Green Card Lost In Mail

[AtariBaby 17]

Has anyone been through this? Chronology of lost green card so far:

• We finally made it through our "Visa Journey", or so we thought, when we received the "Welcome to the United States" letter and notification that our green card was picked up by USPS. Not so.
  
• The card never showed up. I called after 7 days, as the website recommends, and was given a tracking number and told not to worry, it often takes longer to receive the mail. The last entry on the tracking says "Priority Mail® Arrival at Post Office June 14, 2012, 5:34 am SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158 Expected Delivery By: June 14, 2012 Delivery Confirmation™
  
• I have called USPS about 25 times, and gotten pretty much a different answer from each person I've talked to about the status of the mailing and what might happen, and what to do about it. But at the end of the day, no one knows what happened to it.
  
• USCIS call center would not entertain further inquiries until the 30 day mark. At that point, they took our info, and told us we'd hear something in 15 days.
  
• We received a letter incorrectly stating that our "USPS showed they delivered our green card". This indicates that either the form letter doesn't anticipate this circumstance, or the human who sent it wasn't paying attention. We were instructed to fill out form I-90 for a replacement. If I read this correctly, we have to submit basically the $500+ fees all over again, plus go to biometrics, plus possibly have another interview! Here are the relevant parts:
  
• "Filing Fee :$365. (Add $85 biometric fee for a total of $450, where applicable. See the form instructions for payment details.) See the table under "Special Instructions" for more detail."
  "Application Type B: My card was issued but never received. There is no fee, but you must meet these criteria: We mailed the card over 30 days ago. It was returned to us as undeliverable" As I understand it, because it is lost in USPS and hasn't been returned to them, we must pay these staggering fees!
  
• The full instructions also state we may have to another interview.
  

I am in terrible financial shape right now and I don't know how I can survive this setback. Any advice is welcome.

Edited July 15, 2012 by AtariBaby

[CC90 90]

First, I would get the USPS delivery confirmation number for the green card (which it sounds like you have_. Then, you can try talking to the post office to find out what happened--preferably in person. Although they don't seem to admit it, I've personally had a few items that they marked as "delivered" and I never received them. If you eventually get them to track it down--or get some written evidence of it not being delivered, I would file I-90 with no fee and the attached evidence. It would cost you nothing to see what happens.

In short, the only way you're going to get anywhere in this battle is some evidence from USPS. If this isn't possible, you'll likely have to pay for the card.

You won't need another interview, though.

Edited July 15, 2012 by CC90

[AtariBaby 17]

Thanks. Have tracking #, and talked to many postal employees in person as well as by phone.

And yes, I know from years of sending and receiving parcels, "tracking" is a joke where USPS is concerned. It's more like the illusion of tracking, in order to appear more like UPS and FedEx. But I won't hijack my own thread with my horror stories.

I hope you're right about the interview, but I do note that a biometrics fee is part of it, seeming to indicate we'll have to do that part again, at least, yes?

[tru_loves_journey 117]

Sorry to hear this happened to you, I hope usps can locate it. Good Luck

[Hypnos 6,576]

Believe me when I say I know that "limbo sucks".

You have gotten good advice already. If it was me I would be going down to the post office in SF and asking to speak to a supervisor / postmaster and explain the situation. They can hopefully issue you some kind of document showing that you did not receive the card.

I suspect that most likely your green card was delivered, just to someone else. In this case you would need to rely on the good grace of whoever received it to either mark it as "Return to sender - not known at address" (or similar) or maybe they just threw it in the trash. Or perhaps it's sitting on a shelf at the post office instead.

Either way, I'd be hot-footing it down to the post office to make further enquiries in person (after all, it's harder to ignore someone when they are standing right in front of you).

Edited July 15, 2012 by Hypnos

[twonightowls 1]

Sorry to hear this horrible experience and I hope you will retrieve it soon! Please keep us posted, OP.

[AtariBaby 17]

Time for an update: I kept going around to different postal locations and calling various offices and no one ever knew anything.

After being lost in the mail for nearly 8 weeks, we received it, marked "Delivered to Wrong Address". What's scary is, I had just been sent a form to report it lost or stolen, and because the GC wasn't received by USCIS "Returned to Sender", we would have had to pay over $500 again.

Had I not dragged my heels on filing that form, I would be in another phase of red tape, because the green card we finally received would have been flagged as lost or stolen.

To future searchers finding yourself in this predicament, make of this what you will and good luck to you.

Edited July 29, 2012 by AtariBaby

[twonightowls 1]

Time for an update: I kept going around to different postal locations and calling various offices and no one ever knew anything.

After being lost in the mail for nearly 8 weeks, we received it, marked "Delivered to Wrong Address". What's scary is, I had just been sent a form to report it lost or stolen, and because the GC wasn't received by USCIS "Returned to Sender", we would have had to pay over $500 again.

Had I not dragged my heels on filing that form, I would be in another phase of red tape, because the green card we finally received would have been flagged as lost or stolen.

To future searchers finding yourself in this predicament, make of this what you will and good luck to you.

What a great relief to hear that ! Congratulations on getting it back, and it's such a blessing that it was not stolen or anything.

[tru_loves_journey 117]

Good to know you finally received it. Congrats and Good Luck to you

[DC85 113]

Congrats for receiving the card

PS: There is no fees for sending another Green Card if it was not delivered- I90, Since you were approved you r not gonna repeat the whole process. because I saw you freckling out about it. You gained you PRS since the officer approved your case, and regarding the plastic card you could replace it with no fess in such circumstances. I just wanted to make this issue clear for the others. and congrats again

Edited July 30, 2012 by myafi1985

[SOflaherty 40]

So glad it finally showed up!!!

[aayitrun 66]

this is hearsay, but green cards that stay out of the owners hands for 8+ weeks like that taste sweeter.