent as we were waiting for an answer on the visa)

Unfortunately, there are no appeals.  If you want a visa, you will need to marry and start over with a spousal visa.

[SalishSea 17,516]

7 hours ago, Tatiana S said:

But now I have no confidence in this lawyer.

For good reason.

 

With every error they make, it is more money for them.

 

Seriously, your best bet is to marry and refile for a spousal visa.  Do not use a lawyer, use VJ, like thousands of others have successfully done.

 

Read and research ad infinitum to educate yourselves about the process.   Triple-check everything before submitting, to save yourselves time and money.

[SalishSea 17,516]

4 hours ago, Tatiana S said:

we spent almost two years waiting for a response from uscis and do not want to waste time on a new petition, so we decided to file an appeal

Unfortunately, there is no recouping the wasted time and money.  PLEASE research and learn about this process properly so that you can begin a new process and avoid these types of delays.

[millefleur 5,043]

7 hours ago, Tatiana S said:

I know a little bit English. My fiance and I speak my native language.

 @Tatiana S from your profile, it looks like you're from Ukraine. We have a Russia-Ukraine-Belarus regional forum here where you can post in your native language, if you're interested:

 

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/98-russia-ukraine-and-belarus/