Help! Still no receipt notice after 94 days of filing!

[Ykgq18]

I have posted my situation last week, but here we go again. Here is what I posted last week:

A little background story. I am currently on OPT visa expiring 7/9/2018. However, my husband (US Citizen) and I got married legally on 1/13/2018, and have our lawyer file i-485 on 3/15/2018. Our application was shown received by USCIS Chicago lockbox on 3/18/2018 on the post office slip.

Now I am really worried because we have not gotten any receipt notice yet at all! My lawyer kept mentioning about how the processing time has drastically increase for Green Card application, but what I am confused is that, why haven?t we receive some sort of notification or case number yet after 13 weeks? Is this normal? I am starting to think of hiring another lawyer.

Updates:

We called the USCIS last Friday and the level 2 personnel said there is no record of my application in the system, he asked me to check with my bank to see if the check has been cashed. If it is, the receipt number will be written on the back of the check. So we called the bank and it has been cashed on March 22. HOWEVER, when my husband went to the bank to get the copy of check cleared, our lawyer has written her name on it! When we confronted our lawyer, apparently she has cashed our check to her account, but made another check with the same amount out to USCIS. (Is this legal?)

Anyway, our lawyer has been asking us to wait for our receipt notice, she said she is part of a lawyer group and she is constantly talking with other lawyers about updates on immigration news and stuff. She also mentioned we are not the only case that hasn't gotten our receipt notice yet.

I am devastated and freaking out because it has been 94 days since USCIS lockbox has received our case! My lawyer said there is nothing we can do but wait! We are still waiting on the lawyer to see if the check she re-sent to USCIS has been cashed but she has been taking forever to reply us.

Is there anything else I could do to bypass the lawyer? I am really counting on my EAD card to continue working. Please advice!

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

I have posted my situation last week, but here we go again. Here is what I posted last week:

A little background story. I am currently on OPT visa expiring 7/9/2018. However, my husband (US Citizen) and I got married legally on 1/13/2018, and have our lawyer file i-485 on 3/15/2018. Our application was shown received by USCIS Chicago lockbox on 3/18/2018 on the post office slip.

Now I am really worried because we have not gotten any receipt notice yet at all! My lawyer kept mentioning about how the processing time has drastically increase for Green Card application, but what I am confused is that, why haven?t we receive some sort of notification or case number yet after 13 weeks? Is this normal? I am starting to think of hiring another lawyer.

Updates:

We called the USCIS last Friday and the level 2 personnel said there is no record of my application in the system, he asked me to check with my bank to see if the check has been cashed. If it is, the receipt number will be written on the back of the check. So we called the bank and it has been cashed on March 22. HOWEVER, when my husband went to the bank to get the copy of check cleared, our lawyer has written her name on it! When we confronted our lawyer, apparently she has cashed our check to her account, but made another check with the same amount out to USCIS. (Is this legal?)

Anyway, our lawyer has been asking us to wait for our receipt notice, she said she is part of a lawyer group and she is constantly talking with other lawyers about updates on immigration news and stuff. She also mentioned we are not the only case that hasn't gotten our receipt notice yet.

I am devastated and freaking out because it has been 94 days since USCIS lockbox has received our case! My lawyer said there is nothing we can do but wait! We are still waiting on the lawyer to see if the check she re-sent to USCIS has been cashed but she has been taking forever to reply us.

Is there anything else I could do to bypass the lawyer? I am really counting on my EAD card to continue working. Please advice!

Lawyers and their dirty tricks. First of all, you can get your receipt by calling USCIS 10 days after the lockbox received your applications. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that your lawyer has not actually sent in your AOS application package. It's happened before. It happened to Mr.Diaz. His lawyer kept telling him he had filed until Mr.Diaz pressured the lawyer and he confessed he had not filed.

That confirmation from USPS is probably somebody else's. Pressure your lawyer and tell him/her that you will report him/her to the State Bar association and better business bureau. Record the conversation when you call. Lawyers will say anything to get you off the phone. "You are not the only case that has not gotten a receipt notice". That's a lie. My case was received 97 days ago.

[MissTz1982]

I have posted my situation last week, but here we go again. Here is what I posted last week:

A little background story. I am currently on OPT visa expiring 7/9/2018. However, my husband (US Citizen) and I got married legally on 1/13/2018, and have our lawyer file i-485 on 3/15/2018. Our application was shown received by USCIS Chicago lockbox on 3/18/2018 on the post office slip.

Now I am really worried because we have not gotten any receipt notice yet at all! My lawyer kept mentioning about how the processing time has drastically increase for Green Card application, but what I am confused is that, why haven?t we receive some sort of notification or case number yet after 13 weeks? Is this normal? I am starting to think of hiring another lawyer.

Updates:

We called the USCIS last Friday and the level 2 personnel said there is no record of my application in the system, he asked me to check with my bank to see if the check has been cashed. If it is, the receipt number will be written on the back of the check. So we called the bank and it has been cashed on March 22. HOWEVER, when my husband went to the bank to get the copy of check cleared, our lawyer has written her name on it! When we confronted our lawyer, apparently she has cashed our check to her account, but made another check with the same amount out to USCIS. (Is this legal?)

Anyway, our lawyer has been asking us to wait for our receipt notice, she said she is part of a lawyer group and she is constantly talking with other lawyers about updates on immigration news and stuff. She also mentioned we are not the only case that hasn't gotten our receipt notice yet.

I am devastated and freaking out because it has been 94 days since USCIS lockbox has received our case! My lawyer said there is nothing we can do but wait! We are still waiting on the lawyer to see if the check she re-sent to USCIS has been cashed but she has been taking forever to reply us.

Is there anything else I could do to bypass the lawyer? I am really counting on my EAD card to continue working. Please advice!

I?m so sorry to read this. Something is not right. Who sent the package? You or your lawyer? And I?m definitely sure you can go to your bank again and ask them to see which account the check went to. They will definely be able to tell you. If it is USCIS or the Lawyer?s. If it?s the lawyer?s then take the print out and go back to your lawyer and ask them to show you the check they wrote to USCIS. I have never heard of this practice by an immigration lawyer before. Maybe it exists.

My Paralegal prepared my file and made sure everything was ok then put it in an envelope for me and gave it to me to send. He did everything while I was looking and all I had to pay was $500.

I really hope something fishy didn?t happen.

[Ykgq18]

Lawyers and their dirty tricks. First of all, you can get your receipt by calling USCIS 10 days after the lockbox received your applications. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that your lawyer has not actually sent in your AOS application package. It's happened before. It happened to Mr.Diaz. His lawyer kept telling him he had filed until Mr.Diaz pressured the lawyer and he confessed he had not filed.

That confirmation from USPS is probably somebody else's. Pressure your lawyer and tell him/her that you will report him/her to the State Bar association and better business bureau. Record the conversation when you call. Lawyers will say anything to get you off the phone. "You are not the only case that has not gotten a receipt notice". That's a lie. My case was received 97 days ago.

OMG you might be right. There is no tracking number on the post office slip! I am freaking out now, she told us she will be giving us the copy of the check in 1-3 business days!

[MissTz1982]

Lawyers and their dirty tricks. First of all, you can get your receipt by calling USCIS 10 days after the lockbox received your applications. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that your lawyer has not actually sent in your AOS application package. It's happened before. It happened to Mr.Diaz. His lawyer kept telling him he had filed until Mr.Diaz pressured the lawyer and he confessed he had not filed.

That confirmation from USPS is probably somebody else's. Pressure your lawyer and tell him/her that you will report him/her to the State Bar association and better business bureau. Record the conversation when you call. Lawyers will say anything to get you off the phone. "You are not the only case that has not gotten a receipt notice". That's a lie. My case was received 97 days ago.

I swear some Immigration lawyers are the scam of the earth. How can they prey on innocent people like this who are trying to adjust their status. The process is already expensive and draining. Ugh!!! My blood is boiling right now and it?s not even me that it happened to.

[Ykgq18]

I?m so sorry to read this. Something is not right. Who sent the package? You or your lawyer? And I?m definitely sure you can go to your bank again and ask them to see which account the check went to. They will definely be able to tell you. If it is USCIS or the Lawyer?s. If it?s the lawyer?s then take the print out and go back to your lawyer and ask them to show you the check they wrote to USCIS. I have never heard of this practice by an immigration lawyer before. Maybe it exists.

My Paralegal prepared my file and made sure everything was ok then put it in an envelope for me and gave it to me to send. He did everything while I was looking and all I had to pay was $500.

I really hope something fishy didn?t happen.

My lawyer prepared everything. When we found out she cashed our check and confronted her, she sort of fling the copy of the checks she made to USCIS quickly to us (I only saw that it was made to USCIS). Now I regretted not checking the dates on it. I am so upset right now, my husband is asking her through FB messenger so we can have evidence of what she said in case we need to report her.

[MissTz1982]

My lawyer prepared everything. When we found out she cashed our check and confronted her, she sort of fling the copy of the checks she made to USCIS quickly to us (I only saw that it was made to USCIS). Now I regretted not checking the dates on it. I am so upset right now, my husband is asking her through FB messenger so we can have evidence of what she said in case we need to report her.

Google her full name or her business name if she has one and check if she pops up on the search. Then see if you can find reviews on her. I google services before I use them. She might not even be a registered lawyer. Who knows. Search her on yelp as well.

Don?t be upset. I know it?s easy for me to say but try and focus. I don?t know which state or city you live in but let me know. If you live in Atlanta, I don?t mind forwarding you the info of the person that did mine. If you still want to use a legal service to file your case please google Non-profit organizations for Immigration services. They charge less and do their jobs. We have plenty of them here in ATL and that?s who I used.

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

I swear some Immigration lawyers are the scam of the earth. How can they prey on innocent people like this who are trying to adjust their status. The process is already expensive and draining. Ugh!!! My blood is boiling right now and it?s not even me that it happened to.

Yes! It's very irritating. As if immigrants didn't already have enough challenges.

[Hluu67]

I am so sorry that stuff happened to you. I dont trust in immigrationlawyers. If the check you wrote on it with ?to the order of USCIS? and the lawyer cashed to her account, i think it is illegal. Why in the world still has some dirty people like that just for some thousand dollars?? And today processing time is painfully long. I hope you can report her and maybe try to re-send the application by yourself. If you don?t know what to do with the forms you can ask people in this forum, or call USCIS and ask them whatever you are not clear. I was confused too. I didn?t know what forms to write and I called them and bother them to answer all my questions. I was thinking about hiring a lawyer to do all paperwork for us but my auntie said dont waste money for nothing. We really can do it by ourselves. I don?t know much about the legal advice but im sure many people here can help. If i were you i would go to confront everything to that lawyer, tell him/her what is going on and if they keep telling me to wait, i would restart the case and send them by myself. Reporting them later because as sooner as you send the case, the better it is since now things can change any time.

[krypton9591]

My lawyer prepared everything. When we found out she cashed our check and confronted her, she sort of fling the copy of the checks she made to USCIS quickly to us (I only saw that it was made to USCIS). Now I regretted not checking the dates on it. I am so upset right now, my husband is asking her through FB messenger so we can have evidence of what she said in case we need to report her.

This is a Prime example of why a good portion of the senior member on here recommend self filing for AOS, also be very wary of immigration attorneys who reach out over ********. there's a lot of scam artists out there even some that have offices to make it appear to be a legitimate business. I'd look up his/her license number and see if he/she even licensed to practice law in my opinion. and definitely report them regardless for unsatisfactory and borderline illegal business practices(I say borderline because it's not confirmed if she actually sent it or not). Did you happen to see if you or your husbands names were mentioned on the check copy at all as a reference to which file it was for? or did she just throw a random copy of a check to you for someone else hoping you'd just accept it without really looking at it? This situation just screams scam to me. I hope it works out and I wish you the best.

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

Did you keep copies of your application package and evidence of bona fide marriage evidence? Here's a lesson I live by. When people show you who they are, believe them.
I think you need to get your documents back from your lawyer, as well as your check. There are plenty of organizations that will look through your documents to make sure everything is order.

You know, this may be a blessing in disguise. Take this opportunity to triple check your applications. Come back to the forum and ask questions. And hopefully, this so-called lawyer told you that ALL EVIDENCE OF BONA FIDE MARRIAGE is required at the time of filing. So if you did not send it in, then this your chance to submit a meticulously complete AOS package.

This link has everything you need to gather and stage your evidence of bona fide marriage.

https://www.immihelp.com/forum/showthread.php/239999-Links-Evidence-of-bona-fide-marriage-for-I-130-I-485-filing-amp-interview-tips

[Ykgq18]

Google her full name or her business name if she has one and check if she pops up on the search. Then see if you can find reviews on her. I google services before I use them. She might not even be a registered lawyer. Who knows. Search her on yelp as well.

Don?t be upset. I know it?s easy for me to say but try and focus. I don?t know which state or city you live in but let me know. If you live in Atlanta, I don?t mind forwarding you the info of the person that did mine. If you still want to use a legal service to file your case please google Non-profit organizations for Immigration services. They charge less and do their jobs. We have plenty of them here in ATL and that?s who I used.

Thank you kindly, you have been so sweet! We are based on Chicago, IL and her name did popped up on Google and on illinois lawyers website. I paid $2,500 for the service and I am just afraid of re-doing everything. I went through quite the process of getting my medical records and now she had the sealed original one that was supposed to be send to USCIS. My husband can?t wrap his head around why she is going through this to scam $2.5k.

[krypton9591]

Thank you kindly, you have been so sweet! We are based on Chicago, IL and her name did popped up on Google and on illinois lawyers website. I paid $2,500 for the service and I am just afraid of re-doing everything. I went through quite the process of getting my medical records and now she had the sealed original one that was supposed to be send to USCIS. My husband can?t wrap his head around why she is going through this to scam $2.5k.

might also check to see how many complaints she has against her, just cause she's licensed to practice, doesn't mean she's good, I mean have you seen the Dallas cowboys play recently? they're all professional athletes, but they're horrible!

[MissTz1982]

Thank you kindly, you have been so sweet! We are based on Chicago, IL and her name did popped up on Google and on illinois lawyers website. I paid $2,500 for the service and I am just afraid of re-doing everything. I went through quite the process of getting my medical records and now she had the sealed original one that was supposed to be send to USCIS. My husband can?t wrap his head around why she is going through this to scam $2.5k.

You are quite welcome. Don?t be afraid of redoing your application. This is just a bump on the road that you can overcome. Try as much as possible to get your money back from this lawyer. Do you have a receipt of all the payments you made to her for her services? I hope you do. Do you have any text message communications with her? If so you need to threaten her that you will report her if she doesn?t give you the money or your application back.

At this point you can no longer trust her. Work on getting your money back and re do the application by yourself or like I said get a non- profit immigration services

Here is the link for different ones in Chicago IL.
Some of them are churches and others are just lawyers. They do go over your application too if you do it yourself.

https://www.immigrationadvocates.org/nonprofit/legaldirectory/search?state=IL

Oh and some might not even charge you if you tell them what happened to you. I believe there are some that do it for free or at a really minimal fee.

[kaylip]

Wow. Unbelievable. I'm so sorry this happened to you. I really don't know why lawyers mail the packages. I always believed that the person should have some sort of control when filing. The possibility exist that she may not even be real lawyer. Smh