Strange NOA after Biometrics asking for biometrics appointment

[sjowol 0]

Anyone received a really weird letter from USCIS in the mail recently?

I applied for my I-751 in september

Received Date: October 6, 2010

NOA (biometrics appointment: 10/15/2010

Biometrics taken: 11/05/2010

but now I received an I-797 NOA yesterday where the case type states CRI89 Approved Removal of Conditions (yes, that sounds promising doesn't it?) but then the body of the letter says:

In processing your case we have reached the point where we need you to make an appointment to go to one of out Application Support Centers to have your biometrics (fingerprints, photo and signature) taken

Call customer service at 1.800.375.5283 to schedule your appointment. For hearing impaired etc. etc.

It is important that you schedule your appointment. We cannot complete certain steps in processing until you appear for this appointment. You must appear for your appointment within 84 days from the date of this notice

Again: I have been for my biometrics appointment 11/5/2010 so they have this information!

I called the number for information and/or to make an appointment, the first rep i talked to had no clue, said it was very odd and told me the status he had was:

On October 8, 2010, we received this CRI89 PETITION TO REMOVE CONDITIONS OF PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS RECEIVED, and mailed you a notice describing how we will process your case. Please follow any instructions on this notice. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address or contact our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283.

This is the same I get when going online to look at my case status.

He then proceeded to escalate my call t a higher level, the person there told me that if i received the notice to make an appointment I should go ahead and make one, he said they needed me to fill out another form that is needed for generating the greencard, also he told me the form i already filled out when i went in for biometrics was a different form the the one needed now.

I asked him if he could make the appointment and he kindly informed me that that is not possible and there is an error in the letters being sent out, i had to go online to the Infopass website and make an appointment. No problem, I thought, went online, and filled out all my info on Infopass, just to find out it is NOT possible to make a biometrics appointment online.

So called back again, got escalated again as the rep also thought it was a very strange letter. This time the higher rep told me this letter has been sent in error, I do NOT need t make an appointment at all as she sees in the system I had my biometrics taken 10/5/2010. She also told me they had received more calls about this and I do not need to worry.

Well that unfortunately is not an option is it? in the letter it clearly states "We cannot complete certain steps in processing until you appear for this appointment", so of course I worry.

I asked the lady if there was any chance something ws wrong with my initial biometrics but she could not see that in the system, also she could not tell me if that would show up if anything was wrong, she could just schedule an appointment if i wanted but when i asked her if that would be necessary she talked to a supervisor who now is supposed to call me back

So by now I am thoroughly confused and worried, it seems like uscis doesn't have all the data in a centralized system or something and reps give out different info, i would have expected a little more structure in something governmental like this.

So anyone heard of these letters, know what they mean? I would love some more info/consolidation.

Thanks,

Joel

[HikerMark 5]

I am also a September filer and received the same letter today. From what you have gathered from USCIS it does sound like an error on their part and we still need to wait for the formal approval.

I may give them a call in the morning to see what answer I get.

[sjowol 0]

Yeah that's what I thought but still very strange that they can't see in their "system" what is going on. Or atleast put me at ease.

It would be nice if they were a bit more careful with this kind of stuff, so far I have not received the callback from the supervisor I was promised 8 hours ago either. but hey as long as we get approved I won't be complaining

Let me know what they tell you when you call them though and good luck wit the leg of this process (that is before we are finally eligible to apply for citizenship and the whole thing will start over yet again.. bitter? who me?? )

Edited November 24, 2010 by sjowol

[love is god 0]

hey there im going thru the same process the i 751 removal of conditions and i also recieved the i 797c notice on 11/22/2010 saying i had to remake a biometric appt. now i called the costumer service center and spoke to an agent him telling me that they had recieved my biometrics 11/8/2010. to send copys of ASC appointment notice showing it was stamped by officer,and the i797c notice of actions to have on record. i hope all this works out in our favor and these problem gets resolved quick. post if anything new god bless.

[Skorn 0]

I am in the exact same boat. Clearly, if we all got letters it looks like an error. Hopefully they sort it out! What a waste of postage money.

[ManuFred 10]

Count me in:

I received NOA1 with receipt date 10/12/2010 followed by ASC app. notice on 10/25/2010 for bio on 11/08/2010. Took the letters with me on bio appointment and everything was fine from there. Case was touched within a day or so from biometrics which seems to be normal procedure. On 19/10/2010 I received an e-mail notice for a RFE. Today I receieved the letter you guys also received stating that I need to make another bio appointment. There is also a status update online as of today (11/16/2010) stating the following:

"On November 26, 2010, we mailed a notice requesting additional evidence or information in this case CRI89 PETITION TO REMOVE CONDITIONS OF PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS RECEIVED. Please follow the instructions on the notice to submit the requested information. This case will be in suspense until we receive the evidence or the opportunity to submit it expires. Once we receive the requested evidence or information and make a decision on the case, you will be notified by mail. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address or call our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283.

"

It is kind of weird for couple of reasons:

1) NOA1 has different WAC number from following ASC notice and todays I-797

2) NOA1 and ASC notice both state payment of $545 vs. todays I-797 stating: amount received $0.00

3) Another biometrics app. after two weeks?

4) Another letter, what is going on here?

Doesn't look right

[love is god 0]

thats exactly whats happening in my case the first noa received has a totally different reciept num then the two for biometrics received i tried asking for more info but the officer cant give me any. does this mean our cases are filed incorrectly or in some cases i read they end up telling them their cases have been denied due to abandomen. when all this was uscis fault. ill keep posting until i figure something else god bless.

[SerenityNOW 11]

Sadly, we returned from our holiday weekend and received the same notice. Yay, I thought! But after about 30 seconds, I was suspicious, as: 1) it seemed way too quick (we only applied around 6 weeks ago), 2) the notice was dated 2 days before his biometrics appointment and 3) it made no mention of a green card coming ... which I would assume they would mention in an APPROVAL notice.

Anyway, I logged in to check our account and it said we have an RFE coming. *&(*^*&%&$!!! I spent an obscene amount of time, bordering on obsessive, preparing our package and now they want more info. Ugh.

All we can do is wait for the fun surprise to come in the mail to see what they want ...

boooooooooo

[SerenityNOW 11]

Sorry, I waited to late to edit... So I noticed that ManuFred also got an RFE. Did anyone else who got this strange NOA check their status? Maybe they have sent out these wrong notices to those of us with RFEs?

I just checked online using my receipt number here. The receipt numbers, A#, etc were all the same on all of our notices so far.

I have signed up for e-mail notifications but didn't receive one. Not surprising as the e-mail notice about our I-130 approval came 2.5 years (that is not a typo) after he was approved

Since I just received the notice on Saturday night, I haven't called but I'll post again if I find out anything of interest.

[love is god 0]

to serenitynow i have not recieved the rfe letter and on my update online all it tells me that they have recieved mycri89 on oct,7,2010 and its on the initial process review.

[Yurika & Jim 77]

So... It looks like only CSC filers got this strange letter for now ...

Any VSC filer in the same boat?

[HikerMark 5]

I called USCIS last Friday about this issue.

The first guy I spoke to immediately recognized it as something he couldn't answer so escalated it to somebody more senior.

They confirmed that they have had several calls about it and they are still trying to identify what has happened. She confirmed that she can see on my file that they have received my biometrics which is why they don't know why these letters are being sent out.

Her advice was to send to the service center a copy of the odd NOA and a copy of the ASC receipted biometrics so that the service center can see that the biometrics have been done. That seems sensible advice to me.

According to my on-line status it still shows "initial review".

[sjowol 0]

as I didn't get the callback from the Supervisor I was promised last Tuesday I called back again this morning, again got escalated to the higher level and there the guy, before even hearing my case brought up the problem, apparently this is only a problem with people that filed at the California service center (can everyone confirm this?) and I can disregard this message.

For obvious reasons (mainly the "Please follow the instructions on the notice to submit the requested information. This case will be in suspense until we receive the evidence or the opportunity to submit it expires." part) I requested him to get this to me in writing. He then gave me this e-mail address: csc-ncsc-followup@dhs.gov which I have mailed requesting more info and a written "release".

Lets see what comes of that... what a major screw up this is

Edited November 29, 2010 by sjowol

[Nad 1]

Add us to the list,

we received this strange letter after the online status changed to RFE and I already done my biometric. I did an infopass today and the IO couldnt understand why they sent such letter. He checked the status on the computer found biometric is fine and cleared then advised to send a copy of the biometric and this letter to USCIS california.

[ManuFred 10]

as I didn't get the callback from the Supervisor I was promised last Tuesday I called back again this morning, again got escalated to the higher level and there the guy, before even hearing my case brought up the problem, apparently this is only a problem with people that filed at the California service center (can everyone confirm this?) and I can disregard this message.

For obvious reasons (mainly the "Please follow the instructions on the notice to submit the requested information. This case will be in suspense until we receive the evidence or the opportunity to submit it expires." part) I requested him to get this to me in writing. He then gave me this e-mail address: csc-ncsc-followup@dhs.gov which I have mailed requesting more info and a written "release".

Lets see what comes of that... what a major screw up this is

You might have triggered something in CA. Today my case got touched even though it is said that it is suspended. Hope the next letter will clearify things.