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Hopefully my signature will display with most of my info. Sorry that this may come out like a novel, though I feel in this matter, the details are important.
We had our interview in NYC on 11/01/2019 and the outcome was that they may request further evidence within the next 120 days. On 11/04/2019, we booked airfare to visit her family in China from 01/20-02/19/2019.
We did receive a letter on 01/17/2020 (mailed 01/09/2020), that they have scheduled a Stokes interview for 02/06/2020 at 12PM. On that Saturday (01/18/2020), I send the return sheet requesting a postponement due to the fact we will be out of the country and include a copy of the flight details which I have sent delivered on 01/21/2020 (01/20/2020 is a federal holiday.) I know they receive it from my notifications. On the letter, I do mention that since we will be out of the country and can'tread letters in our mailbox, it would be best if they could email me with any updates.
We go to China, and I keep checking my email and the USPS mail picture emails to see if anything came from them and don't receive anything. Due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, we return back to NYC on 01/31/2020, though the CDC recommends that people do a 14 day self quarantine for people not showing any symptoms just in case.
I speak with someone on Monday (02/03/2020) afternoon who tells me they see the same status I do which is still from 09/26/2019 that our interview has been scheduled. I ask to speak with an officer and she tells me that they are no longer transferring people to officer's officers and I need to contact them earlier in the day on Tuesday (02/04/2020.) I do call on 02/04/2020, tell the person I need to speak with an officer. I get told that I will receive a call back in 416 minutes.
Thank God it was more like 300 minutes until they called. Spoke to an officer and she can see more details. She tells me they received the case 01/22/2020 and 01/23/2020, though there are no updates. I inform her we are back in NYC, though under self quarantine. She tells me that the USCIS has an article on their website about being careful of the coronavirus and to not bring it into their office. She noted it all in the system and tells me that I will probably get a letter in two to three weeks with a rescheduled Stokes interview. Okay, I feel I have done my best to notify them of both valid reasons we have that require us to reschedule.
Lo and behold, our scheduled interview for 02/06/2020 12PM comes and goes without us attending with the believe that logically it was rescheduled. At 3:31PM, I get both text and email alerts that both the I130 and I485 status have been changed to declined. WTF?
I send a message to my wife's immigration attorney, and no response. So on Friday (02/07/2020), I speak with someone at USCIS, and they only see what I see and tell me that I will have to wait to receive those letters to appeal the case. My wife calls her immigration attorney, and when I speak with him he tells me what poor communication there is between departments in USCIS. He tells me to document everything in a letter and include screenshots of my cell phone call log proving that I made the calls and for how long. I plan to also include a printout of the generic email I received on Wednesday (02/95/2020), stating that because of the coronavirus they recommend if you feel ill, to contact them to reschedule as they don't want you getting them sick. Guess it wouldn't hurt to include a copy of our return plane tickets and the notification on the CDC website recommending people in our situation would be best to do a self quarantine of 14 days.
My wife whose English is not very good, keeps asking me why they declined it if they told me it would be rescheduled. No matter how many times I tell her we did our best to notify them, and did the right thing by not going, she kept repeating that we should have gone. On and on again, until finally I blow up and tell her to speak in Mandarin to her immigration attorney, as she is paying him and he is the professional and will have these answers. This is the first and only time I hope to deal with the bureaucracy of the USCIS.
So I did write a very detailed letter with all of the times, names of people I spoke to, and everything. Now the immigration attorney doesn't reply to my request to review the letter. Unsure if too much detail is better or not. He wants me to either deliver it in person on Monday to get it stamped, or send it to arrive for Monday morning.
My wife keeps telling me need to do this perfectly, though when I discuss wanting to have the immigration attorney review it, she said just write the basic details which I believe is contrary to what the attorney told me. Sadly, this all left up to me as she wouldn't be able to write them well enough, and I have been handling all the paperwork and calls.
If anyone has any insight on this long winded message, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
​​​​​​​Jeff
We had our interview in NYC on 11/01/2019 and the outcome was that they may request further evidence within the next 120 days. On 11/04/2019, we booked airfare to visit her family in China from 01/20-02/19/2019.
We did receive a letter on 01/17/2020 (mailed 01/09/2020), that they have scheduled a Stokes interview for 02/06/2020 at 12PM. On that Saturday (01/18/2020), I send the return sheet requesting a postponement due to the fact we will be out of the country and include a copy of the flight details which I have sent delivered on 01/21/2020 (01/20/2020 is a federal holiday.) I know they receive it from my notifications. On the letter, I do mention that since we will be out of the country and can'tread letters in our mailbox, it would be best if they could email me with any updates.
We go to China, and I keep checking my email and the USPS mail picture emails to see if anything came from them and don't receive anything. Due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, we return back to NYC on 01/31/2020, though the CDC recommends that people do a 14 day self quarantine for people not showing any symptoms just in case.
I speak with someone on Monday (02/03/2020) afternoon who tells me they see the same status I do which is still from 09/26/2019 that our interview has been scheduled. I ask to speak with an officer and she tells me that they are no longer transferring people to officer's officers and I need to contact them earlier in the day on Tuesday (02/04/2020.) I do call on 02/04/2020, tell the person I need to speak with an officer. I get told that I will receive a call back in 416 minutes.
Thank God it was more like 300 minutes until they called. Spoke to an officer and she can see more details. She tells me they received the case 01/22/2020 and 01/23/2020, though there are no updates. I inform her we are back in NYC, though under self quarantine. She tells me that the USCIS has an article on their website about being careful of the coronavirus and to not bring it into their office. She noted it all in the system and tells me that I will probably get a letter in two to three weeks with a rescheduled Stokes interview. Okay, I feel I have done my best to notify them of both valid reasons we have that require us to reschedule.
Lo and behold, our scheduled interview for 02/06/2020 12PM comes and goes without us attending with the believe that logically it was rescheduled. At 3:31PM, I get both text and email alerts that both the I130 and I485 status have been changed to declined. WTF?
I send a message to my wife's immigration attorney, and no response. So on Friday (02/07/2020), I speak with someone at USCIS, and they only see what I see and tell me that I will have to wait to receive those letters to appeal the case. My wife calls her immigration attorney, and when I speak with him he tells me what poor communication there is between departments in USCIS. He tells me to document everything in a letter and include screenshots of my cell phone call log proving that I made the calls and for how long. I plan to also include a printout of the generic email I received on Wednesday (02/95/2020), stating that because of the coronavirus they recommend if you feel ill, to contact them to reschedule as they don't want you getting them sick. Guess it wouldn't hurt to include a copy of our return plane tickets and the notification on the CDC website recommending people in our situation would be best to do a self quarantine of 14 days.
My wife whose English is not very good, keeps asking me why they declined it if they told me it would be rescheduled. No matter how many times I tell her we did our best to notify them, and did the right thing by not going, she kept repeating that we should have gone. On and on again, until finally I blow up and tell her to speak in Mandarin to her immigration attorney, as she is paying him and he is the professional and will have these answers. This is the first and only time I hope to deal with the bureaucracy of the USCIS.
So I did write a very detailed letter with all of the times, names of people I spoke to, and everything. Now the immigration attorney doesn't reply to my request to review the letter. Unsure if too much detail is better or not. He wants me to either deliver it in person on Monday to get it stamped, or send it to arrive for Monday morning.
My wife keeps telling me need to do this perfectly, though when I discuss wanting to have the immigration attorney review it, she said just write the basic details which I believe is contrary to what the attorney told me. Sadly, this all left up to me as she wouldn't be able to write them well enough, and I have been handling all the paperwork and calls.
If anyone has any insight on this long winded message, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
​​​​​​​Jeff
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