Lost 10 year green cards

[yave20b]

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.

[Randy W]

They reward themselves with periodic fee increases for "improved service".

[dale7570]

They reward themselves with periodic fee increases for "improved service".

 

LOL! now thats funny!

Edited November 21, 2008 by dale7570 (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

I wonder what they would have done if instead of sending the second I-90, you send an N-400 for citizenship, and with a second I-90 with 2.b checked indicating forget the green-card and lets just go for citizenship, and a shiny blue US Passport.

[yave20b]

I wonder what they would have done if instead of sending the second I-90, you send an N-400 for citizenship, and with a second I-90 with 2.b checked indicating forget the green-card and lets just go for citizenship, and a shiny blue US Passport.

 

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.

Edited November 22, 2008 by yave20b (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

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.

Correct, naturalization is based on 3+ years of permanent residency, a simple photo copy of the 2 year CR-Green card would do for evidence to attach to the N-400 even if the card were expired.

[rogerluli]

These kinds of endless screw-ups are a major reason why we will defintely be going for US citizenship as soon as possible...

[dnoblett]

These kinds of endless screw-ups are a major reason why we will defintely be going for US citizenship as soon as possible...

Exactly, My wife would like to be able to file an I-130 for her sister+Bro-In-Law+Nephew ASAP, cant happen until after she obtains citizenship.