yave20b

She Finally passed. We went to her interview, which was early in the morning. Her interviewer came out and introduced himself to both me and my wife, told me he would bring her back in about 30 minutes, and left. Exactly 30 minutes later they came back, she had a big smile on her face, and he congratulated me was well. My wife said he was very, very nice. She said he told her not to be nervous as he took her to the interview room. He checked out her green card, made a photocopy of it, and then chatted with her for a few minutes about general things not related to immigration. Because of our application date, my wife had to take the new test, she did not have the option of choosing between the old or new. Then he gave her a sentence to read...she can't remember what it was but said she had no trouble. He gave her one sentence to write, which she also couldn't remember also..but she passed. She did say both the reading and writing test came from the words that are listed in the English Test at the end of the study guide at Study Guide. As for the civcs and history test, he asked her 10 of the questions that came from the new study guide and she got all 10 correct. Now the odd thing is that we forgot to send in any of the required documents when we sent in our N-400. We never got a RFE for an any of them. So I put together copies of all those necessary documents in a notebook, and also had another notebook with the originals in them, which my wife took into the interview with her. She told him she had all those things with her but he said he didn't want to see them. The only thing he wanted were the two passport photos which we brought with us. We've already received her oath ceremony letter and she will do her oath in 3 weeks. What a long trip this has been. Both of us are so happy its finally over.

Here's an update on our situation since I sent in my wife's N-400 without any of the required documents. We received her appointment letter about 3 weeks ago for her interview and exam. She will have her interview and exam this week. In the appointment letter we got, they asked us to essentially bring those documents, that we were supposed to have sent in with our N-400, to her interview. We've never received any other letter from them regarding the missing documents. And oddly, we never got an appointment letter for her biometric stuff. My wife's been studying for the exam since last summer. And I'll be doing mock interviews with her this weekend to get her prepared.

Well, we tracked the package and it was delivered to the service center exactly 1 week ago today. And today we show they cashed our check for $675. So I guess they aren't going to fail it outright. Maybe they'll just send us an RFE later for all that stuff I didn't send. But here's a strange one. Last week my wife's Chinese friend came over for dinner. She's married to an American guy and she just got her citizenship in November. She told us her husband sent in only the N-400 and nothing else. They never did an RFE for anything. She did her biometrics and got her interview letter. And when she went for her interview she took along her original papers (marriage license, bank stuff, etc) but they never asked to see it. She said they had her file in front of them and it was about 2 inches thick so she thinks they had all the stuff they had on her from her fiancee visa, 2 year GC, and 10 year GC.

Well, after flawlessly filling out of the endless numbers of forms since I met my wife in China in 2004 to get her through the 10 year green card, I finally screwed up. I studied the N-400 the past week along with the instructions, filled it out, and mailed it in today with my $675. Then I came to CFL to look around and discovered I had failed to read ALL of the "Guide to Naturalization", especially page 48, "Document Checklist". I thought it was too easy just sending in the form with nothing else, but I was in a hurry. So now my wife's N-400 is on its way to the USCIS without any of the endless volumes of required documents. No doubt they will fail it and return it to me who knows when. But it would have been nice if they had included all the required documents in the N-400ins, which they do with the instructions that come with all other forms. Just when I thought I was seeing the light at the end of this long nightmarish immigration tunnel, it turns out to be another oncoming train. When will it end?

Funny you should ask this question because this same thing happened to a friend of my wife's. After not receiving her green card for over 1 and 1/2 years and countless InfoPass trips as well as having the I-551 stamped in her passport twice, she finally got fed up waiting for the 10 year green card and went ahead and sent in her N-400 about 8 months ago. Within about 2 months she was notified that she would have to go through 2 interviews, both on the same day. In the first, they wanted to know why she applied for naturalization when she didn't have a 10 year green card (duh). After she explained what she had been going through for the past 1 and 1/2 years they informed her also that missing green cards in the mail are a frequent problem and approved whatever they had to approve her for in that interview so she could go to the next interview, which was the naturalization interview. They approved the second interview and she was naturalized within the next 4 or 5 months as I remember. She told my wife she sent in the I-90 ,box 2.b., checked once and it was ignored.

For anyone who has to face this problem, which is happening quite frequently, here's what we went through to resolve it. First up we applied for my wife's 10 year green card back in Oct. 2007. Everything went smoothly until Mar. 2008 when I saw it was approved on the USCIS website under "Case Status". However, we never got either the approval letter or green card. We did the customer service number thing and were told by the rep that there are a lot of people who did not receive their green cards. She told us to fill out the I-90 and check box 2.b. that says we never got it. We did. Nothing happened. I know they got it because I sent it by Certified Mail and see it was received by them. We never even got a notification from them saying they have received our I-90 as you get will all other forms submitted. And by the way, they don't allow you to file the I-90 online if you are checking off box 2.b. Second, after about 3 months we made an Infopass appt. and went to see if we could resolve this and get her passport stamped with the I-551 because we needed to go to China to see her parents and we had no valid green card at this point. We were again told by the officer these missing green cards seem to be happening a lot but oh by the way he can't stamp her passport unless we send in a new I-90 and check box 2.a., which basically says we admit we lost it or it was stolen, which implies we received it. And of course that means we have to pay the fee again. Well, I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and pay again. This time I did the online I-90 to speed things up. We wait another almost 3 months and nothing still except for a Notice of Action letter about our online I-90 and her appointment for the biometrics again. So I do another InfoPass just see if I can get the I-551 stamped in her passport because at this point we have only 1 month left. This time they check their computer and see I paid again and stamp her passport with the I-551. Off we go to China in October and the green card comes two days after we leave, just slightly over 1 year after we first filed for the first 10 year green card. Here's my beef. When we came back to the US last week the immigration officer at the airport asks why we have an I-551 and when I explain what happened she also says that this is happening a lot. So what the hay? I've got 3 immigration officers telling us that green cards are disappearing in the mail left and right so the USCIS obviously knows about it, yet they do nothing to correct the problem. Instead they blame it on the victims and force them to pay again. A Google search of this subject will find many people facing this same problem....it is not a rare thing. And I think not only do they know it is a serious problem, but they are trying to hide it from whoever overseas them in Congress. This is why they ignore any I-90s with box 2.b. checked...they don't send a NOA or process them....so they never get recorded and therefore never get reported. Another Google search also shows many other people having their I-90s with box 2.b. checked ignored. Some people have sent in two I-90's with box 2.b. checked and both were ignored. And that's probably why they don't allow you to do the I-90 online with box 2.b. checked because then it will be automatically logged into their system and show up in a report somewhere. I tried to do that and their system stopped me from doing that. Bottom line, if you don't get your green card within 30 of notification of approval kiss it goodbye. Don't waste your time calling customer service, don't waste your time doing InfoPass, and don't waste your time with the I-90 box 2.b.(I never got it thing). Just go online and do the box 2.a. and pay by credit card. In all we paid about $1000 for a 10 year green card but suffered more stress by trying to play the game.

OK, I know this topic has been beaten to death here because I read the zillions of post on this name change thing. But I could not find anything specifically about our situation. My wife is about to start down the naturalization road and we are working on the N-400 now. For the part about using the naturalization process to change her name, I understand when someone wants to use their maiden name as their middle name or hyphenate their maiden name and married name or change their last name because of marriage, etc. because they are using legal names that they already have through marriage or birth and such. But my wife has only her first name (Chinese) and her last name (my last name) which has been on all of our USCIS stuff from the beginning and she doesn't want to change any of that. Because she has no middle name she wants to have one but not use her maiden name as her middle name. She just wants to pick an English name of her liking and use that for her middle name. Is that Kosher to just pull a name out of nowhere and use it like that? I understand that the answer to this question will probably be given to us during her interview process and if they say its Kosher then she has to complete the "Petition for Name Change" at that time. I'm not sure whether to say "Yes" on "Would you like to legally change your name?" and fill out what she wants? Or answer "No" and let her ask about that at the interview? Any advice or insight would be welcomed. Thanks.

No nothing. We called customer service and they told us pretty much nothing except to tell us that there are a lot of people with our situation (never received the green cards that were supposedly sent) and to send in an I-90 specifying we have not received our green card. We sent that about 2 weeks ago. We also have an "InfoPass" appointment this Friday to see if my wife can get her passport stamped so that we can go back to China in October since the processing time for the I-90 is 8 months right now at the California Service Center where our I-751 was processed. I'm still very skeptical that either the green card or the welcome letter were even sent. I can understand the odds that one of the two letters might have been lost in the mail but I find it very hard to believe that both coming from different places are lost. The post office seems to have no trouble at all delivering tons of "junk mail" with my wife's name on it to our address. I can't believe they would lose two important pieces of mail coming from the USCIS. I'm really starting to think that the USCIS computer system is so screwed up that their system is showing our stuff processed and sent when in fact it probably is not processed and sent. Doing a Google search on the I-90 I've found tons of people in our exact situation all within the past 6 months. We try to keep our faith that this will all be resolved quickly but I'm afraid the USCIS is so screwed up right now that deep down inside I doubt this will be resolved within the next year.

I sent in the I-90 today. Later I will make an InfoPass appointment and see if we can have her passport stamped. I'm just curious, do most people get two letters (1 for the GC and 1 for the approval letter)? Or do both come in the same envelope. It seems strange that if one gets two separate letters after approval for the 10 year GC that both would get lost.

I'm not sure what the other step involved would be. I checked the "Case Status Online" every day for my case and back on March 16 the online status said they had sent an order to have my wife's GC produced. Then the next week on March 24 the online status said they had sent us a notice that they have approved the "CRI89 PETITION TO REMOVE CONDITIONS OF PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS". Now the online status also said "Please follow any instructions on the notice" and I'm wondering about what instructions might have been there. But we've never received either the GC or the notice. I did verify my address with customer service this morning. I'm looking at making an InfoPass appointment about this crap.

Yes I'm trying to laugh. But its getting harder and harder to laugh. I'm not sure about the InfoPass thing for this. Reading older posts here and on other sites there was a time you could use the InfoPass if your card was stolen. But always cards that were never received in the first place had to go in the past, and still have to go now, to the Service Center processing your I-751. The newer instructions however are still not clear about what to do for having it stolen. In fact the new instructions just completely avoid that scenario altogether. So I'm faced with the big problem. Do I submit first as never received, wait 8 months for them to reject it if the card was not returned to USCIS, then resubmit again? Or do I just submit first time as having been stolen, and give them their $370 fee. At this point I only want to take my wife to China to see her parents in October so I want to see if they can stamp her passport someway to show she is still legal. On one other website someone with the same situation said the local office will not stamp the passport if you send it in as "never received" and not enclose the fee. Man this is a real catch 22 for us. What to do?

Yes actually it does. Because I never imagined they could ever top themselves for the absolute stupidity they have shown for everything else. But obviously they must have scientists working around the clock at USCIS to come of with ever more incredibly stupid things. No doubt, if there was a Nobel Prize for stupidity, the USCIS rocket scientists would win hands down every time.

Well, our 10 year green card was approved back on March 16 according to the online status. But we never received it. So today I called customer service. They told me I would have to fill out the I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card. So now I'm filling it out. The instructions say you have to check the box that says if you never received the card, check box b, "My authorized card was never received" and you don't have to pay the $290.00 fee. Fine. But here's what really floors me. The instructions say that when they receive your I-90, and you checked box #2, they will check to see if the card was returned to them and if it was not returned to them, they will reject your I-90. You then are required to submit another I-90, check box a, "My card was lost, stolen, or destroyed" and pay the $290.00 fee. Now is that stupid or what? It would seem it would be common sense that if a card was sent to someone and returned to them as undeliverable, they would at least make some attempt to check and see why it was not delivered. Say perhaps call the phone number they ask you for again and again and again on all the forms. I wonder how many months we'll have to wait for them to process the first I-90, reject it, then process the new I-90. I'm looking at the processing times at the California Service Center and for the I-90 they are only on August 2007. For the I-751 they are on October. So I'm guessing that it will take more than a year for them to process our I-90 if they reject the first one and make us resubmit. And here we are sitting on non-refundable airplane tickets to go back to China in October. I'm speechless.

Thanks for the information. I'm feeling a little better now that I at least know I have several possible courses of action to take.

We haven't moved for 4 years and we've always gotten every thing they have ever sent us. My biggest worry is that someone else got the letter(s) and just threw them away.