babysnakes

I’m back with an update - thought it might be helpful for anyone who finds themselves in my situation. On 06/29/2023 I filed Form I-290B Notice of Appeal, motion to reopen/reconsider. About 75 days later I received the response: my appeal was successful and USCIS will be reopening my case. Fingers crossed it will pick up where we left off and I’ll receive a new interview date shortly. I’ll post again when I have more info. Thank you @Family for your precious guidance! Grateful for this community.

well, I'm pretty mad at him for throwing my denial notice in the trash and lying to me about it. The copy of the denial notice I received did have his unit number on it. I'm 100% sure he got it, so I don't feel good about having him lie in a sworn statement.

Thank you for the great advice and detailed instructions, it’s super helpful. I’ll start working on the I-290B tomorrow. Not sure the neighbor will be much help, since I am pretty sure he lied about the notice of denial. But I’m not ruling it out yet. I actually reached out to my local congressman earlier this year to enquire about the delays in my case, so I may contact him again for extra support. Thanks!

Thanks so much for your reply! I agree that filing I-290B is probably a safer option, since the situation is already time-sensitive. I’ll start working on it asap.

On 05/29/2023 I checked my online case status and discovered it was denied on 04/20. I never received the denial notice, so I requested a copy and finally got it on 06/24. It states that I did not appear for my interview on 04/17, and USCIS considers my application abandoned. 😱 The thing is, I didn't know about the interview: I never got the notice. I spoke with a very helpful USCIS agent, who said the denial looked like a mistake. According to him, there was indeed an interview scheduled on 04/17, but there is no mention of a notice being sent, and no mention of the interview in my case history online. Basically, there was no way for me to find out. To make things even more complicated, the USCIS sent the first denial notice to the wrong unit number... I asked my neighbor, but he denied receiving it. According to USCIS, the letter was not returned to them so I'm fairly sure said neighbor threw it out and by the time I found out my case was denied, it was already too late to appeal. I checked with USCIS: they did have the wrong unit number on file. I had no idea because a service request made in 2021 shows the correct address. It's all very confusing. To give you a little context, my interview was initially scheduled on December 3, 2021 but the USCIS agreed to reschedule because my husband and I were moving to Los Angeles at the time. My case was transferred to the Los Angeles Field Office. They didn't explain that my case would end up at the bottom of the pile and it would take 17 more months to get a new interview date, otherwise we would have done everything we could to show up for that interview (please don't guilt trip me, I already feel bad about it 😔). I spoke with an immigration attorney, but it costs $6,000 and I just can't bring myself to pay this much for an administrative error. Plus I can't really afford it anyway. I am leaning towards filing a motion to reopen or motion to reconsider. We are technically outside the 33 days, but since it took 2 months to get the denial notice, they may allow it? Another option is to file again for AOS, pay a new filing fee and wait another 17 months. What do you think? Please share if you've had a similar experience, or if you have any information that could help me make the right decision. Thank you!