i-90 Instead of i-751: Did I Flush $900?

[Every-Mann 1]

Hello--

Let me begin by saying that this whole immigration process has been a bottomless pit of frustration. The process is convoluted to say the least, and my experience has been that each time I'd contact the USCIS call center to confirm protocol, I'd seemingly get a different answer. My wife is from Central America; we now have a 3-yr-old daughter, and she has a 14-yr-old daughter from a previous marriage. We have been working on immigration since 2010, and we fired our US-based lawyer two years ago because he kept supplying us with out-dated and unnecessary forms.

At any rate, our daughter was born in April of 2011, we were granted the visa to come into the US and get married later that same month, and after getting married here in the US in the summer of 2011, we were finally granted the two-year green cards for my wife and her 14-yr-old in July of 2012.

Fast forward to this past February (2014) when my wife and daughter were reminding me that their residency cards are set to expire in July. I reluctantly pulled up the USCIS site to once again delve into what's proven to be a sea of confusion, but when I read the instructions on "How Do I Know if I Need to File an I-90," I felt confident when seeing that one of the requirements for the I-90 is if the Permanent Residency card in question is due to expire in 6 months. I did see the mention of an I-751 for a Conditional Residency card, though checking our two cards, they clearly state "Permanent Resident," and in fact the word "conditional" is not mentioned even once on the cards.

You can see where this is going.

So I filled out the forms and sent in the $900 filing fee back in February, and then last month, a letter appeared in the mail reminding us that we need to file an I-751 "Petition to Remove Conditions." Oh uh...a google search shows that many others have made the same mistake. I've called into the USCIS three times now filing reports both over the phone and in writing stating that we made an error in filing the I-90 and not the I-751; that we'd like to cancel the unnecessary I-90 request and we would appreciate having our $900 returned.

Even the second-tier supervisors at the phone center seem to be reading out of a binder as they kick the can down the road with, "someone will get back to you at some point with a decision about the refund." I finally contacted my local congressman's assistant on these matters, and she's been told by someone at the USCIS that they do not refund $$ in these situations, and furthermore, the I-90 requests are still pending: we have to cancel them in writing. Which I've already done, as per the phone rep's instructions. Or so I thought.

Please don't call me an "idiot" about this, because I'm already furious enough. Four years now (and many 1000s of dollars later) we've been dealing with this. We are married and we have a biological child together, but after submitting form after form after form, I'm afraid I've set myself back to square 1. We are now inside the 90-day period to file the I-751 (which I have just sent off with yet another big check), but I don't know what to do to cancel the incorrect I-90 that I haven't already done. I'm still holding a glimmer of hope that my $900 will be returned, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

Any/all constructive advice welcomed.

Oh...and why doesn't a CONDITIONAL RESIDENCY CARD say CONDITIONAL on it?

Edited May 1, 2014 by Every-Mann

[Laure&Colin 558]

The first thing I would do right now if I were you would be to make an Infopass appointment at the local USCIS office to try and sort things out. Seems like talking to someone in person at a local office is a lot more helpful than calling the "misinformation line".

[Ning 619]

Hello--

Let me begin by saying that this whole immigration process has been a bottomless pit of frustration. The process is convoluted to say the least, and my experience has been that each time I'd contact the USCIS call center to confirm protocol, I'd seemingly get a different answer. My wife is from Central America; we now have a 3-yr-old daughter, and she has a 14-yr-old daughter from a previous marriage. We have been working on immigration since 2010, and we fired our US-based lawyer two years ago because he kept supplying us with out-dated and unnecessary forms.

At any rate, our daughter was born in April of 2011, we were granted the visa to come into the US and get married later that same month, and after getting married here in the US in the summer of 2011, we were finally granted the two-year green cards for my wife and her 14-yr-old in July of 2012.

Fast forward to this past February (2014) when my wife and daughter were reminding me that their residency cards are set to expire in July. I reluctantly pulled up the USCIS site to once again delve into what's proven to be a sea of confusion, but when I read the instructions on "How Do I Know if I Need to File an I-90," I felt confident when seeing that one of the requirements for the I-90 is if the Permanent Residency card in question is due to expire in 6 months. I did see the mention of an I-751 for a Conditional Residency card, though checking our two cards, they clearly state "Permanent Resident," and in fact the word "conditional" is not mentioned even once on the cards.

You can see where this is going.

So I filled out the forms and sent in the $900 filing fee back in February, and then last month, a letter appeared in the mail reminding us that we need to file an I-751 "Petition to Remove Conditions." Oh uh...a google search shows that many others have made the same mistake. I've called into the USCIS three times now filing reports both over the phone and in writing stating that we made an error in filing the I-90 and not the I-751; that we'd like to cancel the unnecessary I-90 request and we would appreciate having our $900 returned.

Even the second-tier supervisors at the phone center seem to be reading out of a binder as they kick the can down the road with, "someone will get back to you at some point with a decision about the refund." I finally contacted my local congressman's assistant on these matters, and she's been told by someone at the USCIS that they do not refund $$ in these situations, and furthermore, the I-90 requests are still pending: we have to cancel them in writing. Which I've already done, as per the phone rep's instructions. Or so I thought.

Please don't call me an "idiot" about this, because I'm already furious enough. Four years now (and many 1000s of dollars later) we've been dealing with this. We are married and we have a biological child together, but after submitting form after form after form, I'm afraid I've set myself back to square 1. We are now inside the 90-day period to file the I-751 (which I have just sent off with yet another big check), but I don't know what to do to cancel the incorrect I-90 that I haven't already done. I'm still holding a glimmer of hope that my $900 will be returned, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

Any/all constructive advice welcomed.

Oh...and why doesn't a CONDITIONAL RESIDENCY CARD say CONDITIONAL on it?

I agree that the best course of action is to make the Info Pass appointment. There you will speak directly to USCIS.

[didopage 337]

Oh...and why doesn't a CONDITIONAL RESIDENCY CARD say CONDITIONAL on it?

The fact that it is valid for 2 years only is the hint that it is a conditional status, but your wife is already a permanent resident. The wording "permanent" resident is very relative, as the status can be lost if the person is proven to not be residing in the US.

In fact, she's a permanent resident, under conditions.

[Robby999 1,024]

It does show that it is a conditional card, look at the category if it shows CR1 then it is a conditional residendence card, if it says IR1, then it is considered a ten year card.

[Hypnos 6,576]

I doubt you'll see that money again.

The I-90 instructions contain an explicit warning in bold type directly at the top: http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-90instr.pdf

Edited May 1, 2014 by Hypnos

[sms78 18]

Try Infopass. I wish you've asked VJ peeps before filing anything....

[Every-Mann 1]

It does show that it is a conditional card, look at the category if it shows CR1 then it is a conditional residendence card, if it says IR1, then it is considered a ten year card.

Hello--

The category listed is CF1 for both my wife and her daughter/my stepdaughter. Maybe the fine print in the paperwork two years ago mentioned "conditional" somewhere--I have no idea--but if the "c" in "CF1" is supposed to tip me off that our cards with banners that state "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PERMANENT RESIDENT" across the top are actually only conditional permanent resident cards, then I'm thinking they need to be made a hell of a lot clearer.

As I mentioned in the previous missive, I'm not here to get into an internet war with anyone over this: I'm trying to figure out how to proceed going forward and I'm hoping that some other weary soul who has similarly been put through the wringer by this long & laborious process will kindly share a bit of insight. The InfoPass looks like an excellent idea, but the USCIS website lists very specific situations whereby they will accept appointments under InfoPass. The closest to my situation of "Unable to Cancel Incorrectly Filed Form/Submitted Huge Chunk of My Monthly Salary Erroneously & Request Refund" seems to be "Case Services Follow-Up," whereby 45 days need to have elapsed since having contacted NCSC with no response. I'm a bit leery of putting myself even further behind the 8-ball by making an erroneous appointment for having filed an erroneous form. Anyone been through this and have advice...?

Thanks in advance. Aside from being livid at gifting $900 to this agency, I'm nervous that these "pending" I-90 cases are going to affect our I-751 applications.

[Robby999 1,024]

Maybe this link will give you some options also. https://www.dhs.gov/cis-ombudsman-update-getting-most-out-your-call-uscis-national-customer-service-center

[Laure&Colin 558]

It does show that it is a conditional card, look at the category if it shows CR1 then it is a conditional residendence card, if it says IR1, then it is considered a ten year card.

It is true, but to be honest you have to be a "VJ graduate" to know that! People who haven't spent long hours studying all details on this website like we did have no idea what that means.

The people at the USCIS office or lockbox who received the I90 applications, however, should have rejected them based on this category. It looks like even they had no clue, since they accepted them and cashed the check...

When did you cancel the I-90 in writing? Are you able to see the case status online?

If they are still pending, when an adjudicator finally takes a look, they should immediately reject them based on the fact that the applicants are not eligible and must remove conditions, which is the second set of applications that you sent. So I don't see why it should negatively affect the removal of conditions application.

I remember running into the same issue when I wanted to make an Infopass appointment a while ago: when I selected an issue close to what mine was, it didn't want to let me book one. I just tried to select every single issue/question randomly until it let me make an appointment

[Robby999 1,024]

If you do call the service center tell the CSR you want to talk with a supervisor. The supervisor will be able to actually give you some kind of information, the CSRs are usually not very helpful for anything other than the oridinary day to day questions.

CF1= someone who adjusts status from a fiancee visa (K-1)

CR1= someone who marries abroad and the marriage is less than 2 years when the foreign spouse enters the United States

[Every-Mann 1]

When did you cancel the I-90 in writing? Are you able to see the case status online?

.... I just tried to select every single issue/question randomly until it let me make an appointment

Thanks to Robby for the info link.

Hi Laure/Colin-- I mailed a letter to the Arizona lockbox between 3 and 4 weeks ago, as per the instructions of the USCIS phone rep. She told me that she was typing up an internal request to cancel the I-90 submissions and to ask for the $$ to be refunded, and then she instructed me as to what info I should include in my letter to the Arizona address.

At your InfoPass appointment, was the fact that you selected non-related questions to procure the meeting any sort of a problem? If I'm understanding correctly, I will make the InfoPass appointment online, and they will issue a date and time for me to present myself at the local office...? I seem to be confused as to whether these appointments are done online, or actually in person.

Thanks!

PS--Researching the erroneous I-90 "cases" on the USCIS website now, I see that it does show each of the two (wife & daughter) as being active/pending...

Edited May 1, 2014 by Every-Mann

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hi,

Sorry about your predicament. Unfortunately, you will not be getting a refund. The rules are clear; see the instructions for form I-90. No refunds unless you can show that its USCIS's fault. And here, its not USCIS's fault that you filed the I-90.

Sorry and best of luck with the ROC.

[Robby999 1,024]

Good Luck! Hope everything works out for you. Just remember to use this site anytime you have any questions at all.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Robby999

[Every-Mann 1]

Sorry about your predicament. Unfortunately, you will not be getting a refund. The rules are clear; see the instructions for form I-90. No refunds unless you can show that its USCIS's fault. And here, its not USCIS's fault that you filed the I-90.

Hello--

The "rules" about not refunding money are about the only thing that has been clear in this entire 47-step process that seems to be as confusing, tedious, and ambivalent as possible by design. I'm not a conspiracy theory person or an anti-powers-that-be person, but I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with the government saying, "you screwed up and we know you screwed up by submitting the wrong form at first, but we are keeping your free money anyway."