Immigration Forum / USA Marriage Base / August 2008

I recommend that you contact the local (closest to your home) office of
the US House of Representative that is responsible for the address that
you live at. They usually can be very helpful and responsive. At the
very least they may be able to direct you to some other assistance.
Most US Representatives have a staff member who is familiar with the
immigration system and has some access to getting information that is
better than "talking to a human" on the USCIS help line. The help line
has virtually no information that you can get by talking to them. They
do not have full access to your case at that telephone center. (sadly)
and even if they escalate it to a more expert person, they still don't
have access to the files details.

If the USCIS office will stamp your passport with the equivalent of a
Green Card (at least for travel), that will be fine. The stamp in your
passport is equivalent to having the Green Card. My wife had one of
those and we traveled with no problems.

Good luck to you.

another Bob (not a lawyer)

You can usually find out who that office In article
<7da9cb73-4c16-4b35-9afd-fa1b5db2c8ac@d77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,

Could the problems be from the time you got married til the time you filed
for the 751?    You are supposed to send it in 3 months before , up to your
2nd anniverasry. NOT almost 4 years after you were married.

W.

I came to the US on a K-1 and married June 2002. We hit bumps here and
there along the immigration process mostly due to moving to a
different state and then back a year later but those things all got
sorted out. Now I am sitting and waiting, and waiting for my
conditional status to be removed.
I sent in my FIRST I-751 on 03/16/06 and (thankfully) received my
receipt notice 3/20/06. On the NOA it said that my alien card was
extended for one year employment and travel authorized (expiry is
6/3/06). It also said that the form will require a minimum of 330 days
and if I hadn’t heard from them within 11 months I may contact the
office. Of course you can not contact the office by phone anymore so I
let things wait. In addition, when I called the Customer Service
Center, my receipt number could not be located.
Then I realized that I really no longer had any documentation that
would prove that I was authorized to work so in November 2007 I went
down to the local office (Phoenix) to see if they could tell what the
hold up was. They put a 'note' on my file and told me to wait to hear
something.
At the end of November I got a letter stating that after reviewing
their systems they could not find any evidence that I had filed the
application. But since I had evidence that they had received my
payment and I had the NOA they asked that I please resubmit the
application/petition. I sent this on December 20 as return receipt and
the receipt was stamped and returned 1/4/08. So I waited and this time
got nothing else.
On May 1 I paid another visit to the local office and the lovely lady
there told me she was able to locate me in the system and didn’t
understand what the hold up was. So she set me up for biometrics and
told me that sometimes that will get the ball rolling. I was
fingerprinted May 16. And again, I heard nothing.
I went to the service center again 2 weeks ago and asked what was
going on and said that I wanted to travel (back to Canada) but was
worried about messing things up with my petition. She told me to bring
my passport in and have it stamped. I am waiting for the passport
right now. It looks like it will take about 6 weeks. When I was there
she did look up my case/receipt number and told me that part of the
confusion could be that on my card my expiry is 6/3/06 (resident since
6/3/04) BUT in the system it said that the expiry is 2008 (she didn’t
tell me the entire date and I didn’t ask). She said they may figure
things out and send me something soon.
Trips to the mailbox have become a daily disappointment which I am
sure many of you can relate to. I do want to go home for a visit but I
don’t want to make this process take any longer than it already has.
Reading this newsgroup I learned that it may be an option for me to
apply for citizenship? I plan to do this anyway but I don’t want to
risk spending $675 if it won’t happen because of the status I am in
right now anyway.
I also have read that I could contact a Congressperson. Would that be
my state or California where my file is?
I have tried calling the National Customer Service Number but haven’t
figured out how to talk to a human. Perhaps someone can simply advise
me on that.
Sorry to be so wordy, I just want to give as much info as I can so
that possibly someone can guide me or even just sympathize :)
I appreciate any input you would like to give! This group has been a
great source of information over the years

In article
<7da9cb73-4c16-4b35-9afd-fa1b5db2c8ac@d77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,

-snip problems with I-751-

Well, I absolutely wouldn't leave the country until you've got
something -- either a new card or a letter extending your status.

That said, many here have said that filing for citizenship will force
them to straighten out the mess as the other stuff has to be done
before the citizenship application can be finished and it has priority.

Provided that you're qualified (still married with marriage and
resident status both being 3+ years), I don't see a downside in
applying now.  

It's never going to be cheaper, and it might help them get their
paperwork in order.