I-751 DENIED

[MrsnMrsKing315 6]

Hi, so my wife and I moved from NY to MD last summer and when we filed our 751 we were still in NY. When we moved, we did a changed of address that was NEVER picked up by USCIS and by the time my wife finally got her interview letter (back in April), they scheduled it for for 4/8/22 IN NY instead of MD. We were not able to take off of work to go. We called USCIS and they told her not to go and someone will call back to schedule a new appointment and also get her an appointment in MD to get a stamp renewal allowing her to work since that was expiring too. Now, because she didn't show up, by way of the USCIS officers instructions, the visa has been DENIED and we have to spend money to appeal (Form I-290B) when it wasn't our fault. What can we do? The letter states that we have to provide evidence that it is LEGALLY their fault. They also sent us a letter saying the address has finally been changed and yet the sent the denial letter to the NY address AGAIN. This is insane.

 

• Change of address sent last year July.
• They never picked it up.
• USCIS officer told us not to attend and someone will get back to us with a new date
• The letter they sent is not even dated AND it was sent to the old address even after getting a letter stating the address was updated. 

 

Please HELP!! 

Edited May 16, 2022 by MrsnMrsKing315

[LirikVJUser 28]

Did the online status change at any point to "Interview was scheduled"?

[MrsnMrsKing315 6]

15 minutes ago, LirikVJUser said:

Did the online status change at any point to "Interview was scheduled"?

yes, I believe so, why?

[Dashinka 24,507]

22 minutes ago, MrsnMrsKing315 said:

Hi, so my wife and I moved from NY to MD last summer and when we filed our 751 we were still in NY. When we moved, we did a changed of address that was NEVER picked up by USCIS and by the time my wife finally got her interview letter (back in April), they scheduled it for for 4/8/22 IN NY instead of MD. We were not able to take off of work to go. We called USCIS and they told her not to go and someone will call back to schedule a new appointment and also get her an appointment in MD to get a stamp renewal allowing her to work since that was expiring too. Now, because she didn't show up, by way of the USCIS officers instructions, the visa has been DENIED and we have to spend money to appeal (Form I-290B) when it wasn't our fault. What can we do? The letter states that we have to provide evidence that it is LEGALLY their fault. They also sent us a letter saying the address has finally been changed and yet the sent the denial letter to the NY address AGAIN. This is insane.

 

• Change of address sent last year July.
• They never picked it up.
• USCIS officer told us not to attend and someone will get back to us with a new date
• The letter they sent is not even dated AND it was sent to the old address even after getting a letter stating the address was updated. 

 

Please HELP!! 

Try working with the USCIS Ombudsman, and your elected representative or senator (most offices have staff for immigration related inquiries).  You can also try call USCIS and get through to a Tier 2, I forget the trick to get a real person on, maybe @Crazy Cat will drop by with some help.

 

Good Luck!

 

https://www.dhs.gov/topics/cis-ombudsman

[Rocio0010 5,579]

10 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

forget the trick to get a real person on,

Say either "infopass" or "technical difficulties".

[da95826 387]

29 minutes ago, MrsnMrsKing315 said:

Now, because she didn't show up, by way of the USCIS officers instructions, the visa has been DENIED and we have to spend money to appeal (Form I-290B) when it wasn't our fault. What can we do? The letter states that we have to provide evidence that it is LEGALLY their fault. They also sent us a letter saying the address has finally been changed and yet the sent the denial letter to the NY address AGAIN. This is insane.

You should refile a new i751 petition right away, don't bother appealing your case, the time and cost to appeal is about the same as refiling a new petition and you are unlikely to win an appeal even if it was USCIS fault. 

[Rocio0010 5,579]

10 minutes ago, da95826 said:

You should refile a new i751 petition right away, don't bother appealing your case, the time and cost to appeal is about the same as refiling a new petition and you are unlikely to win an appeal even if it was USCIS fault. 

Unfortunately, this is the best path forward.

[milimelo 4,481]

Congressman or senator's immigration aide. 

 

Did you, as the USC sponsor also complete and mail in the change of address form - I-865? You should've received a mailed receipt confirming address change.

[Crazy Cat 41,884]

I think I would, first, try to get them to re-schedule a new interview via my Senator.  If that fails, I would file a new I-751.  

[Timona 4,207]

Don't waste money on appeal. Follow what others have said here. Choose the path of less stress

[Family 3,988]

5 hours ago, MrsnMrsKing315 said:

• Change of address sent last year July.
• They never picked it up.
• USCIS officer told us not to attend and someone will get back to us with a new date
• The letter they sent is not even dated AND it was sent to the old address even after getting a letter stating the address was updated. 

 

1. First try calling USCIS and get an Info pass appointment ( your MD Field Office ) 

2. Type a Letter titled “ Service Motion to Re-Open I-751 due to Service Error “ .. state your facts and send it to Field Service Director ( NY Field Office that denied )

3. Ask Congressman for help / email ombudsman 

BUT don’t miss the deadline to file the I-290 B , ( if nothing above works quickly) it will be reopened / granted and will be much faster than refilling. 

[mindthegap 2,590]

Honestly, you should have gone. I know I know, but USCIS are notorious for messing up address changes. I went to one in my old state, they ended it immediately and rescheduled in my new state. No harm done. They wouldn’t have seen you anyway once they saw your ID and current address, but it would have been the easiest option in terms of avoiding messes like this.

 

Anyway, what to do….
Firstly RELAX. You can still work, you aren’t going to be arrested by ICE on the street or on the next plane home. You can get this sorted. 

Don’t waste your time and money with an I-290b. It isn’t applicable here, but they will gladly take your money and jerk you around for two years.

 

Call and schedule an urgent infopass and attempt to get it sorted it out in person right there and then (they can do this if caught quick enough). If they won’t give you an urgent appointment then head down there and insist on speaking to a supervisor, without being all Karen about it. 

 

At the same time as this, FedEx a letter requesting an urgent ‘service motion’ due to USCIS error with the director of your local field office AND the one that denied you. Enclose a copy of the email confirmation from when you changed the address if you still have it, and the date and time of the call with whoever messed this up. This is explicitly permitted…unfortunately they have form for ignoring correspondence too, as I know only too well. 

At the same time as these, prepare a new I-751 package in case you need to send it in the next few weeks/months if no joy with the above. 

At the same time as all of those, file with the ombudsman (takes ages but at least it’s logged).

You also need to do a change of address online (AR-11), AND confirm over the phone it has taken correctly. Three petitions later one part of USCIS’ system still defaults to my old address…three addresses ago….that’s how bad some of their systems are. 
 

Edited May 17, 2022 by mindthegap

[Rocio0010 5,579]

10 hours ago, Family said:

it will be reopened / granted

After a looooooong time. And there’s no guarantee it will be reopened/ granted. Much safer to just reapply, which WILL be granted.

[mindthegap 2,590]

In keeping with my apparantly having signed up for the full USCIS experience, I have actually experienced this too.

 

Way back during my first filing, before I had had an interview or formally switched to a divorce waiver, I had an infopass for a stamp, and trying to find out why the noticeable delay with my case. 

They said I had missed an interview... I was like 'what the hell....I've had no notification of it' . 

Sure enough, when I got my A# file FOIA many years later, there is an interview notice in there with 'not known at this address' on the envelope where it was returned to them from being sent to the wrong address, and the worksheet for the interview is written 'no show' . 

The person at the infopass dealt with it there and then (again, this is confirmed as it is shown on my FOIA response) writing something like 'sent to wrong address - appllicants address as of xx/xxxx is xxxxxxxx - reschedule interview'  - by sheer luck this infopass was within 30 days of the interview I had no knowledge of so it was caught quickly. 

 

Infopass as soon as possible is your first port of call to get this nipped in the bud. 

[MrsnMrsKing315 6]

22 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Try working with the USCIS Ombudsman, and your elected representative or senator (most offices have staff for immigration related inquiries).  You can also try call USCIS and get through to a Tier 2, I forget the trick to get a real person on, maybe @Crazy Cat will drop by with some help.

 

Good Luck!

 

https://www.dhs.gov/topics/cis-ombudsman

Thank you, writing the ombudsman as we speak. spoke with a their 2 a few weeks back and they weren't much of any help. He told us the denial order was being processed and he said to send a letter to NY asking them to cancel the order and send case to MD as they missed the change of address. we did that and it was obviously missed.